❛ ʻʻ .. it's strange how fate
keeps bringing us together .. 〞
in which a girl who can see a person's fate from the touch of a hand falls for the one boy fearing human touch.
━━ KAZ BREKKER
frenemies to lovers, slowburn
shadow & bone - crooked ki...
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lviii. a funeral and its mourners – Kaz
IN THE GATHERING midnight gloom, Kaz stood leaning on his crow cane staring out of a large bay window to a well kept garden. They had finally won the war. Jan Van Eck had been brought down, his reputation in tatters and the kruge he'd once promised now theirs. Vengeance had finally been found for Jordie, Pekka sat sobbing in a graveyard somewhere searching for a son Kaz had told him was buried alive. The boy wasn't, of course, but when everyone thinks you're a monster, you needn't waste your time doing every monstrous thing.
Kaz was the King of Ketterdam, the Dregs and now the ruins of Pekka's empire his to reduce to ash. But what was a king without a queen? His mind wondered to Randvi.
Behind him Jesper and Jakov stood talking about childhood memories in Noyvi Zem, of golden wheat fields and fights on the frontier. It was better than having to listen to the story behind the tear in his blue kefta for the thousandth time. Turns out keftas are knife proof too, Jakov had laughed, recalling what had happened in the cathedral between him, Randvi and Eivor.
How about we test it out and see it if was just luck, Kaz had shot back.
Then a big bottle boat slid up to the dock at the end of Van Eck's garden.
"They made it!" Wylan whooped, and Kaz released a breath he didn't know he was holding.
Randvi was back, please let her be back.
Jesper grabbed a lantern and the champagne they'd been chilling. They bounded across the garden, tore open the door, and streamed into the boathouse. What would he say when he saw Randvi again? Would he finally tell her all the things he never had?
Their greetings died on their lips.
Inej and Rotty were helping Kuwei from the bottleboat. Though he looked rumpled and shaky, and his shirt hung open to reveal a chest still spattered with pig's blood, he was in one piece. Jesper's father sat in the boat, his shoulders slumped, face creased with sadness. He rose slowly and climbed onto the dock. He clutched Jesper tightly and said, "You're all right. You're all right."
Nina remained in the boat, resting her head on Matthias' chest. He was laid out beside her, his eyes closed, his colour ashen. And there was Randvi, her face stained with red, the soot from her eyes washed away, leaving nothing the shell of who she'd once been. Her eyes looked anywhere but at Matthias.
She rose slowly, helped out out of the boat by Jakov's hand. Randvi settled against his side, her eyes burning holes into the cobbled floor beneath her.
"How?" Kaz said quietly.
Fresh tears gathered in Inej's eyes. Her eyes seemed to nod towards Randvi, the only one that had been with Matthias. Kaz knew the expression Randvi bore all too well. She was in mourning. She had lost two brothers today, the only people left of her family, and Kaz wouldn't have wished that fate on anyone.
