┌────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┐

𝗘𝗠𝗣𝗧𝗬-𝗛𝗔𝗡𝗗𝗘𝗗

└────── ⋆⋅☆⋅⋆ ──────┘

"𝘚𝘰 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘥𝘮𝘪𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘭𝘰𝘰𝘬 𝘢𝘵 𝘮𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘸𝘢𝘺" 𝘒𝘢𝘻 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘮𝘴, 𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘭𝘪𝘱𝘴 𝘱𝘶𝘭𝘭𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘯𝘵𝘰 𝘢 𝘴𝘭𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵 𝘴𝘮𝘪𝘳𝘬.

  ✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* *:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ

━"𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐝𝐨𝐢𝐧𝐠?" Raina's exhausted voice called out, causing Kaz to lower his gloved hands down sheepishly. Squinting her eyes at Kaz and Cooper who had taken a seat on Kaz's lap, Raina glanced back and forth between Kaz's hand and the attempted braid strand that rests on Cooper's fur.

"I'm not trying to style his fur," Kaz abruptly scoffed, taking his hand away from Cooper's head causing the golden retriever to let out a whine as he dug his head further into the leather glove.

"Never said you were," Raina bit back as she took her seat before nodding her head towards Cooper, "Besides, he has taken quite a liking to you."

The Storm Summoner watched Kaz as he stared at Cooper and even though there wasn't a hint of a smile, Raina could see the look of adoration on his face. The power of being a cute puppy.

"Stop that," Kaz groaned.

Smiling innocently, Raina tilted her head, "Stop what?"

Waving his left hand around, he pointed to Raina's face, "That look you make every time you see me remotely being nice to someone."

Instead of defending herself, Raina bursted out laughing, "You? Being 'remotely nice'? I do not think that word exists within you." All Kaz could do was look affronted as Raina continued, "Besides I only look at you like that when you're with Cooper."

"So you admit that you look at me in that way" Kaz confirms, his lips pulling into a slight smirk.

"What looks in what way at who?" Jesper voiced out, confused by the jumble of words spilling out of his mouth. Kaz and Rania shared an amused glance as Jesper shook his head before speaking clearly, "Who looks at who in what way?"

Letting out a dramatic gasp, Rania flung her hand out to cover her mouth, "You caught me Jes! I was just letting Kaz know about the profound love I hold for you."

Kaz rolled his eyes at the wide grin that overtook Jesper's face. Oh no I meant 'Jes's' face. The nickname isn't even creative. He thought as he scoffed, deciding to focus on something else.

"Kaz, are you even listening?" Raina drawls out, raising her eyebrow as both her and Jesper stare at him.

Shrugging unabashedly, Kaz replied, "No."

"Honest as ever, aren't you," Jesper snickered before looking back at Raina as Kaz fixed him with a glare.

Placing his black pouch on the table, Jesper took a seat before re-stating, "The alarm trigger is set. Horses are ready and I've stashed the rest of our gear."

"If we don't move soon, the Black General will be on top of us." Kaz nodded.

"Meaning we can't waste any more time looking for Alina," Raina thoughtfully said. If Alexander came all this way, he sure wouldn't want to leave empty-handed. Raina wouldn't want to go back to the Little Palace and be played as the General's pawn again...not when she found where she belonged.

A place where she always had belonged.

Inej's polling back the chair as she took a seat broke Raina out of her thoughts, "I just settled our tab with the last of our coin."

"We're really gonna leave empty-handed, then?" Jesper asked.

"We are not going to be leaving empty-handed tonight." General Kirigan announced, stepping out of the carriage as the accompanying Grisha's surrounded him.

If there was one thing that both the Black General and the Crows would agree on━they never like to leave empty-handed.

𝐚𝐮𝐭𝐡𝐨𝐫𝐬 𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐞!

I KNOW I KNOW and i'm so so sorry for this short and very late update. yk how life is.

i wanted to make this longer but i really loved the last line and thought it was the perfect way to end the entire chapter of "empty-handed"

and hello?? kaz and cooper oml<33

let me know your thoughts.

xoxo NS