LADY OF SHADOWS ☞ JESPER FAHEY (ON HOLD)

TEN

JESPER'S EYES NEVER LEFT Anastasia from the moment they stepped into the carriage to when they left it. His gaze was a heavy, hot weight on her shoulders, and she felt the hairs on the back of her neck stand up. She hated how he stared at her; the others weren't stupid in the slightest, and if he kept this ridiculousness up, they'd figure out that something had gone on between them soon enough.

    Still, despite the sharp look she shot towards him, he continued to stare. If anything, he smiled wider, and she forced herself to avert her gaze, turning to look anywhere but his face.

    The carriage was big enough to hold four, but with Kaz and Jesper's lanky, leggy bodies crammed in, it felt too small and too hot and too cramped to house all five of them. There was no option but to sit between Clara and Inej, both dressed in equal finery, their thighs and shoulders pressed together in a way that some might find immoral.

    Even Kaz had dressed up, in his own way. He wore a suit and his black gloves, as always, but he'd thrown a mask over the top half of his face.

    Rain pelted the top of the carriage, and Anastasia looked past Clara to peer out the window. The smell of wet dirt and grass was in the air, although there was very little grass in Ketterdam. She watched as the lights began to flicker on outside of every establishment on the street, for dusk was upon them and patrons needed to find their way.

    Inside this tiny carriage, Anastasia thought Ketterdam looked beautiful.

    The five of them didn't have to discuss the rules for this evening—because, with the two Grisha and a gun-loving pervert, rules were a necessity to keep a fistfight from breaking out—but they knew all the same that they were to stick together, never going off without at least one other person, and that they could drink as much alcohol as they wanted as long as they behaved themselves.

    A foot touched hers, and she was startled out of her stupor. She looked to the floor of the carriage, finding five sets of feet, including one boot that partially covered her shoes.

    When she glanced up, Jesper was grinning.

    She resisted the urge to smack him or call him a cocky bastard.

    When they reached the dance hall, Clara was shoving them all out of the carriage, pushing them through the door and dragging everyone towards the bar.

    "Five double shots of whiskey, please." She asked politely, and she slid a few kruege over the counter towards the barkeep.

    Anastasia was shot back in time, back to a very different bar-top and a very different version of the same city. She thought of a man who drank whiskey, who loved her until he didn't, who had been kind until he turned cruel.

    She didn't wait for Clara to count her down before knocking back the whiskey, feeling its warm burn in her throat. The bitter taste drove away thoughts of him and replaced them with thoughts of a taller, cruder man who filled her with fury.

    She turned to the others, reinvigorated by the alcohol that swum through her veins. "Well? You said you wanted to go dancing. What are we waiting for?"

    Clara looked at her with narrowed eyes, searching her face for any sign of something being wrong. When she came up empty, a smile broke onto her face. "Alright, party animal." She conceded. "Lead the way."

    Kaz and inej stayed by the bar, and, judging by how Inej was blushing fiercely under her makeup, there was a fair bit of fancying going on between them.

    Jesper followed them, much to Anastasia's disdain, and she did her best to lose him in the crowd of costumed people milling about the hall. He followed them, however—probably an order from Kaz to keep an eye on them, if Anastasia had to guess.