TW: VIOLENCE, BLOOD

***

Ketterdam was no place for mercy.

Kaz strode along the canal, slipping among the crowds of tourists. In his opinion, any pigeon who descended in Ketterdam for fun was a podge and deserved to have his pockets emptied in the gambling halls. But really, one had to draw the line at hostages and murder.

Sometimes.

The dusty house was right on the edge of the University District, off a quiet street. At this hour people were shutting their doors and lighting their lamps, the glow visible through closed curtains and open doorways. But the road leading to the house grew progressively darker and quieter-an area where no one dared to live lest the darkness took them.

He ascended the steps and knocked on the door, noting the boarded windows and wild bushes. He would bet good money someone was being paid very well to keep the house off the market.

The door opened a crack and a green eye peered out. "Who is it?

Kaz smiled charmingly. "I'm here to see your mother on business. Aren't you Gina? Lovely to meet you."

The girl opened the door fully now, and Kaz could see she was no more than eight, a scarlet dressing gown thrown on and blinking sleep out of her eyes.

"What's your name?"

"Tell your mother Cornelis Smeet's nephew is here."

"Okay, wait here. I'll fetch Mother."

And she was gone, scurrying away silently. Interesting. Perhaps the Dregs needed a new member. Of course, no spider would ever achieve the silence of his Wraith. But he had to take what he could.

Kaz took the opportunity to slip along the wall and signal Anika, waiting in the bushes. She nodded and disappeared into an open window on the ground floor. Stupid rich people and their belief in their own safety.

He returned to the door just as the merchling returned and said, "Come in, Mother is waiting for you."

Kaz tipped his hat at her as he passed, and the girl turned pink.

"Run along, now, I'm sure it's past your bedtime. Dark is falling and that's when the monsters come out to play."

He thought he could see a trace of indignation in her eyes, but she kept her mouth shut.

Good for her. He had not lied. The monsters of Ketterdam were quite real- the girl wouldn't know she walked among them.

***

Her eyes fastened on him the moment he entered the room. Cold, cunning, calculating. But Kaz had plenty of that in his own. He stared her down.

"Hello, Ada," he said impassively. Ada Dejaqo raised a well manicured eyebrow and motioned for him to seat himself.

There was someone else in the room.

The man looked to be half asleep beside the fireplace, but Kaz caught his gaze seizing him up.

Hm. So Ada didn't trust him. Wise of her. But inconvenient for him.

"Well?" she asked in a lazy drawl. "What brings Kaz Brekker to my place at such a late hour?"

Of course she knew him. After his stunt with Kuwei's auction he had no doubt there were more than a few people that would happily see him dead.

Kaz laid his cane across his lap and leaned back. "Jumping right to it, are we, Ada?"

"I make a habit of knowing what types of rats and vermin run around here. I heard of Jan Van Eck's dinner disaster. You put quite a dent in the house. And the man. How's his son?"

"Who?"

"Ah, Brekker, the Van Eck child. The boy who couldn't read to save his life. I know you ran together for some time. Can't imagine what he did to earn Dirtyhands' favour."

"I have no idea who you're talking about."

She eyed him for a moment, then leaned against the wall. Her gown was shimmering in the firelight, some needlessly expensive piece of blue fabric.

"Very well. Why are you here at such a late hour? What business?"

Kaz flexed his gloved fingers. "Some news, here and there. About Grisha going missing from ships arriving in the docks. Any idea about that?"

She examined her pale hands. "No, Dirtyhands."

"Quite interesting, you know, especially when I did some digging and found that a few ships leaving for Fjerda always had some or the other...miscounted people. Especially when one left Fifth Harbour with 5 supposedly unauthorized people."

"What Grisha do in their free time is not my business, Brekker, and you're wasting my time."

"Am I?" He straightened. His gaze bore into Ada's mercilessly. " Find some other, better way of getting money to deck yourselves in jewels. Fifth Harbour is my turf. I do not allow carting people off to their deaths on my land."

"Take it up with the perpetrator, then."

In one fluid motion, Kaz got up and pointed the sharp beak of his cane's crow head at Ada. "I am. I had you followed. I copied your documents. Give it up, Dejaqo."

She hadn't moved. The man's muscles were tensed.

"Brekker, get out of my house."

He laughed, a low rasp in his throat. "No. "

"You have no proof."

"Oh, but I do. You thought you were ever so careful, didn't you? But canal rats find a way. You have a contract with Fjerdans to abduct and hold Grisha hostage until you can send them off to stand trial and be executed. You hired men to take them away under guise of meeting the local Grisha. You kept them in the Warehouse District tied up and nearly dead from starvation. Have some conscience, Ada. Break your contract."

Ada ground her teeth. "I do not take conscience lessons from the Bastard of the Barrel."

He shrugged. "Very well. Your daughter is upstairs right now with a knife to her throat. I can shout one word and you'll find her pretty head on a pike for the crows to pick. What will it be?"

He saw her green eyes widen, her mind whirring. He never failed when loved ones were brought into the equation. He saw a pair of dark eyes in his mind- dark eyes full of light and belief- and pushed it away. That boy, who'd nearly cost his Ice Court crew their lives, should be long buried.

"What the hell do you want me to do?"

"Get out of here. Take your family, destroy your contracts, and flee. I do not want to see you again anywhere in Ketterdam."

Ada's nostrils flared. "This is my city as much as it is yours, Brekker."

"You've betrayed that city by killing its guests. You have no place here."

"Grisha are hardly guests. They're unnatural. Not human."

Kaz saw Nina in his mind, her determined eyes and Ravkan honor. He saw Jesper and his gleaming revolvers, his restlessness.

He raised an eyebrow. "It doesn't matter to me if Grisha are human or filth or gold idols in your opinion for all I care, but you've reached the end of my patience. Get your papers out and burn them. Now."

She glared for a moment, then crossed to the other side of the room to the great old desk. Took out a sheaf of papers. Before he could ask to verify, she hurled them into the fireplace.

"How do I know those were the correct ones?" He leaned on his cane.

"You have my word."

"Not worth very much." But it didn't matter anyway. He had excellent copies.

"Let," she ground out, "My daughter go."

"Oh, perfectly. You'd have to wake her up first, the child is sound asleep. I want to see you out by midnight. Dregs are following you. Don't attempt to play games, or you'll find yourself with a dart in your throat."

Her lip curled. "Speaking of. Why don't I get you a parting gift? Adrian."

At the sound of his name the man leapt up. Before he could so much as take a step Kaz had crossed the room, swept his legs out, and knocked him unconscious.

He turned-

Ada was holding a gun.

She was smiling.

"Well, well, Brekker, you've made me give my lucrative little hobby up, but I couldn't walk away without ensuring your little gang is destroyed too. Oh, I'll go. People talk, and I don't want to stick around where my business is discovered. But I'll take you out along with me."

Kaz ducked.

He saw Anika's face through the window, watching. Waiting.

Kaz threw his cane at Ada. It sailed end over end and knocked her into the ground- but not hard enough, it seemed. She rolled to her knees and pulled the trigger. There was no sound.

Kaz laughed. "Empty barrel? Tragic. Maybe you should teach your inept bodyguard how a gun works." He took the handful of bullets out of his pocket. "Want one?"

She snatched up his cane and threw it- but Kaz caught it out of the air. No one knew the days he'd spent practicing exactly this- wielding it like an extra limb.

"You can't beat me, Ada." With one swoop he jammed the sharp beak against her heart. "Don't try to."

The woman gritted her teeth, but went motionless. Just as well, or there would have been unnecessary blood he'd have to clean up.

He hauled Ada to her feet and put a knife to her throat. "Move."

She moved.

Just not in the direction he expected.

There was a pinprick in his side.

He kicked her legs out. She went facedown into the carpet, but she was laughing.

She was laughing.

Kaz meticulously carved her throat out. He hadn't meant to, really- but circumstances demanded otherwise. Somewhere her laugh turned into a scream and his head was pounding- or was it the door? Yes, it was the door-there was a panicked voice shouting "Mama, Mama" over and over again.

"Mister, what are you doing? Leave the lady alone!" Kaz shouted. He kicked some furniture over and silenced Ada. The knife, dripping with blood, was dropped next to the unconscious man.

He threw the door open. "Your mother." He said breathlessly to the girl. "That man- he just-I tried to stop him, but-"

The girl took one look at the body and wailed.

The sound was burrowing into his head.

Perhaps he shouldn't have let a child see the blood.

"Sonya."

Anika vaulted in. "Take the child to her uncle's house and leave her there. The stadwatch will handle it."

Anika led the sniffling child out, whispering, "Hush, girl, it'll be alright, we'll make the man pay, don't worry."

Kaz's head would hardly allow him to think- there was a headache building, a bad one. He took the papers out of his pocket and arranged them in the fireplace so they were half burned, but any sharp eye would be able to see the exact details of Ada Dejaqo's crimes, her letters to an unnamed man for arrangements, his letters, getting more threatening, demanding payment. Of course, the man had already been paid long before he'd even boarded a ship to Ketterdam , but who could tell who'd written the letters? And in any case, the hefty sum of money demanded was already gone into a particular private account.

Kaz leaned against the mantel, taking a deep breath. There was something, something important he had to do something involving his life, but he could not remember what it was. Atleast the job was done. The man would die in a few minutes from the carefully placed blow to his head. Guards would arrive to find the room upended- there'd been a fight, a fight over money, and two people had died- a third man had courageously tried to defend the woman-but no one knew who he was, or where he'd gone.

The child would only know a kind woman named Sonya had led her somewhere safe and disappeared.

His headache was growing worse. Kaz let out a choked sound- but no- he couldn't-he shouldn't- he had to get out. Get out.

He stumbled out, taking care not to leave boot prints. The night air outside was blessedly cold, and Kaz inhaled deep breaths as he tried to think of a safe house. There was none he could get to before collapsing- none belonging to the Dregs anyway.

That left only one option.

Kaz tried to step forward- and the ground tilted.

Move. You have to move now. No one can find you here.

He forced himself to take another step, leaning heavily on his cane. The ground stayed stable this time. Another step. Another.

Thunk. Thunk.

His cane was making odd sounds. They were so loud.

Distantly, Kaz knew something had gone wrong. Something had happened to cause this reaction- but for the life of him he couldn't remember what.

Another step. Another.

He would not collapse. He was Kaz Brekker.

His head felt like a rock, weighing him down.

More steps. Three, four, five. His cloak was whipping around his legs- was there a wind?

He'd reached the inhabited streets. There were people here, wrapping up for the day, the smell of new books and ink suspended in the air. But he could not be recognized-and anyway, in these parts, no one would. He was just another rich merchant boy, wandering the streets for the thrill of freedom.

There was perspiration on his forehead. Kaz wished he could throw his cloak off and jump into the canal. Perhaps it would be cooler.

Just a few more streets.

But he was so tired.

Inej's face came to mind-her dark hair, her smooth skin. Her smile. Kaz was too tired to push it away, to become Dirtyhands again. He was just Kaz. He couldn't-

Walk, Kaz. Farther. More. It was Inej's voice, her soft way of speaking.

He straightened. There was a buzzing in his ears. He was using the last of his strength to remain upright, to limp forward steadily. Just a little more.

Here- the Geldin District. Rich merchants. Big houses. Less wanderers. Cleaner and quieter than the Barrel could ever be.

He hobbled along, gritting his teeth. I will not collapse. I will not collapse.

Inej's voice was in his head, urging him on. He couldn't give up.

Finally, finally, the house was in view, red tulips on the front door. Kaz dragged himself up the steps slowly, laboriously. Knock. He rapped his cane on the door.

Everything was tilting again. There were shadows at the edges of his vision.

Inej. Inej. A memory came to him- darling Inej, treasure of my heart, will you please do me the honour of acquiring me a new hat?

The door opened and the gray eyed boy began, "Kaz, I will not raid another military base for titanium or whatever insane plan-" before he caught sight of Kaz's state. Whatever his face looked like was enough to convince Jesper to yell for Wylan, throw the door open and reach out a hand-but Kaz couldn't take it. His vision was blurring. Had it already been evening? Then why was everything turning black again?

There was an urgent voice in his ears, saying something- hands on his arms- Kaz tried to swat them away but he couldn't move. Jordie's face replaced Inej's, the face of a corpse. He couldn't fight it.

The world had grown very dark indeed.