of snakes & crows || kaz brekker

─ 𝒔𝒊𝒙𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

[16|| chapter sixteen]
and if  everything  goes,
at least you are here too

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

         ━━━━ "IT'S ONE THING hearing about it, but this is—"

         "Nothing, compared to what lies within." Arken cut off Inej when they neared a set of tracks, his torch doing very little to light the area around them.

         Eadaz narrowed her eyes at the boldness of his tone, taking the torch when he handed it over stiffly. They were closer now than ever. So close that Arken took a few steps ahead and disappeared within the wisps of it's entrance, and it was like he disappeared completely for a long moment. Her blood chilled, fingers tight around the handle of the torch.

         Kaz and Inej watched just as closely, though they looked a mixture of amazed and terrified. Ead was only terrified, her stomach a monsoon of doubt, fear, and regret. She glanced over her shoulder and searched the darkness for Jesper, and though she hated the idea of all of them going into this situation together, she also knew she preferred it a lot more to being on her own. A selfish thought, but a very human one.

         A metallic creaking filled their ears and Ead's grip on the torch tightened. Slowly, a large form began to push through the darkness until the front end of a train car was standing before them, barely big enough to hold five people. She wondered how they'd all fit. This time, if it came to it, she was going to force Jesper to sit on her lap. She didn't care if he complained about it the whole way. Her head was still sore from the ride to Novokribisk.

         "There." Arken huffed, standing straight. He took the jurda from Inej and Kaz didn't look all too sad to hand over the goat. "So, goat, jurda... Thank you. Now we're just waiting on..."

         Ead swiveled to face the way they'd come, shivers running down her spine as she put her back to the Fold. Suddenly, she heard the rapid thumping of a heart full of adrenaline, and she felt her hands twitch.

         "Hey! Wait for me!" Jesper was dashing their way, and of course, because he was not a simple man, a hoard of angry men were running after him with torches lit like they were on a witch hunt. As he ran gunshots fired behind him.

         "Of course." Ead sighed. "Just what we need."

         Arken visibly paled and yanked the torch from Ead's grip. "They can't see the train."

         Kaz's jaw was firmer than it had ever been before, and his dark eyes flickered with flames of their own. "Jesper, get here now!"

          Ead almost flushed at the tone of his voice, but then she turned and remembered they were moments from entering the Unsea, and she forgot all about that momentary swoon.

         "Leave the lantern!" Inej warned, wiping her palms along her pants. Ead knew she was one gunshot away from sliding out a throwing knife.

         "Landmines!"

         Ead knew Jesper well enough to know that he'd be able to avoid getting blown up even if he didn't think the threat of landmines was real. "Jesper! I swear to the Saints—"

         "Oh, wait for me!" He called back and as Inej and Kaz followed Arken into the car, Ead did as he said and stood at the door anxiously. She could not afford to get shot at this time. "Don't you go without me! Wait!"