Psyche • Kaz Brekker • Shadow & Bone •

16

A gentle hand touched Shan's shoulder and jolted her out of her hunched over state, head lifting from her hands.

She shrank back at the feeling of eyes on her and blinked the unsettling vision away, expecting to see Inej at her side but finding a rather concerned Jesper.

"Shan?" He asked uncertainly, scanning her face.

She met Kaz's piercing gaze across the way and attempted to mask her troubled expression. By the look he was giving her she hadn't quite done it in time.

"Where's Inej?" She asked suddenly, avoiding their stares.

There was a moment of silence as they exchanged a look before footsteps alerted them to a man being forced forwards into the dim light, with short cropped hair dressed in a soldiers uniform.

Inej held his own gun to his back, appearing from the shadows behind him.

"Who's he?" Jesper asked accusingly, hands laying on the pistols at his belt.

"A stowaway," Inej responded, rounding him to stand to his side. "Why pick this of all skiffs?"

Shan shifted uncomfortably at the feeling of eyes still on her. She locked eyes with Kaz.

"To kill the General and save Alina."

Something about his tone made Shans eyes flicker away to meet his. He seemed familiar, but she swore she had never seen him before.

"Who are you?" Kaz narrowed his eyes.

"Mal." He answered, glancing between them. "Oretsev."

She stood suddenly, a strange look in her eye, lowering her hood and pulling the shawl around her shoulders.

"The tracker who broke the light free," Shan murmured, scanning him up and down.

Her mind travelled back to an old vision, the one she'd had in the basement of Dreeson's mansion when the existence of the Sun Summoner was revealed.

Mal gave her a strange look, before scanning her appearance, fixating on her hair for a moment before cracking the tiniest of smiles.

"The seer with the white hair."

"Seer?" She angled her head to the side, lips raising, choosing to ignore the white haired part. "That's a new one..."

"Can we get back to the situation at hand?" Jesper cut in while gazing at the ceiling anxiously as the screeching of Volcra growing nearer.

"Give him his gun." Shan commanded.

"What?"

Inej did so without question. "If you trust him, then I do."

Kaz stood. "If he's not with Kirigans crew, he's with ours."

As the darkness grew around them, they all stared upwards, uneasy.

Shan suddenly flinched back with a noise of alarm, eyes closing, hands covering her ears.

"Shan-"

She flinched away from Inej who went to her side immediately, turning away from everyone to face the corner and ducking her head down.

"What's wrong?"

They all waited in silence as the girl stood stiff as a statue, her eyes glued on the wall, her hands nearly shaking with how hard they were pressing over her ears to keep whatever was going on inside her head quiet.

"He's going to destroy the city."

Her hushed voice met their ears almost hauntingly.

"Novokirbirsk?" Mal's voice cut in, a deep frown on his face. "How can you-"