RJ's grip on my arm loosens slightly.
Nobody speaks.
Feral Academy comes through the trees.
RJ slows. His hand tightens on my arm and I feel through the bond what the sight of it does to him — the yard, the circuit, the south fence. All the edges he spent months tracing because tracing edges was what was left.
"It's okay," I say.
He looks at me. His eyes are still wrong. Too tense. But he’s here — I can see it, the part of him holding on, refusing to drop back into that empty place.
Working for it.
I step closer.
“RJ,” I say. “You found me.”
His focus tightens.
“You came back,” I say. “You stayed.”
A beat. I hold his eyes.
“You don’t let go again.”
Not harsh. Not soft.
Certain.
“I’m here,” I say. “You stay with me.”
The bond steadies — not calm, not easy, but aligned.
“Together,” I say.
We walk in.
***
Sven is at the gate.
He sees RJ and something in his face opens — briefly, just enough. He puts his hand on RJ's shoulder and grips once, hard. RJ goes still under it and dips his head.
Then Sven looks past him to Dalton's collar. His jaw tightens. He looks at me.
I hold his gaze. He nods and steps back.
Stone is in the doorway to Red House. He crosses to RJ and pulls him in — not careful, the full grip of someone who has been where RJ has been. RJ's hands come up and hold and they stand there and nobody says anything.
RJ pulls back first. His eyes find me immediately. I'm three feet away. I haven't moved.
His shoulders drop a fraction.
Cal appears behind Stone. He takes one look at RJ’s face, reads it, and reaches out, his hand settling briefly at the back of RJ’s neck.
“Good,” Cal says, quiet but firm. “I was starting to think we’d lost you.”
A beat. His mouth shifts.
