CHAPTER THIRTEEN
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"DO YOU THINK WE SHOULD help her?" Kira muttered as she watched the lock of the chest where the Sun Summoner was started glowing from the heat.

"Shut up, Kira," Kaz whispered back, and Kira shrugged innocently. Just then the lock was kicked out of place and the lid of the chest opened and Alina's face fell at the sight of the four of them standing in front of her.

"Hello!" Kira said brightly, her best smile displayed on her face.

Alina Starkov reminded Kira of a  cute and scared animal just trying to get by in the forest. Thus, she reached the conclusion that the best way to prey on her and be sure they completed the job, was to kill her with kindness.

The Shu girl hopped off the chest, landing on the ground and raising her arms in surrender as she eyed them warily like a scared little fawn. If that dawn had the ability to summon the sun and burn them to a crisp.

"We don't want any trouble," Jesper informed her, though his pistol was in full sight of the girl.

"Neither do I," said Alina, "so I'll just be on my way."

She made a move to pass by Kaz but he stopped her with his cane.

"Don't mind him," Kira said waving Kaz off, "he may look grumpy but he doesn't want to harm you. None of us do."

"Clearly, you want out of East Ravka," said Jesper, nodding along with Kira.

Inej dipped her head in agreement, not tearing her faithful gaze off Alina, "But we can help you."

"We have a secure route through the Fold," added Jesper.

"I prefer to travel alone," Alina told them.

"But we're great company! You could meet Milo the goat, he's really cute," Kira said with a small smile.

Jesper sniffed beside her and shook his head before turning to Alina who was looking around for other escape routes. "Don't be rash. You stick with us, everybody gets what they want,"

"I'm not being anyone's captive ever again."

"Who said anything about you being captive?" Kira asked incredulously and Alina turned to her with a frown. "Honey, we're just trying to help you out of East Ravka. You're the one who got in our carriage voluntarily."

"I was—"

"Running?" Kira supplied and Alina nodded hesitantly. "We happen to be on the run too. We might've stolen something precious from the Little Palace. So, really, we should all run together."

"That's just going to attract attention." Alina shook her head and internally Kira smiled. She was considering the offer. At least she was considering the cons.

"I'm rather good at distractions," Kira said helpfully. "I—"

"I've seen your face somewhere," Alina interrupted her and Kira's shoulders tensed. She glanced up at Kaz, but his focus was solely on Alina as if trying to predict the girl's next moves. "In a painting," Alina added.

"A painting?" Kira asked, trying to sound surprised. Alina nodded, her frown deepening. "Where?"

"The Grand Palace. It was a portrait of the Royal Family."

Kira was getting sick of people recognizing her. Did she really look that much like a Lantsov? Had she really not grown out of her child's features?

Even more so because she was sure the family portrait Alina was speaking of was from when she was six. She had been forced to stand beside her brothers for hours on end until she got sick of doing nothing. She had promptly pretended to pass out and Nikolai had dragged her by the arms out of the room, apologizing to anyone passing with a smile on his face.

"I get that a lot," Kira said, "I think it's my hair. We can sit in the carriage and talk more about it."

Alina seemed to hesitate for a second but at last, she shook her head and looked at Kaz, "Just step aside and let pass."

"I'm afraid we can't let that happen," Kaz said, ruining everything Kira had tried to convince the girl of and Jesper reached for his gun.

Without a warning, Alina let her power do its job and created a beam of light string enough to promptly temporarily blind Kira and most likely the others.

"Bitch," Kira cursed as she opened her eyes and began blinking away the black spots in her vision.

•••

Losing the Sun Summoner didn't bother Kira, to be honest. She would love a million kruge but she was sure she could find many other ways of getting that sum. However, she fucking hated the fact Inej was what was on the line. And if not Inej, then the Crow Club. None of that seemed fair but she'd learned a long time ago that most things in life weren't fair.

And if she was smart she wouldn't play fair either. Kira would kill Tante Heleen the moment she landed in Ketterdam—she didn't care about the consequences, not anymore, not when Inej's freedom or Kaz's life works were on the line.

Which was why she smiled gracefully as the man behind the bar agreed to let their tab go unpaid, and turned around with a pep in her step.

Their job had gone from luckily successful to a chaotic failure in a matter of minutes; maybe it was a sign from the Saints, maybe Inej was right and it was immoral to sell out an alleged Saint. Either way, Alina was gone and they had to keep moving.

"I just settled our tab," Kira announced as she approached the table of the tavern where the other three were gathering around. "We still have most of our coin."

Kaz nodded, his eyes softening as they met hers but the rest of his face still set in a permanent scowl. He was pissed because Inej let Sankta Alina escape and Kira hadn't defended him in the argument. Given, she didn't side with Inej either. In fact, she had refused to speak during the exchange not wanting to choose between the person with a heart and the heartless boy who happened to be in possession of her heart. Well, all that was left of it. Not that he knew anything about that.

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

"We could just try and steal something worth a million kruge," she offered with a grimace. Kaz rolled his eyes.

Kira's eyes snapped to the window as an explosion was heard from outside and the three sitting down jumped to their feet.

"What was that?"

"Our alarm," said Jesper.

"Split up," Kaz said as they headed towards the door, "much easier to take a Grisha one-on-one than a whole squad of them. Rendezvous at the fountain."

The four of them walked onto the street only to find three Grisha standing by the end of it. In one second they split up.

Kira ran through a dark alley, gathering her skirt in her hands, and thanking every Saint above she wasn't wearing heels. She looked back to find a dark-haired Grisha following her and turned to the front running faster.

A laugh escaped her lips as the adrenaline kicked in, and she was reminded of the streets of Ketterdam. Only there was no crowd, and she didn't know where she was going or where to hide, or what the best place was to stash a bloody body. The lack of weapons also didn't help.

She slipped into another corner, a thin passageway between buildings. Her heart was beating quickly against her chest, Kira looked up as she sensed metal and spotted a pipe running up the building. Without a thought she used her abilities to make her boots, the ones she had welded metal onto, hover above the ground. She grabbed onto the pipe and pushed herself up, using her hands to help as she started gliding upwards.

She was halfway up the pipe when a strong gush of wind blew her against the opposite wall. Kira's head slammed against the brick, and she lost focus, causing her to fall harshly against the stone pavement.

The air was knocked out of her lungs. She gasped for air not being able to breathe. She could feel her head getting lighter. Just then the Grisha that was hunting her appeared in her vision.

"Hey, beautiful," Kira wheezed out as she breathed in deeply and groaned when the girl stepped on her stomach, right where she still had stitches from her encounter with Pekka Rollins. "That wasn't very nice, you know."

"You really are the princess aren't you?" the girl said with a curious look as she spotted the ring on Kira's pinky finger.

"Let me guess, the Conductor opened his bloody mouth?" Kira questioned through gritted teeth. "He's a liar."

"So, you're not the princess?" she challenged, pressing her foot harder against Kira's stomach making the latter gasp as she felt the previously stitched wound open.

"The princess is dead."

"That's not what I asked," she snapped. "But you are right. The princess is dead. No one would be any the wiser if you died again."

"You would know," Kira croaked, doing her best to take control of the pipe she was previously trying to climb. "Do you want a dead princess in your consciousness?"

"So you are the princess," the girl mused and Kira rolled her eyes.

"What I am is pretty pissed right now," she said with a hiss just as she closed her hand, clenching her fist.

The pipe fell with such force upon the Grisha that the blow to the head made her fall unconscious right next to Kira with a thud.

The silence that fell upon them after the pipe clattered on the ground was unsettling. It was too quiet.

It left Kira on the ground, her vision blurry from unshed tears. She gingerly reached up to her head and clenched her jaw when her fingers were met with warm blood. Blinking away the tears, Kira looked up at the sky which was now lighter as the sun rose.

What a shameful way to die. There was no screaming. No painful cries. No agony to be heard. She was in a slim little passageway in between widow-less buildings. Laying on the filthy ground of the village, next to a beautiful yet psychotic Grisha that also happened to be her murderer. Kira was bleeding out and with a head injury.

She hadn't planned her death like this. This way lacked flair.

The way she always dreamed of dying included three main aspects and she refused to die without at least one of them.

Firstly, she needed explosions around her, not killing her but rather destroying her enemies. Secondly, she needed her mother to be screaming in agony, just like on the day she was born, but in this case, it would be because she was dying along with her. Thirdly, she needed someone there with her. Someone she loved. Someone who would tell her story to others. Someone who would cry over her dead body or at least scream into the skies and pray to the Saints. Or just hold her as Kira apologized for her sins.

The last one was selfish. It was selfish to want to put someone she loved through the suffering of watching her die, but she needed to go knowing someone wanted her to stay.

Because no one ever did. Or no one ever had. But if Kira was going to trust something in her life was that her family from the Barrel did want her. At least she hoped they wouldn't leave her behind.

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author's note:

I'm not particularly in love 
with this chapter, but I already
rewrote it a couple of times,
so that was that.

I also haven't seen the second
season of Shadow and Bone yet
I'm waiting to wrap up act one
before I watch it, so, it's safe to say,
I'll be writing faster than usual

Anyway, hope you guys
are liking the story so far.