TROUBLE , kaz brekker

xi. well, now we've got a problem...

CHAPTER ELEVEN

NO MATTER HOW MANY years she had spent in its' clutches, Echo found she could always be pleasantly surprised by Ravka. Today? Today, it gave her the most unlikely of alliances.

Echo had let Inej lead her towards one of the looming memorials that marked the names of those lost to the Fold. It was terrible, morbid, something Echo used to dodge in her hometown as if it was the scolding cane of her mother.

But for Inej's sake she could bear it, if not for a moment or two. Besides, from the hopeful look on the Suli girl's features, her interest in the monument wasn't just a sad acknowledgment of the dead. Echo wondered who she was looking for.

Determined to not give into that weak, shrivelled part of her soul that begged to look for names, Echo turned her back to the statue. She found the disapproving gaze of Kaz Brekker staring back. He had a goat tucked under one arm and she couldn't deny the humour in the Bastard of the Barrel lugging around livestock in the crook of his arm. Just the sight of it made her eyes water.

"It suits you." She smiled.

Kaz rolled his eyes. "I'll try not to get too attached."

He raised his voice just enough to catch the attention of Inej, who was still pouring over the names like they were gospel. "I didn't think I'd have to specify no detours to you two."

The Suli girl sighed. "Even if just a few minutes could end a lifetime of questions?"

"Your parents are Suli. They don't cross the Fold. They go around."

Her parents. That explained the longing and the hope and everything that was supposed to come with family. Not that Echo would know. Unlike Inej, she didn't have to bother looking for her family name engraved on the cold slab of marble. No, if they were dead, she'd know. She'd have thrown a revelry.

But then Kaz was at her side andany thoughts of celebration drowned in the halcyon sea of her mind. "I didn't take you for the sentimental type."

"And rightly so."

"What?" He lifted a brow. "No family to chase?"

"I have no need to chase them. I already know exactly where they are." Echo pulled the bodice of her dress tighter around her chest. It did little to fight the chill. "That's what keeps me safe."

"Have you always spoken in riddles?"

"Have you always been this intrusive?"

A slight smile upturned Kaz's lips. He looked young when he smiled, it suited him. "Only when I smell a secret. You reek of them."

"Well, I have a feeling they won't remain secrets much longer." Her tone was serious, echoing with the promises of another lifetime. "Because it's like you said, we all have debts to pay."

With a nod of her head, Echo beckoned him to follow her into the streets, Inej light on her feet behind them. She wrinkled her nose at the animal tucked into Kaz's arm as Inej fawned over it's fur and tiny paws.

"Keep that thing away from me." She muttered to Kaz. And then sneezed. Thrice.

It was the most human thing Kaz had seen her do since they stepped foot in this saints forsaken country and she didn't like it. Not one bit.

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THEY TRAVELLED UNDER THE VEIL of moonlight, Arken's lone torch doing little to quell the darkness.