─── ❝She was expensive,
like the piece of velvet she was wearing,
but she demanded his heart,
not his money❞
or
─── in which he finds his crow in the most unfortunate t...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
chapter twenty-one,missus brekker
LAVENDER'S PLAN was comically brilliant. All of the Crows started to see that. Not only were they shocked by how weird the Brekker surname sounded added to her name, but also they noticed why Ketterdam would soon believe that Kaz's wife was actually Lavender.
It wasn't just about the forged marriage certificate. All of them knew that there was not enough evidence. That's why, to prepare for the plan, it took them four days to settle everything. Not only did Inej manage to storm into a well-secured archive of the Council and stuff the marriage certificate and the land documents into the deepest and unused parts of it, only to find out how far Van Eck is willing to search for something to destroy Kaz Brekker. But that also bought them the time to build the perfect story for the married couple.
Kaz spared one of the safe houses in Ketterdam, for it to be turned into a lovely little flat where Lavender was living when she was in Ketterdam. Zelver District was the perfect spot for it – it showed that privacy was necessary and Kaz Brekker knew how to hide in the shadows. Not only didn't the inhabitants of the district care about their neighbours, but also they wouldn't be able to testify if Kaz Brekker was an often guest. Their first question would be—who is this Brekker?
Kaz hasn't seen this side of Lavender. It surprised him how determined she was about it. First, she wanted to leave, but once she noticed that none of them agreed with her, she changed her mindset. Of course, he would've himself thought of a plan, but it would have a bit more kidnapping and blood, but hers was something new to try. The acting somehow excited him. Playing something to confuse everyone and create chaos. It worried him, of course, about her safety, but in no way he will let anyone get her.
It soothed him spending those three nights with Lavender, cluttered between piles of different documents while forging the certificate, land, and occupation documents. While others were asleep, they both managed to fall into a really decent rhythm – three hours of sleep, lanterns at both sides of the table and his seated figure with her beside him. Turns out, she was on a path to be good at forging documents. Her skill at calligraphy helped a lot in creating some realistic headers.
But, Ghezen, did that only make him fall in love with her more.
At the end of the fourth day, everything was pretty much ready. Jesper and Wylan have made a bet about how long will it take for the Barrel to fall apart with the news about Brekker's wife. Jesper stood strong on twenty-four hours, but Wylan, knowing his father, insisted that it will take at least forty-eight.
"Is it just me—?" Inej started, both her and Nina squeezed into the corner of a room, drinking tea where they had the best view of everyone in the room.
Nina, even if her throat was sore from the constant wailing in the nights for more jurda parem, interrupted her, "Nope. I think so too."
Inej deadpanned, "You don't even know what I'm about to say!"