A Gamblers Luck | Jesper Fahey

A kiss to escape

Eliana silently left her bedroom the next morning and walked down the rickety steps of the Slat toward the merchants sons bedroom. She wondered how a Van Eck could end up kicking it with the bastard of the barrel in the slums but decided it wasn't her business. She walked up to the door and rapped her knuckles against the wood a few times. A few seconds later, she heard a sleepy, "Come in."

Upon entering the room Eliana noticed 2 things. The first being he must have gotten the smallest room in the slat because there was barely enough room for her stand as she shut the door; and two, if someone didn't guide the poor boy he was going to end up gutted by the end of the week. She got her first good look of him. His curly reddish hair, still disheveled from sleep; his blue eyes staring intently at her.

"I'm Eliana Valentina," she said.

"I know who you are," said Wylan simply.

"You do now?" She asked, with a raise of her eyebrows.

"My father used to talk about you a lot."

"All bad things I hope."

The red haired boy in front of her sat up on his bed a little straighter with a surprised look on his face. "You want the merchant council to hate you?"

"If they didn't I'd be doing my job wrong."

"Why are you here."

She gave the boy a smirk and said, "Because 17 years ago two people in love decided to-"

"I'm not talking about that!" Said Wylan with a flustered expression. "I mean why are you in my room?"

"I'd hardly call this closet sized space a room." When he didn't reply she went on to say, "Kaz wants you to meet with him and a few other Dregs tonight."

"Why?"

"I know as much as you believe me." And deciding she annoyed him enough she slipped back out the door and made her way towards the bustling streets of Ketterdam.

Eliana and Jesper walked through the fighting ring at Hellgate to get to the cages, the smell of animals, coppery scent of blood, and reek of unwashed bodies filled her senses as they started to pick the locks on the cages.

"Aw El, look how cute this little cat is!"

She heard the snapped of jaws and and a muffled scream. Turning to look at Jesper she saw the sharpshooter staring at the "cat".

"Bad kitty."

"Jes I don't think that's a cat," she said while picking the last lock. She hit the side of a cage holding the least threatening creature, the snake slithered to life looking around for the culprit of the noise when it noticed the cage door was open.

"Unless you plan on getting eaten by a few barbaric animals, I suggest we leave."

Eliana and Jesper walked through the dark, damp corridor towards waterways where their boat laid on the sand. Not wanting to know what a ruckus the animals they freed were causing, she didn't look back and kept a brisk pace next to the tall, long limbed Zemeni boy. Eliana came up to about his shoulder. Walking out of the corridor and onto the sand they got into the boat and waited for the rest of the crew to show up.

"I'm gonna be honest, I'm surprised I didn't get eaten by that snake," said Eliana while tucking a black curl back into her braid.

"It would have had to get through me first," said Jesper with a mocking flex of his arms. Eliana tried to ignore how the lime green shirt clung to his sweaty body, accenting the muscle in his arms. Cheeks slightly flushed, she turned her attention back to the prison when she heard voices coming from the back entrance.

"That's weird," said Jesper, and with a tilt of his head he said, "I thought they were coming out where we did."

"That's not them," said Eliana with a hint of panic in her voice. If the guards or whoever was walking towards their boat saw two people just sitting there, they would raise suspicion. But if they saw two lovers trying to get a moment alone...

"Jesper follow my lead," she said while getting up from her seat and walking over to him. She placed her hand on his chest and sat in his lap. Jesper looked at her with a hint of surprise on his features so she said, "Go with it." He placed a hand on her waist, the other softly cupping her face. Hearing the foot steps getting closer she hovered her mouth over his, close enough to feel his breath on her lips, fluttering her eyes closed, she went to bring her mouth closer when she heard the voices again. This time they were standing right in front of the boat.

"We're uh, sorry to interrupt," said a male voice. Whipping her head to look at the guards now standing in front of the boat Eliana said,

"The rest of our party will be out shortly now leave us."

"But we're supposed to monitor the guests leaving," said the other guard.

"I don't care. Leave." Turning her attention back to the sharpshooter she went back to hovering her mouth over his again, he gripped her waist harder and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. The guards, getting the point, walked back to the prison. After Eliana was sure the guards were gone, she untangled herself from Jesper, and sat back down next to him.

"Remind me to caught by guards with you again," said Jesper with a wink.

"And remind me not to let you two have jobs together anymore," Kaz said, scorn painfully obvious in his rock salt rasp.

Turning her attention to the rest of the crew she noticed as the blonde haired Fjerdan boy went to knock Inej into the water. Swiftly Inej turned around and brought her foot into the back of his knee, knocking him into the floor of the boat.

"He's quite clumsy," said the Suli girl with a hint of amusement on her face.

"Nina put him under," commanded Kaz from the back of the boat.

"No. Don't," snarled Matthias. Nina, looking like she was going to pass out at any moment, raised her palms and dropped them; lowering him into unconsciousness.

"Kill you. Witch." He rasped, before going out. Eliana stiffened at those words and shot the now unconscious man a glare.

"Eliana, get our boat into the water," said Kaz once everyone was seated. She raised her hands into the air, flexing her fingers as she called upon the water. It moved with her hands delicately sweeping the boat out into the Ketterdam harbor.