Kaz pov:
He was jostled awake again, darkness again meeting his eyes and reminding him of where he was.
"Tell me where he is Inej, I won't have to break your boy more than I already have."
Kaz slowly lifted his head and the throbbing in his body came back in a wave. He put his left hand over the back of his head, which had stopped bleeding, but still pounded like hell.
"I told you," Kaz grumbled from his position on the floor, "he's dead."
Someone stepped up to him and grabbed under his left arm to hoist him to his feet. Kaz groaned and tried to lean back against the wall, but the person held him in place.
There was a pressure on the back of Kaz's head and he swayed while the visor clicked open. Kaz hissed at the light that reached his eyes, despite how dark the room was. He blinked several times to clear his vision, noting that it was Van Eck who stood in front of him, pocketing a small key. Kaz made no move to attack, but Van Eck nodded to his guards, who grabbed Kaz by his arms and pinned them behind him like before. Kaz yelled as they tore his right arm from where he had it clutched across his chest and let out a string of curses that had Van Eck chuckling.
Kaz turned to look towards Inej. She looked alright, a slight gash over her leg, but nothing she couldn't run with. Another guard had her pinned, and he held a switchblade across her throat, lest Kaz try anything.
"You sure you don't want to reconsider Kaz?" He motioned towards his guard who pressed the knife far enough to draw blood.
Kaz hesitated, "Alright."
Inej looked at him like he was insane, but Kaz didn't plan on telling Van Eck the whole truth.
"Go on," the merchant crooned.
Kaz shifted his weight onto his good leg and peered up at him.
"We sent him to Novokribirsk, he—"
Kaz was able to prepare himself for the harsh blow that landed across his face this time. Van Eck grabbed his jaw and forced it up.
"We know he's in Ravka you ignorant bastard."
Kaz registered a flash of movement behind Van Eck, but he didn't move his eyes towards it.
"Take off her shirt," Van Eck ordered.
Inej resisted then, bringing her fingers under the blade at her neck and hooking her back leg around the thickly built man behind her.
Kaz saw blood spurt from her fingers, but she didn't stop until the man was on the floor and Van Eck was pulling out a revolver from his waistband.
"You better drop that blade, Wraith." His gun pointed right at her chest, where a number of shots could be lethal.
"Inej–" Kaz began, but the guards behind him forced him to his knees and Kaz winced at the unseen shards of glass shooting up his leg.
She looked at him briefly and dropped the knife, letting it clatter loudly to the floor.
Van Eck advanced slowly, moving the revolver to his left hand and bringing his right to the hem of her shirt. Or he would have, had his head remained intact.
Van Eck's brain matter splattered on the concrete walls of the small room, and Kaz was glad he had his sight back to witness it. The door to the cell was barely cracked open, just enough to get the barrel of a gun through. Wylan was the one holding it, the one who had aimed it at his father's head, but Kaz knew that Jesper had helped the bullet reach it's target.
When the guards saw the infamous sharpshooter with his guns aimed at them and the son of their leader, they released Kaz and lifted their arms in surrender. Kaz relaxed as his arms fell to his sides and he slouched over the floor.
Both Jesper and Wylan looked disturbed at the amount of blood on both Kaz and Inej, but they cuffed the guards before anything else.
Kaz used the strength he had left to lift himself up and limp over to his spider. She accepted his hand when he offered it to her, but she seemed too afraid to test his strength, so she used the wall too. He felt an urge to embrace her, and he did. Kaz wrapped his arms around her back and pulled her towards him, not caring about the aches in his body.
It didn't matter that she had been away for months, Kaz felt the same as he always had.
She hesitated at first, not sure that she should touch him, but she eventually wrapped her arms lightly back around him and rubbed a thumb over his back.
When Wylan and Jesper finished restraining the guards, they helped Inej and Kaz outside, setting them up in a small boat that would take them to Wylan's. The fact that they had been carried the whole way over without waking spoke to the power of the drug.
Wylan called a group of his newly appointed officials to search the building and dispose of any unwanted items. He told Kaz and Inej that Van Eck had been clear of his intentions to the scientists he worked with, and when Wylan suspected that his father was the reason Kaz and Inej had gone missing, he was able to find a scientist under a false name who had sent several messages to his father.
The four of them were able to set back for Wylan's estate in less than an hour, and Wylan seemed to turn his attention away from Kaz, knowing that Dirtyhands wouldn't appreciate looks of sympathy.
Kaz appreciated the gesture, especially since Jesper was doing enough worrying on his own, acting like a mother hen to the two.
Kaz pushed him off and kept close to Inej.
When they got to the estate Kaz couldn't ignore Wylan's medics, and Wylan insisted on them staying the night. Kaz would have declined if Inej hadn't agreed. She made herself so at home in the little palace it seemed she might be planning more than a vacation.
"You sure you're going back?" He asked her.
They were both in the same room, bandaged and trying to fall asleep. Wylan had offered him another room, but he was fine sleeping on her chair.
She sighed and rolled over in the bed to face him. "It wasn't a fun job, but I feel like I'm doing good, Kaz."
He raised an eyebrow, but she couldn't see it in the dark.
"Here I'm never sure if what I'm doing is wrong, or for the best."
Kaz could understand this, but most of the time they were killing people that deserved to die. They were killing slavers, helping rid of the exchange without getting the slaves involved themselves. Of course, they only did so when it benefitted them.
"I could get you a few people, if you stayed we could set up operations somewhere closer to the barge." He knew why he said it. He wasn't thinking about the trade, he just wanted her to stay, and she knew it too.
"Come here, Kaz."
He got up slowly and eased onto the bed next to her.
She held the covers up for him, and he slid under them silently. He wanted to press his body against hers, but he forced himself to stay where he was.
She was the one that moved, setting a hand on his clothed back. "I need you to promise me you'll tell me what you know of the trade while it happens, even if ruining it will become a disadvantage."
She'd need to know everyone who was associated with it, even if they were an ally of the Crow Club.
"Done."
After all that he'd done, she shouldn't have trusted him, but she did anyway. She sidled closer and didn't touch his skin until he grabbled for her hand. The wave of panic that roiled through him was minimal, flushed out by the comfort he felt at her presence.
"You better give me good people, I don't want a bunch of wimps," she joked.
Kaz laughed and kissed the top of her hand. "Only the best for you, Inej."
