Hey Sunshine

Bring Back Jesper's Future Bethrothed

IT WAS STORMING NOW, and Jesper's gut felt a lot like the branches he saw getting pummeled by the winds. Sick.

Plan Save Wylan From His Sicko of a Dad - alternatively named Plan Bring Back Jesper's Future Betrothed, Plan Don't You Mean Soulmate, and Plan CHRIST Guys can we FOCUS? - was still being figured out, and as Kaz marked another possible location for a hitman to be placed, Jesper swallowed heavily.

His friends might have acted like a gang sometimes, but this was bringing them to yet another level he never thought he would reach. They all had rough pasts - hell, Jesper had been beaten up a few times for his addiction to gambling - and nobody except for Inej really knew what Kaz had gotten into, but everybody knew it was dark.

"What do you think, Jesper?"

Jesper was brought back to reality and he stared into Kaz's dark eyes, expectantly awaiting a response. He looked at the map - god, this meeting should have been called war planning instead of whatever they actually had named it - and stared at the marks made on it. Kaz had recently outlined the words hitmen on a few massive trees that apparently existed, and Jesper was suddenly struck by the thought that Wylan could draw it better.

He could draw the trees better. He had better handwriting. He could draw the blueprint of the mansion better.

It was the ache that struck Jesper that made him respond, and he turned his head up back to Kaz. "I like it," he said, forcing his voice to sound even. His heart beat uneven steps and silently, Inej reached across Nina to grasp his hand tightly.

Thank you, he mouthed, and she held on a little tighter.

Kaz nodded and circled the hitmen. Bollinger made an accepting noise, before turning to Kuweii. "Do you know where his room is, boy?" he asked gruffly and Kuweii nodded before pointing to a random door on the map.

"Here," he said strongly. "I could remember that damn door anywhere."
Jesper swallowed a mouthful of jealousy because this lying cheating idiot had-

Cutting off his train of thoughts purposefully, he focused again on the plan. "I'm good with guns," he offered, as if he hadn't mentioned it a million times before. "Give me a gun and I'll shoot Van Eck."

Kaz shook his head strongly. "That's not how it works," the boy said. "Not Van Eck. He's too powerful a target."

Sergie made a deep rumbling noise. "You need to destroy him if you want him gone," Sergie clarified. "Killing him will only create an even stronger ghost."

"How would we manage that?" Nina asked, circling one of the many hallways leading to Wylan's room. "I think we should take this route by the way, it looks like we can enter from the servants wing. But also, how would we destroy Van Eck?"

"Child abuse?" Matthias asked, as if he didn't know that the courts would only agree with one of the men that ran Amsterdam, as opposed to six shady teenagers and a gang.

"Between one of the most powerful men in Amsterdam and a full-fledged gang, who would win?" Kuweii asked thoughtfully, and almost purposefully, Gretina, Bollinger and Sergie looked at Kaz.

The boy tilted his head with so much care that it gave Jesper a chill to be reminded of who he had spent his childhood playing with.

"It depends on the gang," Kaz finally said. "It depends on the man."

*

and next, we have part three coming up!