Of Crows and Eagles // Grishaverse

Laughter

Kaz

Kaz felt his shoulders relax as the gathering in the war room finally dispersed. Too many people crowded into too small a space. He could feel the heat radiating from their bodies, the tiny brushes of warmth as his arms made contact with theirs, that he could feel even through three layers of cloth.

Kaz had forced himself to breathe steadily, trying to align his breathing with that of Inej's beside him. He'd watched the slight rise and fall of her shoulders, the wisps of black hair that hadn't made into her braid floating lazily around her head like leaves on a windy autumn day.

Kaz had still been acutely aware of the press of bodies around him, but he'd managed to repress the score of images to nothing more than a flicker at the back of his mind. Inej would've been proud of him, said he'd made progress, though Kaz knew that if you'd forced his pale hands out of their gloves, he would've been a helpless little boy again, a baby bird tossed out of its nest before it could ever learn to fly.

Now, the war room was empty except for himself and Inej. She turned to him. "So is Ravka all you hoped and dreamed?"

"Considering my hopes weren't all that high, I guess you could say so," Kaz replied, walking toward the door. "And it seems I was right about the portraits."

Inej laughed, joining him as he stepped into the corridor. "When aren't you?"

They turned down the corridor, toward the dining hall. Kaz could feel Inej's hand brushing his with each step they took, the barest whisper of touch. A promise.

Inej pushed the door open and the darkness of the corridor evaporated. Voices rose and fell as forks clattered against plates. Inej turned to Kaz. "Are you desperate enough to eat Ravkan food?" she asked, lips quirked into a dubious smile.

"Depends," Kaz said, frowning. "Is it edible?"

Inej rolled her eyes. "There's pastries."

"You sure they're not stale?"

Instead of responding, Inej took a step toward the nearest table and pulled out a chair. Even in the commotion of the dining hall, Kaz could hear it scraping along the wood of the floor. Reluctantly, he limped after her and pulled out a chair of his own.

A tiered platter sat in the middle of the table, stacked with golden pastries. Simultaneously, Kaz and Inej reached for the platter. His hand brushed against hers, and even through his gloves, he could feel the warmth of her skin.

Inej plucked a small blini off of the plater and lifted it to her mouth and bit into it, crumbs falling downward onto her pearl white plate as she did so. Kaz raised his–a sugar-dusted sweet roll shaped vaguely like a songbird–and took a quick bite. The dough was soft, cloudlike, and filled with a lemony custard. It actually tasted decent, though Kaz would never have admitted it.

Inej raised an eyebrow. "Well?"

"I've had worse."

She sighed heavily and broke off a corner of her blini. "Try this." Kaz took it from her and placed it into his mouth. It melted on his tongue, filling his mouth with a sweet, slightly nutty flavor. He swallowed and shrugged. "So the chef here is passable at their job."

Inej finished off her blini, clapping her hands to rid them of crumbs. "The same way Wylan was passable at demo?" Kaz moved to reply, but at that moment, as if summoned by her words, Jesper and Wylan appeared next to them at the table.

"You got any extra seats?" Jesper asked.

"Have you got any eyes?" Kaz replied bitterly, gesturing toward the two empty seats standing directly in Jesper's line of sight.