The Fox and The Crow [Kaz Brekker]

chapter 45

AN: I feel like this chapter is a little boring. Maybe it's because i'm used to writing so much action. I don't know. Please let me know what y'all think.

~

In the depths of Daemon's mind, she knew she was somewhere else. Somewhere far away from the schooner in which her body lied.

And sitting just across from her, in a chair all his own, was Kirigan. Blackened scars still raked down his face and his dark eyes peered into her own with such grace that Daemon remembered he was once considered a respectable man. A general.

Daemon was curled up on the floor, knees pressed tightly to her chest and arms against her sides as she pressed her hands up to her ears. Her father had yet to speak, but still she did not want to hear his voice.

But even through the barrier of her flesh, his deep voice echoed.

"There's nothing that can hurt you here, little one."

Daemon shook her head, "You're dead. Not real."

"I'm as real as you make me. Daemon, was it? Or should I call you Clarissa?"

Daemon just pressed herself tighter back, "Leave me alone."

Kirigan leaned his head against his hand, "I'm not the reason I'm here. You are. If you really wanted me to leave you alone, I wouldn't be here."

Daemon shot up to her feet, "That's not true! I don't want you here! Go away!"

Kirigan remained unphased by her sudden outburst. He was almost...patient.

Daemon shook her head, tugging at her hair as his words were forced to go around and around in her head, "I don't. I don't. I don't. Why would I want you here?"

"You tell me. No one can figure that out except for yourself. Why is it that you can't let go?" Kirigan wondered, brow raised.

Daemon sat down once again, her voice small, "I don't know."

~

Nina's hands were shaking as they worked over Daemon's wound. Their Daemon. Their precious little sister, best friend, lover, fiance. She was so many things to so many people. It was devastating to have to keep it all together and remember that she was the only thing that could keep Daemon alive.

The knife had been worked in very close to her heart. If Daemon had been at just a slightly different angle when it was thrown at her, she would be dead by now. And if she wasn't as strong as she was, she would have died within minutes.

"Please don't die, Dae. We can't lose you. I can't lose you," Nina whispered, pressing a kiss to Daemon's forehead when she finished closing up the wound.

"She won't die here," Jesper's voice echoed in the room as he stood in the doorway.

Nina turned around to stare at him, trying to blink away the tears from her eyes.

"She can't," Jesper insisted, "Daemon's too good to die here."

"Jesper..."

Jesper stood up straight, looking more serious than she had ever seen him, "Daemon wouldn't do that to us. Not after everything...She doesn't deserve this."

Nina's shoulders sagged, "I know. Out of everyone, it had to be her."

"She's had worse. I mean...she went against Kirigan. She went against one of his best Heartrenders and stayed standing. If she can do that, she can live through this. She has to. She has to," Jesper repeated himself, trying to sound convincing.