"No," Jude said firmly. "Not yet."
Rose’s voice rose again, spreading like oil across the water’s surface. "We’ve touched sothing older than mory. It doesn’t hurt - it evolves . Isn’t that what we’ve been doing since we landed here? Changing?"
Sophie gripped his hand. "She’s preaching."
"She’s recruiting," Lucy muttered.
"You’re afraid because it’s real ," Layla said. "But when you surrender, the fear goes away."
"No one’s surrendering," Jude growled, stepping out from the shadows.
Gasps behind him.
Sophie reached for him - "Jude, wait - "
But he stepped into the pale spiral glow, standing tall, shoulders squared.
"Whatever you think this is," he said calmly, "it’s not truth. It’s infection. You were changed when you ca out of that river, Rose. We all saw it."
Rose’s face softened, just a little. "You always did try to fix what you didn’t understand."
"You kissed us. You touched us. Then Layla changed. Grace changed. You’re not sharing enlightennt - you’re spreading it ."
Rose sighed. "Do you hear yourself? I gave them clarity ."
Jude shook his head. "You took choice ."
At that, the being in the pool stirred. Water sloshed at the edges, the glow deepening. It didn’t lash out - it waited , patient, imnse.
Zoey stepped out next, then Sophie, then Lucy. One by one, they revealed themselves. Emma was last, her blade unsheathed and gleaming in the dim light.
Rose looked at them with sothing like regret.
"I hoped you’d understand," she said. "But you’re still clinging to old structures. We’ve been chosen for sothing greater."
"We choose each other ," Jude said. "Not so mindless spiral god."
Rose blinked. "Then you’ve made your decision."
The humming stopped.
The spirals stopped pulsing.
For one long second, the entire cave went dead silent.
Then the thing in the pool surged.
Water exploded upward like a geyser.
The spirals on the walls began to spin wildly, emitting blinding light.
And as Rose stepped back toward the being, her voice echoed over the roar:
"Then let the spiral take what’s ready."
The tendrils shot across the chamber like lightning - toward Natalie. Toward Stella. Toward Susan.
Jude lunged, Sophie scread, Lucy raised her blade -
And everything turned white.
The light devoured everything - sound, shadow, shape. It wasn’t just brightness; it was presence . Jude felt it inside his skull, inside his teeth, behind his eyes. It wasn’t fire, but it burned. It wasn’t noise, but it scread.
And then, just as suddenly, it collapsed inward.
Jude crashed to his knees, gasping, the cave suddenly dim again, the spirals on the walls dimd to faint outlines, flickering like dying embers. Water sloshed across the floor in a slow ripple. His hands were slick with moss and blood - he didn’t know whose.
The others lay scattered.
Sophie beside him, coughing. Lucy still crouched with her blade drawn, blinking in shock. Zoey was pulling herself out from beneath a rockfall, bleeding from her temple but breathing. Emma already stood, eyes sharp, scanning.
But Natalie, Stella, and Susan were gone.
Not bodies.
Gone.
Vanished.
Only wet footprints remained, leading back toward the edge of the pool.
"No," Jude gasped, crawling toward where Susan had stood only seconds ago. "No no no - "
"Jude - " Sophie pulled at his shoulder, her voice raw. "They’re - "
"I saw them," Zoey choked out. "The tendrils - pulled them."
Lucy let out a guttural noise, part rage, part disbelief. "They were right in front of - "
And then, from the far end of the cavern, ca the sound of laughter.
Not cruel. Not mocking.
Serene.
It was Grace.
She stepped into view from behind a cluster of stone pillars, wet to the waist, her hands clasped peacefully in front of her. Beside her, Layla walked barefoot and smiling. Behind them, Rose moved like a queen returned to court.
They stopped just short of the pool.
And then, Susan stepped into view.
She was different.
Softer in posture. Her usual guarded eyes now glowed faintly, like reflections of the spiral’s light. She smiled - calm, dreamy, the sa way Grace had before.
"Natalie?" Jude whispered, searching the shadows.
Then she appeared too, standing beside Susan, brushing wet hair behind her ear, her body relaxed, open.
Stella ca last.
All three of them stood beside Rose, Layla, and Grace now.
All of them smiling.
Jude couldn’t breathe.
"No," Zoey said, taking a shaky step backward. "They weren’t gone. They were... taken."
"Not taken," Rose said gently. "Welcod."
"We didn’t agree to this," Lucy growled, her blade trembling in her grip.
"But you followed," Grace said, voice low and warm. "And now you’ve seen . You felt it. The spiral touched you too."
"Bullshit," Emma snapped.
Rose didn’t flinch. "It’s not about belief. The spiral moves whether you understand it or not."
Susan looked at Jude then. And for a fleeting second, he thought he saw her - really her. Eyes soft, full of love and ache.
Then she smiled again. And it was gone .
"We can’t let them leave," Emma whispered, stepping beside him. "Not like this."
"They’re not themselves," Sophie said. "But they rember everything. That makes them dangerous."
"They’re our wives ," Jude said, voice cracking. "They’re still in there ."
"I don’t think they are," Zoey said softly.
For a long ti, no one moved.
The seven stood across from the seven.
The air between them was thick with silence and water and mory.
Then Rose tilted her head. "You don’t have to fight. You can still choose peace."
"You’ve taken six of us," Jude said. "You’re not taking anyone else."
Rose’s eyes glead. "You don’t decide that."
And then the pool began to stir again.
But this ti, the spiral on the wall fractured .
A loud, deep crack echoed through the chamber like a splitting bone. Light poured from it - uncontrolled, wild. The tendrils in the pool recoiled.
The being had faltered.
Rose turned sharply toward it, confusion in her expression for the first ti.
"What is this?" she asked under her breath.
Emma stepped forward, blade raised. "A weakness."
Zoey’s hand grabbed Jude’s. "Now or never."
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