REAPER ─ kaz brekker

six; older but just never wiser

006; OLDER BUT JUST NEVER WISER 

"WHEN I'M RICH, I'M GOING TO PAY SOMEONE TO MAKE ME FORGET THIS FRIGID COUNTRY EXISTS."

Onyx did not like the cold. Even as they ventured farther and farther from the rocky coastline, bundled up in their thick cold weather gear, the freezing temperatures persisted in unforgiving ways. The frigid wind that occasionally blew through had turned her cheeks and nose a bright pink, and the hood she consistently attempted to keep over her head was doing little to shield her ears. But at least everyone else seemed to be in the same miserable state as she was.

"When I'm rich," Jesper echoed, tossing an arm around Onyx's trembling shoulders, "I'm going someplace I never have to see snow again, and I'm taking Onyx with me."

Onyx tucked her hands beneath the cover of her lined cloak. "I'd be rather upset if you decided not to take me."

"I'd never dream of taking anyone else with me," he responded. Jesper glanced over her head at Wylan. "What about you, Wylan?"

Wylan tugged his bottom lip between his teeth. "I don't know exactly."

"I think you should buy a golden piano--"

"Flute."

"And play concerts on a pleasure barge."

"You can park it in the canal right outside your father's house," Onyx added in. "Put on a show every night."

"Nina can sing," Inej chimed in.

"We'll duet," Nina amended with a nod. "Your father will have to move."

And as freezing and miserable as it was, at least there were others there to keep her company, and keep her distracted. There was still a dull ache in her side whenever they had to traverse any sort of steep incline, but Onyx brushed it aside and pushed forward. That dull ache was far more bearable than it had been in recent days anyway. Besides, she would need to push it aside if this plan was meant to go off with minor, if any, hitches. Onyx wouldn't let herself be weighed down by a little pain. She'd suffered far worse for less before.

And there's more than just yourself to account for, she told herself. You'll be lucky if your neutrality is still intact after the chaos at Fifth Harbor, too.

Her neutral state within the Barrel somehow managed to float to the back of her mind in the midst of everything that transpired over the last week or more. The Black Tips and Razorgulls that managed to make it out with their lives would no doubt return to their superiors and report that the Reaper was seen fighting alongside Kaz Brekker's crew. And since they were sent by Pekka Rollins, he would no doubt learn of it as well. Good, she thought. He'll be at the end of an arrow one of these days anyway.

"You've been quiet." Kaz fell into step next to her once she slowly drifted away from Jesper and Wylan and moved up toward the front of their cluster.

"Just trying to remember everything for when we arrive," she answered, pulling her hood up over her head once again. Onyx cast him a sidelong glance. "Red Protocol, that's a sector breach, right?"

Kaz nodded. He adjusted his hold on his walking stick as they approached a short incline in the snow. "Yellow Protocol?"

"Sector disturbance."

"And Black Protocol?"

"Avoid triggering it at any and all costs, because if we do, we're completely and utterly--"

"Stop!" Matthias dug his heels into the thick snow and spun toward the group when he reached the top of the rise, arms outstretched as if to physically stop them. "You don't want to--"