THESE BROKEN VOWS (Kazbrekker x Fem!reader) [ book version]

CHAPTER 30

-JESPER P.O.V-

As the schooner sped south, it was as if the whole crew was sitting vigil.

Everyone spoke in hushed tones, treading quietly over the decks.

Jesper was as worried about Nina as anyone - except Matthias, he supposed - but the respectful silence was hard to bear.

He needed something to shoot at.

The Ferolind felt like a ghost ship.

Matthias was sequestered with Nina, and he'd asked for Wylan's help in caring for her.

Even if Wylan didn't love chemistry, he knew more about tinctures and compounds than anyone in the crew other than Kuwei, and Matthias couldn't understand half of what Kuwei said.

Jesper hadn't seen Wylan since they'd fled the Djerholm harbour, and he had to admit he missed having the merchling around to annoy.

Kuwei seemed friendly enough, but his Kerch was rough, and he
didn't seem to like to talk much.

Sometimes he'd just appear on deck at night and stand silently beside Jesper, staring out at the waves.

It was a little unnerving.

Only Inej wanted to chat with anyone, and that was because she seemed to have developed a consuming interest in all things nautical.

She spent most of her time with Specht and Rotty, learning knots
and how to rig sails and disappearing belowdecks to report everything to Bhagya.

Jesper had always known there was a good chance they wouldn't make
this journey home at all, that they'd end up in cells in the Ice Court or
skewered on pikes.

But he'd figured that if they managed the impossible task of rescuing Yul-Bayur and getting to the Ferolind, the trip back to
Ketterdam would be a party.

They' drink whatever Specht might have squirreled away on the ship, eat the last of Nina's toffees, recount their
close calls and every small victory.

But he never could have foreseen the
way they'd been cornered in the harbour, and he certainly couldn't have imagined what Nina and Bhagya had done to get them out of it.

Jesper worried about them, but thinking about them made him feel guilty.

When they'd boarded the schooner and Kuwei explained parem, a tiny
voice inside him said he should offer to take the drug as well.

Even though he was a Fabrikator without training, maybe he could have helped to draw the parem out of their systems and set them free.

But that was a hero's voice, and Jesper had long since stopped thinking he had the makings of a hero.

Hell, a hero would have volunteered to take the parem when they were facing down the Fjerdans at the harbour.

When Kerch finally appeared on the horizon, Jesper felt a strange
mixture of relief and trepidation.

Their lives were about to change in ways that still didn't seem real.

They dropped anchor, and when nightfall came, Jesper asked Kaz if he
could join him and Rotty in the longboat they were rowing to Fifth
Harbour.

They didn't need him along, but Jesper was desperate for distraction.

The chaos of Ketterdam was unchanged - ships unloading their cargo at the docks, tourists and soldiers on leave pouring out of boats, laughing and shouting to each other on their way to the Barrel.