Kaz's P.O.V
Kaz found Inej's eyes over the boy's shoulder. He gave her a subtle nod, and she released Percy. The two teenagers still looked slightly in disbelief, well, at least the green-eyed one did. The blonde one looked angry, and it made him want to laugh. She could've been angry with any of them and it would've been valid, but at the moment she seemed to be directing her anger at Percy.
If Kaz was anyone else, he may have felt sorry for the boy. Ghezen, if he was anyone else nobody would be upset at anybody right now. He would have agreed to help them out of the goodness of his heart. The thought made him want to throw-up.
Inej slipped back into the shadows, disappearing efficiently. Wraith, He thought, and had to fight the urge to smile. Of course Kaz was happy she was back, relieved that she was okay. But he could never show any of that. Not with the big red target on his back.
The dim lighting of the room made it easier for Inej to go unnoticed, not that she needed any help with that. It was a sort of reassurance for him though. Kaz twirled his cane around. "When do we leave? And how, exactly, will we leave?"
Annabeth stopped sending glares to her boyfriend, and looked at him. Kaz met her harsh, and what he supposed would be considered intimidating, gaze. As if he was saying, 'you may be tough, but I'm tougher'. It seemed to piss her off some more. Good. "We leave as soon as your team gets here."
Kaz nodded thoughtfully, and looked at Inej again. She got the message, and leaped out the window. Percy looked like he'd just seen a ghost, and Kaz wanted to laugh. People could be very amusing. "Something wrong?" He asked casually, his thumb rubbing the beak of the crow head.
Percy's eyebrows furrowed together, and he gestured to the window. "Did- Did she just jump out the window?" He sounded incredulous, and Kaz cocked an eyebrow. It was strange that Percy would be worried about someone who just had a knife to his throat.
"Yes she did." He responded, and walked to his desk, looking at all the papers on it. Thankfully Inej hadn't ruined any when she sat on the desk..but Kaz wasn't quite sure he would've cared then. A shiver went down his spine. Touching was still a strange and hard concept for him to grasp.
"And you're okay with that?! What if she died?" Percy said in disbelief, and Kaz's hand clenched around his cane. He wanted to hit the boy with it, and follow the beating up with a lecture about how he would never waste such a valuable asset- no, person.
Kaz spared him a lazy glance. "She didn't." He said simply, and went back to scanning and signing documents as they waited for Inej to return, hopefully Nina was in Ketterdam. If she was in Ravaka, it would make this more difficult.
Percy huffed, but didn't say anything more which Kaz was grateful for, since if he did he might have pulled the boy's tongue out.
He could practically feel their eyes on him, but Kaz was used to that by now. After just a minute, Kaz could see out of the corner of his eye that Percy was looking around desperately for something to do, and Annabeth was tapping her foot against the wooden floor. Interesting, Kaz thought before returning to his work. He had to finish this before Inej got back.
Kaz was about ready to stab himself once Inej got back. It wasn't the workload that annoyed him, no, he would've actually preferred more of it over the endless bickering coming from the two restless teenagers in the room with him.
He could have easily mistaken them for two people who actually hated each other rather than loved, if not for the arguments generally settling with one of them kissing the other. It was disgusting. Honestly, couldn't they find some other way to settle things? Preferably without it being so 'romantic.'
Fortunately he was saved from one more second of that when Inej, Wylan, Jesper, and - thankfully - Nina. He looked up from his paperwork, and almost sighed in relief once he saw them. Jesper looked astounded and quite curiously, contrary to Wylan who seemed embarrassed and looked as though he wanted to run as far away from here as possible.
With the help of his cane, Kaz stood up. He took a moment to study his old allies.
The old dark circles under Jesper and Wylan's eyes had left, and they stood close together. Jesper in front of Wylan protectively. Kaz made a mental note to talk to Jesper about giving away stuff with body language. While both Wylan and Jesper seemed to have gotten happier, he could easily see that Nina wasn't doing so well.
Nina's usually flawless face, now had deep and almost black circles under her eyes that were carelessly tailored. Her eyes were lifeless, depressing. Her face was set in grim determination, as though the two strangers in front of her were going to ask her to sign her death warrant.
Kaz had to admit, it was unsettling to see her like this. The Heartrender even seemed to have lost weight, she had stopped eating again.
Jesper looked at him, and he grinned. "So, what's the job and how much?" Kaz felt his lips curl into a small smirk. Of course Jesper would be excited about it. That's good, he wouldn't have wanted to use his debts against him.
"Our guests are very vague about it." He didn't even glance at the couple. "5,000 each in gold." Jesper's grin grew. The rest didn't seem so enthusiastic about it. Wylan looked suspicious, and nervous. Kaz almost pitied him. Almost. Nina looked like she was about to stop his organs one by one until he gave her answers, but thought better of it. Good. Kaz would take most of his secrets to the grave.
When he did look over, Annabeth seemed extremely annoyed. He offered her a mocking smirk, and arched an eyebrow as if to say: 'What's wrong'. Kaz saw her fists clench. Her boyfriend cleared his throat. "Uh..yeah..anyway, we should get going now." He started Looking inside his pockets, and then suddenly looked worried and confused.
Annabeth looked at him, and then groaned. "Please tell me you didn't lose it!" Nina and the rest looked confused, and looked at the two as if they had lost their minds.
Percy frowned. "I told you I shouldn't carry it!" He turned his pockets inside out, only a simple ballpoint pen falling out. It was amusing, but Kaz did want to leave as soon as possible, so he reached into his suit and pulled out a tiny gem.
"I don't suppose you're looking for this? You should take better care of keeping things like this safe, especially around thieves." He said, and tossed it back. Percy caught it easily, and looked at him speechless. Kaz had to fight the smug smirk dying to go onto his face.
Annabeth scowled, and grabbed the little crystal from Percy. She placed it in the middle of them all, and recited a few words. "O'Iris, goddess of rainbows, please take us back to Camp Half-Blood." At first nothing happened, and there was some odd looks from Jesper.
Right as he opened his mouth to say something, a rainbow light flashed, and he started falling.