Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1538

Chapter 1538: Chapter 1538

The stars blinked like watchers in the heavens, ancient eyes blinking open to witness what had been birthed below. The field around them glowed softly, the light of the new flower casting gentle ripples of color across their skin. Jude lay in the center, breath slowing, heart still thrumming with the rhythm of what had passed. Around him, his wives settled in quiet reverence - Rose still curled atop him, her cheek pressed to his chest, Lucy nestled along his side, fingers lazily tracing the lines of his stomach, and the others forming a circle of heat and intimacy against the newly awakened land.

No one spoke at first. There was no need to. The silence was a sacred thing, the kind that followed true creation - not just of life, but of identity, of purpose, of unity.

Then Natalie broke it with a soft, almost dazed laugh. "We made something."

Emma raised herself onto one elbow, her hair tangled and her skin luminous. "It’s a tree."

"No," Sophie said from Jude’s left, her voice quieter. "It’s a beginning."

The flower at the center of the circle continued to rise. It grew with an elegance that defied natural time - petals unfurling in slow motion, stem thickening and extending upward with every breath they took. The glowing veins running through its base pulsed like blood vessels, and the earth beneath it responded with every rise and fall of their chests.

Jude turned his head toward Rose, brushing her sweat-damp hair from her face. "Do you feel it?"

She nodded, not lifting her head. "It’s not just the island anymore. It’s us."

Zoey shifted where she lay between Stella and Grace, her voice sleep-heavy but thoughtful. "We planted more than just roots. I felt it... spreading."

"Into what?" Lucy murmured.

Susan finally stirred from the outer edge of the circle, her voice tinged with awe. "Into everything."

Above them, the stars brightened - not like night growing darker, but as if the sky were being painted from the inside out. Golden threads of light connected constellations, forming swirling sigils and dancing curves, symbols they didn’t understand but instinctively knew.

Emma stood slowly, naked and strong, walking to the newly sprouted tree. She reached out, her hand hovering near one of the low petals. "It’s warm."

"Touch it," Jude said softly.

She did, and the flower lit up with a low hum, vibrating through the ground, the sky, their skin. A pulse of golden light spread from the contact, washing over them all. Jude felt it in his teeth, in his spine, in the space behind his eyes. Not pain. Not pleasure.

Awakening.

Emma gasped, her body arching as the pulse moved through her. Her eyes fluttered closed, and when they opened again, they glowed not gold but soft silver.

"I saw... them," she whispered. "Not like the visions before. Real ones. People. Walking. Singing. Naked and together. They touched the earth like lovers. They lived in harmony with it. And then... they were gone."

"Where?" Stella asked, her voice hushed.

Emma blinked, and tears rolled down her cheeks. "Into the sky. Into stars. They became... part of the breath."

Rose stood then, slipping from Jude’s lap with feline grace, her body streaked with the dirt of love and rebirth. "That’s what we’re becoming."

Lucy looked up. "Are we meant to join them?"

"No," Rose said, shaking her head slowly. "We’re meant to become something new."

Jude rose as well, moving toward the tree, and took Emma’s hand in his. Her fingers trembled in his grip, but her smile was radiant. "I felt everything," she said. "Every moan. Every kiss. Every thought. It was all inside me at once."

He brought her hand to his lips and kissed her knuckles. "You weren’t alone."

She let out a small laugh that bordered on a sob. "I wasn’t anything. I just... was."

Stella and Grace joined them at the base of the tree, and then the others followed until they stood in a loose circle once again, the flower rising between them like a sentinel, like a blessing.

Suddenly, the flower shivered.

A new bud emerged at its base.

And then another.

Twelve in all.

Each one glowing with a different hue - rose, silver, violet, amber, sea-green, crimson, blue, lilac, honey, pearl, copper, and midnight black.

One by one, they opened, releasing a fine mist that danced upward like fireflies.

Lucy stepped forward, eyes wide. "Are they... ours?"

Rose knelt before the midnight black one, her fingers brushing its delicate petals. "I think they’re a mirror. Each of us."

Jude stepped to the rose-colored bloom. "Then what are we meant to do?"

Zoey answered before Rose could. "We don’t pick them. We wait."

The petals pulsed once more - bright, then dim. And slowly, from the center of the field, another presence began to stir.

Not a person.

Not a creature.

But a voice.

It came from the earth, from the sky, from their bodies. It echoed within Jude’s chest like a drumbeat.

You are the bloom and the root. The sky and the soil. The dream and the breath.

They all heard it.

You have opened the gate.

"What gate?" Grace asked aloud, shivering.

Beneath the flower, the earth split again.

Only this time, it didn’t open down - it rose.

A platform began to emerge, slow and smooth, a disk of obsidian covered in lines of gold and silver. At its center stood a pedestal made not of stone but of living wood, pulsing with sap.

Jude moved forward instinctively.

So did Rose.

And Lucy.

And Sophie.

Their steps were uncoordinated, but together they formed a square around the pedestal. The others followed until they were in formation again, bodies bare, breath synced, a living circle of love and power.

The pedestal opened at the top like a flower.

Inside was a single seed, black and shining with inner light.

Jude reached for it without hesitation, lifting it with both hands.

As soon as it left the pedestal, light exploded outward.