Chapter 18 · What a Second Life Costs

Rin couldn't feel her left arm.

She could feel Kael's hands on her shoulders, though. Warm. Steady. Too steady for someone who'd been half-dead thirty seconds ago. His face was close enough that she could see the tiny scar above his eyebrow, the one she'd cataloged in three different runs without ever asking how he got it.

"Why?" His voice came out raw. "Why would you—"

"Because you said it." Rin's tongue felt thick. Blood loss, probably. Or shock. Hard to tell anymore. "The code. My mother's code."

Kael went completely still.

Above them, Varric's laughter echoed off stone. It wasn't the pleasant kind. It was the kind that came right before someone pulled out your teeth one by one and asked if you wanted to reconsider.

"She broke the anchor," Varric called down. His silhouette moved along the upper gallery, unhurried. "Snapped her own lifeline to save yours, Prince. How touching. How utterly wasteful."

Rin tried to sit up. Her body had other ideas. Kael's grip tightened, holding her in place.

"Don't move," he said. Not a suggestion.

"Can't anyway." She looked down at her wrist. The reset mark was gone.