❝ 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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∘☽༓☾∘
𝕿he tunnel that Stasiaj led Inej and Nina along came out into the middle of the warehouse district, close to the silos themselves. Opening the cover, Stasiaj hopped out first, helping Inej up, before both of them pulled Nina from the inside and closed the cover.
"Corpselight," whispered Inej, as the trio paused at the end of the alleyway, the shadows hiding them still. Nina shivered, as Stasiaj pulled a face.
"What are bodymen doing in the warehouse district?" The two girls turned towards Stasiaj, who sighed.
"Bodymen bring bodies to the warehouse distric at night, sort them and then put them on the Reaper's Barge for burning," Stasiaj murmured. "This is a morbid topic, can we move on to something else?"
"Why don't they just build a real cemetery?" Nina said.
"No room."
"Or not, I see," Stasiaj replied, before rolling her eyes. "There used to be talk of reopening Black Veil back when I first became Snake, but that all stopped when the Queen's Lady Plague struck. People are too afraid of contagion. If your family can afford it, they send you to a cemetery or graveyard outside Ketterdam. And if they can't...well, you get the gist."
"No mourners,"
"Precisely," Stasiaj replied, before turning to Inej. "Lead the way, Wraith. Let's get this over and done with."
Inej took the lead as they approached Sweet Reef. The silos themselves were daunting, vast as sentinel gods, monuments to industry emblazoned with the Van Eck red laurel. Soon everyone would know what that emblem stood for—cowardice and deceit. The circular cluster of Van Eck's silos was surrounded by a high metal fence.
"Razor wire," Nina noted.
"It won't be a problem." Stasiaj doubted that anything would truly be able to stop the Wraith for long, especially not barbed wire.
They took up a watch beside the sturdy red-brick wall of a warehouse and held their position, confirming that the guards' routine hadn't changed. Just as Brekker had said, the guards took almost twelve minutes exactly to circle the fence that surrounded the silos. When the patrols were on the eastern side of the perimeter, Inej would have roughly six minutes to cross the wire. Once they passed to the west side, it would be too easy for them to spot her on the wire between the silos, but she'd be almost impossible to see on the roof. During those six minutes, Inej would deal with depositing the weevil in the silo hatch and then detach the line. She'd be unable to see the guards, but Stasiaj had a powerful bonelight in hand. She would signal Inej with a brief flash of green light when she was clear to make the crossing.
