TROUBLE , kaz brekker

iv. brick by brick.

CHAPTER FOUR

IT TOOK ALL OF fifteen seconds for Echo Caddel to remember she didn't believe in the Saints for a reason.

Praying? Really? A woman would do crazy things in the name of desperation, but turning her palms up to the sky and placing her safety in the clasp of the divine seemed more reminiscent of a scheme Kaz would use in a con than a genuine way out of trouble. If there was ever a line in the morally ambiguous sand, that definitely crossed it.

Now, Echo had a choice. She could follow Jesper into the Ketterdam night to spend money they didn't have on drinks they really didn't need or she could swallow her pride and run after Kaz, following the scent of tailored suits and pine. One of those options ended with a stiff drink in her hand. The other one was sure to end in crime.

And Echo really did love crime.

Her grin was vicious as she barrelled into the dark. "I'll see you on Rozenstraat!"

"Wear something nice!" Jesper's joking, bellowing voice chased her into the same narrow alley Kaz had vanished down moments before.

Sunrise was only a few hours away but, still, the streets of the Barrel were heaving. Echo pushed through bodies upon bodies, searching for a familiar crooked hat and matching crooked scowl. Surprisingly, it didn't take long to find him - the crowds all but parted in his wake and shifty glances clung to him like poison. Kaz didn't turn as she approached, he just came to a stop, sighed and gave a sharp tug on the end of each glove.

"I was wondering when you'd catch up."

Echo tucked a red lock of hair behind her ear. "You sweetheart. You missed me already?"

"Like the plague."

He is face was stony. Kaz picked up the same steady march before she could think of something in reply and they'd turned the corner on Rozenstraat remarkably fast for a boy with a cane and a girl with a habit of annoying said boy with cane.

"Can I have your coat?" She'd asked through chattering teeth, more as a futile last resort than genuine expectation of kindness.

Kaz looked down at her with a raised brow. "Buy your own. I pay you well enough."

No matter how hard he tried to appear mildly infuriated by her antics, Echo silently noted the way the muscles in his jaw stayed soft, the lack of tension in his brow and if anything, the way his hand clung to his cane a little looser. Kaz's body language admitted what his mouth never could: he liked her company. Or maybe he just didn't want to kill her for it. Kaz Brekker was rarely so black and white as love and hate.

The end of Rozenstraat was an empty stone husk of a building, with spiders dancing cobwebs along the window panes and cracked stained glass above the heavy wooden door. Kaz gave it a sharp knock, then a shove and with the metal head of his cane, proceeded to drag Echo inside by the scruff of her shirt, out of view of prying eyes and into the foul smelling damp beyond.

Echo jumped down the stone stairs, taking them two at a time until she hit the cobbled floor. Kaz was at her back with a slip of paper appearing from between his fingers as his eyes flitted past her, to the lithe figure clutching a bubbling test tube as he stared wide-eyed at their intrusion.