REAPER ─ kaz brekker

twelve; riptide

012;           RIPTIDE

HE HADN'T EXPECTED HER TO BE AWAKE AT THIS HOUR. 

They were due to arrive back in Ketterdam within the next few hours. The winds had graced them with an easier passage back from Fjerda, though he had to wonder if that had more to do with the girl perched near the prow of the ship than the actual winds themselves. They hadn't spoken much, not since leaving Djerholm behind. After the parem began wrapping its ruthless hold about Nina, Onyx had disappeared below decks shortly after to help Matthias care for her. There was a history there, something deep and lingering, something unspoken and unbroken, that laid between Nina Zenik and Onyx Vissier, and it was perhaps one of the few things Kaz Brekker had yet to unlock about the girl seated before him. 

Kaz remembered the first time he'd seen Onyx. They were both around thirteen or fourteen at the time, still two people simply trying to survive the Barrel, no reputations or names or preconceived notions to precede them. He'd just taken the Dregs tattoo and she'd practically appeared out of thin air at the Slat, her hair twisted into a messy braid that stopped short at her shoulders, and approached Per Haskell for her payout on an apparently rather measly job she'd taken only out of necessity. Their paths wouldn't fully cross for another year, when she joined him on the bank robbery that would later break his leg and grace him with a limp that followed him into the present. 

And yet, four years later, there were still so few things he'd managed to unlock about her. It shouldn't have bothered him as much as it did. 

Onyx leaned back on one of her palms and twisted her head back to look at him. She held up a steaming mug with the other. "Coffee?" 

Her hair was down, free of any loose ties or braids, sending her chestnut strands spilling down past her shoulders in a messy wave that was bordering on unkept. Her hair used to be short, Kaz remembered faintly. He couldn't recall why he remembered that, or why it felt important that he remembered that. 

Kaz adjusted his grip on his cane and in two, three, four strides he was standing next to her, watching the waves cut against the front of the schooner. Dawn was only a few hours away. He lifted his eyes toward the sky. The moon was still out, but the dense cloud cover that blanketed the night sky blotted out any stars. With a sigh, Kaz slowly lowered himself to the ground next to Onyx, ignoring the ache that shot up his leg as he did so. She held the coffee over to him again. He took it. The last time they'd been alone aboard the Ferolind like this, the words they'd exchanged were heated, laced with underlying threats-- or rather, outright ones when he'd pushed a little too far and the scales of Onyx's patience ran to one side. 

The engraving on that knife he'd found near Oomen was still burned into his memory, as were the complex thoughts and emotions that ran rampant through Onyx's eyes when he returned it to her. There was still much more to Onyx Vissier than it seemed. And her vague confession and proffered assistance atop the Embassy roof had only driven that point home. 

Onyx crisscrossed her legs and twisted a knife about her fingers, absentmindedly twisting the blade as if it were a children's toy and hadn't most likely seen to countless deaths. She pushed a few strands of hair behind her ear. "Where will we meet the Council?"

"Vellgeluk," he answered. "Rotty and I will row to the harbor and I'll find a runner to get word to Van Eck." 

"Fitting, for a man like him." She pulled at a hangnail on her thumb until it came loose. "Couldn't sleep either?"