No Mourners, No Funerals

27.✓

Kaz moved down the hall, the Grisha cages were lined with people, smoke was starting to leak into the place, Kaz picked up his pace and ignored the desperate Grisha's cries. As he made it to the back of the building, he froze. Inej was in a cell, pulled back into the corner of the wall. A guard lay face-first on the floor, from the color of his face, Kaz had to guess he'd been strangled. His eyes turned to where Inej was, her hands were bound in ropes, loosened. 

Her wrists were rubbed raw, and there was a length of rope between her tired hands Kaz had no doubt was the cause of the guard's death. He moved toward the door and used his lockpicks quickly, his tailored eyes keeping on Inej, she hadn't reacted yet. He wasn't sure if she was going through memories or in shock. 

Neither option was good. 

He pulled the door open but didn't dare go inside. "Inej," he rasped, voice low. Had he been too late? What had they done to her, what was this guard going to do? White-hot flames were burning inside him but he forced his voice to be gentle.

***

Jason chuckled lowly.

"I don't think you deserve my name." He then removed the knife from his throat and quickly hit him in the back of the head with the handle, knocking him out.

***

When the meeting was finally over Wylan said goodbye, shook hands and went home. As he was walking home his mind drifted to Inej. Would she be there when he got home? Or was she in trouble? With no Jesper to reassure him, he was becoming less and less sure she was okay. He stepped into the mansion and walked down the hall. 

"Jesper?" he called out, "Is Inej back?" No reply. 

"Jesper?" He walked upstairs, into the kitchen the bedroom, the lounge. Jesper was nowhere to be found. He's okay, right? Probably just with Kaz. 

So not okay he wasn't just going to sit there all day, and he didn't feel like doing even more work right now so he decided to walk to the Crow Club and see who was there, maybe talk with people.

***

Inej heard the familiar footstep, that comforting voice, that raspy voice saying "Inej" but she can't believe it to be him, her heart was still racing inside her chest. She manager to kill the guard but not before he touched her and that time all of a sudden she felt like she was back in Menagerie, forced to sit somewhere while a completely strange man came to for his pleasure.

She again felt like that helpless girl who couldn't do anything to protect himself except this time she could. When the guard's hand went from her mouth to her neck her survival instincts kicked in, with every force in her body she pulled her hands apart creating enough space to choke anyone. 

As the guard was dying between her hands something snapped inside her. She felt sick as if she could still feel his hands tracing her neck, then around her face. She could taste the bile I'm her mouth making her gut twist with disgust and then came the voice she was desperate to hear an hour ago. 

No, it can't be him. It's one of Jason's tricks again. Inej didn't look up, she felt too weak to move even a finger so she just stared at the ground, trying to breathe and breathe or she would have died there and then.

"... what did he do to you?" Kaz asked, he slowly stepped over the dead body. He wasn't sure Inej would let him get anywhere near her, so he stopped a few paces away, dropping a knife before Inej, it wasn't one of her blades, Kaz didn't have the time to go look for one, but it'd have to do.