TROUBLE , kaz brekker

xii. that's not very ravkan of you.

CHAPTER TWELVE

AN AMPLIFIER. SHE WAS a damn amplifier.

Kaz ran the scene over and over again in his mind like it was one of his magic tricks, as if somewhere in the deep recesses of his memory was some way to prove himself wrong. But each time, all he saw was the way Jesper had started at her touch as if he'd been caught in a lightning strike, the soft flush of colour that coated her skin as they left Arken's machine behind. He'd be a fool to deny the evidence of his own eyes and yet every instinct in Kaz's body yearned to do so.

How had he not seen it before?

Dirtyhands thrived on the words that passed between drunken mouths. He knew everything there was to know about anything because only in his vault of secrets would he be safe. Echo Caddel had ruined that safety the second she darkened his doorstep.

And now she walked at his side. The aftermath of her powers still left that faint shine on her skin and suddenly the heightened paranoia and deceptions of the past few days made sense. She was scared.

That little part of him that refused to drown in the harbour understood fear. Kaz knew enough about grisha to know what being a human amplifier meant. She was more valuable dead than alive.

With her heart still pumping it's well-worn tune, her power was only as good as the touch of her skin. But once it stopped, the price on her bones could bring the entire merchant council to his doorstep. Her bones could make him a king.

Forget a million kruge, a reward like that would seem like pennies in comparison to the bounty on her skin.

So maybe she was smart to keep her mouth shut. Maybe she was smart to keep an eye on every single grisha that washed up on Ketterdam's dirty shores. Maybe she was smart to not trust anyone on that saints forsaken island because if there was one thing Kaz knew about Echo Caddel, it was that she rather enjoyed being alive.

He tried to imagine Echo - cold and grey and bloated with the inevitable process of rigour mortis as some triumphant grisha dug into her corpse and dangled her ribs from their neck. Her hair, that sanguine shade of red that burned so brightly was dull and that mouth, the one that had the ability to enrage him in just a few words, hung open, unmoving. The image alone made him angrier than any of her lies.

But it didn't mean that she was forgiven.

They marched through the Ravkan streets in silence. Kaz was angry. Jesper could feel it, Inej could feel it, hell even the damned goat could feel it and so they all kept their mouths shut and their objections silent as he herded them into a crowded tavern.

Well, all but one. She tried to slip past him into the safety that came with witnesses and onlookers but Kaz was quicker. His cane collided with the boning of her bodice and Echo sighed - she was smart enough to understand what was going to happen next.

She turned, anticipating an inevitable reprimand she couldn't escape with a coy smile or clever word. Despite everything, Kaz was still her boss and flattery would get her little more than blank stares and raised brows.

He motioned for her to follow with one swift gesture of a gloved hand and together, they walked into a more remote corner of the tavern, free from the greedy ears of the locals.

It was close quarters, that was undeniable. The looming stone walls on either side of the duo were far too close, with far too little space between them for Kaz to stand comfortably. They weren't touching, thank the Saints, but the heat that seemed to radiate off her as if she was the sun itself, imposing on that part of Kaz's mind that liked to be left firmly alone.