─── ❝She was expensive,
like the piece of velvet she was wearing,
but she demanded his heart,
not his money❞
or
─── in which he finds his crow in the most unfortunate t...
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chapter twenty-five,why blue?
"WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?" Nina asked after a long silence that overtook the mausoleum as soon as Inej and Lavender were back. Only Lavender was sitting in the corner, silent as if she had seen a ghost, looking down at the floor—was she even blinking?
"I don't know," Inej shook her head. "We spotted Pekka Rollins and didn't manage to get anything on him because Lavender just dropped on the floor, emotionless."
"Pekka Rollins is ugly, but that's not a reason to drop on the floor," Jesper tried to lighten the mood, but he caught Inej's glare and he zipped his mouth, whispering: "Sorry."
Kaz was looking at Lavender and that's why he has been so hesitant to let her search for Pekka Rollins. Because she has seen the man that has killed her mother and burnt their house to the ashes. That's why he didn't tell her the plan on the schooner because they were going to get money from Pekka. He couldn't risk her seeing him because she would want to kill him. And he couldn't allow that because Pekka Rollins deserves an ending that is far worse than death.
"Then we proceed with the weevils. The talks have gone so far that Kuwei is within Ketterdam. Governments are interested – they are talking about an auction," Kaz tried to put the whole Pekka Rollins incident as far as possible. "We'll give them a plague."
"Did you know?" Lavender asked, her eyes facing the concrete.
"That you going out looking for Pekka Rollins will end up fruitless?" Kaz looked at her.
"That Pekka Rollins was the one that killed my mother?" Lavender looked at him and he almost couldn't recognise her. She was pale like death and her bandage was off – the bruised eye was a bit swollen, and purple, but the eye was a bit open, bloodshot. She has been crying.
"What?!" Jesper gasped.
"Step outside with me," Kaz stood up, walking to the exit. Much to his delight, Lavender didn't protest and didn't want to do this in front of everyone, so she followed him right until that same place where they signed the marriage contract. He stopped, looking at the muddy water.
"How did you know?" Lavender asked.
Placing his cane in front of him, he placed both of his gloved hands on top of the crow. "I came back once the city opened again. I saw the smoke out of your house even from Ketterdam. I came just in time to see him standing there and the house already in ashes."
"Jordie?" Lavender whispered his name and Kaz's chest ached with the memory. But for once, it didn't hurt as much as both of them were carrying the memory of his brother.
"Plague," he briefly answered.
Lavender looked at the water as she stood beside him: "You didn't get the money, right? It was just a—farce."
