Shadows: A Six of Crows Fan fic

Chapter Twelve: Kaz

Kaz Brekker. The Bastard of the Barrel. Dirty Hands himself. The man who'd pulled off an impossible heist. The man who'd brought the Merchant council to his feet without them even knowing it. The new and future king of the Barrel. He was Kaz Brekker.

And all he wanted to do was cry.

Kaz hadn't cried in a very long time. The last time he could probably recall doing so was the night just before he taken that sad kid's clothes. He wasn't even sure he'd cried when he'd broken his leg. Misted a little maybe but no tears formed beyond that.

But now, looking up at this girl with a tightly woven, raven black braid, a slight frame, and the warmest dark brown eyes... he wanted to cry. He wanted to cry because he hated the way she made him feel.

He loved it.

He hated himself for the fact that she did this to him. Hated the fact that just her presence took his breath and made his chest tighten. Hated the way that he'd gone absolutely crazy just going a week without her close to him. Hated that his eyes kept scanning every part of her for injury or wounds. Hated that he felt like he had to be dreaming if she was standing in front of him again.

But despite all of that hate coursing through him, he Hated that this short, snot-nosed man had made her hunch her proud shoulders and darken her bright, cunning eyes. He Hated that whatever Dawa had done to make her look like this again was his fault.

He'd seen Inej like this only once before. It had been the day after Inej had snuck up on him in the Menagerie and told him she could help him. He had gone back after that offer to make a deal with Tante Heleen for Inej, but before he had gone up to meet with her, he'd stopped in the main parlor to watch Inej for a few moments. Kaz had wanted to make sure he was making a good investment, so he'd found a dark alcove across the way from where Inej was seated in her Jackal get up and had waited. He spent the better part of an hour watching as Inej blended into the shadows and crowds to avoid notice. And for the most part it had worked. But even Inej couldn't stay completely invisible when wearing bright colored silks and body paint. Eventually some sweaty man in a one size too small suit, with meaty hands and a meatier gut found her. He forced Inej to sit on the chiffon that was near her as he settled up next her, leaning in close to her ear to whisper something. At that moment a look overcame her face that was an exact mirror of the one she had now.

Her eyes had gone vacant and dull where they had only seconds before been watchful and intelligent. Her shoulders curved in and rounded as the man inched closer, her feet and hands crossing. Her mouth remained neutral, and her entire face made her look like she had only ever been a doll. It was the look of someone forced into their fate and didn't believe there to be a way out. The look that came pre cursor to the flick of the switch. A switch that changed something entirely in her as soon as the man moved to brush a strand of her hair out of her eye. A switch that made her giggle and suddenly smile, that made her lean into the man and whisper something back to him, that made her lift a hand and place it on his chest.

All the while her eyes completely blank.

After a few minutes of exchanges between the two, the man excused himself. He probably had some intentions of using the bathroom, getting a drink, or maybe preparing himself for whatever he'd been planning to do to her, but whatever it was Kaz would never have the chance to find out. As soon as the man reached the alcove Kaz was in, he'd stuck out the end of his cane and tripped the grease stain. The man had let out a cry as he fell towards the floor but before he could attract too much attention, Kaz had caught him by the collar and drawn him into the alcove. Kaz pressed the man's face to the wall and pinned his hands behind his back, pressing the tip of his cane against the middle of his back as if it were a knife. A stench he couldn't identify, nor cared to, rolled out of the man's mouth as he panted against the wooden wall and tried calling for help. All the man accomplished was gasping like a fish and releasing more of his toxin into the air. Not wanting to stay this close to the man any longer, Kaz made his warning brief.