✨ Half my soul ✨ Kaz✖️OC.

We watch as our young hearts fade

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ELEVEN BELLS AND QUARTER CHIME

When Matthias opened the door to Nina's cell, she hesitated for the briefest moment. She couldn't help it. As long as she lived, she would never forget Matthias face at that window, how cruel he'd seemed, or the doubt that had sprung up in her heart. She felt it again but when he held his hand out to her, she knew they were done with fear.

She ran to him, and he swept her up in his arms.
He buried his face in her hair.

She felt his lips move against her ear when he said, "I never want to see you like this again." Then he cupped her face in his hands. "Jer molle pe oonet. Enel mörd je nej afva trohem verretn."

Nina swallowed hard. She remembered those words. I have been made to protect you. Only in death will I be kept from this oath. It was the vow of the drüskelle to Fjerda. And now it was Matthias promise to her.

She knew she should say something beautiful in response. Instead, she spoke the truth. "If we make it out of here alive, I'm going to kiss you unconscious."

A grin split his beautiful face. She couldn't wait to see the real blue of his eyes again.

As Nina raced down the hall after Matthias, the clanging bells of Black Protocol filled her ears.

"Please tell me Kaz hasn't gone missing again," she said as they hurtled down the corridor.

"I left him in the ballroom. We're to meet him by the ash." Matthias told her. But he wasn't sure if Kaz Brekker would show up, the last person Matthias trusted in the crew was him. But he could trust him enough to show up and claim the ten million kruge package, he was Kerch after all.

"Last time I looked, it was surrounded by drüskelle," Nina gasped. "If we survive the drüskelle, we won't survive Kaz, not if we kill the Shu scientist_"

"Let's not forget your darling Lin, who'll kill us before the demjin does." Matthias reminded Nina.

At that moment Nina realised that Aeolian had left with a Shu man, Aeolian was the most capable among the crew to take care of herself. She was a dangerous girl. But if Kaz had any knowledge about her being taken away, Nina was sure that he'd not show up at the ash. Instead, he'd go and look for Aeolian. Because Kaz Brekker would never ever leave Aeolian at the mercy of the Fjerdans.

Nina made quick work of the guard at the vault door. Matthias took his rifle. The room was as white as all the others, but hardly bare. Its long tables were full of beakers set over low blue flames, heating and cooling powders in varying shades of orange. A Shu boy was seated cross-legged. He stared at them, a notebook in his lap. He couldn't have been more than sixteen.

Nina said in Shu. "Where is Bo Yul-Bayur?"

The boy brushed his hair back. "He's dead." He asked. "Have you come to kill me?"

Nina wasn't quite sure of the answer to that. "Sesh-uyeh" she ventured.

The boy's face crumpled in relief. "You're Kerch."

Nina nodded. "We came to rescue Bo Yul-Bayur."

The boy looked at them. "My father died when the Fjerdans tried to stop the Kerch from taking us out of Ahmrat Jen...he was killed in the crossfire."