Six of Crows: Cloaked in Shadow

Chapter 12 - Inej

Inej stepped into the shower, humming softly. The warm water soothed her skin, chafed from days spent at sea with the wind and salt spray. The Van Eck mansion - she still couldn't see it as Wylan's - actually had the luxury of running water, a testimony to the huge wealth of Jan Van Eck. The man may have been corrupted and downright evil, but he sure knew how to run a business. She hoped for Wylan's sake he'd inherited that skill.

She let herself linger in the water for one more minute before stepping out and switching off the tap, drying her thick black hair with a towel. Saints, it was good to feel something that soft after so long spent with rough, itchy wool blankets as towels.

There was a knock on the door.

"Who is it?" she called. If it was the privateer king, Jes or Wy, she'd tell them to go away. If it was Nina, she'd tell her to come in.

She wasn't sure what she'd do if it was Kaz.

"Jesper," the voice replied, and Inej gave a sigh of relief. She wasn't ready to face Kaz just yet.

"One second," she answered, pulling on some clothes, then opened the door. "Hey, Jes. What is it?"

"Can I come in?" he asked, his eyes darting from side to side. He was as good at looking innocent as he was at walking away from a bet.

"Sure," Inej said slowly. She shut the door behind him and he sprawled onto her sofa, lanky legs spilling over the side. She perched on her bed and watched him intently. "What do you want to say?"

"It's... well, there's no easy way of putting this. It's about Kaz."

Instinctively she sat up a little straighter. "What about him?"

"When he told everyone what had happened in your absence, he neglected a huge part."

"I'm assuming that's what you're going to tell me?"

He nodded miserably, eyes flickering across the room.

"You know even Kaz can't walk through walls, Jes. This is as private as we're going to get."

Jesper sighed. He hunched his shoulders, evidently still uneasy. "You can't tell Kaz I'm telling you this. He'll never forgive me."

A small smile turned up the corner of Inej's mouth. "When have I ever given away a secret?"

He gave her a wan smile in return. "Where do I start? Inej, when you left, he fell apart. He stopped sleeping, stopped thinking things through, stopped talking to anyone and stopped scheming, and when I did make him sleep, he'd wake the whole Slat up with his screaming. I'd have to remind him to eat, or he'd neglect to do that too. It wasn't that you'd left - Kaz copes with absence pretty well, and you'd promised him you'd come back - it was that you never wrote. Not one  word throughout the whole three years. I asked him about it and he said you guys had agreed a method of communication before you left: Squaller mail, I think. But still the letters didn't come. He thought you'd forgotten him or moved on, or just wanted to cut him out of your life altogether." His movements were more agitated now and he gesticulated with his hands frantically as he spoke.

"You're angry at me?"

"Of course I'm angry at you, Inej! Kaz is one of my best friends, and my oldest- I genuinely care for him. You left him for three whole years without one word to show you remembered he existed. He fell apart, and that's no-one's fault but yours."

She was hurt that Jesper wouldn't start to think that something had been up. He knew she wouldn't do that to Kaz, but she supposed he had a point. It was a pretty low blow. "Jes, I get you're mad at me, but it wasn't my fault. I did write to Kaz, and I had no reason to suspect that anything was wrong because he wrote back."

"But-"

"It wasn't Kaz who wrote! It was this 'Raven' who forged his handwriting and intercepted our letters! I have no idea why. She left a message for me at the Slat, which was why we moved here. The Slat isn't safe anymore. In her note, she seemed to hate me, but I've never met her in my life."

"That... that explains a lot. Have you told Kaz?"

Inej nodded. "He was just as surprised as I was."

Suddenly there came muffled yelling from below, the thick carpets that lined the floor not enough to stifle the sound. "Who is that?" she asked.

Jes looked even more miserable. "Kaz and Nina. They keep arguing. It's endless- you can't get a moment's peace in this house. It's driving Wylan mad."

"What do they say?"

"You can go down and listen if you want. I should probably break it up- not that it'll do anything in the long run," Jesper sighed, levering his lanky frame from off the sofa.

Inej followed him out of the room but the Zemeni sharpshooter paused on the landing, turning back to her. "Nina's been bad. Her night terrors are even worse than Kaz's."

"Do you think she'll ever be able to get over Matthias's death?"

Jesper's expression was unusually grim. "I hope."

Together, they made their way down the stairs.

A/N

Sorry, pretty short, but more coming! Also, a quick reminder to click the star button at the bottom if you liked this chapter 😉

Finally:

-new chapter of Brick by Brick!

-A NEW BOOK!!! 'Of Crows and Demigods' - check it out on my profile or at this link: https://www.wattpad.com/580086932-of-crows-and-demigods

It's a Six of Crows / Percy Jackson cross!