CHAPTER FIFTY-TWO
The mountain valley embraced full summer with riotous life. Wildflowers carpeted the meadows in waves of purple and yellow, the orchard trees hung heavy with small green fruit that promised a sweet autumn harvest, and the lake sparkled like polished glass under endless blue skies.
The seven sisters had settled into a rhythm so natural it felt as though they had always lived this way…tending the garden at dawn, painting and mapping through the warm afternoons, gathering under the pavilion as fireflies danced at dusk.
One particularly radiant morning, they decided to mark the passage of their first full year of freedom with a simple ritual.
They hiked together to the hidden meadow Rowan and Nova had discovered months earlier, carrying blankets, baskets of fresh bread
