It's Only a Matter of Time

Chapter 8

"And that's it! No more questions!" She called over her shoulder, then turned around right in time to crash into someone in a black suit. 

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Inej wobbled at the impact and almost fell, but strong hands caught her right in time.

"I'm sorry, excuse me, I didn't mean to bump into you." Apologies started pouring out of Inej like a waterfall. She didn't usually react like this, but all the endless questions from the Crow Club staff had wound her up.

"It's fine." Kaz took his hands off Inej's arms as she regained her balance. "You seem nervous. Is everything alright?"

Inej looked up into eyes the color of bitter coffee, astonishingly close to her own, and fought the urge to tell Kaz everything. Why she had fallen, the reason why the incident in the alleyway had left her shaken so badly, and how the Crow Club workers' persisting questions gave her a headache.

But instead of letting herself drown in that waterfall of truths, Inej turned her attention to a different source.

"How come you aren't wearing gloves?"

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Kaz's hands, usually covered in the smooth leather of his black gloves, were bare now. Inej couldn't see any reason why he'd want to wear the gloves. His hands were a bit pale, that's true, but Kaz's skin was pale in general. And there were a few thin scars running across the backs, but that wasn't that extraordinarily different from the hands of other boys she'd seen. Everyone had scars that told their story. Even if you didn't have physical ones, there would be ones that your soul would carry.

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Kaz blushed, the slight rosy tint on his cheekbones clearly visible against his pale skin. He immediately tucked his hands into his pockets and stepped away from Inej, as if a self-protective mechanism had turned on.
"I was sorting papers up in my room - it's easier to do with no gloves on. And..." he hesitated. "I heard raised voices. My name said a few times." Kaz shrugged, trying to seem nonchalant. "I was curious. Came downstairs but didn't have time to put any gloves on."

Inej eyed him, eyebrow raised. It seemed that for whatever reason, she was starting to see the side of Kaz that only came out around Jesper. His more friendly side, she supposed she could call it. The side that showed that despite the indifferent front he put on, he was still just a teenager. Still just a year older than her.

"I...think this is the longest conversation we've had so far, Mister Brekker," Inej said with a quiet laugh.

Kaz looked at her funny, as if he was itching to say something, to prove her wrong. Eventually, he seemingly decided to give into the urge.

"Not necessarily."

The words were spoken so quietly Inej barely heard them at all. She looked at Kaz, confused, but he just gave her the ghost of a smile and left.

It took Inej a moment of standing there to take in the fact that Kaz had left, just like that, and another moment to realize he hadn't even brought his cane downstairs with him.

Despite that, he had been able to hold up her weight when she had almost fallen. Inej didn't weigh a lot, but it was definitely enough to should have pained Kaz when he caught her. Despite that, she hadn't noticed even a flicker of pain on his face throughout the entire conversation.

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Later, in her room, Inej lay on her bed and pondered Kaz's strange words.

"'Not necessarily'".

The obvious answer was that he was implying they'd talked for longer times before, but this was definitely the longest time they'd talked since she had joined The Crow Club.

Even the day that they'd met, Kaz had barely talked at all, let alone addressed her directly for longer than he had today.

Which meant on of two things:

Either Kaz thought she was somebody else, who he'd had a conversation with before...

But Kaz Brekker didn't seem like a person to make a mistake like that. Inej had an eerie feeling he remembered the faces of everyone he'd met before, and stored them inside some sort of memory log in his brain.

Which brought her to 2.)They must have met before, but Inej didn't remember it. 

Author's note: Note the similarity between Inej's words at the end of this chapter ("They must have met before, but Inej didn't remember it.") and her words in the summary of this story ("She's already met her soulmate.

Problem is, she doesn't remember it")

This isn't a coincidence ;)