WHEN KAZ FINALLY CAME BACK, Asra knew instantly what had happened. Finally. He was dishevelled, damp, and limping a little more than usual. He was almost an hour later than Asra had predicted. She'd slipped into his office on the top floor of the Slat ages ago, and he just stared at her when he came in.
She was sat on his makeshift desk, reading his papers with obvious disinterest. Asra smiled at him, waggling her fingers in a wave.
Kaz closed the door behind him. "Van Eck spoke to me."
She let her legs hang over the edge of the desk, gripping the edge with scarred hands. "Told ya. You two talk about me?"
"Yes."
She leaned forward. "And?"
"And he won't be bothering you again." He shrugged off his coat, stood facing his wash basin. Asra noticed blood on his sleeve and didn't stop her smile.
"Wonderful." She swung her legs. "I'm flattered you care, Kaz."
She swung from the desk, landing beside him with a soft thud. Hands laced behind her back, Asra leant against the wall beside him, face blank. "What's the job?"
Kaz was undoing his waistcoat. "Four million kruge."
Asra whistled. "For what?"
"An impossible job, near certain death, terrible odds, but should we scrape it..." he trailed off, eyes distant, dreamy as his voice. It was rare to see Kaz like this.
Asra grinned. "I dread to think."
"We'll be kings and queens Asra. Kings and Queens."
She loved how he said her name. "I could get behind that. King Kaz, Queen Asra. Has a nice ring to it."
When Asra looked back, Kaz was shirtless.
Her eyes widened slightly, watching as Kaz dumped his shirt. He was all corded muscle and sharp lines. He was dotted with scars, same as her. And two tattoos sat on his forearm, the Dregs' crow and cup and a simple black R. Asra hasn't asked what it meant.
Then came the gloves. He pulled them off, lay them aside, and grabbed a cloth to dip into the water. His hands were made to pick locks, shuffle cards, trick the eye. Long and slender fingers, slight callouses on his finger tips. Asra knew she shouldn't stare. She did anyway.
"How long?" She asked, eyes following his hand as he ran the wet cloth along his torso, water trickling down between-- Oh what am I doing? What is he doing?
"A few weeks, maybe a month." If Kaz saw any absurdity at the situation, he didn't show it. Of course he didn't.
Asra leant her back to the wall, looking out the window. "What else?"
"Round up Jesper and Muzzen. I want them here by dawn. And I'll need Wylan waiting at the Crow Club tomorrow night."
"Wylan? The kid barely handles himself as is, a big job like this-"
"Just do it."
Asra rolled her eyes. "Inej can get them."
"Fine." He shrugged on a shirt, waistcoat, tossed her something. Asra caught it out the air and examined it. "You can fence that."
It was a tie pin; a golden laurel wreath circled around a simply massive ruby. Van Eck's.
"Course." She said, then pocketed it. She went to leave, had one hand on the door handle when he spoke again.
"What did he want with you?"
Asra hesitated. Jan Van Eck had come to her two nights ago, as she was walking home to the Slat. It was dark, quiet, she was alone. She didn't know what happened. One moment she was cutting through an alley, the next there was a needle in her neck.
Asra went wild. All at once she was a girl, scared and alone and confused. She could smell the dank of the cell, taste the rot. Her throat was raw from screaming.
Her elbow connected with their ribs. The moment the metal brushed against her pulse Asra was moving. The nameless stumbled away, and Asra spun, kick flying high and aimed for their head.
Only no one was there. Asra's foot hit the wall and she fell. It was awkward, jarring. She wasn't thinking straight. No one was there, yet still they plunged the syringe into her neck.
Mother. Her last thought. She wanted to beg, she'd like that. Maybe they'd spare her the worst of it. But it was too late. The clearance was in her system and Asra was going under. Asra, she had a name. Something wasn't right.
She'd woken up with a start. She was tied to a chair. Wrong, she should've been in a cell. There was a man before her. Wrong, she should've been alone. He was waving wuftsalts under her nose. Wrong, they should never purposely wake a beast such as her.
She took a moment to gain herself fully. Then Asra snapped her head up and collided with her forehead with his nose. He stumbled back with a yell, and Asra watched him with wild eyes. Wrong, she shouldn't have known her name. She shouldn't have one.
He was a university medik, and old. His nose was broken and he held it closely, blood dribbling between his fingers onto his old robes. Wrong.
The room was rich, decked out with the defined luxury of a merchant. A man sat on the fine mahogany desk, gaunt and handsome, somewhere in his forties with a quickly receding hairline. He wore merch black, and held far too much importance to be nameless. Wrong.
"Miss Behandelar, is it?" He laughed slightly over her name. Correct. He knew. Asra went wild all over again.
She spat at him across the room. The merchant watched dully, then stood from his desk. He ushed the medik away, but Asra hadn't listened. His tie pin was a ruby, circled in gold leaves. Van Eck.
"Quiet, aren't you?" He said.
"You're not with them." She shouldn't have to say who they were. He should've known. If not, she was safe. Well, safe as she could be handcuffed to a chair. If he did... Asra willed herself not to shudder.
"Your boss? No. I'm here to hire you."
Fuck. She could do this. She could don the old skin of someone who was no one and talk her way out of these cuffs. Then she'd kill him. Then she'd run. It was what she did best.
She drew herself up. "I already have a job. Barmaid at the Crow Club, bouncer when boss is short-staffed. It's a nice place, you know. You should check it out, bring your friends."
His smile was knowing, smug. Asra nearly faltered. She kicked herself internally.
"I know who you are, Miss Behandelar. I know what you are."
"If you want a nameless for your dirty work, hire one. Don't kidnap a runaway and demand her help." She leaned close as she could, kept her voice low. "I should kill you, Jan Van Eck. Maybe I will."
He'd smiled again. "You know me then?"
"I don't do small talk. Let me out now or I swear, you will never see outside this room again. They'll be piecing your body together for weeks."
"You're going to do a job for me -"
"You want me so bad, speak to my boss. Brekker, you must've heard of him. Better yet, speak to my mother. She'll send someone your way, and you won't have to bother with kidnapping."
"I've reached out to your mother. She didn't reply."
Or I killed the messanger. Asra had been taking precaution after precaution with her secrecy. It was costing her a small fortune, but the occasional corpse here and there kept prices for her hiding managble. She may not deal in secrets like Kaz, but fear was lucrative as anything. Terror was her sevant, and it served her well.
"So I suppose I'll have to settle for you, Butcher." Her old title made her sick. From the look on his face, Van Eck felt the same.
"My condolences. But all the same, I work for Kaz Brekker. You want me? Go through him."
And so she'd ratted Kaz out. Van Eck had tried to drug her, Asra had nearly taken the medik's finger off between her teeth. They'd settled for a bag over her head till she was dumped under a bridge in the Lid. Asra had trudged, miserable and tense, down through the Barrel, till she finally reached the Slat.
"I was just kidnapped by a merch. I told him to go fuck himself and speak to you. So, expect that sooner or later." She'd said to Kaz, then headed to bed and avoided him for almost two days.
Asra sighed. Kaz was watching her. She knew if she looked he'd have that analytical look he always did. She kept her eyes on her shoes. "He wanted me to do this for him."
"Why? Why you? Why didn't he come to me first?" So many questions. He always had so many damn questions. Why did she almost want to answer them?
She drew herself up with a sigh, tilting her head back so her mousey hair fell from her face. "I wasn't always this, Kaz. I wasn't always yours. Once, I would've been halfway through this job by now, loving every moment."
"And now?"
She wanted to leave. Why wouldn't he let her leave?
"Like I said, now I'm yours. Dregs. Asra Behandelar. I like this better, but you are slower than my old boss. I'll see you at dawn."
She left without another word. She'd said too much as is.
She told Inej to find Wylan as she left the Slat. Jesper and Muzzen were in the Crow Club, gambling away every coin and note on them. Asra told them Kaz's orders and took her place behind the bar. She wasn't meant to be working that day, but the man who was didn't exactly complain when she told him to head home.
Jesper and Muzzen left just before dawn. Asra called last orders and a little under an hour later the Crow Club was empty. She didn't want to go back to the Slat, so took her time cleaning up. Each cup was deprived of whatever grime that hadn't fused to the glass, the tables were swept clear and wiped down, chairs tucked away neatly and booze longingly stared at. Asra was just pulling on her coat when Kaz came in, Jesper, Inej, Nina, Wylan in tow. Behind them came a half conscious man, big and blonde and stumbling over his own feet. Asra knew a Heartrender's work when she saw it, and Nina's face was glowing ever so slightly. The man - he looked Fjerdan - was tied to a chair in the centre of the room while Asra watched on.
"This looks fun." She smiled, a wicked thing, looking over everyone's equally grim faces.
Kaz hummed. "Asra, I don't believe you've been introduced. Meet Matthias Helvar. Take a seat, we have business to discuss."
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Author's note:
Some backstory, some secrets, some pining. I like this chapter
:)