Megan stepped forward, arms wrapped around herself, eyes red-rimmed from earlier crying.
"You guys are finally back…" she said, voice cracking. "We were all so worried about you… all of you."
Nicole broke away from Mira and threw herself at Megan—sister hugging sister—both of them dissolving into quiet, relieved tears.
We all sat down—spreading out in a loose circle around the small fire Jack had kept burning. The afternoon sun filtered through the canopy in long golden shafts, warming the clearing despite the lingering chill of fear.
Angela moved to my side without a word. She dipped a strip of clean cloth into a small metal bowl of water someone had fetched from the nearby stream, then gently tilted my chin up with careful fingers.
"Hold still," she murmured, voice soft. "You're a mess."
