❝ she loved him,
but she kept pretending
she didn't because
she knew he didn't
love her the same ❞
In which the Snake of Ketterdam slithers out from the cracks of the Barrel to raise her head and break some bones.
【 Kaz Brekker x OC】
【 Grishaver...
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𝕴f Stasiaj had to take one thing away from this trip, it would be how much she missed her home. She missed the winding streets of the Barrel, the sounds of people gambling, her vipers and their whispers, the fear and respect that came with her name and most of all, she missed good food.
At the moment, Stasiaj was tired of snow and ice and Fjerda and the crew that Kaz Brekker had put together and if she had to listen to one more godforsaken argument about what was going to happen when everyone was rich, she would take Crow Man's cane and beat everyone to death with it.
Stasiaj Yahontov was handling socialisation very well.
"Snake, hurry up!" Stasiaj rolled her eyes at Brekker, sashaying up from a couple of paces behind so that she stood between him and Jesper, which caused the sharpshooter to do a double take and stumble.
"How...How did you...?" Jesper looked around, gulping.
"I slithered," Stasiaj grinned, laughing to herself. "Snow muffles the sound, which is very good for a snake."
"Have you thought about who you will be masquerading as?" Kaz asked, an eyebrow raised to stop Stasiaj from frightening his sharp shooter any more than necessary.
"A foreign princess,"
"That will draw attention to yourself," Stasiaj shrugged, wrinkling her nose.
"Should I care? I want to be a princess, so I shall be a princess and you can say nothing about it," Kaz sighed at her words, not rising to her confrontational spirit. "They are Fjerdans, they will not know the difference. They're not bright enough for that."
"Excuse me?" Stasiaj grinned as Matthias spun around to look at her, fury in his eyes.
"She is goading you, Helvar," Kaz called, shooting Stasiaj a pointed look.
"I was, and enjoying it too," Stasiaj replied, laughing once more as Helvar glared and stomped off to the next rise, eager to put some distance between him and the infuriating blonde woman who never shut up.
He turned round, holding out his arms. "Stop! You don't want to—"
But it was too late, Stasiaj crested the hills with the others, her laughter stopping as she watched the sight before her. The girl shook her head in disgust, before sighing.
The pyre had been made on a bluff. Whoever was responsible had tried to build the fire in the shelter of a rock outcropping, but it hadn't been enough to keep the flames from dying out in the wind. Three stakes had been driven into the icy ground, and three charred bodies were bound to them, their blackened, cracked skin still smouldering.
"Ghezen," swore Wylan. "What is this?"
"This is what Fjerdans do to Grisha." Nina said. Her face was slack, her green eyes staring.
"It's what criminals do," said Matthias. "The pyres have been illegal since—"
Nina whirled on him and shoved his chest hard. "Don't you dare," she seethed, fury burning like a halo around her. "Tell me the last time someone was prosecuted for putting a Grisha to the flames. Do you even call it murder when you put down dogs?"
"Nina—"
"Do you have a different name for killing when you wear a uniform to do it?"
They heard it then – a moan, like a creaking wind.
"Saints," Jesper said. "One of them is alive."
"Kill them," Stasiaj replied softly, her voice almost being carried away on the wind. "It will be a mercy killing. Get it over with so they suffer no more."
The sound came again, thin and keening, from the black hulk of the body on the far right. It was impossible to tell if the shape was male or female. Its hair had burned away, its clothing fused to its limbs. Black flakes of skin had peeled away in places, showing raw flesh.
Jesper moved first. Two shots rang out, and the body fell silent. Jesper returned his pistols to their holsters.
"Damn it, Jesper," Kaz growled. "You just announced our presence for miles."
"So they think we're a hunting party."
"Brekker, stop," Stasiaj warned, before shaking her head again as he did not take her words of advice.
"You should have let Inej do it."
"I didn't want to do it," Inej said quietly. "Thank you, Jesper."
Kaz's jaw ticked, but he said nothing more.
"Thank you," Nina choked out. She plunged ahead over the frozen ground, following the shape of the path through the snow. She was weeping, stumbling over the terrain. Matthias followed.
"Should we follow?" Wylan turned to stare back at the others, but Stasiaj shook her head.
"No. Leave them to sort out whatever their problem is," She hissed, before turning to look back at Kaz. "We should move on. It does not do well to stay at an execution sight."
"Are you afraid of ghosts, Yahontov?" Brekker watched her with narrowed eyes, amusement clear in them, but Stasiaj shook her head.
"No, but the dead call out for more death," Stasiaj replied, not liking the way the wind whispered in her ears. "If we stay, Death will follow us like an unwanted shadow and it would be the cause ill will for our little trip into the Ice Court."
"I would have thought you'd have harnessed Death already," Kaz mused, as Nina and Matthias began to argue.
"Even I know that to tangle with Death, you pay the price with your soul," Stasiaj shook her head. "You can not be that stupid to believe one should tangle with Death."
"I have no soul," Kaz snarked in return as the pair fell into silence.
"You should do something about them," Stasiaj murmured, before nodding at the pair ahead of them. "Otherwise they're going to kill each other and as amusing as that would be, you need them alive."
"They'll sort their issues out,"
"You've never been in a relationship or seen a functioning relationship," Stasiaj replied, as Kaz nodded and sent her a look. "Thus you do not know how couples argue. They argue and argue and they don't stop and they hold a grudge. Trust me."
"A relationship sounds like hard work," The antisocial pair watched Matthias and Nina continue to argue.
"Tell me about it," Stasiaj replied. "I can't actually imagine you in a relationship. Who would be a fool enough to even stay near you?"
"Thank you, Snake," Kaz shot her a look that Stasiaj couldn't decipher before finally stepping forward to stop the pairs arguments and away from the blonde girl.
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Hiya,
So, Stasiaj has gone and messed things up with Kaz a bit and there wasn't as much of their usual banter, but Stasiaj had some good lines that I liked.
