THESE BROKEN VOWS (Kazbrekker x Fem!reader) [ book version]

CHAPTER 10

✨Y/N P.O.V✨

"You know something about the sugar crop?" Jesper asked.

They had been brainstorming for a while now.

"I know something about the supply." Replied Kaz.

Wylan sat up straighter. "The silos," he said. "The silos at Sweet Reef."

"Very good, merchling."

Matthias shook his head. "What's Sweet Reef?"

"It's an area just south of Sixth Harbor," said Inej.

Y/N remembered the view of the vast silos towering over the warehouse district.

They were the size of small mountains.

"It's where they keep molasses, raw cane, and the processing plants to refine sugar. We were right near there today. That wasn't a coincidence, was it?"

"No," said Kaz. "I wanted you to get a look at the terrain. Most sugar
cane comes from the Southern Colonies and Novyi Zem, but there won't be another crop until three months from now. This season's crop has already been harvested, processed, refined, and stored in the Sweet Reef silos."

"There are thirty silos," said Wylan. "My father owns ten of them."

Jesper whistled. "Van Eck controls one-third of the world's sugar
supply?"

"He owns the silos ," said Kaz, "but only a fraction of the sugar inside
them. He maintains the silos at his own expense, supplies guards for them, and pays the Squallers who monitor the humidity inside the silos to make sure the sugar stays dry and separated. The merchants who own the sugar pay him a small percentage of every one of their sales. It adds up quickly."

"Such enormous wealth under one man's protection," Matthias
considered. "If anything were to happen to those silos, the price of sugar-"

"Would go off like a cheap pair of six-shooters," Y/N said, popping to
her feet.

"The price would climb and keep climbing," said Kaz, pulling her down by the sleeve. "And as of a few
days ago, we own shares in the companies that don't store sugar with Van Eck. Right now, they're worth about what we paid for them. But once we destroy the sugar in Van Eck's silos-"

Jesper was now bouncing on the balls of his feet. "Our shares will be worth
five-maybe ten-times what they are now."

"Try twenty."

Jesper hooted. "Don't mind if I do."

"We could sell at a huge profit," said Bhagya."We'd be rich overnight."

"Thirty million kruge rich?" Y/N asked. The reward Van Eck owed
them for the Ice Court job. One he'd never intended to pay.

The barest smile ghosted over Kaz's lips. "Give or take a million."

Wylan was gnawing on his thumbnail. "My father can weather a loss. The other merchants, the ones who own the sugar in his silos, will be hit worse."

"True," said Matthias. "And if we destroy the silos, it will be clear Van
Eck was targeted."

"We could try to make it look like an accident," suggested Nina.

"It will," said Kaz. "Initially. Thanks to the weevil. Tell them, Wylan."
Wylan sat forward like a schoolboy eager to prove he had the answers.
He drew a vial from his pocket. "This version works."

"It's a weevil?" Inej asked, examining it.

"A chemical weevil," said Jesper. "But Wylan still hasn't named it. My
vote is for the Wyvil."