Six of Crows: Cloaked in Shadow

Chapter 28 - Kaz

HI YOU'RE WELCOME

For the eighth time after he'd woken, Kaz peeled off his bandages. The crisp white linen stood stark against the plum bruises soaking his hands, throbbing and furious and painful. He tried to move a finger. Failed. His frustrated growl made Inej look up from her perch on the railing.

"Again?" she said, padding over. He refused to meet her eyes. "It's not going to have healed in the last ten minutes. Tamar said you'll have to wait a couple of days before you even start getting feeling back."

"I've got feeling," Kaz said sullenly. He lifted the offending hand up, examined it with spiteful hate. "I can feel pain, can't I?"

Inej sat on the bed beside him and began wrapping the bandages back round his hands. "How did you even get them off?"

"I have teeth."

She looked at him, then, warm and patient and Ghezen, what would I do without you? And through the pain he offered her a smile, and leant into her as much as he could. She made a soft noise, but slowly relaxed against him, and he shuddered and was still beside her.

A storm was coming. The city muttered below the balcony, and the clouds grumbled in answer. Smoky tendrils unfolded across the sky. The air tasted of static, of metal and rust and the promise of things to come. Kaz let the wind rustle his shirt and play with his hair, watching the girl beside him. The girl, the ghost, the only thing more precious than gold. The only word that began to capture her was her name. Inej. So it was that he said; "Inej," quiet and low, half to himself. "What am I going to do?"

"What do you mean?"

He closed his eyes. "How am I supposed to be what they need me to? I can't pick locks, can't steal, can't lie. They need a leader, not some broken — not some broken boy."

"You can't lie," she said evenly. "So tell me, then — are you useless? Can you no longer lead?"

Kaz opened his mouth.

No words came out.

He frowned. I have no place leading, he tried to say, but Thorn caught the words, tore them to bloody shreds, sent them scuttling back down his throat.

"You might not have any of your tricks, but Kaz — you couldn't pick locks when you climbed the ranks of the Dregs, only learned when your name was already feared. It's not your tricks that make you formidable. To say that is a lie. It's you." She gently touched his head. "It's that."

She had once offered to teach him how to fall, Kaz remembered. "The trick is in not getting knocked down," he'd said with a laugh.

"No, Kaz," she had replied. "The trick is in getting back up."

He'd been overconfident, had misjudged the strength of his feelings and fallen hard -- fallen for her. He'd made a bad gamble, and now it was time to pay his debts. So he looked at her, then, her face sharp in the shifting shadows of the room, his dark eyes snatching every detail of her face like the thief he was. "Inej," he said softly, his voice not rocksalt but rugged seastone, polished by the tenderness of the waves; still craggy, still uneven in places, but warm and smooth and flattening to embrace the sea.

When she spoke, her voice shook slightly. "They say no mourners, no funerals, but you know we may die tonight, tomorrow, in a week or a month or a year. You know one day it'll be one of us put to sea in the body-boat."

"We all return to the sea in the end." Thorn did not stir in his throat, for he spoke the truth, though a truth as cold as the waters of the bay.

"Listen," she said, nearly angry. "Listen," – again, softer this time. "They say no mourners, no funerals, but I will mourn you if you die, Kaz, and it will break me. You might not be a good man, but it's too late now. We've gone too far down this road to turn back, so I ask you now; if we are to break someday, should we not do so happy? Should we not do so together?"

"Inej," he said for the last time. He had no other words. He looked at her, his pupils dilated, dark eyes reflecting her own. He could feel the waters rising around him, the waves threatening to engulf him, but she was his anchor. With her, he could withstand the storm.

And Inej looked back at him and saw in his eyes the unspoken words, the truth behind them. She did not ask him if he loved her. She did not have to.

Gently, hesitatingly, he took her face in his bare hands, and he felt the tremors course through her body, felt the fluttering of her heart and the steady pulse of blood in her veins. Then he leant forwards and their lips met, at first a feather-light touch, then deeper, hungrier.

They kissed on the balcony as the storm broke, surrounded by the wind and the rain, oblivious to the chaos raging around them. Even as the lightning split the sky over their heads, they pressed closer. They were broken apart, but together they were whole. They needed no shelter from the rain but each other.

The storm came and went, and then it was calm.

And when they finally pulled away, Kaz rested his head against hers for a long moment. She was so warm. So alive. Then he leant back, and his eyes were black and unforgiving.

"You're right," he said. "You were always right. It's not the tricks they feared, not the lies, the thieving. They don't need a broken boy-leader. But they don't need me."

His face softened, just for a second, and he touched her cheek with bandaged fingers. "It'll be the last time, I promise. The last heist." And he dropped his hand, and he stood sharply. "See, the Mask has bested me before. But he's never fought Dirtyhands." A smile uncoiled across his face, slow and dark, a promise of violence. "They might not need me to beat him, Inej, but they need the monster. And I'm more than happy to deliver."

A/N
HI HI HI I WAS SO EXCITED TO FINALLY WRITE THIS EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE
hehehe thoughts?
in case it wasn't clear they were on a balcony... like i'd have made that more obvious but Kaz's attention wasn't really there at the time ;)

been reading too much steinbeck and that lovely new one by naomi novik, spinning silver, so sorry about all the ands and thens.

love y'all <3

oH AND I FINALLY FINISHED PLOTTING THE ENDING MWAHAHAHAHA

THERE WAS A HELL OF A LOT OF FORESHADOWING IN THIS CHAPTER TO SAID ENDING SO SEE IF YOU CAN FIND SOME