PREFACE:
DEVIL'S WORK

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THEY SAY THE DEVIL works hard but Kaz Brekker works harder. From the ground up. Brick-by-brick. Every single action meticulously planned. Each move on the chess board mapped out before the game ever started. Kaz 'Bastard' Brekker was always one step ahead of friend and foe alike, a careful mask of indifference shrouding what festered underneath.

A rotting.

A darkness.

A sinister evil.

He was a God in his own right, to everyone who didn't know him. Only fools thought to cross him. He was always thinking of the finish line. Of the deeds that needed to be done.

He'd heard of Savni Brennan a week before she knocked on his door. Not only was she a new face -- a pretty one, at that -- but she was Grisha. Ketterdam was like a bloodhound for the outcasted, and Savni checked every one of its boxes. She didn't look like much. Then again, Kaz had learnt firsthand never to trust what was on the outside. When she approached him, he knew she'd be desperate. That any scrap of protection and opportunity in a place she'd terribly underestimated would catch her hook, line and sinker.

He had his back to her when Inej let her into his office. He didn't need to look at her to know she was smiling, her soft features weary but delicately polite. He rolled his eyes. It was a wonder she lasted a day on her own letalone seven of them.

"You're Kaz Brekker?" she asked when the door closed.

"You wouldn't have made it this far if I wasn't," came his reply.

He turned.

Savni wasn't sure what she expected from the fabled God among men. He wore a finely fitted suit minus the blazer. In its place was a thick black coat, a modest disguise for someone who wrought fear with just the mention of his name. His hands were concealed by thick leather gloves, even then, in the comforts of his own home. They moved through paperwork on his desk with ease. His eyes skimmed over her, then looked away just as quickly.

She glanced down at her dress. Made of faded pink linen, she had realised her mistake the second she stepped down onto Fifth Harbour where, it seemed, colour went to die. She stood out, and not in a good way; rather, in a way that drew attention.

So she resorted to listening. She had her mother's observational skills and her father's determined nature. With the target on her back that lead her one of two ways -- a brothel or an early grave -- she quickly learned who was who in the devil's playground.

Kaz Brekker was the first name she heard.

Now she clung to it.

According to whispers, he needed a Healer. For what, she didn't know. But what were the odds that five days after her arrival, a stroke of luck would land in her lap like a pot of gold at the end of a rainbow. She followed it, hoping her blind faith would not lead to foolishness.

Considering she was still breathing, she hoped she'd been right.

"I heard you need a Healer."

"You heard," he said. "What I wanted you to hear."

Savni paused. Kaz, as he took a seat at his desk, studied her expressions with stony eyes. Apart from the tiniest furrow of her brows, she showed no emotion. She was tired, and quite clearly unprepared for what waited for her should she leave his office without an alliance, but she showed no fear.

Meanwhile, Savni couldn't help but question Kaz' motives. He'd lured her there. She saw that now. But why? He sat at his desk and allowed her to remain standing as if the abrupt imbalance of power in her favour was to be expected. At least these rumours were true. This boy (he couldn't have been more than a year her senior if that) knew how to play his cards right.

But Savni didn't understand.

"What does a girl like you have to offer in Ketterdam, Miss Brennan?" Kaz broke the silence, each word cold, dismissive almost. "I know you're a Healer. And while I don't have one of those, you're not an essential asset. So give me a truth."

"A truth," she echoed.

"An eye for an eye."

Savni lifted her jaw. Despite the rapid pounding of her heart, she refused to look away from him. In the making of them, they were just a boy and a girl. She didn't care who he was. What mattered was the end goal, and what he could do to get her there.

"I'm told my mother and sister fled from home six months ago."

"You're told," he repeated.

"That's what I said," she scoffed with a touch of annoyance.

Kaz' face hardened. "And you don't believe it?"

"My family was happy," she murmured, clutching her hands over her stomach. Her insides churned, threatening to spill over in the heat behind her eyes. "They wouldn't just leave of their own accord."

Kaz sighed. "I can't bring back the dead, Miss Brennan."

"Good thing I'm not searching for ghosts," she bit harshly. She took a step closer, then another, until she stood toe-to-toe with him on the other side of his mahogony desk. "I don't need your help to find them--"

"But I'm sure it would be appreciated."

She glared as he smirked. "I just need protection. I need something to keep me going in the mean time. Asset or not, it doesn't hurt to have someone around who knows how to fix your fuck-ups."

Kaz hummed. "You know, if someone else said that to me, I'd cut out their tongue for their insolence."

Savni's whole world seemed to pause as hope hung in front of her precariously. "Someone else?"

"If you're going to 'fix my fuck-ups' as you call them, I need you to give orders." Savni smiled. It lit up the whole room brighter than any light Kaz was sure the Sun Summoner could've summoned. Kaz thought it looked horribly out of place in his dreary office. "The deal is the deal, Miss Brennan. Now, I'm sure you can see yourself out. Have Inej organise you a room, since you've got no lodgings, and it was her idea to bring you here in the first place."

"How did you... never mind."

He didn't offer her his hand, and Savni had no desire to shake on her deal with the devil. No, Kaz Brekker was a man of word, and that would have to be enough for her. She'd left her morals behind in the hollow walls of her family home. What did it matter if her dignity died too?

"Hey, Kaz?" He looked up, making an impatient noise as he gestured for her to get on with it. "If we're going to work together, you should call me Sav. All my friends do."

It was a good thing then, that Kaz never intended to befriend her.

Then again, Kaz Brekker, the man who knew no reasons or intentions, never quite expected that a girl of Savni's standing would ever look his way a second time.

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A/N: Wow I'm ashamed it took me this long to update Sav. I adore her with my whole heart, but the release of Season 2 has now made me obsessed so expect more frequent updates (maybe...) Let me know what you think of Savni! There's not a lot going on in the prologue, it's more or less just backstory for how Sav joined the crows. We'll see more of her and Inej of course, but Kaz is the first person in Ketterdam that Sav turns to, not by choice but that's an important thing to remember! Also, for reference, this takes place about a month before the events of Six of Crows. Around the time Kaz seeks out Wylan if I remember the timeline right :)