❛ ʻʻ .. it's strange how fate
keeps bringing us together .. 〞
in which a girl who can see a person's fate from the touch of a hand falls for the one boy fearing human touch.
━━ KAZ BREKKER
frenemies to lovers, slowburn
shadow & bone - crooked ki...
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xxxviii. a moment of weakness – Kaz
UNDERSTANDING HIT KAZ at a terrible speed, almost knocking the air from his lungs.
"The deal is the deal, Van Eck," Kaz could barely hear himself over the sounds of the growing storm. "If the Merchant Council fails to honour its end of the bargain, no one from the Barrel will ever traffic with any of you again. Your word will be meaningless."
"That would be a problem, Mister Brekker, if the Council knew anything about this deal."
"They were never involved," Kaz said.
Why had he believed Van Eck had the blessing of the Merchant Council? Because he was a rich, upstanding merchant? Because he'd dressed his own servants and soldiers in the purple uniforms of the stadwatch? Kaz had met with Van Eck in a quarantined merchant's house not a government building, but he'd been taken in by a little set dressing.
It was Hertzoon and his coffee house all over again. It was how he had lost Jordie, it was how he would loose Randvi too.
He was old enough to know better.
"You wanted Yul-Bayur. You wanted the formula for parem."
Van Eck conceded the truth with an easy nod. "Neutrality is a luxury Kerch has too long enjoyed. The members of the Council think that their wealth protects them, that they can sit back and count their money while the world squabbles."
"And you know better?"
"Indeed, I do. Jurda parem is not a secret that can be kept or quashed or stashed in a cabin on the Zemini frontier."
"So all your talk of trade lines and markets collapsing–"
"Oh, it will all happen just as I predicted, Mister Brekker. I'm counting on it. As soon as the Council received Bo Yul-Bayur's message, I began buying up jurda fields in Noyvi Zem. When parem is unleashed on the world, every country, every government will be clamouring for a ready supply of it to use on their Grisha."
"Chaos." Said Matthias.
"Yes," Van Eck replied. "Chaos will come, and I will be its master. Its very wealthy master."
"You will be ensuring slavery and death for Grisha everywhere," Inej said.
Kaz saw Randvi shift at Inej's words, sensed her unease and fear. She had been running from death her whole life, and for a time Ketterdam had been her sanctuary, a place she would be safe. But now she would have nowhere, and not even Kaz could protect her this time.
Van Eck raised a brow. "How old are you, girl? Sixteen? Seventeen? Nations rise and fall. Markets are made and unmade. When power shifts, someone always suffers."
