"I want_" he stopped. "Never mind what I want...." His voice was quieter now.
"What do you want?"
"You. Always you!"
📍MATURE CONTENT📍
Part one: She's no angel, he's no saint.
Part two: Half my soul.
Part three: Dark paradise.
Part four: Tattere...
They stayed up planning well past midnight. Kaz was wary of the changes to the plan. It was possible that Van Eck would piece together what the Shu were doing and go after the city's remaining Grisha. They were a weapon Kaz didn't want to see in the mercher's arsenal. With so many opponents and the stadwatch involved. Kaz wanted Kuwei out of the city as soon as possible.
At last, when they dispersed. Kaz helped Aeolian cleared the wreckage of their makeshift meal. She was always the orderly one among them—besides Kaz.
The others would sleep. Kaz could not. He'd meant what he'd said. They couldn't just be smarter than Van Eck, they had to be relentless. And Kaz could see what the others couldn't. They'd won the battle today; but the merch was still winning the war.
Kaz still had the note Van Eck had sent arranging the meeting on Vellgeluk. He remembered what Pekka Rollins had said, when Kaz had claimed that the Merchant Council would never stand for Van Eck's illegal activities. And who's going to tell them? A canal rat from the worst slum in the Barrel? Don't kid yourself, Brekker.
But now, leaning on his cane among the graves of Black Veil, he could acknowledge the truth of Pekka's words. You couldn't go to war with an upstanding merch like Van Eck, not if you were a thug with a reputation dirtier than a stable hand's boot sole. To win, Kaz would have to level the field.
He would show the world what he already knew: Despite his soft hands and fine suits, Van Eck was a criminal, just as bad as any Barrel thug—worse, because his word was worth nothing.
Kaz didn't hear Aeolian approach, he just knew when she was there. She'd cleaned herself up using Nina's Rose scented soap—but she didn't smell like Nina, she smelt like herself. The scent he adored. Her black hair shone in the moonlight, she was braiding her hair, uniquely. And as she caught him, staring at her, she said. "It's butterfly braids, I've never done this on my own."
Kaz scolded himself: here he was standing like a fool, staring at the heavenly girl in front of him. She was sharp and if he doesn't stop acting like a boy in love, she'll find out eventually.
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"Why the net, Kaz?" She asked out of the blue.
Yes, why the net? Why something that would complicate the assault he'd planned on the silos and leave them twice as open to exposure? I couldn't bear to watch you fall. But he couldn't say it. "I just went to a lot of trouble to get my precious spider back."
"You protect your investments." Her voice sounded almost resigned. She tied up the end of her hair strain. "And you're going off island."
He should be more concerned that she could guess his next move. "Rotty says the old man's getting restless. I need to go smooth his feathers."
