The exception ° Six of crows

Chapter three

"I shall take the heart. For brains do not make one happy, and happiness is the best thing in the world." – The Wonderful Wizard of Oz

Adelaine was standing at the harbour, waiting for Inej to join them. She was standing a few steps away from the rest of the group, anxiety too bad to try to socialise when suddenly the schooner exploded.

The small blonde was thrown off her feet, body slamming into the hard wooden harbour. Her side ached and the palms of her hands were bleeding from the many scrapes they received. Despite her injuries, Adelaine were quick to scramble back to her feet. She had to find Kaz.

They were surrounded, a burning ship at their backs. Kaz had warned them to anticipate competition but this was early in the job for things to be going so badly. However, Adelaine knew something the rest of the crows didn't. The burning boat wasn't the one they would be travelling with, it was fake.

Jesper spotted Nina and Matthias trying to make their way onto the pier, but at least ten men were in their way. Kaz seemed to be running in the opposite direction, and Inej was nowhere to be found, though that didn't mean much when it came to the Wraith. She could be hanging from the sails two feet away from him, and he probably wouldn't know it. He couldn't see Adelaine either and assumed that Kaz must be looking for her.

Adelaine was running around the harbour trying to find Kaz or the real boat, whichever came first. Suddenly it felt like her stomach was set on fire and being ripped apart at the same time. The girl stumbled, her already torn hands once again being ripped up against the hard ground, knees scraping as well. Her mouth opened but no scream escaped her lips, instead, only a small gasp came out. Looking down Adelaine was horrified when she noticed the dark spot that had spread on her black shirt. The intense pain and blood loss were from the bullet that had gone clean through her side.

Adelaine managed to force herself back on her feet when she heard footsteps coming closer. She moved forwards, short legs moving as quickly as they could despite her injury. Adelaine was looking back to try to spot her attacker when she ran straight into a hard chest. The small blonde almost fell down once again but an arm was quick to wrap around her waist pulling her back into the chest that had caused her to stumble from the beginning. Just as she was about to struggle her brain recognised the person who was standing in front of her.

A smile spread on her lips and tears of relief appeared in her eyes when she realised that Kaz was the one holding her.

He pulled her closer to his body, allowing himself to relax for just a second before he returned back to his serious self.

"Are you alright?" Kaz asked looking her up and down but was unable to spot the blood because of her dark shirt as well as the dim lighting of the night.

Adelaine was just about to tell him about the gunshot when she noticed that Inej, who was standing next to Kaz, was actually leaning heavily into Kaz, barely conscious. It was clear that Inej was hurt badly and Kaz would not be able to help them both.

"Yeah, I'm fine," Adelaine lied and because of the stressed situation, Kaz wasn't able to notice it.

Kaz nodded and despite his gut telling him that something was wrong he bundled Inej into his arms and the three moved forward. It took everything in Adelaine to keep up with his fast pace.

"You came back for me," Inej whispered, barely coherent.

"I protect my investments."

Investments. "I'm glad I'm bleeding all over your shirt."

"I'll put it on your tab."

Now Inej remembered. He owed her an apology. "Say you're sorry."

"For what?"