of snakes & crows || kaz brekker

─ 𝒆𝒊𝒈𝒉𝒕𝒆𝒆𝒏

┏━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┓

[18|| chapter eighteen]
oh the pleasure of
being a free snake

┗━━━✦❘༻༺❘✦━━━┛

━━━━ THE BAR WAS, as expected, full of men. Normally, Eadaz Viottova would steer clear at the sight, steal a bottle from the bartender when he wasn't looking and ditch the stool for a table tucked away to drink, but tonight was different.

Kaz's words had struck hard in her body. He had made it seem as if she threw herself at anyone who looked at her, as if she were as easy as beating Jesper at ratcatcher. Part of her believed that he was angry because he thought personal relationships cause for potential drama and only got in the way of things. The other parts believed him to be jealous, but that was as unbelievable as things could get.

It still hurt and even if he apologized, it didn't change the fact that he'd said it. That part of him had to mean it enough for his anger to let his tongue run loose.

She could do whatever she liked and none of the Crows had right to question her actions. If she wanted to sleep with the red headed man who'd been playing on stage when they arrived, who was now blushing every time they made eye contact, then she very well could. If she wanted to down several glasses of whiskey in the span of ten minutes and place them all on the tabs of different oblivious men, then she would. And she did drink and charge other mens tabs, but she was still working on that ginger.

Until Jesper joined her side and every interested specimen looked away, in both panic and disappointment.

"What happened with Kaz?"

Ead put an inch of space between them, hoping the ginger would be the one man to not get the wrong idea. If Kaz wanted to believe her a whore, then she'd give him a reason to. "I have no idea what you're talking about."

"You only get deep in your cups when something is troubling you, or as of lately, when Kaz does or says something that bothers you." Jesper tapped the edge of her glass with his knuckle, seemingly unaware of her intentions.

Ead was caught off guard by his accusation. "What? That's not true. I'm an alcoholic."

Jesper chuckled. "You drink to relieve stress, and he causes you stress more than anything else."

"Only part of your statement is true," Ead denied aloud, but knew that it was false. Her eyes still had yet to stray from the lute player, who was glancing between her and Jesper quizzically. "I also drink for fun. A true alcoholic."

"That is true," Jesper drawled, moving his mouth closer to her ear. "But you only take shots of clear liquor when you want to feel good."

The ginger finally tore his gaze away and Ead felt his heartbeat deflate, meaning Jesper had caused him to give up on any actions of pursuit he might've committed to get with her. She snapped to the man beside her in annoyance. "Can't you see I'm busy? If you must know, Kaz implied some very nasty things to me after disrupting my bath. Does it please you that you've just scared away all of my contenders for a night of distraction?"

Jesper's eyebrows shot up before he let his gaze roam upon all of the people in the room. "A night of distraction, you say? I don't see anyone here worthy of your time."

Ead groaned, letting her forehead drop to the wood of the bar. She gripped her empty glass tightly, tapping it three times. The bartender came quickly to fill her up, and when she looked up she pointed at Jesper. "This one here will be paying for my drinks from now on. Won't you, darling?"