𝐈𝐅 𝐀𝐋𝐋 𝐄𝐋𝐒𝐄 𝐅𝐀𝐈𝐋𝐒- ᴋᴀᴢ ʙʀᴇᴋᴋᴇʀ

𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐓𝐖𝐎

She was once addicted to the adrenaline, the way the blood rushed through her veins. It could have been the hunt that made her crave more. Or it was the control it gave her, something she grasped onto tightly nowadays.

Shivani's new alias had kept her safe from all onlookers. The Blood Fox was whispered in the streets and the shadows, the name a reminder to always look over your shoulder. Each bounty she did away with fed her retaliation against her childhood and her yearn to feel something. Yet, the age of the Blood Fox came to an end as fleeting as it began. Her hunger had met its most evenly matched rival.

Soon, her name became only a whisper, a ghost story to be sought out. Those who showed up at her doorstep wishing for her to commit their sins were turned away with no explanation as to why. The radical conversion of a murder-driven little girl turned hermit was completely unjustifiable and time wasted on until fear was no longer on her side and she was just another child birthed by Ketterdam's streets.

***

It had seemed as if the Crows' luck had already run out. Their morning had consisted of a wild goose chase, desperate for any passage through the Fold that didn't end with them torn to pieces and fed to the Volcra, but to their great dismay, they were as empty-handed as they had begun. 

Kaz Brekker was brooding, again, no surprise to Shivani. She was just about as malcontent as he was, and even Jesper was about at his wits' end. While Kaz stared off into space, she had resorted to burying her head in her arms since drinking away her problems "was not the answer to everything" as he had so kindly put it.

"Here's what I don't get," Jesper started.

"Kaz, are you sure I can't get that drink," Shivani pleaded, lifting her head to run her hand against her face at the same time as Inej said, "We're going to be here all night," with a small grin playing upon her lips.

"Rude," Jesper told them, looking in disbelief between the pair. "Why haven't they tried going under it? Just dig a tunnel."

"Tried that. More than a century ago," Kaz told him, finally steering his gaze away from the wall it was fixated at, "something... heard them digging."

"It was made hundreds of years ago by that crazy Grisha..."

"The Black Heretic," Inej intervened.

"The one who controls shadow. They've got one in their army now, don't they? General Kirigan?" he continued.

"Your point?"

"If one of his kind made it, can't he unmake it?"

Shivani snorted at the sharpshooter's question, shaking her head in incredulousness. If you kill one man, does killing another bring the first one back to life? She could have scoffed. No, of course not. She would have been able to sleep at night if that were so.

"Have you ever put out fire by adding more fire?" Inej voiced the equivalent of Shivani's thoughts.

"Then what's the opposite?"

"A Sun Summoner," she told him.

"Right, then, one of those."

"Doesn't exist," said Kaz and Shivani in unison, their eyes meeting for a fleeting second. "Neither do saints," Shivani continued, muttering into her hands, hoping silently that Inej didn't hear. Though by the daggers Inej was glaring into the side of her head she knew she had heard.

"Doesn't exist yet."

"Dreesen comes into town," Kaz starts, regaining Shivani's dwindling attention, "doesn't waste a minute. Sends out for a crew to steal something but doesn't specify what. Is it heavy, large, worth more than a million on the black market?" Greed shone in his eyes at the possibilities, "Maybe he doesn't know."