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“We need to go,” Kaz said.
A command. Inej nodded immediately, ready for directions.
“Where to?” Tolya asked.
He had long ago learned to stop asking questions. No matter how much he cared for them, Kaz answered only what he wanted to answer.
Inej was alright with that. She knew, if they genuinely wanted it, they would get an answer. But Kaz liked to pretend his heart of stone hadn’t been carved down and broken into.
“We’ve been summoned.”
Tolya raised his eyebrows. “Since when do you answer summons?”
“Since it’s the Sun Summoner and she’s offering enough gold to drown a king.”
“Alina?” Inej asked. “It’s been…years. Why is she calling us now?”
“I don’t know, and frankly, it’s not my problem. I’m not risking my team to save the country again, we get the job done and we’re out, you hear?”
Tolya placed a hand over his heart, carefully shifting his expression to one of fake surprise. “Is this concern? Is Kaz Brekker concerned about his friends? His lovers?”
Kaz scowled. “I don’t want to replace anyone if they die, don’t put words in my mouth.”
“You’d replace us?” Inej asked. She knew the answer, she knew had faith in Kaz. Her lover, friend, partner, equal. She believed in everything they had built over the years. Every ounce of love she and Tolya had pumped out of him.
“No,” he said. “I couldn’t.”
Tolya looked over and met Inej’s gaze. It was clear what he was thinking.
Couldn’t.
Not wouldn’t, couldn’t. That one word was more telling than anything else he could have said.
“I’ll get the others,” Inej said, not bothering to try and hide her smile.
“I’ll go with you,” Tolya offered.
Inej nodded, and he was by her side in an instant as they began to walk away.
‘Couldn’t’ he mouthed.
Inej’s grin expanded.
“Run!” Kaz yelled.
Like Inej had anything else on her mind. What was she going to do, stay in place while knives with seemingly no human throwing them were being aimed at them?
She couldn’t even fight back, every knife she had on her had been ripped from her and pulled into the fray.
So yes she was running.
She thought they could get away, thought they had outrun the worst of it, but then came a sound she dreaded more than anything.
Metal.
Flesh.
Gasp.
She looked back. Tolya.
No. No, no, no. Not him. He could control his breathing all he wanted, he could slow his heart as much as he desired, but a knife stuck right under his collar bone, dangerously close to his heart?
Inej refused to lose anyone else she loved. Please not him.
May the Saints protect him.
She fell back, hearing Kaz instantly call both their names. She had no choice but to ignore him.
It didn’t look good, but they had to keep running. The further they ran, the more knives started dropping. Of course the only time they really needed a durast Jesper was out of Ketterdam.
Just their luck.
Inej put her arm around Tolya’s waist, careful not to hit anywhere sore. He leaned some weight on her and their pace picked up just the slightest bit.
But everyone was getting ahead of them. Everyone but Kaz, who had fallen back to their pace.
“I’ll get him,” he said.
Inej helped him pick up Tolya and then they were running again.
She could tell Tolya was holding back any sounds of pain, and it was tearing her up inside. But she could do nothing except keep going.
And then she felt something hit her. The pain didn’t set in until a little later.
She would be fine. Everything would be okay. She would not let this stupid little boring knife end her life.
She kept running, until Kaz grabbed her arm and pulled.
It hurt like crazy, but eventually, the lady knife fell to the ground.
Her vision was fading.
Blood loss, probably, but Saints if it didn’t scare her. There was a chance she would pass out and never wake.
She rested her head on Tolya’s shoulder and reached for Kaz’s hand, free of the gloves he’d once depended on. If she was to die, she would do it touching the two people she loved most.
Kaz, for his part, was visibly scared. Inej guessed no one else noticed, but she and Tolya did. They always would.
If you cared to look, it was in the set of his jaw, the forced calm in his eyes, the bobbing of his throat.
Kaz Brekker, scared.
Inej decided she didn’t like that look on him.
“Love Song,” he said suddenly. “Recite it to me.”
Tolya placed his head on top of Inej’s, things must have been bad if Kaz was kneeling on the ground asking them to recite a love poem.
“Talk to me,” he said. It was said with so much force that it came out terrified. “It’s the only one you both know. Just keep talking until the healer gets here.”
“How can I keep my soul in me,” Tolya muttered, “so that it doesn't touch your soul?”
“How can I raise it high enough, past you, to other things?” Inej continued.
“I would like to shelter it, among remote lost objects, in some dark and silent place
that doesn't resonate when your depths resound.”
“Yet everything that touches us, me and you, takes us together like a violin's bow,
which draws one voice out of three separate strings”
“Keep going,” Kaz instructed, “you’re almost there. The healer’s almost here. Keep going.”
Desperation.
Inej was really going to die, wasn’t she? With her free hand, she reached out to grab Tolya’s. She noted Kaz has already grabbed the one close to her. She didn’t have the energy to reach out more.
The contact she had would do. It was something.
It took a few moments for Tolya to calm his breathing, but eventually, he continued.
“Upon what instrument are we three spanned? And what musician holds us three in his hand?”
“You changed the words,” Inej whispered.
“So did you,” Tolya responded.
Kaz looked behind him, giving a squeeze to their hands.
“She’s here. Finish it, finish the poem.”
“Oh sweetest song.”
Inej expected only her words to ring out, but it was three voices that were heard.
She looked up to find a nice-looking woman hovering over her.
“Let’s fix you up,” she said.
“Hurry it up, they’re losing blood,” Kaz said.
The woman moved her hands, and Inej felt the pain begin to ease. When it was finally gone, she moved to Tolya. She felt his sigh of relief when the same was down to him.
“It’s done,” the woman said.
Kaz nodded in place of a thank you.
“You got me just in time. A little longer and they would have been—”
He glared at her, grip on Inej and probably Tolya’s hands becoming crushing.
“Understood, I’m leaving now,” she said in response.
Kaz didn’t waste another second before pulling them into a hug.
Embraces from him were rare, though cherished when given. Inej easily returned it, Tolya laughed a little before squeezing back.
They would be okay.
No one was going to die.
And really, the whole experience just proved that their little triangle was complete. Kaz loved them. He showed it in small ways, but he did.
He never needed to prove anything, Inej had complete trust in him, but it was nice to have a reminder.
Her and her lover almost dying, however, was not.