𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐄𝐃𝐄𝐍 | Kaz Brekker

「curiosity」

Kaz had named Inej Ghafa the wraith, a quiet, ghostly creature as she was supposed to be and yet one thing always kept her talking. Always made her smile and laugh as though the world had never been cruel to her.

That thing being Valeria Eden.

Thanks to Inej, Kaz knew all the secrets of the barrel. Dirty words spoken from 'pure' men in places they thought to be safe. The past of an uppity woman who considered herself above the barrel rats while Kaz knew she used to be one.

He knew all the bad things about people from Inej's lips but he had never heard one tainted word come from Inej about Valeria Eden. Inej gushed, which was something she was not prone to, about the mystery girls talents that she had witnessed in passing. Sheer skill of acrobatics that seemed to rival Inej's and the skill of poison and the blade that would've made Genya Saffin blush.

His curiosity was peaked.

He set Inej the task of luring the girl to the crow club, expressing his want of a new crow to aid her in her work as a spider, but as he said it she interrupted him and he found out the last vital piece of information about the girl who had captured his mind.

She belonged to Heleen.

Without speaking another word to Inej, he turned and climbed the stairs to his room and threw his cane to the ground. He turned to his desk and ran a hand through his hair. As he began to make the careful decision as to whether or not he should pursue buying off Valeria Eden from the peacock he heard his window open carefully.

Thinking it was merely Inej coming into persuade him to make the deal he sighed and turned to roll his eyes at her.

But it wasn't Inej.

"I heard you wanted to 'lure' me here, Mr Brekker," the silk voice came from its perch on his windowsill. "Here I am."

A girl only a few years younger than him, maybe 16, pulled back the scarf that kept smog and general barrel filth from her sepia skin. She was much shorter than him in stature but that was not in her failing, her back was as straight as his cane as she stood and glided a few steps forward with an acrobats grace. Her skin looked smooth and he could glimpse her collar bone beneath its dark drapings.

He took his eyes off her form, cursing his inner teenage boy, and he flicked to her face which was watching him carefully.

Her hair fell in a braid that swayed over her shoulder, her fingers finding it and flicking it over her shoulder as he studied her lips which seemed to be set stoically, the only hint of humanity was in her eyes which flickered like luminous lanterns in his dingy room which he had liked until she set foot in it.

Now his room felt inadequate to accommodate a saint.

She remained silent and suddenly he felt as though he was playing chess, seeing who would make the first move. Her eyes goaded him on as though to tease him out of his stupor.

But before either could say anything Jesper Fahey, a charismatic pain in the ass, came barrelling through the door.

"Don't count on me trying to stop Inej trying to burn down the menagerie so help me Kaz I will be helping her, especially after what you-" He said before noticing it was not only the bastard in the room.

"And who might this be?" Jesper said, leaning against the door with his trademark grin, sticking his hand out to her. "I'm Jesper Fahey and this is my associate Dirty hands."

"And I'm currently on a job," she said, matching his grin and patting his hand down while Turing to Kaz. "Or should I go back to Heleen."

Kaz wondered then how long she had been watching him, watching Inej tell them all about this wondrous assassin who stalked the streets. How long had she been watching him as she consumed his thoughts? Weeks? Months?

Or maybe that was wishful thinking on his part.

"I don't think that will be necessary, Eden." He replied, regaining his cool mask as Jesper very obviously rolled his eyes. But the girls lips quirked upwards and he felt winded. He turned to Jesper who was watching on with amusement but from the glare that Kaz was giving him he sighed, blew a mocking kiss to him and then Valeria and then walked out the door.

"I'd like to offer you a position, viper." Kaz said as he set his cane down, regretting the show of submission almost immediately but making no effort to pick it up. He saw her eyebrow raise slightly at 'viper' but she expressed no qualms against it.

"You would be my eyes and ears, you would go undercover, do what the dregs need at whatever point," Kaz continued, "I have heard of your talents-"

"Which talents?" She hissed at him, obviously the time with The menagerie had made her prone to feeling her only use was in the bedroom.

"I can tell you that here you will never have to consider those talents of use to you." Kaz said, he never made promises out loud but so help him he would make sure she never found her way back into the pleasure houses ever again. She fell silent once more.

"Inej Ghafa has described your actual talents to me in full and they are deemed worthy of the dregs." He said, watching her face lighten slightly at Inej's name. "You'd be a worth while investment viper.

She let out a puff of air and Kaz wished he could've heard the laugh she stifled with oxygen.

"And if I were to say yes," she said, moving closer than most would be allowed to Kaz Brekker while leaving space between them as she looked up and met his gaze. "You could promise me that?"

"Promise you what?" He muttered to her, as though they were the only people in the world. "I don't make promises."

"Then, Mr Brekker, you could 'make sure' I won't go back to using my body as a Swiss army knife?" She said quietly and he felt her soft breath on his face and smelled the sandalwood and lily scent of her body.

"I can make sure of that." Kaz said, making her eyes light slightly in satisfaction. That was enough for her. "What's your decision, I'm not a patient man and bad things happened when I'm left unsatisfied."

A laugh escaped her lips, so golden and infectious that he felt compelled to share that joy and liquify the moment into a thousand gem stones just to set it on her rich bronzed skin.

"My father taught me never to make decisions out of fear and only out of spite." Valeria said, eyes glinting like the trees would bend to her voice. "But I'm mothers daughter, and she was curious."

"Curiosity does not serve everyone well join the barrel, Eden." Kaz Brekker said, as though she hadn't made him more curious about her than he had been about Kruge in many years.

"Curiosity brought me to you." Valeria said, the air around them heating with their banter. Kaz had always loved games as a child and locks as a teen, and she was a riddle enveloped in skin.

The corners of Kaz's lips rose at that. "That may also not serve you well."

"Who said I'm one for self preservation?" Valeria grinned.

They stood in silence once more, Kaz taking in the raw energy of the girl in front of him who was filled with a fire that seemed impossible to burn out. She was flirtatious and intelligent. She was the kind of beauty people would kill for, her hair glinting blades in the light of his room. The kind of woman men and women alike would fall on their swords and go against the saints for. And she was most definitely not low maintenance.

"Then I'm a crow now?" Valeria said, stepping slightly back from him so she didn't have to crane her neck and she grinned. "Or a viper?"

Kaz smirked at her and with that the two found both a way of survival and, however messed up and strange, found a home.