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

Chapter 8: Saints Protection and Watery Depths

***

As we climb out of the carriage Inej pulls me to the side, wanting to tell me something before we split up and set our plan into motion.

"(Y/N)," she says. "I want you to have this. Just in case something goes wrong."

She hands me a knife. Small, deadly, and beautiful.

"Santka Marya," she tells me.

"For those who are far from home," I remember. "Oddly fitting for both of us."

She smiles, and I return it.

"May the Saints protect us tonight," she whispers.

I put a hand on her shoulder. "I have a feeling they will."

***

"Do you know what's going on in the palace?" Kaz asks, seeming more curious than normal.

I nod. "Emotional manipulation."

He raises a brow, asking for more.

"Toxic relationships. Though not without interesting drama."

"Ah. Will that be a problem in any way?"

"No, actually. It's going to help quite a bit."

I can see him trying to think of what I meant, going to ask about it but I hold up a hand. "That's our que."

***

An elderly man passes where Kaz and I stand in our uniforms, near the entrance of a hall just off the party. It was a different thing altogether to stand in this palace, with the people and the sights, than imagine it through a screen.

Kaz slipped a glass of champagne from the man, pouring it down the front of his shirt. I manage to get a stain on my uniform as well, giving Kaz a look that says "I learned from you" when he seems to ask how I did it. I know that I can't reveal myself quite yet.

I walk with him, headed to the next stage of our plan when I see Ivan and Fedyor at the table. They stop us, giving looks of judgment that I laugh off with hopefully believable nervousness.

"The Kaelish ambassador tends to get clumsy when he's drunk," I say, remembering the excuse Kaz gave in the show. "We were headed to get replacements from laundry."

"Good," Fedyor says. "Carry on with your orders after, and make sure it doesn't happen again."

"Yes, sorry," Kaz tells him, turning around and we head the other direction to meet Inej. It wasn't far, but I kept having to correct my posture and it was getting annoying.

"Are you going to tell me what that was?" he asks me after we reach the laundry.

"I forgot the boyfriends would be there, okay? I had to make something up."

"I didn't bring you here just for you to forget things."

"And I didn't come here by choice," I mutter, low enough that I know he would hear me as he gets a uniform for Inej and Arken. "Plus, not everyone has your impeccable memory. I haven't even watched the show in almost a year. I just started it again."

He changes the topic. "How is Jesper with our escape route?"

"You want the truth or something to make you feel better?"

"The truth," Kaz says as he continues down the hall.

"Let's just say he's sweetening up one of the stable boys. Here."

We walked back up the stairs to where Inej would be. She arrives just on time.

"Is it my size?" she asks, taking the uniform from his hands.