Shadows: A Six of Crows Fan fic

Chapter Thirteen: Jesper

Jesper Fahey was not having a good day. His head hurt, Wylan was bleeding out, Inej was being forced into a horrible deal, and worst of all Kaz was brooding again and Jesper was stuck in the same room as him. After the events that had transpired, he knew that it was stupid to think that Kaz would stop being so moody after Inej got back, but now it was like Kaz had tripled his angst. Inej being mad at him was apparently much, much worse than her not being with him. Jesper supposed that it made sense, and he completely understood why Inej was mad, but he really didn't need this right now.

As much as he hated to admit it, Kaz was the smartest, most conniving man he had ever met in his entire life. No matter what the problem was, Kaz always seemed to be able to get out of it whether by his genius or just sheer luck. Currently, Jesper really needed the genius to come out— or even the luck for all he cared— and get them all out of this horrible situation. Not only for Wylan's sake but also for Inej's. She didn't deserve to be forced into yet another contract again, especially not after finally setting off on her life's quest. What he didn't need, was for Kaz to shut down and go all moody on everyone and put away his scheming face. Jesper might have been mad at him, but he would have paid anything to see that stupid scheming face.

Jesper looked over at Wylan still crumpled on the floor beside him while the others continued telling stories of their woes and Kaz sulked in silence. Wylan's hair, once a bright reddish-blond, was now limp and darkened by soot. Everything about him was so swollen and bruised that Jesper could barely make out the contours of that stupid face. He couldn't keep sitting here talking while Wylan was bleeding out on the floor inches in front of him, regardless of if Kaz had any plans to help or not.

Wylan's eye shifted to look up at him and caught his gaze. Wylan's lips twitched up in a small smile before it faded behind a wince. It broke him.

"How are we getting out of here?" Jesper said as rationally as he could, interrupting the conversation the others were having. "Are we able to just walk out of here? Because whatever we're doing, we need to do it now so that I can get him to a healer."

Inej looked down at Wylan and her brow creased in worry. "I wish we could, but there really aren't any more healers in the area that I know of. They were rare in the first place and now most of them either got snatched by the Khergud or they fled to Ravka. If there are any left, I have no idea how to find them."

"Are you telling me that we can't heal Wylan?" Jesper said, jaw clenching so hard he thought he might actually break it.

"Well, for now, yes, he'll have to heal the natural way. But there is one other way that Dawa said could work." As soon as Inej said that name, Kaz's head snapped up.

"So now we're taking advice from the psychopath that is trying to make you his minion?" A fire burned in Kaz's eyes as he spoke and spread to lace his words. Despite how furiously it burned in him, the fire quickly decided to jump ship in Kaz and roar up inside of Inej.

"It's not advice, Kaz. Advice," she said, spitting out the word. "Implies that you actually have a choice in the matter. But, seeing as how this winning situation we're currently in doesn't give us much freedom, it's more like he's permitted us to use our only option. Does that suit your plans better?"

Inej's words made them all fall silent and hang their heads. Those of them who were not the immediate object of her penetrating gaze looked up briefly, again and again, to see how Kaz would respond. None of them had ever seen Inej speak or act like this before. Jesper had seen the two of them get in a few spats, and Inej had gotten a bit bawdy at times when playing a role for a job, but otherwise Inej was always a more soft-spoken, forgiving person. She could absolutely destroy someone in a fight and had nerves of steel, but when it came to her friends, she never was so abrasive. Not even when Jesper had gotten her kidnapped by Van Eck had she gotten this mad at him.