𝕬𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞 - [𝗞𝗮𝘇 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗿]

𝐱𝐥𝐢𝐯. 𝘢 𝘴𝘯𝘢𝘱𝘱𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐑𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 — a snapping thread

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 𝐊𝐀𝐙 𝐁𝐑𝐄𝐊𝐊𝐄𝐑 𝐖𝐀𝐒𝐍'𝐓 a man who often felt fear. He'd never quite let it crawl through the cracks of the cover called Dirthands long enough for his heart to seize. But when Aleksa had fallen completely silent and utterly still... Kaz Brekker had panicked. He couldn't see her chest rising and falling, he couldn't see those pink lips that always beckoned him forth spilling her familiar coy words.

 All he could see was red. It was spreading and spreading until one might have thought the white parts of her frilled shirt were the miscoloured parts — the parts that were out of place.

 He pushed through the terrible cracks of pain ricocheting through his leg; it hadn't felt this bad in a very long time... since the day he'd fallen off a roof near the Gaaldstraat, the day he'd first broken it. Still, Kaz Brekker ran and he ran, not risking a glance down to the girl in his arms even when the boat was just a few paces away... Because he knew that when he did look, he'd see a different face.

 He could feel her coldness, the lack of a heartbeat... he'd see Jordie. He knew it.

 Everything seemed to pass in a bit of a blur; all Kaz could recall was the hoarseness of his throat, the way he'd yelled for the schooner to set sail, the threat of cracking skulls if they didn't set off immediately.

 He could remember when Jesper had approached. His hands had tossed his pistols aside without a care in the world; something Kaz had never seen from the boy before. Jesper had begged to help, his eyes growing red... Kaz had yelled at him, too. He was sure Aleksa would have a choice few words to say about that.

 If she would awake. When she would awake...

 Nina had been working on Inej when he'd burst into the little surgeon's quarters. The room was tiny, with two small beds side by side tucked in the corner while a table creaked beneath the dull and swaying lamplight.

 Inej, like Oomen had said, had been injured herself. The Wraith had a knife strike just below her ribs, something that would incapacitate her, but it wasn't fatal. Inej would wake in a few days with a bandage around her middle while she wobbled on her toes... she'd be beside herself. Inej would forget the wound on her body the moment she caught sight of Aleksa; that was how they were. Aleksa and Inej cared more for each other than they did themselves.

 When Kaz burst from the dark passageway, Nina had looked up with utter frustration in her eyes... her hands stilled above Inej, and Wylan, tucked away in the corner waiting his turn for the bump on his head to be healed, blanched.

 "Saint's —" Nina swore as she eyed the body within Kaz's arms. She could spy skin so pale it looked as though it wasn't Aleksa at all... but it was the oil-black veins that drew her attention away from the pools of blood seeping from her skin, "What happened?"