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The room was suffocating.
Every breath seemed to carry Rin's anger with it, thick and heavy, like smoke choking the air. She stood in the center now, claws curled tight, fox ears twitching violently. Her golden eyes glowed like embers in the darkened hall, sharp and unrelenting. Her tail lashed in wild arcs, the fur bristling with an energy that prickled my skin just by being near it.
Her voice was still fractured—two tones at once, human and something deeper. "You think I'm broken. That I need to be caged. That I need to be… fixed."
"Rin, no," I said quickly, though my voice cracked with nerves. "We're just trying to help."
Her gaze snapped to me, and I flinched under the raw fury in it. "Help?" Her words dripped venom. "You caged me like an animal!"
