<h4>Chapter 1149: Chapter 1149</h4>


    Sophie tightened her grip on his hand.


    "Are we going in?" she asked.


    He didn’t answer.


    Because he already had one foot in the water.


    The river swallowed his foot without resistance, like stepping into warmth instead of water. It didn’t ssh or soak through his clothes. It just epted him. The moment Jude moved deeper, the spiral stones pulsed again, faint and slow, like a heartbeat under the surface. Sophie was right behind him, her fingersced tightly with his. Lucy followed, barefoot and shivering, her breath hitching as the current touched her ankles. Ste and Zoey hesitated at the edge, eyes flicking to the still, watching figures of Grace, La, Natalie, Scarlet, and Susan who now stood like silent guardians around the spiral, their faces tilted skyward in trance.


    "We shouldn’t be doing this," Zoey whispered, but she didn’t move away.


    Ste didn’t answer. She stepped forward and took Zoey’s hand. "But we have to."


    Together, they stepped into the circle.


    The moment all six of them entered, the water began to glow from within. It wasn’t blinding, it was soft and golden and old, like candlelight preserved under ss. The spiral opened, not downward but inward, as if peeling space itself. Jude felt something shift in his chest, not fear, not pain, just... change. The way dreams shift when you realize you’re dreaming, and suddenly nothing is as it seems but everything feels more real than ever.


    Then the ground dropped away.


    The water didn’t drag them.


    It let them fall.


    Or maybe float.


    It felt like flying and sinking at once.


    Sophie gripped his hand harder. Jude could feel Lucy behind them, clinging to his back, and Ste’s breath in his ear. Zoey was beside him, her other hand locked with Ste’s. The circle above them spun slowly, the five wives still in trance around it. Then even that light faded.


    And then... silence.


    Darkness.


    Not cold. Not empty.


    Alive.


    The ce theynded wasn’t water anymore. It was stone. Warm and breathing. A chamber carved into the heart of the ind, lit by roots that glowed with slow-moving veins of light. Runes pulsed on the walls, shapes they hadn’t drawn in months. Watcherscript, but deeper. Older.


    Emma was already standing. She’dnded just beside them, her de drawn, eyes wide as she took in the space.


    "This is..." she began.


    "A memory," Lucy whispered. "We’re inside her."


    "She’s the ind," Ste said. "All of it."


    Sophie pulled Jude to his feet. "Then let’s find her."


    They moved through the chamber carefully. Every step echoed like it passed through someone else’s dream. The air shimmered with whispers, some familiar, some not. Words Jude had spoken to Rose in their first days here. Songs from nights beneath the stars. Rose’sughter. La’s teasing voice. Susan’s soft giggle.


    "She’s made a ce out of our memories," Zoey murmured.


    "No," Jude said. "She’s trapped in them."


    At the center of the cavern stood the bone gate.


    Not the twisted one they saw above.


    This one was clean. Whole. Twelve arches joined in a circle, each marked with a different wife’s rune. The thirteenth space, the one across from Jude, was open. Waiting.


    "She’s behind that," Sophie said.


    They all stepped forward together.


    And the gate opened.


    Inside, there was Rose.


    She stood alone.


    Her body was her own, but wrapped in a flowing veil of light and roots, like she was dressed in the ind’s soul itself. Her eyes were her eyes. But they were sad now. Calm. No glow. No rage.


    "You came," she whispered.


    "You wanted us to," Jude said.


    "I needed you to."


    He stepped forward, the others fanning out behind him.


    "What is this ce?" Sophie asked.


    Rose looked up. "A cocoon."


    Lucy’s voice trembled. "For what?"


    "For her birth."


    Jude took another step. "You said she isn’t inside you anymore."


    "She’s not," Rose said. "I became her. When I drowned. When I woke. When I touched the bones."


    Sophie drew her de. "Then we end this."


    Rose didn’t move.


    "I wanted to stop," she said. "But every time I tried, the others... they needed me. I gave them something to believe in. Something to love."


    Zoey stepped closer. "You twisted them."


    "I freed them," Rose replied. "From fear. From emptiness. I filled them with her."


    "She’s not a goddess," Jude said. "She’s a parasite."


    Rose’s smile was soft. "So was love. Until it changed you."


    He faltered.


    Sophie didn’t.


    She raised the de.


    But before she could strike, Rose raised a hand. Not in threat.


    In offering.


    "You want me back?" she said quietly. "Take me."


    Jude blinked. "What?"


    Rose turned to him fully now. "If you believe I’m still in here... take me back."


    The chamber shook.


    Above them, the wives around the river began to scream.


    "She’s breaking through," Lucy gasped.


    "You have seconds," Rose whispered.


    Jude looked at Sophie.


    Sophie met his eyes and nodded once. "Try."


    He stepped forward.


    Rose reached out, and their hands met.


    Light exploded.


    The ind roared.


    And the moment their fingers touched, Jude saw everything, every thought, every feeling, every memory she had taken from them. The river. The altar. The roots. The kisses. The moans. The longing. It all surged through him like lightning. He clung to her hand.


    "I see you," he whispered.


    "I never stopped seeing you," Rose said.


    He pulled her in and kissed her.


    And the ind screamed.


    The scream that tore through the ind was not from pain. It was from rage, pure, ancient, awakening rage. As Jude kissed Rose, the cavern pulsed with blinding white light, tearing through the roots, the stone, the watcherscript symbols. The gate behind them cracked. Rose trembled in his arms, her breath shaking, body flickering like fire trying to decide if it should burn or go out.


    Then her hands clutched at his shirt, desperately. Her lips broke from his with a gasp that wasn’t entirely human. Her eyes, wide and shining, locked with his.