Chapter 24 · Trade Him for a Life

Kael was on his knees in front of Varric's gate when Rin found him.

Not the grand entrance. The side gate, the one servants used when they needed to haul meat or firewood without being seen. The cobblestones were slick with yesterday's rain, and Kael's hands were pressed flat against the iron bars like he was trying to push through by sheer will. His shoulders were shaking. Not from cold. From something worse.

Rin stopped three steps away. Her ribs still ached from the trial. Her wrists were raw where the chains had been. She'd run here without thinking, without a plan, because the mark she'd seen on his chest during the fight—Varric's mark, the same one that had killed her mother—was still burning behind her eyelids every time she blinked.

"Kael."

He didn't look up. His breath was coming too fast, shallow and uneven. She could see the edge of the mark through his torn collar. Black lines, twisting like roots under his skin. Spreading.

"Kael, get up."

Nothing. His fingers curled around the bars. She heard the metal creak.

She moved closer, slow, the way you approached something wild. "You need to get away from here. Right now."