A Coin Has Two Sides (Season Two) || Kaz Brekker x OC

20. Let Him Go

Stop her.

Those were the only two words that had been running through Kaz's mind since Winnie had said a couple of words in Ravkan.

Since that moment he had witnessed her groaning in pain.

Each scream was temptation to take back his vow to not intervene.

But she had made it extremely clear that he was not to.

He hadn't heard or seen much as a dome of her shadows shielded her from his view.

But when that dome vanished Kaz was taken aback by the view of himself, Jesper, and Inej standing in front of her in a shadowy form.

How could you possibly hope to defeat your enemies alone?

He had heard himself say that to her.

Not him, of course. His shadowed self.

It was taunting her.

She had told them that the darkness would try anything possible to deceive her. To stay inside of her.

It became clear that what the first part of her darkness had latched onto were them.

What else had they said to her?

There was no time for him to ask the shadow summoner as before he could tell her to take a needed break, she was already attempting to remove the second part of the Fold.

But something was different.

She wasn't groaning in pain this time.

Instead she was sobbing.

It was uncontrollable, constant.

Whatever she was experiencing in her own mind was clearly distressing beyond anything she had already encountered.

Unlike the last time, Winnie wasn't pulling the darkness from her chest.

Instead she was standing there, her hands clenching over her heart like it was hurting her.

After a minute she dropped to the floor, her arms holding herself up.

Her tears continued to fall.

"Winnie?" Jesper said cautiously, not wanting to go against her strict orders of no intervention.

"I ... I can't", the girl sobbed, her head tilted downwards towards the floor.

She quickly stumbled up and ran towards the entrance to the barn, leaving without another word.

"What happened?" Wylan asked.

"We're running out of time", Zoya said.

"She's hurting. This can't be easy", Inej replied.

"One of us should go and check on her", Nina offered.

Everyone's eyes darted between Inej, Jesper and Kaz.

Kaz took in a deep breath and started towards the door to follow the distressed shadow summoner.

When he walked outside, he saw her curled up next to a small tree, her knees to her chest.

She was shaking as she rocked back and forth slowly, her unblinking eyes red with tears.

In her hands she was softly fiddling with the remaining piece of black hair.

"Marth?" Kaz asked softly as he approached her.

"What do you want, Brekker?" she said in an almost whisper.