AN: hellooo! thanks for the love on our first chapter, we're happy you guys have been enjoying the fic so far.
so excited to be posting the first kaz chapter! he is a disaster and i love it
we hope you like this one! 3
-D
As he stepped onto the Goedmedbridge, Alys Van Eck babbling animatedly beside him, Kaz kept his eyes trained on the group walking towards them. More guards than Kaz had anticipated, marching behind Jan Van Eck like a huddle of brightly colored penguins. He scanned the packed group for any sign of a straight-backed, silent shadow with hair like ink and eyes like gold. He could barely see between the men, they were pressed soldier to soldier like an army. His stomach tightened as the group approached and she was still nowhere in sight. Get over yourself , he thought. Van Eck wants you to make another mistake. Stay patient and stay on task, and we'll see if he delivers his end of the bargain. His fingers tightened around the thin oyster knife hidden in his right glove. He'd better, or I'll cut out his wife's throat and force him to watch as she bleeds.
They were just a few meters apart now, and Kaz put out his hand, signaling for Alys to stop. Van Eck and his crew stopped too. Kaz was pleased to notice that Van Eck's nose was crooked and bruised a deep, ugly purple.
"Something is wrong with Jan's nose," Alys said curiously.
"I suspect he's caught a case of the Wraith," Kaz murmured, holding back a grin. So she'd fought back–he'd expect nothing less of one of the Barrel's most fearsome spiders. She'd always been the deadliest of them all, more than just a spy, but a weapon, a silent executioner with knives that dripped with poison. She hadn't wanted this life, he knew that, but she was made for it.
And soon she'd be gone. It was wishful thinking that she'd stay–she'd said as much on the boat back from Fjerda, she wanted to leave Ketterdam to take down slavers. But Kaz could not fathom what he would do once she was gone. No one else would ever live up to her reputation as the Wraith, no one could gather intelligence or keep secrets like she could. No one could know exactly what Kaz's next move would be without him saying a word. No one else could tell when his leg ached because of the cold or when he hadn't slept or when he was panicked. He could find another spider, but it would never be the same as it had been with her.
"Alys, my dear, I'm here!" Van Eck called out as they approached. Kaz took note of the projection of his voice, the almost-rehearsed nature of the guards' reactions. Like actors in a play. He bristled. Something wasn't right. He'd had his suspicions that this would be the case, so the others were positioned in various spots around the canal. At this moment, both of Jesper's pearl-handled pistols would be aimed towards Van Eck, one pointed at his temple, one pointed at his heart. Everything was in position.
Except Inej isn't here.
"Release my wife, Brekker." Van Eck's voice was steady. "She is an innocent. She is carrying my child."
She's also half your age, Kaz thought bitterly. And you already have a child, if you'd forgotten.
"We seem to be missing another party, if I'm not mistaken," Kaz said, keeping his voice cool. He would not show weakness. Not again. "Where's the Wraith, Van Eck?"
"Ah yes," Van Eck smiled. Something glinted, dark and sinister, in his light eyes. He gestured to his guards with a nod of his head. One of the bigger guards at the rear of the pack began to move forward, and the crowd parted.
Her face appeared, hooded eyes staring at him intensely. They were dark and they were pained, but she was living, blinking, breathing. She was alive. He willed her to hear his thoughts: Thank your Saints for me.
And then his mind caught up with what he was seeing.
Inej was limp in the guard's arms. Her hands were tied together in front of her. She was thinner than she was a week before, and her skin was dull, devoid of its usual warmth. One of her legs was locked straight at the knee. The other was twisted at an unsettling angle, hanging down as the guard walked. They're broken, Kaz realized, his mind racing. The bastard broke her legs.
The reality of it nearly knocked the air from his lungs. He was going to kill Van Eck, kill any fucking person who even came close to Inej. In the span of a second, he'd imagined every grotesque thing he could do to this scum of a human being, every way he could draw pain from the man's lips, every drop of blood he could squeeze out that would satisfy this need for vengeance. There was no limit, no amount that would suffice. He would destroy everything this man held dear, burn it and the rest of this damn city down with it. The plan he'd spent entire nights concocting, reviewing the details until the sun peeked out from behind the smog, going over it again and again with the others until they all knew it by heart and then some–that plan was gone, forgotten, irrelevant. He felt the oyster knife against his skin, white hot and sharp, felt it begin to slide through the slit in his glove, poking out into the balmy air. His body tensed, about to step forward.
He felt a hand wrap around his arm. A familiar grip, with the gentle strength that only she could possess. He pictured her standing behind him, holding him back. She was expert at waiting, letting the anger simmer but never boil over. Wait , he imagined her saying. Not yet. Not like this. He needed to focus. He looked to her, the real Inej, their eyes meeting as they so often did. His breath hitched at the familiar feeling of her seeing something deep within him, that wonderful, terrifying feeling of being known.
And then, she looked away.
The sight of her, powerless in some strange man's arms, her body not her own, rekindled the embers inside of him, just enough to spark a small but mighty fire that pounded against his ribs. They had to get out of here. There would be time for revenge later.
"This was not the deal, Van Eck," Kaz said, his voice dangerously low. "I've brought back your wife, entirely unharmed. You've brought me damaged goods." The words were cruel on his lips. Just cruel enough, it seemed—he did not miss the way Inej winced, her eyes closed. Something within him cracked as he spoke.
"You never specified the condition you wanted her returned in," Van Eck grinned, his voice almost gleeful with pleasure. " With her knives , is what you said."
Kaz pressed his lips together. The urge to lunge at Van Eck was nearly overpowering, but he forced himself to breathe. This was not the time to lose his head; there was too much at stake.
"Fine, then," he said after a moment. "We'll make the trade." He began to walk forward, Alys at his side. Van Eck, the guard, and Inej followed suit. Kaz kept his eyes fixed on Van Eck's smug face. Do not look at her. They were in front of each other now, nearly eye to eye, sizing the other one up.
"Just a moment." Van Eck held up his hand. "Alys, what are we naming the child?"
"Very good. Seems an old dog can learn a new trick, besides rolling over," Kaz sneered.
"Alys," Van Eck repeated, ignoring him. "What name are we giving the child?"
"The baby?" replied Alys in confusion. "Jan if it's a boy, Plumje if it's a girl."
"We agreed Plumje is what you're naming your new parakeet."
"I never agreed to that," Alys pouted.
"Oh, I think Plumje is a lovely name for a girl," crooned Kaz, passing his cane from his left hand to his right. "Satisfied, merch?" Van Eck nodded. Kaz passed Alys into the mercher's waiting embrace.
"The Wraith and I will be going, now," he said. Kaz took Inej into his arms without looking at her, placing his cane in the crook of his elbow. He was still staring at Van Eck, memorizing every inch of the man's face. It would be burned into his mind alongside the gaudy smile of Pekka Rollins. He leaned forward as he adjusted into Inej's weight, relishing in the simultaneous relief and fury that rushed through his veins.
"But I never leave a deal unfinished." He stepped back, slashing the guard's leg with a flick of his wrist, throwing the small knife to theground after it made contact. The man yelped, blood gushing from his femoral artery. Van Eck looked from Kaz, to the guard, back to Kaz, who was already multiple steps away.
"You'll pay for that, Brekker," he growled as the guard keeled over, eyes glassy.
"I merely evened the deal. An eye for an eye, Van Eck."
He was running now, Inej jostling in his arms, and there was a chorus of boots chasing them. He could just hear Van Eck's voice above the noise.
"You gave me your word, Kaz Brekker! You kill my guard, and now you're breaching our contract! You swore you would return my wife and son to me—where are you keeping Wylan?" The end of a monologue, rehearsed to perfection, eliciting sympathy from the crowd. But Kaz was used to being the villain, and would gladly do so again and again if it meant destroying Jan Van Eck's life. Which he would. Brick by brick.
He vaguely registered an explosion across the canal. Wylan. Hopefully one of the others recognized his signal on the bridge. Inej was not safe yet. None of them were, not until they were all back at Black Veil and ready for the next phase of the plan. He could not get to that point alone, not with Inej injured like this. The plan . It was as if, now that Inej was out of Van Eck's possession, Kaz could finally begin to see the holes in the tapestry, all that there was yet to do. Deal with Colm Fahey. Take down Van Eck. Get the money. Smuggle Kuwei out of Ketterdam. Destroy Pekka Rollins.
How was he going to enact his plan?
Inej groaned as he made a sharp turn into an alley. Kaz was reminded of the last time he carried her like this, the way she curled into his chest as her eyes fluttered shut. The panic he felt as he lay her down in front of Nina and realized that her breaths were too shallow, too ragged. Scrubbing her still-warm blood from his shaking hands in his cabin, trying to suppress the overwhelming, strangling thought that she was going to die and it would be his carelessness that had caused it. And now—now her legs were bent at strange angles, and her chest heaved with pain, and barely-audible whimpers caught in her throat with each of Kaz's steps. This was a different kind of pain, a kind of brokenness he was all too familiar with.
How was he going to enact his plan without her?
He barely knew which direction he was running in, what was going on around him–his mind was in overdrive, millions of thoughts screaming at each other with only one coming clearly to the surface: Get her out of here. His foot caught on a raised cobblestone and he nearly tripped, pain shooting up his right leg like a bolt of lightning. He pressed Inej's small body closer to his chest as they fell, the briefest moment in the air, and it was not until he righted himself that he heard the clatter of his cane on the pavement as it rolled into the gutter. Inej was growing heavy in his arms, and the gap between him and the Stadwatch was shrinking by the second.
He did not look back. He kept running, the world around him a blur, leaving his precious cane behind.
AN: always drama with this man am i right -D