TROUBLE , kaz brekker

viii. i have a job for you.

There were two voices, one frantic, male, older, distorted by the hysteria and panic that inevitably came at the possibility of your own murder. The second was female, unsteady and, as Echo realised with a gasp, familiar.

Kaz noticed the sudden hitch in her breath and moments later a flicker of recognition crossed his own shadowed face. Inej.

Tante Heleen was a demon in tailored clothing but saints, she was good.

From the other side of the door, Kaz and Echo moved. The door slid under the force of their push just in time to reveal Inej knelt over a bloodied man, her dagger in hand, gleaming.

This wasn't right. Inej didn't kill. Of all the unholy things in Ketterdam, the Suli girl managed to covet her goodness like a priceless jewel. Seeing her, poised to strike, was wrong.

"Don't!" Echo spoke into the dark.

She should have seen it coming. She should have known better than to sneak up on the Wraith. Really, she should. Inej's tell was obvious, she would always square her shoulders before throwing a punch or a knife as if baiting an invisible audience. And yet, with the pain in her chest growing by the second, when the Wraith let her blade fly, Echo had no time to react.

But Kaz did.

He threw his entire body weight onto the girl at his side and Echo stumbled from the force just as the metal grazed the side of her cheek. The knife embedded into the wall, right where she had been standing moments ago.

Kaz recoiled, his skin pale and the distance between them wider than it had been since they first stepped into the house. Suddenly, Echo had the slightest sensation she'd done something wrong. He'd never touched her before, even through layers of clothing and yet there she was, alive because he'd done the one thing she never thought he could.

But evidently, Kaz didn't want to linger on the feeling of her clothing on his. He pointed to the restrained man, who was panting quiet thank you's under his breath. "He's our way to Alina Starkov."

"Him?" Inej frowned.

"Heleen knew it." Kaz replied as Echo regained her footing and elaborated a little more than Kaz had forced himself to.

"She was using you to sabotage our mission."

Inej was indignant, the remnants of tears shining in her eyes. "She and I made a deal."

"It isn't worth more than what we get with him alive." Kaz reasoned.

"You choose him over my freedom?"

"You assume it's one or the other."

The Conductor had recovered from his brush with death and had now taken to studying Echo's face with the kind of gaze that made her want to shatter a chair over his skull.

"Do I know you?"

"No." Echo lowered herself to the ground and began fiddling with the ties that anchored him to the chair. Inej always had a tendency to tie everything far too tight, perhaps an aftermath of her acrobat days. "I just have one of those faces."

The Conductor didn't seem overly convinced but before he could question further ( a bold move for a man surrounded by weapon-wielding criminals ) Kaz spoke again, this time with an order. "Conductor. I have a job for you. Get us to the Little Palace."

Echo looked up from the depths of the sailor's knot, a satire grin on her cheeks. "And please try not to get us killed."

══

ECHO DESPISED THE MENAGERIE, but then, what woman could stand at the doors of this sacreligious establishment, look at the hollow women within and not itch with the desire to burn it to ash?