of snakes & crows || kaz brekker

─ 𝒔𝒆𝒗𝒆𝒏𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

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[17|| chapter seventeen]
and when he cannot voice
himself,        his anger will

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         ━━━━ NO ONE WAS more surprised at Eadaz Viottova's actions than Ead herself. Her arms had instinctively wrapped around Jesper's neck to pull him close and Jesper himself had been stunned for only a moment before he returned the kiss, hands landing on her waist and squeezing lightly in content. Her eyes fluttered shut and she kissed him with passion, something she hadn't planned (not that she had planned any of it in the first place).

         Inej audibly gasped.

         Arken merely sighed and leaned against the train wall, glad that he hadn't become food for volcra just yet, absolutely soaked in sweat from his panic.

         Kaz watched everything with a firm jaw and eyes that swam with murderous intent. He gripped his cane so tightly if a fabrikator hadn't made it, it would've already snapped in two. Muscles twitched in his cheeks, the sound of his grinding teeth barely barely audible through the sound of the train, but there all the same.

         What surprised Ead most about her kiss with Jesper, however, was how much she didn't hate it. She was quick to pull away when she regained her ability to think, hands moving to his biceps and pushing him away gently until he was at arms length again. Her gaze was accusing, as if she hadn't been the one to initiate the kiss. He grinned down at her, eyebrows raised in both surprise and content.

         "A simple thank you would've sufficed."

         Ead groaned, pushing him away from her completely, not as gently as before. "Forget that even happened, Fahey. It was the adrenaline and relief at the fact that we didn't die. A momentary lapse of judgement."

         "Is that what you all it? I call it your lips on mine, my coy snake." Jesper took a few backwards steps until he was once again sitting with his back against the door of the car, but the grin refused to leave his face.

         Ead pulled the hood of her cloak down, exposing her head to the sunlight, and she felt the burning eyes of both Inej and Kaz so fiercly on her skin she had to acknowledge them. "What?"

         "That was even scarier than the volcra, I believe." Inej said, and her eyebrows had drawn together in confusion, her mouth twisting slightly.

         "I said it was a momentary lapse of judgement." Ead muttered, finally tearing her gaze away. Her entire body was burning under Kaz's glare. She regarded him with her chin high, refusing to let herself seem regretful. Though she hadn't fully planned it, it was admittedly nice to kiss someone who wasn't incompetent. "And what do you have to say about it? Get it out now, then."

         Kaz said nothing, and for a long moment they simply stared at one another. His posture was rigid, his face emotionless, and when he finally looked away, the edges of his lips had tilted down in a frown. Ead felt a pang of disappointment, though she instantly hated herself for it. Had she expected him to be jealous? Put up a fight for her? Demand that she never do that again?

         The small, deeply hidden answer was yes. She yearned for him to put up a fight about it, to argue with her until their mouths ran dry and darkness swallowed them whole again, but the sensible part of her knew that it would never happen. She sat back down after tucking the blade in her fist back into the garter around her thigh.