Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1226

Chapter 1226: Chapter 1226

Emma stepped forward, nodding. "Flame feels right."

Sophie’s hand found Jude’s. "And it spreads."

Layla grinned. "And it’s warm."

"Thirteen Flame," Lucy whispered, almost reverently. "I like it."

Jude waited a moment, watching their faces. "Then we need to decide what the Flame does."

Stella was already laying out pieces of bark and charcoal, sketching the glyphs they had seen. "We map it," she said. "Not the island. Us. What we’re building."

They worked through the morning, drawing symbols they remembered, tracing the lines of their shared dream-visions. Each glyph seemed to resonate with a memory - a kiss beneath the storm, the moment Rose returned from the river, the ritual in the clearing. They weren’t just symbols; they were anchors, each one holding a piece of what they’d become.

Natalie and Susan worked together, threading long grasses and dried petals into woven loops to surround each glyph. Layla and Grace created small cairns, arranging them at the edges of the stone with smooth pebbles and shells. Sophie and Lucy painted the backs of their hands with mud and ash, printing their marks beside each glyph.

By midday, they had formed a full circle around the stone, thirteen glyphs pulsing faintly under the sun, each one echoing in the space between their heartbeats.

Rose stepped back and smiled, not with mischief or fire this time, but with deep, grounded pride. "We’re not just reacting anymore. We’re building a language."

"And this is just the beginning," Jude said. "These will guide us. Not as rules, but as memory."

Later, as the heat of the day softened, they lay together again, this time with more laughter than lust, although the touches and kisses never stopped entirely. Bodies curled against one another like roots from the same tree - breast to back, hand to thigh, breath in ear.

Stella was nestled between Lucy and Emma, her fingers idly tracing shapes on Lucy’s stomach. "What do you think the next glyph will be?"

"Depends on what we do tonight," Emma murmured, pressing a kiss to the side of her neck.

"Maybe it’ll be one for joy," Sophie offered from where she rested her head in Jude’s lap, one leg thrown across Rose’s hip.

"Or for mischief," Zoey added with a wink. "That seems appropriate."

Jude leaned down to kiss Sophie’s forehead. "Or for trust."

The mood was light, buoyant, like a storm had passed and left the sky a brighter color than before. It was Susan who eventually sat up, shielding her eyes against the sun. "We should go to the other clearing tonight."

Everyone quieted.

The other clearing.

Where the first watcherscript had once appeared. Where Jude had found Lucy after her long vigil. Where they’d once gathered in fear, desperate for signs of meaning.

"We haven’t returned there in a long time," Natalie said.

"Because it felt finished," Sophie added.

Susan nodded. "Maybe now it’s not."

They moved before twilight, the path still burned into memory. The air felt heavier as they neared it - not oppressive, but charged. The same trees stood around the open space, but the grass was taller now. Wildflowers had overtaken the edges. The stone slab in the center remained, still marked with the faint grooves of watcherscript.

Rose knelt first, brushing her fingers along the old symbols. "It’s still here."

"But it’s fading," Stella said, touching the edge. "Like it knows we don’t need it anymore."

"Or like it’s waiting for what comes next," Zoey countered.

Jude stood at the edge, heart slow and steady. "Then let’s give it something."

They formed a ring again, just as they had that day when the watchers had first spoken. But this time, no summoning. No desperation. Only presence.

One by one, they stepped forward, drawing new glyphs beside the old script. Not over it. Next to it.

Susan’s symbol for return. Sophie’s for choice. Layla’s for connection. Lucy’s for sacrifice. Rose’s for rebirth.

When Jude stepped forward, he didn’t draw.

He pressed his palm into the stone.

The surface was warm. And beneath it, a subtle throb began.

The watcherscript shimmered faintly - just once.

Then faded.

The new glyphs remained.

It was as if the spiral had bowed.

Not vanished.

Not erased.

Honored.

They stayed in silence for a long time, the sky darkening above them, stars returning like old friends. Grace leaned her head against Natalie’s shoulder. Emma nestled against Zoey’s side, their fingers linked. Stella curled up in Layla’s lap. Lucy lay on her back, eyes wide, mouth slightly open like she was drinking in the entire sky.

Sophie whispered, "Do you hear that?"

Everyone quieted.

Then - soft and low - the wind changed.

It wasn’t the watchersong.

It was theirs.

The melody was different. Twisting. Layered.

A harmony of all their voices, their moans, their laughter, their cries, their silences, woven into a sound that wasn’t heard but felt.

It curled around them.

Welcomed them.

Blessed them.

The Thirteen Flame had spoken.

And the island had answered.

The song lingered long after the wind stilled, curling through their bodies like the memory of a kiss that never quite ended. No one moved for a long time. Jude felt Rose’s breath warm against his shoulder where she rested, her fingers tangled with Lucy’s beside him. The others lay close in a circle, skin brushing skin, their silence not from confusion but reverence.

They had heard it—their music, their island, reflecting their voices back like a sacred echo.

Sophie turned slowly, her hand sliding up Jude’s chest. "Did we... did we make that?"

Jude looked around at their faces, glowing softly under the moonlight, and nodded. "I think we did."

Susan sat up, her hair wild and silvered in the starlight, eyes wide with something between awe and wonder. "It wasn’t watchers. It wasn’t the old pulse or that thing that follows us. That was... pure."

Zoey hummed low, still lying flat on the grass with one arm over Emma. "It felt like us. The way we really are. Not the things we hide. Just... raw."