❝i want you to touch me there make me feel like i am breathing, feel like i am human ❞
𝐈𝐍 𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐂𝐇...
on the alter of the devil, up
is down, pleasure is pain,
darkness is light, slavery
is freedom, and madness
is sanity
𝐎𝐑...
𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧�...
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THE WOOD CREAKED ABOVE VERENA as the crows huddled into the storage of the skiff. "This is a bad idea," Jesper voiced as Verena freed herself from her coat.
"I think it's rather practical," Kaz said.
"What? Why?" Jesper pressed as he cleaned his guns.
"I don't see how we step off of this boat without you pulling those guns. So, cleaning them is a good idea," Kaz said.
"I don't mean this," Jesper gestured to his guns. "I mean this," he finished, pointing to the skiff. "We are in the worst place in the world, in a ship full of people who want us dead, surrounded by monsters who want us in their gullets. I should've brought Milo."
"Who's Milo?" Inej asked.
"The goat," voiced Jesper and Verena.
"Jesper, hurry that up," Verena ushered, taking her knives from her holsters to inspect them.
"How many bullets do you have?" Kaz asked Jesper.
"Not enough," he answered, twirling his guns around and looking up to the ceiling with uncertainty. Suddenly, there was a steering burst of light that shown from above. It rattled the ceiling and illuminated the hull of the skiff.
"What's our play?" Verena pondered. "Jesper doesn't have enough bullets and sooner rather than later, Inej and I are going to run out of knives."
"We wait," Kaz replied, gazing up at the light that shown through the cracks of the wood.
"For what?" Jesper asked.
"For whatever the general has planned," Kaz replied.
"You figured him out?" Jesper asked.
"Not quite," Kaz began. "Consider this scenario. The Sun Summoner fled from his palace, now she's tied to the deck. We're sailing for a city where another Ravkan general hired Arken to kill her. And I saw his face as we boarded."
Verena's thoughts were pulled away from Kaz and to Inej to tapped her fingers on Verena's thigh. Verena peered over to Inej, giving her a nod. Inej nodded back and swiftly wandered off.
"I know that look," Kaz said, inspecting the look on Jespers's face. "A man consumed with vengeance."
"See it enough in the mirror, do you?" Jesper commented, making Kaz glare at him. "What kind of revenge is he planning, exactly?"
"We know it requires the Sun Summoner, which makes her valuable to us. She's the one keeping everyone safe in here. If we have control of her, then we call the shots. We need to threaten her life."
"What?" Two voices echoed. Verena cocked her head to the side and caught eye of Inej holding a young man, maybe her age, at gunpoint.
"Who's this?" Jesper asked, taking his gun from his holster as Verena twirled her knife in her palm.
