❝ she loved him,
but she kept pretending
she didn't because
she knew he didn't
love her the same ❞
In which the Snake of Ketterdam slithers out from the cracks of the Barrel to raise her head and break some bones.
【 Kaz Brekker x OC】
【 Grishaver...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
∘☽༓☾∘
𝕿here were many things that Kaz Brekker admired about Stasiaj Yahontov, but her uncanny ability to swindle information and money out of everyone and anyone (including himself) was the thing he truly adored about her (her laughter and flirty comments being a close second).
Ever since he first met her, two years earlier, when he was trying to get back at Pekka Rollins and find his way to his feet, Stasiaj had that ability. He'd watched her for days before approaching her, seeing how she brought old men to their knees in front of her, crippled mob bosses with just a mere few words and broken others until they submitted to her will and she did it all with a cruel smirk on her face.
Kaz didn't let it show when he met her, nor had he told her since, but the prospect of meeting the feared Snake of Ketterdam for the first time had terrified him to some extent. It was simply because he did not know what she would know about him.
It had turned out that Kaz didn't need to meet her, for she had sought him out and their relationship, of sorts, had gone from there. Over the past two and a half years of working with each other, Stasiaj had never once given him bad information.
So, when she had come to him with a bad feeling in her stomach, Kaz had listened to every word she said and made plans accordingly. After all, his Snake had never been wrong about information before, so why should she start being wrong then.
"The deal is the deal, Van Eck," Kaz said over the sounds of the growing storm. "If the Merchant Council fails to honour its end of this bargain, no one from the Barrel will ever traffic with any of you again. Your word will be meaningless."
"That would be a problem, Mister Brekker, if the Council knew anything about this deal."
"They were never involved," Kaz said, plastering surprise onto his face. He could practically feel smugness radiating off of Stasiaj, who was stood behind him, basking in happiness.
She had been right once again, and Kaz was still annoyed that he had not seen it earlier.
Why had he believed Van Eck had the blessing of the Merchant Council? Because he was a rich, upstanding mercher? Because he'd dressed his own servants and soldiers in the purple uniforms of the stadwatch? Kaz had met with Van Eck in a quarantined mercher's house, not a government building, but he'd been taken in by a little set dressing.
It was Hertzoon and his coffeehouse all over again, only now Kaz was old enough to know better. He was equally annoyed that his Snake worked it out before he did.
