Chapter 6 · Don't Die in There

Rin's lungs burned before she even opened her eyes.

Not again.

She dragged air in through her teeth and sat up too fast. The cell spun. Her wrists ached where the chains had been an hour ago—no, a day ago. A lifetime ago. The stone floor was cold under her palms. Real. Solid. She pressed down hard enough to feel the grit bite into her skin.

The door was still locked. The torch outside her cell still guttered in its bracket. Same shadows. Same rust smell. Same everything.

Except this time, she remembered dying.

Not the execution. The other thing. The soul prison. Varric's voice in the dark, calm as someone ordering tea. The cold that went deeper than her bones. And then—

Nothing.

She'd woken up here. Again.

Rin shoved herself to her feet and paced three steps to the wall, three steps back. Her legs shook. She counted her breaths. Four in, four out. Her mother's trick for panic. It didn't work anymore. Nothing worked when the panic was justified.

Footsteps echoed in the corridor.

She froze.

Not guards. Guards stomped. These steps were too light, too deliberate.