The exception ° Six of crows

Chapter eleven

Update! Just went back and changed it so that in the flashback Kaz says that his name is Kaz Rietveld.

After Kaz had saved her from that man all those many years ago they had gone their separate ways. Kaz Rietveld had gone on to become Kaz Brekker, dirtyhandhand, unofficial leader of the dregs, and ruler of the crow club. Adelaine had not been as successful. Unlike Kaz, she was not ruthless, not willing to subject others to horror and violence so that she could have a better life. Because of this no gang would recruit and her small weak body ensured that no workshop would have any use of her. But Adelaine was a fighter and she would do what she had to in order to survive, even if it meant selling her body. It was supposed to be a one-time thing but the young girl was naive to think that she could ever leave the Sweet Shop after taking a step in. Quickly Pekka Rollins made it clear that willingly or not she would continue her work.

When Adelaine made it clear that it was not willing he locked her inside the room, the door only being unlocked when customers arrived. If she tried to escape she was punished. She still bore the scars.

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Her heart was heavy, actually, everything was heavy, from her eyelids to her thoughts. This wasn't supposed to happen. Not again. But it did. A voice whispered in her head. It did happen but you have to keep going. While wallowing in her trauma did not make her weak, Adelaine knew that this was simply not the time. If she didn't pull herself back to reality there was a risk that she would die, they all could, Kaz could die. So it was with a lot of effort and a lot of fighting with her own mind that Adelaine managed to escape the shadows of her past and step back into reality.

Ice-blue eyes fluttered around the room, taking in what had previously been ignored because of the dark thoughts that had swirled around.

"Is everything going according to plan?" She whispered to Nina and Inej hoping that nothing had gone astray.

The two girls snapped their heads toward her so fast that their joints started aching.

"Thank the saints you're back."

"How long was I out of it?"

Nina just smiled reassuringly, heartwarming at the fact that Adelaine had managed to escape whatever she was stuck in. "Doesn't matter, the important thing is that you're back unharmed.

Adelaine parted her pink lips, words just about to roll off her tongue when Wylan and Kaz appeared outside the cell.

"Adelaine," Kaz said as soon as he made it to the cell. In mere seconds he had the lock opened and his girl swept up in his arms. "Are you okay?" His breath fawned across her ear as he whispered the words.

Adelaine could only nod, squeezing him even closer to her in an attempt to wield off the nightmare images that would forever remain burned into her retinol.

"Sorry to break this up, but we have to hurry," Wylan interrupted the sweet moment.

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Jesper had expected the rest of the crew to be collecting demo supplies in the big laundry room already. But all he saw were giant tin tubs, long tables for folding, and clothes left to dry overnight on racks taller than he was.

They found Wylan and Inej in the refuse room. It was smaller than the laundry and stank of garbage. Two big rolling bins full of discarded clothes were pushed against one wall, waiting to be burned. Jesper felt the heat emanating from the incinerator as soon as they entered.

"We have a problem," Wylan said.

"How bad?" Jesper asked, dumping his coils of rope on the floor.

Inej gestured to a pair of big metal doors set into what looked like a giant chimney that jutted out from the wall and stretched all the way up to the ceiling. "I think they ran the incinerator this afternoon."

"You said they ran it in the mornings," he said to Matthias.

"They used to."

When Jesper grabbed the doors' leather-covered handles and pulled them open, he was hit by a blast of searing air. It carried the black and acrid smell of coal – and something else, a chemical smell, maybe something they added to make the fires burn hotter. It wasn't unpleasant. This was where all the refuse from the prisons was disposed of – kitchen leavings, buckets of human filth, the clothing stripped from prisoners, but whatever the Fjerdans had added to the fuel burned hot enough to sear any foulness away. He leaned in, already beginning to sweat. Far below, he saw the incinerator coals, banked but still pulsing with an angry red glow.

"Wylan, give me a shirt from one of the bins," Jesper said.

He tore off one of the sleeves and tossed it into the shaft. It fell soundlessly, caught flame mid-air, and had begun to burn away to nothing before it ever had the chance to reach the coals.

He shut the doors and tossed the remnants of the shirt back in the bin. "Well, demo is out," he said.

"We can't take explosives in there. Can you still make the climb?" he asked Inej.

"Maybe. I don't know."

"What does Kaz say? Where is Kaz? And where's Nina?"

"You're not going to ask about Adelaine?" Wylan asked, eyebrows furrowed at the other boy's complete lack of thought toward the young girl.

Jesper coffee, eyes rolling as if saying that the question was absolutely ridiculous. "Please, wherever Kaz is Adelaine is certain to be with him. Especially after the episode she had."

"Kaz doesn't know about the incinerator yet," Inej intervened. "He, Adelaine and Nina went to search the upper cells."

Matthias' glower went dark as a rain-heavy sky ready to split. "Jesper and I were supposed to go with Nina."

"Kaz didn't want to wait."

"We were on time," said Matthias angrily. "What is he up to?"

Jesper wondered the same thing. "He's going to limp up and down all those flights of stairs, dodging patrols?"

"I may have tried to point that out to him," Inej said. "Even Adelaine tried to convince him, but she was too drained to actually argue with him. Always surprising, remember?"

"Like a hive of bees. I really hope we're not all about to get stung."

"Inej," Wylan called from one of the rolling bins. "These are our clothes."

He reached in and, one after the other, pulled out Inej's little leather slippers.

Her face broke into a dazzling smile. Finally, a bit of luck. Kaz didn't have his cane. Jesper didn't have his guns. And Inej didn't have her knives. But at least she had those magic slippers.

"What do you say, Wraith? Can you make the climb?"

"I can."

Jesper took the shoes from Wylan. "If I didn't think these might be crawling with disease, I would kiss them and then you."

A/N

Super short chapter and I know that sucks, especially since it's been three months since I last published but I wanted to get something out for you guys. I'm a bit stuck at the moment, (the bad part about not properly planning out how I want the book to go) but I'm going to try to start updating more consistently. Thank you so much to all the ones who are still reading this. I am so grateful for you guys and the comments you leave truly make my day and is the very thing that motivates me to continue.