A/n: I forgot that there is zero scenes for the Crows in episode seven, so episode eight and seven will both be in this chapter.
When we entered Ravka all I saw was how dark it was. The Darkling must have expanded the Fold because it was moving across Ravka at an alarming pace. Volcra we're flying around and every now and then we would see one dive for another poor victim.
We could see Alina fighting off Volcra in the distance. Tolya directed us towards her direction.
Just as we approached her and Mal I saw a Volcra grab Alina. I instinctively jumped off the ship and killed the Volcra with the Neshyenyer.
As I sliced through the Volcra it erupted in fire.
"Elora, is that really you?" Alina asked.
"The one and only." I smirked as I pulled down my mask.
"I can't believe you're hear risking your life for me again."
"I risk my life all the time, this is nothing new. Plus, someone had to find this." I held up the Neshyenyer before sheathing it.
I held it out for Alina to take as we stole it for her.
She stopped me. "No one can wield it like you."
"Yes, yes. Happy reunion. Can we get on with it?" Zoya called from the ship.
"Zoya, thank you." Alina responded. "If you'd been a moment later, we-"
"Oh, hello." Nina said as her head popped up over the railing.
"You know I'm not one to resist dramatic timing." Zoya continued, completely ignoring Nina.
"I remember you." Nina said, clearly not having any of it. "You we're on the ship to Ketterdam. Nina Zenik. Heartrender. Big fan."
"We need to get further into the Fold it destroy it." Alina stated.
"Hop on then." Zoya said impatiently.
When we got back on the ship I didn't see any sign of Inej, Kaz, Jesper, or Wylan. I assumed they'd gone off to help fight, or to find this Prince of Ravka.
——
We could hear Volcra growling in the distance as we walked to the middle of the Fold, safe inside Alina's force field of light.
"This is it. The heart of the Fold." Alina exclaimed. "Where Kirigan First damned this country into darkness. This is where we stand a chance of bringing it down."
Mal stepped toward Alina and started to pull out his sword.
"No." Alina stopped him.
On the way here Alina and Mal had explained how Mal was the Firebird and the last amplifier Alina needed to destroy the Fold once and for all.
I recalled the last time I was in the Fold. On the train with Kaz, Jesper, Inej and Arken. We scared out of our senses.
I was excited to see the Fold destroyed, especially with front row seats.
Alina rolled up her sleeve to reveal her wrist. She hen took Mal's hand and out it around her wrist. As soon as his hand made contact with her wrist where they were connected started to glow a bright, vivid red. And when Alina touched her hand to Mal's chest her whole body started to glow with the same colour.
"It's beautiful." Zoya exclaimed grabbing both mine and Nina's hands.
"How touching." A deep voice said.
Who I assumed, from Alina's horrified look, was the Darkling, or Kirigan, or whoever had suddenly appeared inside our safe little force field.
Alina stepped away from Mal and prepared to use her powers against him.
"I almost feel bad for what I have to do now." He said. "He is family after all."
The Darkling prepared to use his powers when Mal shouted at us to get down as he cocked his pistol.
When I turned around to see what he was pointing his gun at I saw what I had been told was a Nichevoya trying its best to break through Alina's force field.
Mal shot at it just as I turned around to see Alina and the Darkling use the Cut against eachother.
The Cut was a deadly technique that was difficult to master, but would slice your enemy in half.
Both of their Cuts hit eachother, knocking both Alina and Mal, and the Darkling backwards.
The Darkling groaned in pain. I could clearly see where he had been hit.
"I'm hit." Mal said weakly.
Alina immediately ran to his side and tried to help with his wound.
She was saying stuff in a frenzy, but I didn't catch any of it. Just her panicked breathing.
"Stay with me!" She yelled in desperation.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Nina pulled back.
Me and Zoya whipped around to see her pulled away by a Nichevoya.
"Nina!" We yelled in unison.
I unsheathed the Neshyenyer and attempted to find where the Nichevoya was.
It circled us, winding in and out of the shadows of the Fold. While Volcra flew overhead, growling.
Zoya was doing her best to keep it away from us with her powers while I was waiting for its attack, ready with the Neshyenyer.
From behind us Alina was trying to keep Mal alive and the Darkling was struggling to get up.
As much as I hate to wish death upon others, of course our exception to that is Dressen, I was really hoping that the Darkling wouldn't survive his injuries so that this could all be over and we could go home to Ketterdam. I missed my little rainy city.
"Nina! Nina!" Alina called into the darkness, but with no response.
Red light started swirling around Alina and Mal as she slowly put a dagger through him. She didn't mean to cause him more pain she just didn't know it would be a lot less painless for Mal if she would just run him through.
The growls of the Volcra grew closer.
Suddenly, a blinding light and a high pitched scream filled the air, blinding both me and Zoya.
The growling of the Volcra ceased.
When I opened my eyes the Fold was gone. All I could see was a barren desert with a stone foundation right in the center of it.
I expected a sense of relief to go throughout my body, but I was still tense, waiting for something to put me in action.
That something was several Nichevoya lunging at me and Zoya.
Zoya did her best to hold them back was knocked backwards, landing hard on the ground.
I dodged the attacks and sliced as many of the monsters as I could.
After exterminating the last Nichevoya, I ran to help Zoya up.
We may not be friends, but we were allies.
"Nina! Nina, come please!" Alina yelled as Nina ran towards her and Mal's limp body.
We watched in anticipation as Nina pulled out the dagger embedded in his chest and healed his wounds.
"Now you know sacrifice." The Darkling said.
I looked over to see him barely standing, limping towards Alina.
"Beyond anything you've ever known." Alina spat. "And look what it did."
"Indeed. Look what it did."
"Mal and I changed the world. We tore down your Shadow Fold."
"You have my sympathies for what comes next." The Darkling declared as he walked closer to Alina. "When you realize that what you've done solves nothing. The world doesn't need a saint to protect it. It needs a monster. And while I remain-"
He burst into a coughing fit before continuing.
"Let me be your monster."
"You think that after everything you've done, I'd still stand with you?" Alina questioned.
"There is no light without darkness. Without me you have no counter, no balance. Let me carry the hatred of the world."
"Hatred. Because of the choices you made."
"Because of choices you will make."
"I will never walk your path." Alina exclaimed.
"I know you believe that now. But soon...soon you will have no equal. The years spent alone will grind you down, they will harden you. And who will be there to shield you from it?"
The Darkling was now face to face with Alina.
"Who will there to save you?" He lifted up his hand, only for Alina to grab it.
"I will save myself." She threw his hand back to his side. "Your legacy is already a written. There is no redemption."
She then pulled out a dagger and stuck it deep into the Darkling's abdomen.
He fell to the ground with a grunt of pain.
A Nichevoya formed out of his back and picked Alina up.
The Darkling made a move towards the Nichevoya, almost to stop it, only to be thrown back by his own creation.
I threw the Neshyenyer and hit the monster directly where its belly should be.
Alina fell to the ground and the Darkling struggled to his feet once more.
"You can't control them can you?" She said as she stood up. "You can't control any of it."
He held out his hand for her to take. "I thought I could control it all once. Find peace. And for a moment, I swear I did."
While he was looking off, fantasizing, Alina picked up the Neshyenyer and ran him through.
"Without me they will come for you." He warned.
"Let them come." Alina said confidently as she pulled out the Neshyenyer, causing the Darkling to fall to the ground.
Me and Zoya were watching this all play out while Nina was struggling to bring Mal back from the dead.
Alina stood over the Darkling as he spoke his final words. I could not hear what he said.
I watched as his life left his body and his soul sunk down to deepest depths of hell.
Hope was dangerous, but not unachievable.
"Come on you stubborn bastard." Nina exclaimed as Alina rushed to her side. "He's putting up a good four this one. Almost as if something is holding him back. Give him a reminder of what he has to live for."
Alina grabbed Mal's limp hand and looked as if she was praying.
Mal shot up only to nearly fall back down due to the force of Alina's hug.
"What do we do with him?" Zoya asked as she stood over the Darkling's body.
"Burn him." Alina said before turning to Zoya. "Will you wait with him until we return? I don't want any heretics come and make a martyrs relic of it."
Zoya, breathlessly, nodded her head.
"We're on the other side of this now, there's no turning back." Alina exclaimed finally before we made our way back.
——
As we entered the camp I gave Alina the Neshyenyer.
"You keep it safe until you can return it. It belonged to a saint in Shu Han who wanted you to wield it." I ran towards Kaz before she could protest.
I stopped before reaching him.
"You don't have your cane?" I questioned.
He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it as soon as Jesper ran up to me, picked me up and twirled me around in a hug.
"Elora!" He cheerfully yelled as he embraced me.
"And Kirigan?" Stirfry asked from a seat on an old box. I had no idea what he was doing here, or how he knew the Darkling, but I answered anyways.
"Dead. Zoya is protecting the body. Alina wants him burned." I said.
"Thank you. My country might have been sunk if you hadn't arrived. Again."
"Your country?" I asked confused.
"He's the Prince of Ravka." Jesper explained.
"What is it, four different identities now?" I teased.
"We'll settle this in gold." Kaz said.
As he walked off with a few others I assumed were apart of his crew, I saw that he had Kaz's cane for whatever ridiculous reason.
"He's right you know. We do have our adventures. We should hire a writer to jot down our story." Jesper exclaimed excitedly. "What will we call it? The Four Charming Rogues of Ketterdam."
"There's five of us." Kaz said motioning to Nina who was sitting on the other side of the courtyard.
"Right. Five of Crows." He said dramatically.
——
I was sitting alone on a bench in the chapel.
We'd just gotten back from the Darkling's funeral, if you could even call it that. Nikolai made a speech, and Alina, Zoya, and who I found out to be Genya, set fire to the corpse.
It was quiet until Kaz's footsteps followed by the tap, tap, tap of his cane echoed throughout the halls.
I could sense his presence behind me, even if I wasn't turned to face him. He could've come in as silently as Inej and I would still just know.
I may not be a Heartrender, but you learn to listen for others. Their heartbeats, their breathing. Sometimes, with the right people, you could just sense their energy when they enter a room. That's what I had with Kaz, that's what I had with the Crows. Of course I could do it on a job, but that was different. That was when it's a life, or death situation.
"Lantsov paid up." He said, breaking the silence that filled the room previously. "Everyone will get their cut."
"And Nina?" I asked.
"She'll receive a pardon for deserting and another for her Fjerdan. As long as he stays out of trouble, the charges will be dropped."
I bit my tongue. I wanted to say something about me leaving, but I just couldn't bring myself to.
"I also wanted to say goodbye." Kaz said, making my decision for me.
"I didn't think you were the sentimental type." I responded.
"I don't know if this will mean much to you. Hell, I don't know what it really means to me. But for the first time in nearly a decade, I prayed. I prayed for you, and the Crows, and your brother, Jordie." I told Kaz.
That's why I'd come to the chapel in the first place.
I felt him stiffen at my words, but I hoped he got something out of them.
"I don't want your prayers." He said.
I sighed as I felt something drop inside of me.
Hope was not only dangerous, it was tempting. And it was the tough enough that I subconsciously hoped for many things. Many unachievable things.
"What do you want then?" I asked him.
He opened his mouth to respond, but closed it and gave a slight shake of his head as if to tell himself not to say it.
"To die buried under the weight of my own gold." He finally spoke.
Whatever had dropped inside of me earlier dropped a little further.
I don't know what I wanted him to say, what I wanted to hear. But it was definitely not what he told me.
"More money. More scores to settle." Was all I could bring myself to say to him at the moment.
I stood up and paused for a moment to look Kaz in the eye, to try and see what he truly thought deep down, but he was a closed book. One that I would maybe never open.
"Was there never another dream?" I asked him, giving myself another chance to break my heart even further.
When I didn't get an answer I made my way to walk out the door and out of the chapel, but I was stopped. Stopped by someone's hand around my wrist.
"Stay. Stay in Ketterdam. Stay with me." I heard Kaz say.
I swallowed a lump in my throat along with the tears in my eyes.
"And what would be the point? What reason would I have to stay?"
Kaz took a step closer to me. "I want you to. I want...I want...you."
I turned to fully face him now.
I grabbed his hand and put my other hand on top of his.
"And how will you have me, Kaz Brekker? Gloves on?Fully clothed? Your head turned so our lips can never touch?"
I paused as I let go of his hand. "Our whole relationship we have kissed once. I slept with you once, and that was only because you needed comfort. We have touched, without you fully clothed, without your gloves on...without your head turned away...only twice. I will have you without armour, or I will not have you at all."
I prepared to leave, prepared for him to let me.
"You once told me that if we are ever going to make something out of whatever we have going on, that we would have to work for it." Kaz said.
"I have been working for it. I have been working for it this whole time, but you have given me nothing in return." I responded, holding back my anger and tears.
"I know...I was...conflicted. But I swear to you, Elora. I swear on my life that I will do better, for you...for us."
I thought silently to myself for a few moments. A few moments where Kaz decided to remove his gloves, and place them in my hands.
I looked up at him. He was peering into my eyes. I saw the genuinity and honesty in his eyes.
"I will stay. Everyone deserves a second chance. And you barely had a first." I said, maintaining eye contact with him, until I turned and left the room.
——
I met Inej outside the courtyard, ready to depart.
"I'm going to miss you." I said, hugging her tight.
I wasn't trying to hold back my tears any longer, I was letting them flow freely down my cheeks.
"I will write to you every week." Inej promised.
"Be safe. I love you." I told her, giving her one last squeeze before letting her board the ship.
"I love you too." She said as the ship took off.
I wiped my tears away on my sleeve and met with Kaz so we could make our way to our ship back to Ketterdam with Jesper and Wylan.
A/n: Go read the epilogue!!!