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On the way back to the Slat, Shan lingered at the back of the group, arms wrapped tightly around herself beneath her shawl. Her eyes fixed at a point ahead of her on the damp cobbles two steps behind Inejs shoes.
Somehow she didn't need to look up to see where she was going, she just trusted where her legs were taking her.
As the others began conversing on how to find a way across the Fold, Shan couldn't help the stinging in her eyes or the way she began whispering to herself.
"Girl of light, eyes bright, heart of gold to slay the night." her voice was so faint it practically carried away by the sea breeze. "Girl of light..."
The words repeated like a broken poem, a line to a song stuck on replay.
It was the only sole thought in her mind and she had to speak it in order to make it go away. In this state, the pain in her head had dulled.
She didn't register the fact they made it back, time feeling strangely disjointed, or the fact that she was the only one left downstairs as everyone went their seperate ways.
Glad for the parlour being washed in darkness, only a faint glow along the staircase lanterns off to the side. Her head was pounding as she went to pour herself a glass of water in the hopes it would help.
She downed it one go and rubbed the space between her eyebrows, setting the glass down beside the wash basin. In the silence of the club, she wondered if she could manage sleep that night, or at least for a couple of hours while Kaz put together some plan to find passage through the Fold.
Inej would likely be doing the listening out on the streets, being such a night owl.
The club opened back up in six hours and it was still dark out, meaning she really should go and get some sleep. But something kept her from it.
Shan made her way up the stairs sluggishly, ignoring the turning down the hall for her own room and just heading to the one she spent most of her time in.
Instead of knocking on Kaz's door, she simply let herself in, knowing he was awake due to the glow beneath the door.
As she entered she noticed his desk chair empty as she bypassed, his cane resting in the arch of the doorway to his room.
"Would it kill you to knock?"
Kaz's dry voice carried from her left and she caught his eye in the mirror. Her feet stilled as she took in the sight of his toned shoulders and back as he picked up a fresh shirt from beside his wash basin. There was a ripple of a white scar across his ribs, a darker one over his right shoulder. He slid on his shirt and Shan forced herself to look away.
Her only thought being that Kaz Brekker had freckles.
He looped the buttons through and adjusted his sleeves and collar, watching her as she carried on to her usual spot on his windowledge. Her book had a folded piece of paper between a third of the pages, resting there by the ajar window.
