<h4>Chapter 1210: Chapter 1210</h4>


    The spiral on the wall was cracked, glowing faintly, but dormant .


    And in the silence that followed, Rose whispered:


    "It’s not gone.


    It just changed where it’s hiding."


    Jude held Rose tighter as if by sheer force he could anchor her soul to the present. Her chest rose and fell in shallow, uneven breaths, but her eyes were no longer swirling with light. They were terrified. Human. And that made Jude’s throat tighten.


    The others gathered slowly, shaken but alive. Sophie knelt beside him, brushing damp hair from Rose’s forehead, checking her pulse, her voice soft but trembling. "She’s here. She’s really here."


    Emma crouched beside La, her fingers to her neck. "Breathing. Barely. Same with Grace."


    Zoey backed away from the fractured spiral, keeping her eyes locked on it, like it might leap off the wall again. "I don’t trust it. Whatever that thing was, it didn’t vanish. It just moved. I could feel it slipping through us."


    Lucy looked down at Susan, who hadn’t moved since the dream shattered. Natalie and Ste stirred nearby, but their faces were still vacant, their bodies too still.


    "They didn’te back with us," Lucy said grimly. "Notpletely."


    Jude didn’t answer. He couldn’t. Rose was trying to speak, her lips trembling. He leaned closer, lowering his forehead to hers, and she whispered into the space between them.


    "It’s still inside some of them," she breathed. "I can feel it... moving... not in me anymore, but them. It jumped. "


    Sophie’s eyes widened. "It left you."


    "Where did it go?" Emma asked, voice cold.


    Jude looked around slowly, eyes scanning the other women. Natalie was blinking, Ste twitching slightly, but Susan... Susan was staring at him.


    Smiling.


    But it wasn’t the same smile as before.


    It was smaller now. Fainter. Like it was hiding.


    " Susan, " he said carefully.


    Her head tilted. "Yes, love?"


    He blinked. That voice. It was so Susan. But something about it was too smooth. Too steady.


    Behind him, Rose shuddered. "That’s where it went."


    Susan’s eyes sparkled.


    Jude stood, still holding Rose. "Back away. Everyone. Now."


    "Jude, what - " Natalie started.


    "Just back away from Susan! " he barked.


    The room froze. Susan didn’t flinch.


    Sophie helped Rose to her feet, Lucy and Zoey dragging La and Grace farther from the pool. Emma had her weapon out again, low and ready.


    Susan just rose slowly to stand, brushing invisible dust from her shirt, as if the chaos had never touched her. Her smile remained.


    "Why so tense?" she said lightly. "We’re together again."


    "Tell me something only you would know," Jude said. His heart hammered. "Something no one else could."


    Susan’s head tilted again. "That night, under the banyan tree, when you said my name three times but couldn’t say ’I love you.’ You were scared I’d say it back."


    Jude’s breath caught.


    That had happened. Exactly like that.


    But Susan hadn’t ever brought it up. Not once. He never told anyone.


    "How do you know that?" he asked.


    Susan smiled wider. "Because I am her."


    But there was something wrong in the cadence now. In the edges of the words. The light in her eyes flickered - just for a moment - and behind that flicker was something vast.


    Something watching.


    Rose struggled toward her. "It mimics you. It reads your thoughts like pages. I felt it do it to me. It bes you."


    Susan turned slowly toward her.


    Rose stopped, gasping, clutching her head again.


    And Susan’s voice changed. Just slightly.


    "You should have let go, Rose."


    The cavern chilled.


    Then Susan’s eyes rolled back - just for a second. Enough.


    "Now!" Emma shouted, lunging.


    Susan shrieked - a soundyered with other voices, too many voices - then dodged fast, faster than she should have, but not fast enough. Emma’s de sliced across her shoulder.


    ckness oozed out. Not blood. Something thick and pulsing and wrong.


    Susan copsed, writhing, the smile finally gone, her body contorting as if fighting itself.


    Jude dropped to his knees beside her, heart shattering. " Fight it, Suze. I know you’re still there. You’re stronger than this thing."


    Her fingers wed the stone. " Get it out of me, " she rasped. " Please - "


    Then her eyes shot open, and for the first time - they were hers again.


    Tears fell instantly. " Jude, it’s still in here with me, I can’t - \ "


    Zoey knelt beside them, whispering, "How do we pull it out without hurting her?"


    Rose, pale and trembling, stared at Susan like she was looking in a mirror from hell. "The spiral broke. Its connection is severed. It’s using her like antern now, not a house. But it won’tst. It needs more."


    "More?" Lucy asked. "More what ?"


    Rose didn’t blink. "More of us. "


    Sophie grabbed Jude’s arm. "Then we stop it before it spreads again."


    The air was still. The spirals quiet.


    Susan sobbed into Jude’s arms, her body burning hot, too hot.


    He kissed her hair. "We’re going to get you back, baby. All of you. I swear it."


    Then she went limp.


    Not unconscious - still breathing - but unconscious in a different way.


    Quiet. Heavy. Drained.


    "I think it’s dormant again," Emma said. "Inside her."


    "For how long?" Zoey whispered.


    No one answered.


    They looked around the chamber. Broken spiral. Broken water. Seven wives still changed. One saved, barely. Three untouched - Sophie, Emma, Zoey. Lucy, maybe. Natalie and Ste - unknown.


    The spiral had taken its shape and fled.


    And the silence in the cavern was no longer peaceful.


    It was waiting.


    They left the cavern before the spiral could stir again. Every step back through the waterfall felt heavier, like the air was thickening behind them. Jude carried Susan in his arms, her weight light but unsettlingly still. She didn’t speak, didn’t open her eyes, but her body pulsed with shallow heat, like she held something inside her that couldn’t burn out or escape.


    The forest outside was darker than it should’ve been. No wind moved the trees. Even the river nearby, usually alive with insect chatter and sshes, flowed in unnatural silence.