The Phoenix and the Crow

Fine?

a/n: y'all- this story has thirty chapters?! this is crazzyyy haha i'm so so glad you guys love this story as much as i do! thank you so much!

Kaz sped through the upper cells, sparing brief seconds for a glance through each grate. BoYul-Bayur would not be here. And he didn't have much time.

Part of him felt unhinged. He had no cane. His feet were bare. He was in strange clothes, his hands pale and ungloved. He didn't feel like himself at all. No, that wasn't quite true. He felt like the Kaz he'd been in the weeks after Jordie died—before Y/N— like a while animal, fighting to survive.

Kaz spotted a Shu prisoner lurking at the back of one of the cells.

"Sesh-uyeh," Kaz whispered. But if the man recognized the code word, he didn't acknowledge it. "Yul-Bayur?" Nothing. The man started shouting at him in Shu, and Kaz hurried away, past the rest of the cells, then slipped out to the landing and charged down to the next level as fast as he could manage. He knew he was being reckless, and selfish, but wasn't that why they called him Dirtyhands? No job too risky. No deed too low. Dirtyhands would see the rough work done.

He wasn't sure what was driving him. It was possible Pekka Rollins wasn't here. It was possible he was dead. But Kaz didn't believe it. 'I'd know. Somehow I'd know.' "Your death belongs to me," he whispered.

The rows of cells stretched on and on, infinite, impossible. There was no way he would find Rollins in time. But it was only impossible until it wasn't. Until he sighted that big frame, that florid face through the grate in an iron door. It was only impossible until he was standing in front of Pekka Rollins' cell.

He was on his side, sleeping. Someone had given him a bad beating. Kaz watched the rise and fall of his chest.

Kaz hung back now, feeling the delicate weight of his lockpicks like an insect cradled in his palm. Wasn't this what he wanted? To see Pekka brought low, humiliated, miserable, and hopeless, unable to get a hold of his bearings. The best of his crew is already dead on pikes. Maybe this could be enough. Maybe all he needed was to finish him once and for all.

The lock on the door gave up easily to Kaz's picks.

Pekka's eyes opened, and he smiled. He hadn't been sleeping at all.

"Hello, Brekker," Rollins said. "Come to gloat?"

"Not exactly," Kaz replied.

He let the door slam shut behind him.

~

'Where the hell is Kaz?' Y/N paced in frustration in front of the incinerator, the dim clang of alarm bells filling her ears, rattling her thoughts. Yellow Protocol? Red Protocol? She couldn't remember which was which at this point and it drove her mad. Their whole plan had been built around never hearing the sound of an alarm.

Inej had secured a rope to the roof and dropped down a line for them to climb. Y/N had sent the rest up with Jesper and Matthias, along with a pair of shears she'd located in the laundry and a crude grappling hook Jesper fashioned from the metal slats of a washboard. Then she'd cleaned the splatter of rain and moisture from the floor of the refuse room and made sure there were no scraps of rope or other signs of their presence. There was nothing left to do but wait—and struggle to get a hold of herself.

She heard people shouting at each other, and a hail of stomping boots through the ceiling above. Any minute, some intuitive guard might venture down to the basement. If they found Y/N by the incinerator, the route to the roof would be obvious. She'd be damning not only herself but the others as well.

'Come on, Kaz. I'm waiting for you.' They all were. Nina had come charging into the room only minutes before, gasping for breath.

"Go!" she cried. "What are you waiting for?"

"You!" Jesper shot back. But when they asked her where Kaz was, Nina's face had crumpled.

"I hoped he was with you."

She'd vanished up the rope, grunting with effort as Jesper trailed up behind her, leaving Y/N standing below, frozen with indecision. Had the guards captured Kaz? Was he somewhere in the prison fighting for his life?

'He's KazBrekker.' Even if they locked him up, Kaz could escape any cell, any pair of shackles. Y/N could leave the rope for him, and pray the rain and cooling incinerator were enough to keep the bottom of it from burning away. But if she kept standing there, waiting like a child, she'd give away their escape route, and they'd all be doomed. She wouldn't have the blood of her friends on her hands. She carried enough regret on her shoulder already.

She looked back to the door with a small flicker of hope only to be let down. She groaned in vexation, "Screw you, KazBrekker." She felt her heart clench in her chest at the thought of leaving him behind but shook her head quickly. There was nothing to do but climb.

Y/N grabbed the rope just as Kaz hurtled through the door. His shirt was covered in blood, his dark hair a wild mess.

"Hurry," he said without preamble.

A thousand questions crowded into Y/N's head, but she only stopped to ask one. "Fine?"

"Fine."

She nodded, swung out over the coals, and started to climb. Rain was still falling in a light patter from above, and she felt the rope tremble as Kaz took hold beneath her. When Y/N looked down, she saw Kaz bracing himself to sling the incinerator doors closed behind them.

Y/N put a hand over hand, pulling himself up from knot to knot, her arms beginning to ache, the rope cutting into her palms, bracing her feet against the wall of the incinerator when she needed to. She gritted her teeth, her lips sealed shut, as she continued to pull herself up.

High above, the Elderclock's alarm bells still clanged like a drawer full of angry pots and pans. What had gone wrong? Why had Kaz and Nna been separated? And how were they going to get out of this?

'Breathe.' She sucked a sharp breath in through her gritted teeth and tried to blink the rain from her eyes, muscles bunching in her back as she rose higher.

Y/N grunted when Matthias and Wylan grabbed her shoulders and hauled her up the last few feet. "Thanks." She tumbled over the lip of the chimney and onto the roof, drenched and trembling like a half-drowned kitten. "Kaz," she gasped. "Kaz is on the rope."

Mathias and Wylan seized the rope to pull him up. Y/N wasn't sure how much Wylan was actually helping, but he was certainly working hard. They dragged Kaz out of the shaft. He flopped onto his back, gulping air. "Where's Inej?" he panted. "Where's Nina?"

"Already on the embassy roof," said Matthias.

Y/N heaved as she pushed herself to her feet and placed a hand on her lower abdomen, rubbing quick circles to release the pressure in her muscles.

"Leave this rope and take the rest," Kaz said. "Let's move."