LADY OF SHADOWS ☞ JESPER FAHEY (ON HOLD)

NINE

THE LAST TIME ANASTASIA woke up with a warm body wrapped around her, she'd nearly been murdered thirty seconds after waking up.

So when she jolted into consciousness the next morning, a slender arm holding her close, she fought the urge to scream bloody murder, even more so when she realized whose arm it was.

She scrambled to climb out of his bed, thankful that she wore a shirt—probably Jesper's, judging by how the soft fabric hung down to her mid-thigh—instead of being naked.

Saints. What was she thinking? This was possibly one of the absolute worst ideas she'd ever had in her life, and she'd done plenty of brainless things over the decades. Hell, she'd done more idiotic things in the past two months alone. Accepting Kaz's deal instead of killing all of them was more stupid than anything she'd done in her four centuries, but kissing Jesper and sleeping with him put even that to shame.

"Where d'you think you're going?" Jesper's voice was gravelly from sleep. "I like to snuggle in the morning."

She froze, halfway to the door and to the freedom of being outside this room. His stare was heavy, and she felt his eyes on her bare legs as well as the icy blonde hair that tumbled down her back. She didn't say a word, didn't even bother trying to pick up the clothing she'd strewn around the room in her rush to get undressed the night before.

She heard the bed creak and the sheets rustle. She sent a silent prayer to the Saints that he wasn't naked.

"I'm serious. I like to cuddle. Get back over here." He persisted.

Anastasia ignored him once more and made an another attempt in earnest towards the door. This time, he didn't stop her, and she was able to escape into the hallway without him following her.

And then she was running smack-dab into Kaz, whose dark eyes looked down at her with judgement held within them.

She tugged the shirt farther down her legs, wishing desperately to disappear into a cloud of shadow. But she knew that Kaz Brekker would crack her kneecaps into pieces with that cane of his before she had a chance to summon even a wisp of darkness.

"Anastasia." He said roughly.

She gulped; it wasn't often that humans scared her, but Kaz had her shaking like a leaf. "Kaz." She managed to reply.

His gaze moved from her face to the barely-open door behind her, then back to her face again. "I trust you'll be on time for your training session this morning, and that there will be no other...distractions."

Shit. Training. She'd nearly forgotten about it, especially since she hadn't had the chance to look in a mirror since sustaining her injuries, and the pain had subsided overnight. She knew for a fact that her eye was still blackened, and there was probably a scar on her lip where it had been split. Whatever Carr had in store for her today would likely consist of more of yesterday's pulverizing.

She nodded. "I'll be on time."

"Good."

⚜︎

Jesper's smirk was infuriating. He wouldn't stop looking at Anastasia, even as she stepped into the boxing ring to spar with Inej.

It seemed that, unfortunately, Inej noticed. "What's going on with that?" She asked, ducking when Anastasia swung at her.

Anastasia grit her teeth and hissed in annoyance, for Inej had managed to land a relatively soft kick on her thigh. "Nothing's going on." She spat, cringing at how defensive she sounded. "Nice kick."