THESE BROKEN VOWS (Kazbrekker x Fem!reader) [ book version]

CHAPTER 17

-✨ Y/N P.O.V✨-

Y/N felt as though she and Kaz had become twin soldiers, marching on,
pretending they were fine, hiding their wounds and bruises from the rest of
the crew.

It took two more days of travel to reach the cliffs that overlooked Djerholm, but the going was easier as they moved south and towards the coast.

I can smell them.

Y/N batted at her hair and clothes as she lurched through the snow, trying not to retch at the memory of the stench.

She couldn’t stop seeing those
bodies, the angry red flesh peeking through their burned black casings like
banked coals.

It felt as if she was coated in their ashes, in the stink of burning flesh.

She couldn’t take a full breath, even after two days.

The weather warmed, the ground thawed, and she began to see signs
of spring.

Ma loved spring.

Y/N had thought Djerholm would look like Ketterdam – a canvas of black, grey, and brown, tangled streets dense with mist and coalsmoke, ships of every kind in the harbour, pulsing with the rush and bustle of trade.

Djerholm’s harbour was crowded with ships, but its tidy streets marched to the water in orderly fashion, and the houses were painted such colours – red, blue, yellow, pink – as if in defiance of the wild white land and the long winters this far north.

Even the warehouses by the quay were wrought in cheerful colours. I

It looked the way she’d imagined
cities as a child, everything candy-hued and in its proper place.

Was the Ferolind already waiting at the docks, snug in its berth, flying its Kerch flag and the distinctive orange and green parti-colour of the Bay Company?

If the plan went the way Kaz hoped tomorrow night they would stroll down the Djerholm quay with Bo Yul-Bayur in tow, hop on their ship, and be far out to sea before anyone in Fjerda was the wiser.

She preferred not to think of what tomorrow night might look like if
the plan went wrong.

Y/N glanced up to where the Ice Court stood like a great white sentinel
on a massive cliff overlooking the harbour.

Matthias had called the cliffs unscalable, and Y/N had to admit that they would present a challenge even for the Wraith and Phantom.

They seemed impossibly high, and from a distance, their white lime surface looked clean and bright as ice.

“Cannon,” said Jesper.

Kaz squinted up at the big guns pointed out at the bay.

“I’ve broken into banks, warehouses, mansions, museums, vaults, a rare book library, and once the bedchamber of a visiting Kaelish diplomat whose wife had a passion for emeralds. But I’ve never had a cannon shot at me.”

“There’s something to be said for novelty,” offered Jesper.

Inej pressed her lips together. “Hopefully, it won’t come to that.”