Stuck in an Island with Twelve Beautiful Women
Chapter 1605

Chapter 1605: Chapter 1605

It moved beneath the island - not like an animal or a beast, but like a breath too old to have shape. A sigh from before the sky had names. It coiled through the roots beneath their feet, slow and endless, listening to the rhythm of what they had become. It wasn’t darkness. It wasn’t light. It was memory. The island’s oldest one. The one that had waited.

Jude stirred in the cradle of roots, sunlight flickering across his bare skin. Lucy lay half atop him, her breath warm against his throat. Zoey and Stella were curled together nearby, tangled in each other’s limbs, their skin still glowing faintly from the night’s joining. Rose sat by the open arch, her knees drawn to her chest, watching the sky change. The clouds above swirled with violet and gold now, no longer chaotic - but patterned. Designed.

He rose without waking Lucy, and Rose looked over at him as he approached. Her expression was quiet, thoughtful.

"I can feel it," she said before he even sat beside her.

He didn’t ask what.

"I don’t know if it’s coming toward us... or if we’re moving toward it."

Jude rested his arms on his knees, gazing into the forest. "Do you think it’s dangerous?"

She gave a soft laugh. "Everything worth finding is."

Behind them, Sophie stirred. Emma stepped out from the central pool, her body slick with warm water, her fingers brushing her wet hair back. Susan walked quietly to the fruit grove with her child strapped against her chest, and Grace and Natalie were already weaving fresh coverings for the sleeping nests.

Jude looked at them - his women. His world. Not as things he possessed, but as pieces of himself he had finally found. Each one radiant. Each one changed. Each one willing to follow him not because they had to, but because they had chosen to.

Rose’s fingers found his. "The roots have reached the edges."

"What edges?"

"The end of the island."

His stomach tensed. "There’s no end."

"There wasn’t before." Her golden eyes fixed on his. "But we’ve changed what’s real."

The creature - the silver, glowing messenger - had not returned since the fruit bloomed. Jude could still feel it somewhere, far beneath them, coiled into rest. He didn’t know if it was sleeping or waiting. Or becoming something else.

That thought echoed when Emma approached, her eyes sharp.

"There’s movement," she said. "West side. Something in the trees."

They gathered quickly. No fear - just readiness. The kind that had grown in them naturally now, like breath or hunger. Zoey fetched her blade, though she held it like a memory, not a threat. Lucy stood beside Jude. Sophie stayed near the children, her gaze alert.

And then it came.

Not a monster.

Not a creature.

But a woman.

Naked, like them. Hair dark and tangled with vines. Her skin shimmered - not gold or silver, but deep copper streaked with green. Her eyes were the color of jungle leaves, wet and wide. She moved not like someone lost - but someone sent .

Jude stepped forward. "Who are you?"

She stopped just before him, her hands raised - not in surrender, but reverence. "My name is Kira."

Rose’s voice was gentle but firm. "Are you from the island?"

Kira nodded once. "From beneath it."

Emma’s brow furrowed. "There’s something beneath it?"

"Not something." Kira’s voice was calm, almost sad. "Someone."

Jude felt it like a pressure in his chest. "The sleeping one."

Kira nodded again. "You woke her."

Behind him, Lucy whispered, "Alara said we were the first."

"You were," Kira said. "But not the only."

She turned slightly, and the vines on her skin shifted - no, they moved , like they were alive, part of her. Her body shimmered again, and the island itself responded - roots lifting to greet her feet, leaves turning to face her.

"You’ve awakened the pulse," she said. "Now you must awaken the truth."

Rose stepped closer. "We thought the tree, the fruit, the joining... that was the truth."

Kira tilted her head. "That was only the beginning."

The women stood in a crescent behind Jude now, silent, listening. The children watched from Sophie’s arms, quiet but curious. The island stilled.

Kira gestured behind her. "There is another grove. A hidden root. It bears no fruit. It bears memory."

Emma narrowed her eyes. "And you want us to go there?"

"I want you to see ," Kira said. "Because you are her. The island. The beat. The seed. But you don’t know what that truly means yet."

Sophie looked at Jude. "Do we trust her?"

He searched Kira’s face. There was no threat in her. No deception. Just that heavy grief in her eyes - like someone who had waited too long to speak.

"We go," Jude said. "Together."

Kira smiled - softly, with sadness.

The journey took hours.

Not because the grove was far - but because the island changed as they moved. Trees whispered. Stones sang. Flowers opened, spilling scents so thick they made the air shimmer. The roots beneath their feet pulsed louder now, clearer, more insistent.

And then the trees parted.

The hidden grove was a circle of bare earth, surrounded by tall, blackened trees that did not bloom. In the center lay a hollow - the size of a great beast’s ribcage - filled with water black as ink, still and waiting.

Kira stopped at the edge.

"This is where she dreamed first," she said. "Before Alara. Before the choosing. Before the joy."

Jude’s pulse raced. "What did she dream?"

"Loneliness."

A hush fell.

Grace stepped closer. "Why would an island dream of loneliness?"

Kira’s voice barely trembled. "Because she was one . And she wanted to be many ."

Rose inhaled sharply. "We’re her answer."

"Her first," Kira said. "Her hope."

Lucy crouched beside the black pool, peering in. "And what happens if we wake more than just her?"

Kira knelt beside her. "Then we stop being dreamers."

Emma crossed her arms. "And become what?"

Kira looked up.

" Real ."

Jude stepped toward the water.

The others followed.

And the surface began to shimmer.