<h4>Chapter 1158: Chapter 1158</h4>


    She stepped back.


    And the others moved forward.


    The circle tightened.


    Jude grabbed Sophie’s hand. Lucy and Ste closed in on Emma. The air turned heavy, thick with heat and pressure, as if the very ind was holding its breath.


    And then, Rose raised her hands.


    And the ground split open.


    The earth groaned beneath them like something ancient waking from a deep sleep. The split wasn’t violent, it was smooth, precise, a long dark line that cut through the center of the clearing like a wound. From the chasm rose steam, thick and sweet-smelling, carrying a scent that made Jude’s head reel, like wildflowers soaked in blood and honey.


    Sophie clutched his hand tighter, her breath ragged. "She’s doing it. She’s opening the ind."


    Rose didn’t speak now. She just stared into the steam, her arms wide like she was receiving something holy. Around her, the others stepped closer to the crack in the ground. Zoey knelt beside it. Grace reached toward the vapor. Natalie inhaled deeply, shivering as though it filled her veins with fire.


    Lucy shouted, "Back! Everyone back!"


    But her voice sounded small, like it was being swallowed by the air.


    The earth throbbed.


    From the rift came sound, not a growl or a rumble, but a song. Low and melodic, almost soothing. Almost beautiful. But there was something wrong in it. Beneath the harmony was a second sound, a whisper, harsh and scraping, too quiet to understand but loud enough to feel in their bones.


    Jude’s knees buckled.


    Sophie pulled him upright.


    Rose turned to face them again.


    "You can’t stop it now," she said, her voice like velvet soaked in ash. "She’sing. Through us. Through you."


    Emma backed away, tears in her eyes. "She’ll kill us."


    "No," Rose whispered. "She’llplete you."


    And then, the light changed.


    It started in Rose’s chest, a faint, pulsing glow beneath her skin. Then it spread to La, Zoey, Susan, one by one, the glow growing stronger, shining through their veins like molten gold.


    "She’s inside them," Ste said. "She’s using them like vessels."


    "We have to break the connection," Sophie hissed.


    Jude’s heart pounded. "But how?"


    "I don’t know," Lucy said. "But if she’s using love to anchor herself here, then maybe... maybe we need to sever the emotion. The bond."


    Jude stared at Rose.


    He couldn’t do it.


    He couldn’t stop loving her, even now.


    Rose took another step forward, her glow intensifying. "You were always the center, Jude. The ind chose you long before we arrived. That’s why you resisted. That’s why you’re still whole."


    "I’m not," he said. "You took pieces of all of us."


    Rose’s smile softened.


    "And I’ll give them back. When you say yes."


    He stepped toward her before he realized it, drawn like a moth.


    Sophie cried, "Jude!"


    He froze.


    The song grew louder. The ground shook again, and the steam turned gold, swirling upward into the sky like a signal, a beacon.


    A calling.


    From the chasm, something rose.


    It wasn’t a body.


    It was a shape, fluid, half-seen, flickering between light and shadow. It had no face, only suggestions of one, lips without features, eyes that flickered and vanished, limbs that folded like smoke and silk. The smell of it was unbearable, desire, despair, memory, and hunger all tangled together.


    She hade.


    Rose fell to her knees.


    The others did too.


    The shape hovered above them all, and Jude heard it, not with his ears, but inside his mind.


    "You are the gate. You are the seed. I am the bloom."


    Sophie screamed. "No!"


    She charged at the shape with a de in hand.


    The moment her de touched it, the light red, blinding, and everything stopped.


    There was no sound.


    No wind.


    No breath.


    Just a stillness soplete it felt like time itself had gone silent.


    Jude blinked, his vision blurred with light, and when the sh faded, the clearing had changed. The bone arch was gone. The rift in the earth sealed shut. The strange blooming creature of light and shadow, gone. But what chilled him more was the silence that followed. No birds. No night insects. Just the hushed aftermath of something powerful retreating, or pausing.


    Sophiey on the ground, her de several feet away, her body trembling but alive. He ran to her, falling to his knees and scooping her into his arms.


    "I’m okay," she whispered hoarsely. "I touched her. It... it burned me inside. Not pain. Longing. It tried to fill me."


    Jude pressed his forehead to hers. "But you resisted."


    She nodded slowly. "For now."


    Behind them, Rose stood slowly, her glowing veins dimming. She looked at the sealed ground with something like disappointment... and fear. Around her, the others, La, Zoey, Emma, Grace, Natalie, Scarlet, Susan, rose to their feet one by one, confusion flickering across their faces like the end of a dream. Their eyes were still too calm. Their smiles too soft.


    But something was... interrupted.


    The ritual had been broken.


    Rose turned to Jude again, her voice quiet, less certain. "She’s not gone. Just... waiting."


    "She’s noting back," Lucy snapped, stepping forward with Ste at her side. "You’re not doing that again."


    "You can’t stop her," Rose said, but itcked the conviction from before.


    "She almost had you," Sophie said, still clinging to Jude. "But she needs him. That’s what she told us. Jude is the key."


    "And I’m not letting her in," Jude said, rising to his feet. "You want me, youe through me. And that door’s shut."


    Rose stared at him, and for a split second, a flicker of something else crossed her face, grief. Not her own. Hers.


    The ind stirred beneath them, but no monster rose, no light returned.


    Instead, the sky broke open with the sound of distant thunder. The wind came back, wild and sharp. Rain began to fall, not soft or cleansing, but heavy, hard, drenching them in seconds.


    And the light in Rose’s body flickered once more... then faded.