The crow and the beast - Kaz brekker

chapter 44 - back to ketterdam

Over the rest of the evening Kaz had relapses to his trauma, he had clearly pushed himself so Cara tried to keep her distance from him which seemed to help at least a little bit. When they went to sleep they did not touch, Cara understood. she always told him she wouldn't push him so he would need to be the first to make contact again.

in the morning kaz was up before her, she made herself ready for the day and went downstairs where kaz was already working in the library, Cara made herself something to eat and when she was done eating she headed over to the work room at the back of the hallway.

she sat down on a chair there and started preparing some medicine, in minutes her desk was filled with all kinds of herbs and oils. She was being very careful to mix the right ones, she had her notes with her so she knew exactly what she needed to mix.

2 hours passed this way before a knock came at the door. "come in" she simply said as kaz entered the room. "kaz you don't need to knock you know, its your house." Kaz scowled for just a moment. "Cara its 'our' house." Cara smirked at him.

He walked over until he was behind her, watching carefully as she filled the last of the containers with the right medicine and labeled them. once he saw she was done with the precision work he placed a hand on her shoulder. Cara noticed the trembling he had yesterday was mostly gone.

"I am going to ketterdam today and I was wondering if you would like to join me." kaz said. Cara had been waiting for him to give the okay for her to go to ketterdam again, it felt like forever since she had been there, she wanted to see the other crows again.

"yes I would love to, are we leaving now?" whens he saw kaz nod she quickly put away her things and stood up. she moved to give him a kiss on his cheek but changed her mind halfway through the motion so she pulled back. It made kaz furrow his brow immediately and he was quick to grab her side and pull her into a kiss. The kiss lasted for a few seconds and when he pulled back he was smirking again.

Cara smiled at him and then turned to the hallway to get her coat. Kaz was already wearing his so he brushed past her to open the door for her. they both went outside and started making their way to ketterdam. Cara noticed there were no more dregs in the clearing so she gathered that botht he stable and peter's house must be done.

she loved the fact that peter's house was an exact copy of his old one, smithy and everything. The only thing that looked different was of course that this house looked a lot better as it was newly build. She noticed that there were still building materials stacked at the edge of the clearing.

when kaz noticed her look that way he spoke up. "they still need to may the path between the buildings and make a small outdoor arena between the stable and peter's house." Cara nodded and smiled when she thought about riding her horses in a real outside arena. Kaz took her hand in his gloved one while they walked together to ketterdam.

they arrived at the slat soon after, Cara immediately noticed that the building that once stood next to the slat was gone and some of the dregs were busy making a small stable building in its place. She smirked when she saw the stable looked almost nothing like the one at home, this one was way less luxury, probably to fit more in the barrel. When they entered the slat a few dregs greeted her before kaz turned towards her. "I will be right back, I have to go get something from the office. Don't wander to far." Cara nodded as she saw the man limp off towards the stairs.

one of the dregs came over to her, she didn't know him by name but she recognized him. he is one of the people that has been building at the clearing, she gave him coffee once. "I am glad you are feeling better mrs. brekker." Cara's cheeks turned slightly pink at what he had called her. "please just call me Cara, mr brekker and I are not married." The man nodded.

Cara then noticed he was slightly drunk, especially when he threw his arm around her. more in a friendly manner than anything else. "well I am glad you are better, the boss was unbearable while he was here the 2 days you were sick." Before Cara could answer she heard somebody clear their throat.

the man next to her removed his arm around her shoulders in a flash and jumped back. "good morning boss!" he quickly announced. "Cara lets go" kaz simply said as he walked passed towards the door. Cara quickly followed him outside.

once they were on the street kaz spoke again. "I can't leave you alone for a minute before other men throw themselves at you." Cara lightly pushed his shoulder. "you know I only have eyes for you right." Kaz mumbled something Cara couldn't quite hear. She smiled to herself, kaz was cute when he was jealous she thought.

soon they stood in front of the expanded crow club, man this building was huge now! Kaz entered before her, once she entered the building and saw the inside she was blown away. She almost did not recognize the crow club. It was still dark and had the same theme but it was huge now! Gambling tables were people played different games in the middle with tables where people could sit and drink around the outside around the tables.

The bar was also bigger, needing 2 people behind it now to keep up with the orders of the people. She was blown away, so much work had been done since she had last been here. Kaz had noticed her stop behind him and when he turned back and saw the glistering in Cara's eyes he couldn't hold back a slight smirk.

"glad you like it" he said to her. Cara snapped out of her daze and smiled at him. "I love it." She said. A few moment after she was engulfed by a hug from jesper who came seemingly out of nowhere. When she hugged back she glanced over at kaz and saw him rolling his eyes and walk off.

"my dear Cara I haven't seen you in forever! Kaz wouldn't let us come see you, how are you now? Feeling better? How is life with the bastard of the barrel?" Cara laughed at the excitement of jesper. She motioned over to a nearby table and he basically tan towards it.

Cara knew jesper was a touchy person so she wasn't surprised when he took her hand and asked the same questions again. "I am doing better now jesper, and I want to start of by saying that none of it was your fault okay. I ordered you to stay so you are not to blame alright." Jesper let his ehad hang a little. "but –"

"no buts jesper! It was NOT your fault alright. Anyway I am better now, kaz and peter took care of me until I was better." Jesper mustered a small smile. "so how is life with the boss?" Cara smirked. "other than him being a workaholic you mean. It's great, I love the house and the nature. Kaz tries really hard and I am so proud of him for trying to overwin his trauma." Jesper put a big smirk on now. "so you guys did 'it' yet?" Cara slapped his hand away from hers in a playful manner.

"jesper no! that is none of your business!" jesper laughed loudly. Suddenly wylan appeared next to the table "cara! I didn't expect to see you here how are you?" Cara stood up to hug wylan quickly as greeting before sitting back down, wylan sitting next to jesper.

"I was just telling jesper I have been fine, today was the first day kaz allowed me to come back to ketterdam. I love what he has done to the place." Cara said while motioning to the surroundings. Jesper smiled. "yea it is great! Me and wylan have been looking over the books while kaz is busy doing other stuff and I can tell you the profit is going through the roof. Kaz must be the richest man in the barrel by now, especially now that pekka is no more than a shell of a man" Cara smiled.

before she could say anything else though a hand was placed on her shoulder. "do you want to come to the harbor with me love?" Out of the corner of her eye she could see jesper shocked by the nickname kaz would give her sometimes not expecting him to show any kind of emotion. "of course kaz." she quickly stood up and pressed a light kiss to kaz's lips, he immediately answered it by placing his hand on her side but the moment lasted only a second.

kaz turned to the door but before Cara turned to follow him she looked once more at jesper who's jaw was basically hitting the table, she winked at him before she followed kaz out of the crow club. The walk to the harbor was short but pleasant. The sun was shining and the streets of ketterdam were filled with tourists.

once they reached the harbor Cara saw that there were a lot of merchants from outside ketterdam stationed there. "feel free to look around love, I need to meet with somebody. I will find you after." And with that kaz was gone. Cara walked around the merchants and their stalls.

she looked around the different styles of art and different food stalls. The market was big and she was easily lost within all the stalls. Until something caught her eye. It was the stall of a horse merchant, of course she couldn't resist animals.

she walked over to the stall, most of the horses there being young strong horses, mostly black or brown but one horse caught her eye. She walked over to it. It was a beautiful gypsy vanner. The coat being white with big brown spots, a long mane being completely white. She let the horse sniff her hand before petting her on her head.

"aren't you a beauty" she said. The horse seemed to enjoy the attention. However she saw the merchant a little bit away being quite cruel to one of his other horses, she despised it. But not wanting to cause a commotion she walked away from the stall. She looked at a few more stalls before she felt a hand on her shoulder.

"come with me love." She had been ready to punch the person behind her but she immediately recognized kaz's voice so she quickly relaxed. She followed him to the docks were all the boats were docked.

She followed kaz through the docks until he stopped next to a big black boat. "you are the first to see this new investment..." kaz said. Cara looked over the boat, the planks were all painted black and in the front it had a figurehead of a flying crow and on the side it read 'crow's feast'. It really was a beautiful boat.

"is this our boat?" She already knew the answer but she knew kaz liked to talk about his investments. "yes it is! It's a trading boat. I had it made from scratch by one of the finest boat builders. Just one trip with this beauty will supply the crow club and the slat with a year long supply of drinks." He sounded proud and Cara could see a glister of excitement in his eyes.

she reached for his free hand. "shall I call you king of the barrel now?"

AN: thank you all for 10k reads!