BOMBS AWAY ➤ kaz brekker

matthias helvar

It was only after the prisoner's body had been dragged away that Esther opened her eyes. She tried not to think too hard about what his screams had sounded like. Broken. Ragged. Dying. It reminded her all too much of the screams that had filled the barn the night before she left. The crowed booed, broadcasting their disapproval of the fight ending so quickly. Esther gulped and hoped they could leave the arena soon. 

"Why are they complaining?" Nina's voice broke through her thoughts. "Isn't this what they came here for?"

"They wanted a fight," Kaz replied. "They were expecting him to last longer."

"This is disgusting," Esther breathed. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Kaz glance at her. He would never let her know it, but inwardly he was trying to think of what he was doing around the time the Hellshow started up - and what had stopped him from coming up with the idea first. But Esther still had her morality, no matter how many threats she uttered. And although every logical part of him was screaming at him to beat her into shape, he couldn't make himself say any more harsh words. His mind was a battlefield, and he was on both sides of the war. 

"No more disgusting than anything else in Ketterdam," he settled for. 

"How could anyone stand for this?"

"They're murderers and rapists."

"They're thieves and criminals," Nina cut in.

"Your people," Esther muttered.

"Esther, dear, they aren't forced to fight. They line up for the chance. They earn better food, private cells, liquor, jurda, conjugal with girls from West Stave."

Muzzen cracked his knuckles and chuckled darkly. "Sounds better than we got it at the Slat."

"Helvar doesn't... Helvar doesn't fight in the arena, does he?" Nina's voice was just barely trembling. 

"Who's Helvar?" Esther asked.

"The person we're here to break out."

Esther whirled on him. "Break out? You said you needed me to make a distraction. You didn't say I was distracting everyone from you rescuing a prisoner."

"Did you really expect me to tell you my entire plan? When have I ever?"

"It would have been nice to know," she snapped.

"It will all work out. Let Kaz do what he does best," Inej said. She touched her hand briefly to Esther's arm, giving her a warm smile - too warm to fit into the loud, brazen atmosphere of Hellgate.

The fights continued, but Esther grew no less used to the screaming. She screwed her eyes tight or looked away every time a new horror was set upon a fearful prisoner, stiffening where she stood. Kaz remained cold and still, never letting a drop of emotion through to his exterior. But, unbeknownst to any of their number, he was struggling to restrain himself from taking Esther's hand. The image of it kept replaying in his head, over and over again, her fingers entwined with his. He shoved it away, but it returned, relentless. 

But he was forced to turn his attention away from Esther when Matthias Helvar entered the arena.

Esther knew what he was at once. Her stepmother had spoken all too often of the drüskelle, the Fjerdan witch hunters who would hunt down Grisha across the lands and bring them back to Djerholm to be tried for their crimes. The praises of that horrible woman had painted a picture for Esther, a picture of icy might and cold indifference to human lives. No matter what anyone told those fierce warriors, they would always believe that Grisha were the enemy, a force to be ground under their spiked heels.