I Don't Belong Here~Kaz Brekker x Reader~

Chapter 5: Nearly Dying and Close Spaces

***

"Do you want me to carry him?" I offer, opening my mouth to continue but shutting up when I hear a different voice.

"They want you to believe the Sun Summoner has been found," someone shouts from a stage a little ways away, "to finally tear down the wall that divides us. And how many times have we in the West been told to send our sons and daughters through the Fold for another year?"

The two of us make our way closer, wanting to get a better look at the man.

"It is time to accept that we need to break away from the old country."

Kaz makes his way through the thick crowd, careful to not touch the others as much as he can, and I follow closely.

"Now is the time to form our own country, to keep what we earn instead of sending it to the East."

The crowd cheers, but Kaz just keeps walking forward.

"For the true Ravka!"

Kaz comes to a stop as the people repeat the phrase, far back enough to give us a good view of the man as he steps off the stage and not be seen. The man shakes hands with someone before walking over to a familiar someone. Arken leads him inside the tent, out of sight.

The boy beside me looks at me for a brief moment before turning away.

"There's Inej," I tell him, and he follows my gaze to where she stood on the side of the street. Names were inscribed on the surface, ones that died while passing through the Fold.

Kaz stopped a few feet in front of her, and I stood beside him.

"He's adorable," Inej said calmly, looking at Milo who was still in Kaz's arms.

"Don't get attached," Kaz responded in the same tone as I smiled at Inej. "I didn't think I'd have to specify no detours to you."

"Even if just a few minutes could end a lifetime of questions?" she protested as he stepped closer.

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

"I know, I just thought..." She let out a sigh, putting her head down. "If I saw their names on there, I could let the ideas of them go. This thing? This was all I had when I was sold to the Menagerie."

She pulls the embroidered necklace out from under her scarf.

"And if it was worth anything, Heleen would have taken it. But this is just a simple token of faith that my mother stitched. Kaz, this is all I have left of them. Unless-"

I remembered the ending of Crooked Kingdom, where she was reunited with her parents because Kaz tried so hard to find them. I wanted to go up there and tell her they were alive and that she would see them again, but I couldn't, so I swallowed my words and watched as she talked.

"Hope is dangerous," Kaz told her, bringing me from my thoughts. "It clouds your judgment."

He glanced over his shoulder to me before looking back. "Pray, scream, do whatever you have to do to push this out of your mind and move on. We all have debts to pay."

All I heard in his words was Jordie.

***

"We're almost there," Arken tells us.

"Where the hell is Jesper?" Kaz asked, cursing under his breath. The goat was now on a leash, now held by me.

"He'll be here soon," I assured him as we rounded the corner. "Don't worry."