Chapter Text
Wind whipped the loose strands of her hair around her face as she looked out at the long expanse of the ocean. The boat rocking with each beating of the waves, the water almost pitch black under the sky. Clouds obscured most stars from sight, but the moon was fully on display. Its light is the only thing guiding them on this night. She remembered those sleepless nights her and Kaz had layed there staring aimlessly into the sky. It had become a small ritual for them after a job, a way to enjoy the calm in a life that was so full of chaos. A life she had left behind the moment she sailed away.
Tears formed in her eyes, she was unsure whether it was from the cold or a longing for her home. For Ketterdam. For Kaz.
Months she had been at sea, and in that time his face had still stayed sharp in her memory, her heart yearning to see him once again. That piercing stare with his dark eyes, that could intimidate even the hardiest of crooks. The ones that had told her his true story, not the part he had decided to play. Telling her that he was more than the Bastard everyone said he was. He was Kaz, Kaz Rietveld, The boy that had stolen her heart and refused to let anyone get to, even if they were forever apart. Showing her more than he could ever say.
The heists, the danger, the adrenaline, he had taken it all with that stupid grin on his face. No matter what he wouldn’t let his team see what he was truly thinking, the fear that he hid to protect them. With every new plan came his excitement. She would be one step closer to being completely free, no longer in debt to anyone, and
Kaz would make sure she could live the life she wanted.
Here she was, sailing the seas, taking down the very slavers who had kidnapped her as a child, selling her to the Menagerie. But in times like these was she certain this was the life she wished to live?
Almost as an instinct her fingers trailed to her wrist, the scars an ever present reminder of her struggle. The peacock feather, no matter how long it had been removed from her, was still branded upon her mind. Memories flooded back. The times she had been beaten raw for refusing her ‘clients’. The feeling of helplessness that had consumed her as she was chained to the bed as men had their way with her. The way Tantee Heleen’s hand would tighten on her shoulder as a wealthy man would enter. Her voice as she whispered ‘Go on Little Lynx, do not disappoint me.’ venom dripped from her words like the serpent she was. For months she endured this torture, praying to her saints to help her.
And then, Kaz had come along.
Originally having come seeking information from Tantee Heleen for a job, Inej offered her help. His eyes met hers for a brief moment, filling her with a momentary hope, but without saying a word he had walked away. Her dream to escape was killed once again. Days before her fifteenth birthday, her prayers had been answered, as she had been given some simple clothes and led to, what she now knew as, the Slat. Home to the very person who had just saved her from the hell she had been forced into. Home to the Dregs. Home to her new family.
Tears were leaking down her face now, not from sadness, but from nostalgia. For a want to go back to the time before the Ice Court, to before Nina had taken the Parem, to before Mattius had died. For when she and her crows had lived like a messed up family, but a family nonetheless. For before her tether's had finally been severed and she had jumped at the chance of complete freedom. Like a bird who had finally learnt to fly.
But a crow always remembered the face of one that was kind.
‘Crew, set a new course. We return to Ketterdam.’
Her voice pierced through the brewing storm. She didn’t even need to think about it. For the first time since she had left, she was returning home. To see Jesper and Wylan. To see the Dregs, her family. To walk along the rooftops of Ketterdam, the sky not obscured by the smoke of the streets. To the rooftop where she and Kaz would sit, staring silently up at the moon, their company speaking more words than they ever could need to say. To her home.
To the person who had made it her home with his dark eyes and stupid grin.