CHAPTER TWELVE
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KIRA WAS NINE WHEN SHE MET her first pirate. Captain Bluebeard was his name, and he did not have a hint of blue anywhere near his face. Kira was covered in blood and sneaking out of a wagon that had so graciously and unknowingly given her a ride to a coastal village in West Ravka. Disoriented and in search of a means of escape, she stumbled upon the captain on the harbor.

Bluebeard was easily bought by the jewels she offered him—and how she nearly killed one of his men, who had tried to touch her golden hair. He snuck her into Queen's Lady ship, the ship off to Ketterdam, the ship whose captain was indebted to the pirate. Bluebeard had warned her a pirate ship wasn't a place for a young girl, and given her a way out of Ravka.

Out of Ravka. Because she wasn't supposed to go back.

She'd said so herself. Many times. She nearly didn't go on the job for the Sun Summoner. Kaz Brekker be damned if she stepped one booted foot of hers in Os Alta, she remembered thinking. And now... Now she was willingly returning to Ravka for the second time in a short time.

To save the bloody country nonetheless.

"I'd want to get out of Ravka too, little Bloody Gold," Bluebeard had told her. Bloody gold. That's what he'd call her, because of her golden locks and blood-stained shoulder.

Last she heard of him, Bluebeard had died at the hands of the Crimson Mirage, the phantom ship of the ocean. The one sailors saw before their ships were ransacked, the one that appeared at dawn and twilight to plunge them into misfortune.

Kira shook her head with a frown. She was returning to Ravka and instead of thinking of everything that could go wrong, instead of fearing the Fold that stretched out beyond them, Kira was thinking of phantom ships and old acquaintances. Then again, why should she be scared?

Death didn't scare her. Not anymore. Not when it had brushed her tears away. The Fold didn't scare her either. It rather irritated her in fact. Perhaps the Darkling's creatures were unsettling, products of merzost, unnatural abominations. Yet, the result of an encounter with them was either a great story to tell or death. The latter returned her to the fact she didn't fear it anymore—not when she knew dying didn't mean she would be forgotten, that there would be people mourning her (something she should've realized sooner if the mural in Novo-Kribirsk was anything to go by).

"I thought you'd be studying the sword with Jesper."

Kira's lips tugged up as Kaz settled beside her, leaning against the banister. She shrugged. "If I pick up that sword to study it, I would never return it to Ohval. And I hear she'd rather attached to it—poisons people and such when they try to reach it."

"She wasn't protecting the sword."

"I know." Kira glanced up at him. Kaz was looking ahead, but seemingly sensing her gaze on his face, he turned to look at her, his softening ever so slightly. "I'm going to help," she told him, "once we reach Ravka. I need to help my brother."

Kaz nodded, "We better get ready then, we're nearly there."

"We?"

Kaz's lips tugged up into a small smile, "I have to make sure we get paid."

A laugh escaped her lips and the smile on his face widened. "You're greedy, Kaz Brekker, has anyone told you that?"

"They have. I'm greedy about many things, Kira Lantsov. Not just money."

"Oh, have you found a new passion in life?" asked Kira with a grin. "Art, perhaps? I heard you have a rather scandalous sketch somewhere. Not to mention the DeKappel."

"You still owe me the month as a bartender," Kaz reminded her, ignoring the mention of the sketch. Kira could've laughed at that if what he said hadn't reminded her of her dream. He'd said the same there, to get her to stay.

"When this is over, Kaz, I'll bartend," Kira promised.

"When what is over?" Kaz asked, "I'll need you to be more specific. I heard the Whisperer has a way with words."

Kira chuckled before adding, "When we get to Ketterdam, alive, I'll bartender for you."

"For me?"

"That was the deal," replied Kira with a shrug, "You never said I had to serve the clients. You told me, I'll get the DeKappel but you'll bartender for me for a month. A deal is a deal, Brekker. Worry not, I'll give you the special treatment."

"A way with words, indeed," Kaz muttered, before he looked ahead again, breaking their eye contact. Kira did the same, and couldn't help the smile on her face or the blush on her neck when his leather-covered hand grasped her own.

•••

"Where did that come from?" she heard Nikolai shout after Wylan's bomb exploded and blasted a Grisha to her death.

"My demolitions expert," Kaz replied as they appeared in sight of the others.

"Expert?" Wylan asked. Kira turned to him with an amused smile, as did Jesper. Kaz just looked like Kaz. "I mean, yes. Expert."

Kira let out a laugh as slid off the roof they were in, and ran towards the locked gates, throwing them open with her hands and running towards her brother hiding behind a wooden structure for defense. "Niko, fancy seeing you here," she said with a grin as Kaz reached them, and Jesper and Wylan joined the other group of people.

"You're cheery," Nikolai muttered as Jesper asked, "Why is Sturmhond here?"

"Around here he goes by Nikolai," answered a woman who Kira figured was Tolya's sister, Tamar.

Jesper gaped and looked at Kira. "Your brother is Sturmhond? Nikolai Lantsov. All this time, close personal friend."

"And... And you are?" asked Tamar and Kira let out a laugh. Nikolai elbowed her in the ribs.

"We're in battle, sister," he chastised her, "You laugh at the enemies not your own."

"Alright, question, then, who the fuck are they?" Kira said as she looked at the Tidemaker who was charging at them, with enough power to gather the humidity in the air, but not enough bravado to look scary doing it.

Kira jumped from her spot, as did Jesper and the two Etherealki with them. Jesper smirked as he began firing his guns, hitting the two amplified Grisha enough to throw them off-course. One of them fell, and Jesper smirked smugly as he pointed his pistol at the woman. "Hello, gorgeous."

She swiped her hand in the air and froze his gun, causing Jesper to let it clatter to the floor.

"If only you'd been born Grisha," the Tidemaker said, and Kira looked at Jesper, sending him a signal with her fingers, Jesper nodded. "You'd know what it means—"

"To be blessed?" Jesper finished for her, just as Kira ripped the metal from the buttons of her skirt (because she'd already used the buttons on his waistcoat when fighting Ohval) and threw them at Jesper. The latter threw each one at the Tidemaker. She staggered back as blood spurted from wherever Jesper had hit.

Then the crackling sound of electricity and lightning, sounded and Kira turned to see the man that had fallen now standing, and gathering lightning within his hand, only it was diverted from them as Kaz's cane landed in front of them, and the metal attracted the energy.

"I have Datura Meloxia," she heard Wylan say.

"Wylan, now," Kaz urged. The boy requested air support from the Etherealki and then the man was hit squared in the face by the damned orange powder.

He grunted as he staggered back and when his hands left his eyes he was looking dazed. Tamar stepped in front of Kira and threw her axe. It hit the man in the forehead, burying inside his cranium as he fell backward.

The Tidemaker looked at his body, her eyes growing in horror, and turned to them, throwing her hand in the air, surely with the intent of killing them, but her hand was bare of fingers. "You..." she said to Jesper in horror, "You... You're a—"

A gun firing shut her up. Possibly because it was aimed at her throat, and may have killed her. Nikolai stood over her body. "It's done."

"I still don't know who they were," Kira said, before grinning at Jesper and throwing herself in his arms. "You are so not a terrible Durast."

"I cut off her fingers," Jesper said with a laugh as he spun her around, "I'm a great Durast."

Kira got out of his hold and turned to her brother and Kaz. Kaz was taking his cane from the ground and her brother was looking at her with a smile. "I didn't realize you were patriots."

Kira snorted. "They're not even from Ravka, brother. And I'm here for you, not Ravka."

Kaz nodded. "And, if you die, we don't get paid."

Just then, Tolya jumped his way over a fence and rushed to hug Tamer, as Nikolai remembered the true reason for them to be there. "The blade. Did you find it?"

"Inej has it," replied Kaz. "They've gone to find Alina and Mal."

"We have to do the same," said Nikolai, and Kira narrowed his eyes at him. For the first time since they arrived, the worry in his voice actually slipped through his mask, the one he used as a leader to not instill panic. Whatever it was that made him sound like that, made Kira worried for him. "If Kirigan brought the fight here, he's gunning for her."

"I've cleared us a way into the fort," said Tolya. "Come on."

As they all began walking, Kira, when noticing Nikolai's limp and injured leg, sighed and cursed under her breath for loving her brother so much as she approached him, and let him drape his arm over her shoulders and use her as support so he could walk faster—the bastard was lagging behind.

"You're worried," she stated as they followed the others closer to the fort and the Fold.

"I am," he replied. "The Fold should have fallen by now."

"I'm not talking about the Fold." Kira glanced up at him and saw Nikolai clench his jaw. "You're worried for someone. Is it Alina? Tolya's told me about the engagement. You do know she's in love with Mal—"

"It's not Alina," Nikolai said with a sigh. "I mean, of course, I'm worried for Alina, but..."

"Who, then?" asked Kira as they got closer to the fort.

"I'm sorry. Did you say Mal is a bird?" Jesper's question had Kira snap her attention to him. What?

"Mal's the firebird?" Kira asked her brother and Nikolai nodded.

"He's a Morozova. It's a long story." They walked into the fort, stopping inches before the beginning of the Fold. "We go in, we find Alina and Mal."

Kira felt a hand on her lower back and glanced to the side to see Kaz, he wasn't looking at her, he was looking at her brother as he handed him his cane, "Here."

"Don't you need it?" asked Nikolai as he took his arm off her shoulder, standing on his own and allowing Kira to breathe because he weighed a ton—not that she could breathe when she could feel the graze of Kaz's hand on her back, even through the layers of fabric.

"I've got more experience with pain," replied Kaz.

Nikolai took the cane, and Kaz's hand left her back. Kira took a deep breath before they entered the Fold, like a bunch of reckless idiots.

Suddenly the sun was gone, and shadows licked at her skin, cold and void. Kira squinted her eyes through the darkness, reaching for the dagger Inej had left with her, awaiting any incoming attack from her old friend Volcra.

"Follow me," said Tolya.

The faint light from the still-lit candles was the only thing preventing Kira from getting lost in the darkness as they moved through the fort. She heard them before she saw them, the wretched sound of their growls that made the scar on her shoulder hurt like it was a fresh wound. Two volcra were at the end of the hall they were walking in.

"In there."

Without waiting for a minute, Kira followed everyone through the door next to them, as they stumbled into a little chapel with a stained-glass window of a Sun Summoner.

"Metal hinges. Jesper," said Wylan.

Kira turned on her heels as Jesper stumbled his way next to her and the door. Kira stepped back, gesturing for him to go and Jesper grinned before lifting his arms and using his hands to trace the frame of the door, welding it to the wall.

"That should hold the Volcra," Kira said.

"We'll see," replied Jesper as they turned to the group.

Then Kira saw it, forming from fog-like shadows, gathering in the air as they all stepped back. Shadows that began taking shape, as if using the darkness to their advantage, growing in size, as did the feeling of power, the faint wave of power Kira felt in the presence of the Darkling. Unlike the one she felt from Sankta Neyar, this one was off, unnatural. The shadow creature was all merzost.

"Without the blade, how do you kill a shadow?" asked Wylan as Kira frowned at Kaz who had placed himself in front of him. The bastard thought she couldn't hold herself in a fight?

"All we have is this," said one of the Etherealki with them as she and, who Kira assumed was her brother used the air around them, blasting it against the shadow creature.

It worked. For a moment that is. Then the shadows were gathering again, taking shape again. No matter what they did, it kept coming back. Wylan's bomb worked for another moment, allowing Jesper to celebrate for his man (apparently, not that they'd actually put a label on it, was what Jesper had said). But the shadow monster came back, and they were nearly against the wall as it advanced their way.

They charged at the creature, hitting it with everything they had but Kira stopped in her step when the darkness went away, and she was hit in the face by the sun. Her eyebrows raised in the air, "She did it!"

"Why is it still here?" asked Tamar as she kept her arms raised at the creature, axes in hand.

"The sun can't kill it!" replied Tolya as he charged toward the shadows before being blasted back.

Kira raised her hands, about to throw a candle holder at the creature when her brother came charging forward with Kaz's cane, only he went through the creature that faded into dust before forming behind him. It grabbed Nikolai, lifting him to the wall, his arm (if she could even call it that) burying into her brother's shoulder.

"Niko!" She grabbed the candle holder in her hand, modifying the top part as a makeshift blade as she and Tolya went against the creature, but every blow its way only moved through air. Nikolai was grunting, squirming as he tried to get out of his hold.

And as it raised its other arm toward Nikolai, it finally disappeared beneath golden light, dissipating into the air, and Nikolai fell into her arms, causing Kira to stumble backward with him in her arms. She felt herself being lowered by a pair of arms until she was sitting on the floor with Nikolai against her. Kira only glanced up at Kaz before turning her attention toward her brother.

Nikolai was breathing heavily, his hand where the shadow creature had been holding him by the shoulder. He looked up at her with a weak smile, "A cane isn't my best weapon."

"What gave it away?" replied Kira with a laugh.

•••

"Long may the night carry our souls," Tolya recited as they arrived outside, and he and Tamar helped Nikolai sit down. "Until the dawn renews us."

"Rabinov," said Kaz from beside her. "Canto Seventeen."

"Seems we both share an appreciation for life's beauty," replied Tolya with a smile.

Kira saw Kaz's jaw clench before his eyes fell on her.

"Are you okay?" Tamar asked her brother, making Kira take her eyes off Kaz.

Nikolai nodded. "A moment of sun before we deal with our losses... Dominik."

"Dominik?" asked Kira and her brother nodded solemnly. "What of... Why are you the only one here, Nikolai?"

Nikolai's jaw clenched and he hesitated before answering, "Mother's safe—"

"Vasily's dead, then. As is father," Kira concluded. Nikolai nodded. Sighing Kira pursed her lips. She didn't feel any sort of grief for her family, if anything she wished her mother was dead as well. "That makes you King."

"It does."

Kira smiled at him and mockingly bowed. "Ravka's in good hands then, brother."

"That means you could stay," Nikolai told her. Kira's eyebrows shot up and she was about to answer when Jesper grinned at something over her shoulder.

Inej, Nina, Zoya, Alina, and Mal were walking their way. Kira grinned at them as Inej slipped the sword off her back and handed it to Alina. She didn't hear what they said but it ended with Alina hugging Inej before taking off after Mal.

At that, Kira did not waste a second before rushing towards the Wraith and lunging herself at the girl. Inej let out a laugh as she hugged her back and pulled away as Jesper swooped in and spun her around.

"And Kirigan?" asked Nikolai, and Kira turned to see him looking around as if searching for someone who had yet to arrive.

"Dead," replied Inej. "Morana is protecting the body. Alina wants it burned."

Nikolai's shoulders sagged in relief and Kira frowned. Morana? He stood up and nodded at them, "Thank you. My country might have been sunk if you hadn't arrived. Again."

"We'll settle those thanks in gold," replied Kaz.

Kira smiled as she approached her brother and kissed him on the cheek, "I'm not staying," she whispered to him as she pulled away, and Nikolai nodded, his smile faltering. "You may be king, Niko, but I'm still dead here... Though, that does not mean you can't visit me in Ketterdam."

"You won't get rid of me so easily," Nikolai said. And then he hugged her tightly, ignoring her wounds, before pulling away and leaving with Tolya and Tamar as Kira returned to their group.

"He's right, you know," said Jesper. "We do have our adventures. We should hire a writer to jot down our story. What will we call it? The Five Charming Rogues of Ketterdam. Yes."

"There's six of us."

"Right." Jesper nodded. "Six of Cr—"

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