He felt, in that single suspended moment before she pulled him close, the entire impossible weight of the past eight months settle into something he could finally, properly set down — not forgotten, never forgotten, but no longer something he had to carry alone, one desperate step at a time, across an entire universe that had never once been his to begin with.
She pulled him into an embrace fierce enough to steal his breath, sobbing openly now, calling out over her shoulder for his father in a voice cracked with disbelief and overwhelming, desperate relief, and Rohan held her tightly, feeling seven months of accumulated grief and hope and stubborn, hard-won determination finally, completely unwind in the safety of his own mother's arms.
