𝕬𝖗𝖘𝖔𝖓𝖎𝖘𝖙𝖘 𝕷𝖚𝖑𝖑𝖆𝖇𝖞 - [𝗞𝗮𝘇 𝗕𝗿𝗲𝗸𝗸𝗲𝗿]

𝐥𝐢𝐯. 𝘶𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳 𝘢𝘵𝘵𝘢𝘤𝘬

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐅𝐓𝐘-𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑 — under attack

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 𝐀𝐋𝐄𝐊𝐒𝐀 𝐊𝐄𝐏𝐓 𝐓𝐎 herself as they meandered over the piles of snow, drawing further and further away from the smoke of the pyres. Aleksa could still feel the cold touch of a skeleton lingering atop her shoulder, no matter how hard she tried to focus on the remnant of warmth Kaz had left behind.

 It was getting worse. The Darkling often kept quite, perhaps he'd whisper that stupid little saying of his 'like call to like' but a whole mess of words tangled like the most intricate of dirtied knots? Words that had struck her heart as though Inej had flung one of her dull blades... It ached now, her heart. Even as she trudged through thick snow, as she batted flakes from her eyelashes... it hurt.

 It was awful really, that her mind seemed only to remember his touch, the words of poison he'd spat... rather than the three bodies that had been left to smoulder right out in the open. Those could have been people she knew. One could have been beautiful Zoya, dear Genya, soft little Petra... what if it was? What if she was so very selfishly thinking of her own ghosts rather than mourning her kind?

 Aleksa sucked in a breath, relishing the way the cold burned her throat. Kaz was a pace behind and she could hear as his cane struck the rock hidden beneath snow every now and then. He kept his pace in time with her own, never drawing closer, and yet never straying further. She rather appreciated that as she stewed within her simmering rage, licking at ever-raw wounds.

 She was the Shadow. The Grisha that shouldn't exist... the last of her kind, and she had frozen like a deer.

 Aleksa could just about feel Inej's warmth from her side. The Wraith had been as quiet as ever, knowing exactly when and where she needed to hold her tongue. No whispers, no glances... Just her presence was gifted, and that was exactly what Aleksa needed.

 For so long Aleksa had managed to weasel her way through the darkness, hiding within their coddling arms... they protected her in the same way she reached out to soothe them. Nobody had gotten their hands on her, never had she been staring down the barrel of a gun — absolutely discounting the numerous gang fights she'd been in — or had her arms trapped with those strange druskelle contraptions... though, those wouldn't exactly work on her.

 Still, there were some Grisha that had nowhere to turn. They might stumble down a path beaten and bruised... and should a druskelle find them, certain death was afoot.

 Aleksa ignored the prattling spouting from behind, the way Matthias pointed a grubby and pale finger into Nina's chest as he spilled exactly the reason he'd been thrust into Hellgate. It was a story Aleksa knew... simply because Kaz had known. Poor little Helvar had trusted the big bag Grisha and found himself deemed a slaver, but that wasn't the full story. Nina had done it to save him, to give him a fate he'd be able to escape from, rather than finding himself at the mercy of wronged Grisha who wanted nothing more than the solace only revenge could offer.