VALIK POV
She didn’t look the way I expected her to.
She didn’t broken or relieved. She stood among us like someone temporarily paused in the wrong place, eyes alert, posture loose in a way that wasn’t calm so much as coiled.
Unreal, almost. As if the forest had failed to convince her she was truly back.
I watched her listen to the others—Heather most of all—saw the way her attention drifted just enough to tell me she wasn’t fully here.
Like she was still measuring exits.
“Maethys.” I said softly.
She turned at the sound of her name, expression neutral, waiting.
I stepped away from the group, far enough that the voices blurred, that we slipped just out of sight.
She followed without hesitation.
That, too, struck something uneasy in my chest.
“How are you?” I asked.
It
