A Coin Has Two Sides (Season One) || Kaz Brekker x OC

7. The Fold

"We're almost there."

Winnie heard Arken mutter as they approached the Fold.

She had been excessively smoking valdrien cigarettes like they were her lifeline in a failing attempt to keep her darkness at bay.

She hadn't been anywhere near the Fold since she was still with her father. She had made a vow to herself that she would avoid ever going near it again at all costs.

And yet, here she was. With a gang of teenage criminals about to cross over it with a strange man who could be plotting against them. If she wasn't so paralysed by her fear she would laugh at the situation.

Kaz had tied some rope around the goat and was walking it like a dog, whilst Inej was trailing to his left. Arken was ahead with a torch lighting the way.

Considering it was dark out, Winnie couldn't yet directly make out the Fold. It blended into the darkness perfectly. But she could sense it, hear it, feel it.

She had been able to do that almost as long as she could remember. Her father had once told her that they had a special connection to the Fold. It was made of the shadows she could control and so should answer to her. If she could hear it or sense it, that was because it was awaiting her command. But Winnie had never felt that way. She always felt as though it was taunting her, just like her father would. Thriving off her panic and fear, knowing she wasn't strong enough to stand up to it.

It was how she felt now.

They rounded a corner and stopped abruptly.

"Land mines", Inej said reading a sign that stood in front of them.

"We'll wait", Kaz said. "Follow the path you carve."

"That sign was my idea to keep people away. Can't be too careful. We're fine. Come", Arken reassured.

Of course, this entire conversation had gone over Winnie's head as she now had a perfect view of the tall wall of shadows inside which laid nothing short of nightmares.

Everyone feared the Fold. But Winnie was the person that the Fold had chosen to place fear in.

Standing by the landmine sign she felt her breathing quicken to a pace that made it difficult to get any oxygen into her lungs at all. She started to lose her vision and her head began throbbing loudly. She could hear her own heartbeat thumping over the faint sounds of her own screams that were still echoing around the Fold when she last entered.

Kaz and Inej both knew that this part of the job would be one of the hardest for her to do.

They were fully aware that whatever happened to Winnie under her father's control was pure torture, and it heavily involved the use of the Fold. Bringing her here was necessary, but they both hated that they had to put her through such emotional turmoil.

Kaz desperately wanted to comfort her, to tell her it was going to be ok. That he was there for her if she needed him, that she would be safe.

But Inej beat him to it.

The Suli girl took Winnies right arm in her own and began slowly walking her towards the Fold, Kaz a few steps behind them.

Winnie didn't snap out of her fear induced trance which only worsened as she approached the shadowed wall.

Her mind was beginning to overwhelm her with the memories of what had happened to her inside the Fold. She could feel her scars begin to burn like they were fresh wounds, helping to remind her of how they got there in the first place.

"You know the drill by now, my darling", her father told her.

A young Winnie was standing with Kirigan just outside the Fold, her hand tightly grasping his.