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

24. Nina

A/N: Hey, welcome back! Unfortunately my keyboard just broke, and so did my heart, so here is my coping mechanism; posting crappy fanfiction! Hooray! Anyways, I hope you enjoy, have a good day/night.

Nina hadn't nibbled her nails since she was twelve. But she was making quite a talent of it now.

The memories of the Crow Club chaos a few hours ago were still haunting her; the dead man's terror-filled face, the sound of the bullet whizzing towards Wylan, Jesper jumping in front of him... and catching it!

Jesper was a Grisha! It was all Nina could do to stop herself from jumping up and down in joy. Finally someone that understood! Someone that was forced not to treat Grisha like investments, holy beings or things to hunt down. And Jesper had kept it hidden all this time!

That was the part Nina didn't understand, or was refusing to accept. Jesper was one of her closest friends, a man she would jump from a cliff for, gambler or not. But the fact that he had felt the need to hide something so major from her, so life-changing... Well, it stung a little. But Nina understood why some people chose to keep their Grisha powers hidden; the constant call to service wasn't exactly appealing to someone like Jesper, but she sensed it something more than that. She could tell that from the conflicted look he had given Wylan as he held the still-smoking bullet in his hands.

Being Grisha wasn't, and never would be, a bad thing! And whoever had ingrained that in Jesper so much that he felt the need to hide his gift was a horrid person, one Nina didn't care to meet anytime soon for fear she would show them what a Grisha could really do. But for now, she had bigger fish to fry. The others still hadn't returned.

Though Nina knew Jesper was fully capable of protecting Wylan (the bullet jump had proved that!) she still couldn't help but be fearful. Half of Ketterdam seemed to have woken from their slumber and their early hangovers to join the hunt for him, and he wasn't exactly a subtle-looking boy. Wylan walked like a tourist, talked like a tourist and acted like a tourist in general. Still, maybe they wouldn't be expecting that; they'd be expecting a slinky, dark-headed Barrel boss who could kill in a second. They definitely would not be expecting a merchant's son.

Had Van Eck found out about the search yet? Were his own men also on the hunt for him? The letter seemed to prove it, but would he go so far as to order another gang onto the bounty? And if so, how long would it take for them to find him? Nina winced; she had drawn blood on her finger.

Suddenly, the window burst open and Nina screamed, nearly falling backward on her chair as Inej pounced in through the open frame, rolling down and landing standing up. Her plait was disheveled and she was wiping blood from her Saint-blades onto her sleeve; clearly the fighting was still very much a problem.

"Any sign of them?" Nina asked desperately. They had sent Matthias out twenty minutes ago, but, knowing Jesper, they could have gotten halfway across the island, or they were already... dead.

Nina had no idea what possessed Kaz to come up with a plan so quickly, and she doubted she would ever know, but it had worked, and, from where they could see it, Jesper and Wylan had made it out ok before turning down a blind spot. But what had happened after that? The Crows were too busy trying to defend the Club to be sure, and they could have captured Wylan from right under their noses. That would be the end of it; engaging with the enemy gang would only lead to unwanted trouble, and Nina doubted Kaz would be willing to negotiate that much for Wylan.

But Nina would. She would bet her life to bring Wylan home; he belonged with them now, not as a prisoner, but as a Crow. And she was sure the others felt the same. Kaz would just have to deal with the fact that they were all sentimental.