The Love of a Crow - Wesper/Crows Fanfiction/AU

13. Matthias

Matthias shivered. Snakes had always been... a slight problem for him. One that even Nina didn't know about, since it was rare to find a snake skulking around the snow in Fjerda. This man... if he was named after the dastardly creature then he was definitely bad news.

"How does this affect us?"

"Kaz believes that he has some snakes trying to attack us and the Dime Lions; he thinks there's a spy among the Crows," Inej muttered, as if the walls had ears.

Matthias didn't know what to think. He had learnt from his time with the demjin that finding a spy in a gang was like finding a raisin in raisin bread; extremely common, and annoying if you don't like raisins. But Inej was referring to something different; the Crows were only the six of them, and a few of the closest members of the Dregs. If someone was being paid off for information, or worse, had been a betrayer this whole time, it would reflect terribly on the Dregs, not to mention the damage.

"Please tell me that's all the bad news," Matthias pleaded.

Ine gave him a weak smile. "Not even close. A few weeks ago, right before Wylan came to us, our Grisha demolitions expert, Reena, was kidnapped. Anika never saw her leave the Crow Club, and I didn't hear her. But she went missing the same day Rithouse offered the money on Wylan's head."

That wasn't good.

Reena. He had met with her before and they had gotten along well, much to the paranoid annoyance of Nina. It had turned out she had been sent as a soldier from the Little Palace to make and repair weapons on the front lines of the Fjerden Front. They had talked of their ghastly tales of the war, and Matthias hadn't dared tell her the truth about his Fjerden accent; that he had once hunted and slaughtered her kind.

Rithouse must have taken her, but how had he known she was Grisha? What did it have to do with Wylan? It seemed too much of a coincidence that the bounty on Wylan's head had been made the same day she disappeared. Was this all Van Eck's doing?

"Does Kaz think... does Kaz think Wylan has something to do with this?"

"No. He'd be the biggest idiot of the Barrel if he thought that Wylan was involved somehow." Inej said, her voice hardening.

"Should we move him to a safe house? Give him extra protection-"

"Kaz thinks that Rithouse doesn't know Wylan's with us, and if he did, kidnapping him might be too risky, especially since Van Eck doesn't know about his 'side-job'. Besides, Wylan would be safer in the hands of Scales than his father's. The Crow Club is the safest place for him now."

Matthias didn't like the idea of one of the Crows being in anyone's hands, but Inej was right, as usual. If Kaz Brekker couldn't keep Wylan safe then no one could.

Wylan:

Wylan knew he had done something wrong.

It wasn't just the silence; it was the way Kaz and Inej looked at him; Kaz gazed at him like he was ready to hand him over to whoever had paid for his death (which he still didn't know), and Inej... well, he couldn't really tell with her, but he got the message.

What really hurt was when they began to move him back down to his cell, and all of his building parts.

"It's just until we're sure..." Inej started softly as he was handed a huge pile of bent metal and tinted liquids in vials.

"Until you're sure of what?" He asked, struggling not to reveal the pain in his voice.

She hadn't replied, and he had lane awake that night, ready for Kaz to storm down and throw him out, like a repeat of time.