<h4>Chapter 1276: Chapter 1276</h4>


    She pulled her own shirt off next, bare to the moonlight, her skin glowing, her nipples taut in the chill of the night air. Jude stared at her, breathless. She was beautiful - fiercely, achingly beautiful, but fragile in a way she rarely showed. She pulled his hand to her chest, ced it over her heart.


    "Feel that?"


    He nodded.


    "I’m still me."


    She tugged him down, and their bodies met again. Skin to skin, warmth to warmth, breath to breath. She kissed his jaw, his throat, her lips moving lower as sheid back and spread her legs for him. Her thighs trembled, and she pulled him between them without a word, her eyes locked on his.


    Jude slid inside her slowly, and they both gasped at the contact. She clung to him, her nails digging into his back as he filled her inch by inch. Her breath hitched, a small sob escaping her throat - not from pain, but from the sheer intensity of it. Of him. Of now.


    He moved gently, deeply, each thrust slow and careful. Sophie wrapped her arms around his neck, her mouth at his ear. "Don’t let me go," she whispered.


    "Never," he whispered back.


    Their rhythm grew faster, needier, her hips rolling up to meet him, her heels pressing into the small of his back. Her moans rose, raw and lovely, until she couldn’t stay quiet anymore. Her voice broke into sound, into music, and the melody returned.


    She was humming again.


    But now, it came with tears streaming down her cheeks and her body shaking beneath his.


    She came with a cry, the song shattering into gasps and soft, brokenughter. Jude followed, buried deep in her, clutching her tightly, afraid that if he let go, she’d vanish like mist.


    They copsed together in a tangled heap, breathless, hearts pounding.


    Sophie held his face in her hands, searching his eyes. "Was that... real?"


    He nodded, brushing her damp hair back. "Every second."


    "I didn’t feel her," she said. "Not Rose. Not the others. Just me."


    "Then that’s what matters."


    She nodded slowly, curling against his chest. Her breath evened out, and within minutes, she was asleep.


    Jude didn’t sleep. Not right away. Hey on the floor holding her, listening to the night, to the silence beyond the trees, to the absence of humming. The ind felt still. Like it was waiting.


    When he finally drifted off, he dreamed again.


    He stood in the river, waist-deep, the moon above impossiblyrge. Rose waited on the opposite bank, naked, her body marked in glowing spirals, her smile gentle.


    "You’re almost ready," she said.


    "I’m not joining you," he replied.


    "You already are," she said, touching her heart. "Every time you choose love."


    He woke to a scream.


    Not Sophie’s. Not Lucy’s.


    Emma.


    Jude sat up, heart racing. The treehouse was still dark, dawn barely beginning to bleed through the trees. Emma was standing, staring down at something in her hands - a feather, long and dark and sharp at the tip like a de.


    "What is that?" Lucy asked, sitting up groggily.


    Emma’s voice trembled. "It was in my mouth."


    She dropped the feather. Jude caught it midair.


    It pulsed faintly in his hand.


    Not light. Not heat. Something else.


    Lucy stood and touched Jude’s arm. "She’s been dreaming."


    Emma backed away from them both. "No. Don’t start that. I’m not turning. I didn’t sing. I didn’t hum. I didn’t even sleep."


    Sophie stirred, rubbing her eyes. "What’s happening?"


    Emma turned to her, eyes wide. "You."


    Sophie sat up, chest bare, the sheet falling from her breasts. "What?"


    "You brought it in. You were humming. You let him - " she cut herself off, then turned to Jude. "She’s next."


    "I already was," Sophie said softly. "And I’m still me."


    Emma’s expression cracked.


    Then she ran.


    "Emma!" Jude shouted, chasing after her.


    He caught up with her at the edge of the woods, her breath ragged, her hands tangled in her hair.


    "You’re all falling," she said, voice cracking. "One by one. And you think it’s beautiful."


    "I think it’s real," Jude said. "And I think you’re scared of what it means."


    "I don’t want to be her."


    "You won’t. You’ll be you. Just more."


    Emma looked at him, tears on her cheeks. "Then why does it feel like we’re losing everything we were?"


    "Because we are," Lucy said from behind them. "But we’re gaining something too."


    Emma stared at them both. "And what if I don’t want it?"


    Jude reached for her hand. "Then we wait. With you. No one’s forcing anything."


    Emma shook her head. "She is. She’s in all of you now."


    Lucy’s gaze turned inward. "She’s in the ind. And the ind is in us. You already feel it. The feather proved that."


    Emma closed her eyes.


    And started to hum.


    Jude caught her as she copsed, her body soft and trembling in his arms.


    The note lingered in the air, vibrating through the leaves, and from the edge of the woods, the others began to appear.


    Rose.


    Ste.


    Grace.


    La.


    Zoey.


    Natalie.


    Susan.


    Scarlet.


    All watching.


    All waiting.


    Lucy stood beside Jude, eyes shining.


    Sophie came up behind him, hands on his waist, her breath on his neck.


    And in the quiet, in the dawn, Emma opened her eyes - and smiled.


    Jude couldn’t breathe.


    Emma’s smile wasn’t like the others - not yet - but it wasn’t the guarded, fire-eyed resistance she’d worn the night before. It was subtle. Slow. Like the first curl of mist creeping into a clearing. Her lips barely moved, just enough to show the faintest upturn, her eyes still wide, but not with fear. Not anymore.


    She blinked slowly, still cradled in Jude’s arms. "I saw her."


    "Rose?" he asked, voice tight.


    Emma nodded. "But not just her. All of them. They were around me. But they weren’t pulling me. They were singing to me."


    Jude’s heart thudded. "Did you go to them?"


    "No." Her brows furrowed slightly, as if still trying to understand. "They came to me."