Chapter 30 · The Dead End Dad Left

The heart was still warm in Rin's pocket when she pushed through the side door of the holding cells.

No guards. Kael had cleared them out an hour ago with some excuse about sect protocol, and now the corridor smelled like rust and old piss and something worse underneath. Her father was three doors down. She'd seen him dragged past this exact hallway in four different runs, always with his head down, always silent. This time she was early.

She didn't want to be here.

Kael was two steps behind her. She could feel the heat of him even through the gap, the way his breath hitched when she stopped outside the third cell. He hadn't said a word since the auction house. Since the heart had burned a hole through his chest and shown her every single time he'd put a blade to her throat.

She'd seen it. All of it. The first reset, when he'd hesitated. The second, when he hadn't. The ninth, when he'd done it so fast she didn't even feel it.

And she was still walking next to him.

"Rin." His voice was low, careful. "You don't have to do this now."

"Shut up.