Heartbeats In Shadow - Kaz Brekker

meeting mal

this chapter is not edited

Kaz waited until we were well within the fold to retreat under the main deck. Jesper lifted up the grate, and we all climbed down after him. It was dark, moist, and cold, but there were none of my father's soldiers down here and there was less of a chance of the volcra finding us. 

We all stood on guard, me as close as possible to Kaz while Jesper and Inej were both doing their stress management techniques. Inej was pacing the room and listening for others and Jesper was cleaning his guns. 

"This is a bad idea," Jesper said in a condescending tone.

"I think it's rather practical," Kaz replied.

"What? Why?" Jesper asked.

"I don't see how we step off this boat without you pulling those guns. So, cleaning them is a good idea," Kaz explained, making me scoff and move away from him slightly. 

"I don't mean this," Jesper started, holding up his gun, "I mean this," He finished, gesturing around the room. A volcra growled loudly, startling all of us. 

"We are in the worst place in the world, on a ship full of people who want us dead, surrounded by monsters who want us in their gullets. Oh, I should have brought Milo." I nodded my head enthuastically in agreement, knowing the goat would calm both our nerves.

"Who's Milo?" Inej asked, and I couldn't tell if she truly didn't know, or was just pushing our buttons. 

"The goat, Inej! Seriously, pay attention," I told her. Kaz carried on, completely ignoring our small conversation. 

"How many bullets do you have?" He asked Jesper over the volcra, which were getting steadily louder.

"Not enough," He replied, twirling his gun around. I swear, one day he is going to shoot one of us while doing that, and we will all laugh in his face. 

Sunlight started to stream in from the grate above our heads, causing us all to look up.

"It's starting," I told the group, making Kaz nod in agreement in my direction. 

"So, what's our play?" Jesper asked Kaz. 

"We wait," Kaz replied.

"For what?" I asked, desperately wanting to know when I could go fight my bitch of a father. 

"For whatever the general has planned."

"You figured him out yet?" Jesper asked.

"Not quite," Kaz responded, then went silent, thinking. 

"Consider the scenario. The Sun Summoner fled from his palace, now she's tied to the deck. We're sailing for a city where another Ravkan general hired Arken to kill her. And I saw his face as he boarded. I know that look. He's a man consumed by vengeance."

Not paying attention to Kaz's conversation anymore, I noticed an additional heartbeat in the room. I caught Inej's attention, pointed to my heart, then my ear, and in the direction I heard it coming from. I don't even think Kaz and Jesper noticed our silent conversation. She nodded and set off cautiously toward the mysterious person. 

Inej crept up behind him, held a knife to his throat, and took his gun, instead pointing it at his head. She brought him to us, and I had absolutely no idea who this man was, only that he was wearing a first army uniform. I began to pay attention to the conversation again, now that I knew Inej was safe. 

"We need to threaten her life," Was the only thing I heard. 

"What?" I said, and was startled to hear Inej and the mystery man speaking at the same time as me. Jesper immediately pulled out his gun and pointed it at the man, not noticing he was there until that moment. 

"Who's this?" He asked.

After a moment with no reponse, he continued, "Who are you?"

"A stowaway," I answered, as I was the one who discovered him. I turned towards him and asked, "Why pick this of all skiffs?" Inej jabbed the gun farther into his skull, giving him the motivation to answer my question. 

"To kill the general and save Alina." We were all startled by his response, expecting literally the complete opposite. 

"I'll ask again, who are you?" Jesper asked, as he and Kaz crept closer to the man. I took a step away, I was already standing close to him and I was getting quite claustrophobic. 

"Mal Oretsev," He replied simply. 

"You know Alina?" Kaz asked, two inches from his face. 

"I do."

"Who's in control of her?" I ask, cutting off Kaz who was about to ask the same question. 

"The general I'm going to kill."

"You mean my father?" I said blankly, wondering if he already knew who I was. The expression on his face told me he didn't, but Kaz moved on, not giving him any time to process the information. 

"Inej, give him his gun," Kaz instructed her.

"Why?" She asked, tense.

"Because if he isn't with Kirigan's crew, he's with us." I wasn't too keen on inviting another person into our crew, but it made the most sense for our current predicament. 

Inej handed him his gun, Jesper put his away, and Mal immediately relaxed once the gun wasn't pointed at him anymore. He nodded in Kaz's direction, and we were all on good terms. 

After a few more minutes of waiting under the decks, we began to hear bloodcurdling screams coming from above. 

"What now?" Jesper asked for all of us.

"We wait," Kaz said once more, making us all frustrated with him. We were all antsy and ready to fight. Inej took an angry step closer to Kaz. 

"Kaz, you can hear him slaughtering a city," she said, delicately. 

"So you understand the scale of his power then? Good," He told her with frustration evident in his tone. 

"Kaz," I said sharply, trying to get his attention off Inej. 

"The bold move is to strike now," Mal told Kaz, taking a step closer. 

"And the smart one is to get clear of the damned Fold first," he retorted. 

Mal nodded once in response and walked over to the grate, which we had wandered away from. 

"I never said I was smart."

"Can you believe him?" Jesper said rhetorically.

"I'm going with him," Inej told us, as she prepared herself. 

"Kaz, if she's going, then I am too." I said, making him look at me angrily. 

"Vik I swear, if you go up there i'm going to kill you," he said tensely, but I could see the worry in his eyes. I leaned in to give him a short kiss, and walked away. 

"Only if my father doesn't kill me first."