glow of the mark (six of crows soulmate au)

chapter twelve (inej)

Crawling down a chimney wasn't a strange task for Inej Ghafa. She was used to tight spaces and challenges. 

Though, what was odd was the fact that, when many think of crawling down a chimney, they think of Santa Claus.

Inej was definitely not giving much of a gift.

As she crawled down the tight space, she regretted not stealing a pair of Kaz's gloves. The brick was coarse against her fingers, likely scraping away some of the skin of her hands.

She dropped down when she could tell she was close enough to the ground, not even making the slightest thud. She peeked out of the fireplace, where she saw a man asleep in the room the fireplace was situated in. 

After looking around and analyzing the room, she crept out of the tight space, her feet light on the rustic hardwood of the floors. She pulled a pill out of her pocket, one that would keep him asleep for 4 hours. She slipped the pill into his open mouth, ignoring the drool that rolled out onto his cheek. She knew that it was common for people to swallow in their sleep, so she had to hope that he would.

After a few moments, she saw him swallow, still in a deep sleep. This was her cue to leave. Luckily, Kaz wanted her to leave through the front door so that it would be unlocked for Matthias and Jesper, who would lug the man out the door.

This wasn't the same man she'd gotten information from, but he looked somewhat familiar, though she couldn't place it.

When she left the home, the air outside was bitterly cold, nipping at any exposed skin. Most would be bothered by the cold weather, but, she greeted it as an old friend. The extreme temperature of the night was something that would bring her back down from her panicked thoughts during the first few days she was free of Tante Heleen and the Menagerie. 

Inej slinked off to the forest beside the house where the others were. 

Kaz caught sight of her and turned to Jesper and Matthias to tell them that it was time for them to leave.

Nina was sitting upon the forest floor near where Kaz, Jesper, and Matthias had been talking, etching shapes in the dirt. Wylan was sitting quietly in a tree and Inej was unable to tell if he was asleep or not.

"Wraith, I presume it went as expected? Mr. Kozlov swallowed the pill?" Kaz raised an eyebrow expectantly, lowering himself onto a tree stump, she could tell his leg was agitating him.

Ah, so that was his name. "Indeed," Inej nodded, fidgeting with her blood-covered hands, which was due to how much skin had rubbed off whilst she was climbing, "Nina, do you think you can help me with this?"

Nina looked up from her the dirt and her eyes widened. Inej laughed quietly, sitting down next to Nina, "It's not as bad as it looks."

Nina took Inej's hand and concentrated, her other hand gliding over Inej's, her skin healing. "What did you do?"

"The bricks rubbed off a bunch of skin. Thanks for fixing my hand."

"Anytime, you owe me waffles."

"Alright, fine." Inej lightly elbowed Nina in the side.

Kaz turned towards the two, his back to the home. "Inej, Nina, Wylan, it's time to leave. I see Jesper and Matthias coming, they have him."

Inej and Nina stood up, and that was when Inej realized that Wylan was, in fact, napping. In a tree. It was surprising that he hadn't fallen out of it yet. 

"Wylan, wake up!" Kaz called, causing Wylan to jolt awake.

"Rude," Wylan mumbled, climbing out of the tree.

"We got him!" Jesper grinned like a maniac as he and Matthias entered the forest carrying Kozlov.

"Let's get outta here," Kaz ordered, standing up with his cane in hand.

Nina and Inej stood up from where they were situated on the forest floor. 

Luckily, the home wasn't terribly far from the coast, which could be reached by venturing another mile and a half through the forest.

~~~

"Finally," Jesper flopped onto the ship's deck, hurting his back on the wood in the process. They had imprisoned Kozlov in the small high-security room that was on the lowest level of the ship, amongst the food, water bottles, weapons, etc.

Inej sat near Jesper, sharpening and cleaning her knives. "Are your arms sore from that?"

"Nah, I'm fine." He lied, grinning.

"Mhm..."

"What's going on with you and Kaz right now?"

"What do you mean?" Inej scrunched her eyebrows.

"You two have been acting odd around each other."

"Nothing is going on, we're just both stressed."

Jesper raised an eyebrow.

"We had an argument before we left, he still hasn't apologized or anything."

"He's Kaz, I don't think I've ever heard him apologize. Not once."

"True. What's going on with you and Wylan? You've barely talked these past few days."

"Nothing happened."

"Alright..."

Jesper rolled his eyes, elbowing her very lightly, "I hate you, Wraith."

"Love you, too." She elbowed him back, laughing. She could see Kaz across the deck, looking up from the book that he was reading and looking slightly jealous. 

"I'm gonna go try and find some snacks, want me to get ya something?"

"Yeah, sure."