Six of Crows: Cloaked in Shadow

Chapter 21 - Nina

For once, Nina didn't wake up from a nightmare.

No, this time it was something else that made her green eyes flick open and her sit bolt upright with a gasp. She was panting, short, shallow breaths that abraded the thick silence. She felt like she'd just been submerged underwater and come up for air. Her gaze travelled to the door - the door she had locked and bolted before going to bed, a paranoid habit she'd only fallen into after a drüskelle had almost killed her while she slept.

It was open.

Nina swallowed hard. Slowly, she pushed back the covers and raised her hands.

Nothing happened.

But there was something wrong. Not just the open door or the unnaturally bitter cold nipping at her fingers like a dog begging for scraps, but something subtly out of alignment, barely noticeable but still there. It was like coming into your house with the door already open, and that though everything was still in its place, things had been moved around. The air was thick and syrupy.

Careful to not make noise, Nina slipped out of bed, creeping to the open door with her hands raised in case she needed to use her power. Cautiously, she peeked out from behind the doorframe onto the landing.

There was the window, the night sky beyond peppered with stars, a slice of moon sending a silvery shaft of light to stain the floor. There hung the grotesque stuffed deer head that Jesper has fondly named Mal. And there, silhouetted a darker colour still than the inky blackness of the landing, was the shape of a man standing silently by the stairs.

Nina screamed.

So did the man.

Well, less of a scream than a frightened yelp, punctuated by a windmilling of arms and a very near fall backwards down the stairs. He caught himself with one of his flailing arms and gasped for breath, clutching his chest. "Saints, Nina, you can't do that to people!" the man panted. He stepped into the shaft of moonlight.

Hazel eyes glinted at her, shrewd as a fox.

"Damn you, Nikolai! I thought you were some sort of murderer!"

He winked. "Since when have murderers been this handsome?"

"Well, they say the Darkling was a real looker in his time." She didn't miss his flinch.

"I... I wanted to apologise for what I said earlier. I should not have spoken to you so rudely."

"It was my fault too. I shouldn't have questioned you." She smiled ruefully. "We all have a right to our secrets."

"Then we can put it behind us?"

"Mm," she said noncommittingly. She might have been too brusque in her methods, but she wasn't going to stop looking for answers until she found the source of Nikolai's merzost.

Nina shivered slightly and Nikolai caught the movement. "You're cold," he said, face scrunched up with concern.

"That might have something to do with the fact that we're standing on a drafty landing in the middle of winter," she retorted, but her words were without bite. Now she looked closely at him, she could see the tip of his nose was turning rather red and his arms were drawn tightly around his chest, supressing the faint tremors that shook his frame. "Here, come in. It should be warmer in my room."

"Already inviting me into your bedroom, Miss Zenik? My, my, I didn't realise we were that close already." She poked him, rolling her eyes as they hurried into the relative warmth of her room. Nina tossed a blanket from her bed to Nikolai and went to get another when she felt a warmth on her shoulders and soft wool tickling her neck. She looked up in confusion. He finished tucking the blanket around her and smiled but it was devoid of his usual lazy snark, soft with sleep and mellow. It suited him.