𝐀 𝐁𝐀𝐋𝐋𝐀𝐃 𝐎𝐅 𝐂𝐑𝐎𝐖𝐒 𝐀𝐍𝐃 𝐏𝐈𝐆𝐄𝐎𝐍𝐒 | kaz brekker

zero ཾ a little life

ZERO
A LITTLE LIFE

THINGS HAD CHANGED. THE PEOPLE changed, reality had shifted under Verena's feet at every passing wave as the boat approached Ketterdam. To her home where everything would change. The world wasn't the only thing to change. It was Verena. The way she thought, like all the sculpting Ketterdam had done to her for over a decade had started to corrupt. Maybe she was too ungrateful, too greedy, too violent, too monstrous.

When Verena was younger, she swore to herself that she would never end up like her father, but there she stood. Her hands were covered in more blood than her father's and was bound to have more.

Maybe Verena was supposed to feel guilty, horrified about what she had done, but she wasn't. Verena knew she should feel guilty and disgusted with herself, but she wasn't. Maybe that made her a monster, but again, she didn't care.

Verena despised change. She could feel the pressure against her chest as the world shifted around her. It terrified her. As Verena gazed longingly at Kaz from across the deck, she could feel everything shifting.

Things had changed between them the second Kaz touched Verena's shoulder. It had been a small gesture, but to Kaz, it was one of the best feelings in the world and Kaz couldn't stand it. It was a curse brought to him by the Saints for every wrongdoing he did. It was a curse to not be able to touch the one person he wanted to touch the most, to not be able the touch the one he loved.

Verena's soul was cursed. Not being able to touch or to be touched by the man she loved. It tore her apart, every passing second it chipped away at her. It would continue until there was nothing left except for blood and bones.

Nobody knew what bonded them together. Maybe it was the greed, the money, or the fact that each one of them had no family to look after them. It was an odd mix. A Suli girl who had been shipped off and sold and refused to kill and earned the name the Wraith. A young boy who was sent away by his father and spent his riches in gambling dens. And two degenerate misfit nobodies who washed up on the shoreline with nothing to their names who rained a hellfire of terror on the sewage rats of Ketterdam. They rose up and became something more than what they once were. They created a sense of belonging for one another and gave a sense of family. They weren't family by blood, but together, they discovered that family is more than just blood. So, family is what they became.

The cutthroats of Ketterdam knew not to bark at the Crows. Threaten one of them, you threaten all of them. Everyone knew that and if they did, they were dead already.

They knew that Jesper would protect Inej, and Inej would protect Jesper. They knew Jesper would protect Verena and Verena would protect him. They knew Verena would burn the cities to ash for Inej and Inej would do the same. However, they were uncertain if Kaz would protect Jesper and Inej as Verena would, but the one thing they were certain of was that Kaz Brekker would go to hell and back for Verena. He would break any bone, steal any soul, burn any city to the ground, and tear down any empire brick by brick.

And that's what he planned to do, but with the ghosts coming, the empire Kaz Brekker prepared to tear to pieces was his and the empire of blood and bones would not survive the ghosts of the creators.