Jesper was pacing back and forth with a look of pure stress and concern plastered on his face as Kaz approached him at the fountain.
It was now light; the darkness had gone, and it had taken Winnie with it.
Jesper saw Kaz limping over and immediately stopped his pacing.
"Where are they? The heartrender came after me, the Inferni went after Inej. Winnie went with you, didn't she? Is she ok? Where is she?" he said quickly.
Kaz opened his mouth to reply but before he could Inej fell from a high rock next to them both. She was cradling the right side of her torso with her hand, blood covering her shirt.
Jesper ran over to her and used his arms to support her.
"The Inferni, she's dead", Inej said.
Jesper and Kaz shared a look towards one another, knowing about Inej's religious aversion to killing.
"Where's Winnie?" Inej asked through painful breaths.
Kaz averted his gaze down to his now broken cane.
On his way to the fountain he let his anger out whilst he was still alone.
During his rage he had smacked his cane against a rock so many times it had cracked in two.
He didn't think it was possible since it was fabrikator made. But his own strength fuelled by his fury showed him otherwise.
Inej and Jesper shared a look, knowing what his silence meant.
She wasn't coming. She was gone.
"Did he take her?" Jesper asked with a slight pang of anger in his tone.
Kaz looked up with his signature blank expression.
"Yes."
"We have to find her", Inej groaned as she went to stand up.
"You can't manage a horse. Not even riding double", Jesper pointed out.
"We'll have to come up with another plan", he added, holding Inej up.
"That's a pretty nice ride", Kaz said as he turned to the carriage the Grisha and Kirigan had arrived in.
"Yes, indeed it is", Jesper said mischievously as Kaz turned to limp up to the carriage.
Jesper helped Inej over and rested her down on a rock as he walked over to one of the doors and swung it open to reveal a Grisha reading a book inside.
"Hello", Jesper greeted with a large smile.
The Grisha threw the book at Jesper and headed for the opposite door.
As he got out, Kaz came up behind him and whacked him over the head with one half of his cane, knocking the Grisha out cold.
"He threw a book at me", Jesper said as he appeared by Kaz who gestured to get Inej into the carriage.
The three crows eventually arrived at an abandoned barn where Inej could take the time to heal quickly so they could get going again.
Kaz laid out the little objects they had left, including a few coins and his broken cane.
"Is this all we have left?" Inej said as she went to analyse her wound from the Inferni. "Jesper, my bag."
Jesper started gagging as handed Inej her bag and caught sight of her open wound.
"It's not healing on its own. I need to stich it", Inej said as she rested against some piled up sacks.
"How long before you can travel?" Kaz asked.
"Not long. Hopefully as quickly as possible so we can get to Winnie before her father can do too much damage", Inej replied. "Where are we going?"
"Ketterdam", Kaz said, avoiding eye contact, knowing what his answer will be responded with.
"What?" Inej and Jesper both said at the same time.
"Between out dwindling funds, lack of time, conflicting interests, and no Winnie it's about time we cut our losses", he said before limping out of the barn to be on his own, leaving Inej and Jesper in shock.
"He isn't serious. Right?" Jesper said.
"He sounded pretty serious to me", Inej replied as she pulled out a needle and thread from her bag.
"We can't just leave Winnie here whilst she's with that monster", Jesper said.
"I know", Inej said, threading her needle through her skin.
Jesper gagged again causing Inej to mock him.
"Where did you even learn to do that?" he asked.
"When I was at the Menagerie. Winnie also taught me a few tips", Inej responded.
"Yeh, but why would you ..." he stopped as he realized what she was insinuating. "Oh, that's dark."
Inej nodded her head slightly.
"I think if you told Winnie that story, she'd murder Tante Heleen herself", Jesper said to ease the tension.
"Believe me, she's offered to. Which is why I won't leave her here", Inej said as the sewed her wound shut.
"But what can we do? The boss said –", Jesper started before Inej cut him off.
"Jesper, you're not hearing me. I'm not leaving her here", Inej said sternly.
Jesper gave her a knowing look.
Winnie had become Inej's closest friend during her time in the Barrel. Considering Inej's attraction to women and annoyance when she had learnt of Jesper and Winnie's one night stand, he had theorized that Inej may see her as more than just a friend.
But however Inej saw her, it didn't matter. She cared about her more than herself and so if she needed to stay here on her own to help her. She would.
"Not to mention I can't go back."
Jesper cleared his throat.
"What?" Inej asked.
"Well I would tell you to trust Kaz and Winnie. That they'd never let you go back, but I don't have the right to tell you what you should do with your shot at freedom."
"You sound just like Winnie with the whole freedom thing", Inej said with a small laugh as she pictured her friend in her mind.
"She always promised me that as soon as she could she would get me out of there. I heard whispers around about her attempts that had failed, even though she never told me about them herself. We spent almost every night on the rooftop at the exchange looking up at the stars and talking about different ways we would murder Heleen", Inej smiled softly.
"She gave up her shot at freedom to come here and help me get mine. I will do the same for her."
"It's not me that needs convincing to go on a suicide mission to save that girl. I'm already in. It's him you need to get through to", Jesper replied as he pointed in the direction Kaz had walked out in.
__________<>__________
As darkness fell, Kaz had started a fire and began roasting a small animal Jesper had shot for their dinner.
He looked at the shadows that had formed around the fire.
Winnie had a way of making them dance.
She always tried her best to show anyone she could that her power didn't need to be used exclusively for evil. That there could be a certain beauty in it.
Kaz thought back to a time when she had tried to convince him himself.
Winnie was sat in his room for the third day in a row trying to work out the kinks in one of their plans for a job.
"So, we can count on you to go in through the right entrance and take out the guards", Kaz said as he rested one of his elbows on his desk, placing the side of his head into his open hand.
"Sounds like fun", Winnie replied from the window seat she would always occupy whenever she visited his office.
It wasn't dark out and so Winnie's focus wasn't able to wonder onto her beloved stars in the sky.
"I'm assuming you can take them out gently as to not bring too much attention from anyone who might be around", Kaz pointed out.
"What's that supposed to mean?" Winnie asked, turning her head to face him.
"Your abilities are inherently dishonourable. Sometimes they carry you away. I just want to make you aware that it can't happen whilst you're on this job", Kaz replied.
"They aren't always dishonourable", Winnie stated, crossing her arms.
Kaz leaned back in his chair and let out an unamused scoff.
Winnie looked at him with furrowed eyebrows and an open mouth.
"You think they are, don't you?" she said in disbelief.
"Do I think that your ability to summon on darkness itself isn't a thing of grace and beauty? Of course I do", Kaz replied mockingly.
"I can't believe you. I would think you of all people would know about there being a certain allure from the darkest of things", Winnie responded.
"And why would I know anything about that?"
"Because you, Kaz Brekker, are one of the darkest things yourself and yet you still have a certain alluring nature about you", she said in a playful tone.
Kaz rolled his eyes at her and held back a small smile.
"Let me show you", she said.
Kaz met her gaze and furrowed his eyebrows in confusion.
"I'll never miss out on an opportunity to prove you wrong, Brekker. I'll prove to you that my ability isn't all darkness and unholiness", she said.
"I'll take some of that action. There's no way you can make the same power you use to strangle people with into something that I will consider enchanting", he said with certainty.
Winnie let a small mischievous smirk fall across her lips which Kaz knew meant he was about to be in some trouble.
"Come here", she commanded.
Kaz sighed as he stood from his desk and grabbed his cane to limp over to the window seat where Winnie stood.
"Sit", she said, gesturing to the vacant part of the seat next to her.
Kaz reluctantly rested his cane down and took a seat, resting his arms in his legs and shooting Winnie a small disapproving glance.
She stood up and walked around his room, carefully blowing out some of the candles leaving light dotted around his office.
She turned to face him and smiled at the confused look he wore before walking back over to the window and sitting back down.
"Now for the fun part", she said.
Her hands slowly moved upwards as shadows crept up the walls and covered the entire room, blocking all light and thus removing Kaz's vision.
"Prepare to be amazed", she whispered to him through the darkness.
"By all means, amaze me", Kaz whispered back.
Suddenly, tiny gaps formed in the surrounding shadows, letting light shine through them.
Kaz looked around and his eyes widened.
For a moment, it appeared as if he had been transported up through the clouds and was sitting surrounded by space itself.
Winnie had transformed his office into a star-filled night sky.
He slowly stood from his seat and took a few steps into the middle of the room.
He held his hand up to touch the shadows, but his roof was too high up for him to reach.
Winnie too had stood up from the seat and took a few steps past him to stand in front of him.
He looked down to see her face peering up at her work.
Despite being surrounded by her shadows, the light coming through the small gaps lit up her face enough to see the same expression she wore when she looked up at the real stars.
It was one he had grown to love.
Winnie bought her chin down to meet his eyes which were already on her.
"Are you amazed?" she asked cheekily.
"Not in the slightest", he remarked with a small smirk.
Winnie rolled her eyes and summoned a small ball of shadows which blew into his face, causing him to bring his hands up to bat them away.
During his scuffle with her shadows, Winnie let out a sweet, innocent laugh.
Kaz loved her laugh.
Her shadows left him alone once she knew he had learned his lesson.
"Ready to admit you were wrong?" she said playfully with a smile.
Kaz took one more look at the dazzling sight around him before turning back to the shadow summoner.
"I wasn't entirely wrong, Marth. Your ability is inherently dishonourable, but rather it is the summoner who brings beauty to it", he said softly.
As they stood in the centre of the room, surrounded by a make-shift night sky Kaz could've seen Winnie begin to blush, but the darkness managed to conceal it.
"There's always a hidden beauty to be found in even the darkest of things, Brekker", she whispered to him before retracting her shadows and walking back to take her place on her window seat once more, leaving Kaz not only amazed by what he had just seen but by the shadow summoner herself.
__________<>__________
Kaz had now shifted his glance to look up the stars.
He hoped that wherever she was, Winnie was doing the same thing and that would make them connected, even if it was in such a small way.
Inej's presence behind him snapped him out of his thoughts.
She walked up to him and handed him his cane that Jesper had managed to fix.
"I'm going to find her", Inej said sternly.
"What about Jesper?" Kaz asked.
"He wants to come but someone has to stay with you since you insist on abandoning her and going back to Ketterdam", Inej replied.
"She can fend for herself", Kaz said, keeping his eyes on the fire.
"In Ketterdam, absolutely. But against her father? None of us know what happened to her when she was last in his clutches, but I have a feeling that it wasn't something that she could exactly defend herself against", Inej argued.
"What's your goal here?" Kaz asked.
Inej took a seat down around the fire.
"If anyone can come up with a plan to get her out of there, it's you", Inej started.
"She would come for you, Kaz. Saints, she already did. The only reason you're sat here alive and not burned to a crisp was because she ignored all the voices of fear inside of her head telling her not to come to the Little Palace and came anyway. She risked everything to save you, and now she's currently in more danger then ever and you're just turning your back on her."
"I gave her my word, Inej."
"What do you mean?"
"She begged me to leave her if she ever got caught. She asked me to take you two with me and to go back to Ketterdam", Kaz explained.
"Winnie ...", Inej muttered under her breath.
"That's my plan. That's what we are going to do", Kaz commanded.
"You'll be breaking your word, then", Inej replied.
Kaz turned to meet her gaze, confused.
"I'm not coming with you. That means you'll be breaking your word, right?" she explained.
Kaz turned back towards the fire.
"Considering that, you might as well come with me and save her."
"Not an option", Kaz uttered.
"So you're totally fine knowing that you're leaving her to be tortured. That the next time you see her, if she's even alive, she will be covered with new scars and bruises. She'll never forgive us."
"That's something I'm willing to live with", Kaz said.
"Why did I even try", Inej said as she got up to leave.
"Wait", Kaz stopped her.
"What?" Inej spat as she turned back around to face the devil.
"Tell her I'm sorry."
"No. If I find her alive, I'll tell her about how you turned your back on her after everything she's done for you", Inej said.
"Don't you dare", he warned.
Inej took a step towards him.
"What will you do if I decide to? You won't be around to stop me", she hissed.
Kaz lowered his head and thought everything through carefully.
"Give me a day. If I haven't figured something out by then, you can leave to do what you want", Kaz said.
"She might not have a day", Inej said with worry.
"She has Alina. They were planning on taking down the Fold, remember? I highly doubt Winnie would have gone with her father that easily if it wasn't part of her plan", Kaz explained.
Inej took a deep breath and started walking back towards the barn.
"I'll go and tell Jesper."
Kaz started turning the cogs in his head. This plan was too important for error. There was too much riding on its success.
Winnie's safety and her survival were on the line, and he would be damned if he didn't make sure he got her out of there.
He was going to break his word.
He was going to save her.
He was going to get his girl.
======\_(._.)_/======
YO ok so things are about to pop off in the next few chapter ... be ready lol <3