Inej crouched on the merchant houses' wall, watching as Kaz stepped out of Wylan and Jesper's house. He was buttoned back into his austere black coat and hat, looking the picture of an uptight businessman.

She wished she could forget what she'd heard that evening. Kaz's face swam in front of her. Everyone else had been focused on the story, lost in the horror of it, but she'd noticed the way Kaz's hands had trembled slightly, the slight revulsion in his eyes. His childhood had been taken from him. It had been his to tell or not, and then that choice had been taken from him too.

She could see Wylan and Jesper and Nina in the doorway. Jesper whispered something in a low voice to Kaz, then stepped back, seeming out of the usual jaunty element-then bounced right back by flicking finger guns at him.

Kaz inclined his head and walked away.

She followed him.

She didn't need to talk. She knew he'd sensed her when he changed alleys, heading toward Fifth Harbor instead of directly toward the Slat.

Inej let herself feel the old peace of dissolving into shadows, stealing away onto walls and roofs. She's missed it on the wild expanse of the sea. Sometimes she needed this-as if she was picking pieces out of her old life, like shards of bright glass.

He was standing on an isolated raised platform tucked away, sometimes used to store cargo. Tonight it was empty and one could see over most of the bustling harbor. The sky was a mournful gray-it looked like it'd rain soon.

"Did you get him?" He said, without looking at her, pulling his gloves off and tucking them into his pocket.

She drifted closer. There was no need to ask who. They's discussed the slaver often enough. "Yes. He thought he could beg his way to mercy. "

Kaz laughed, a brittle sound. "More's the pity for him."

"Are you alright, Kaz?"

"I'm just fine, Wraith."

She scrutinized him. "Doesn't seem like it."

"Nothing ever seems like what it is."

"Maybe you should give up the Barrel life and take a shot at acting."

The corner of his mouth twisted. "A failed career."

He turned to look at her then, his eyes dark, like bottomless wells. "How did the coronation go?"

Inej walked over to stand beside him, mirroring his stare into the water. "Met Zoya Nazyalensky and several other people whose names I forget. Nikolai Lantsov was extremely willing to chauffeur me around like royalty."

"A charmer, no doubt."

"You're changing the subject."

He didn't answer her.

Inej let the silence hang in the air. She'd told Kaz she would not have him with walls around himself, if he was pressed behind a barrier impossible to break. Nobody challenged Kaz, not if they valued their life.

And yet.

Since that day he'd tried -the gloves, the ship, the freedom. Her parents. Changing the Barrel. He'd let the glimmer of his better nature shine through a crack.

But cracks didn't last forever.

She'd changed since that day. So had he. They'd grown into something bigger and more solid than just two Dregs. They were blades on land and sea, feared and hated on their own feet, not the protective cover of gang subordinates.. Inej thought if they were to be finally broken down, it would not be because of their own demons.

She looked down at his pale hands.

In six months they'd met here many days, often saying nothing and simply looking at the edge of Ketterdam spread out before them. He only took his gloves off in front of her. Inej understood. She knew what armor looked like. How hard it was to take off for everyone.

Kaz let out a long breath. She felt his arm brush against hers, a bird's wing, a slight wind. His fingers laced with her own, warm and steady. Six months having held his hands and still Inej felt the creeping chill, like delicate lightning, crawl up her arm. It was accompanied by the overwhelming desire to let it go, shove it away. As always. But Inej had learnt that it wouldn't truly go away. The scars wouldn't disappear. But they would become faint.

She looked sideways at him. His breathing was slow, his eyes closed. For the first time he'd shown no visible signs of revulsion. No shudder, no dilated pupil.

"Yes." He spoke finally. "I am. My past was mine to keep. I thought I'd left it behind, gotten over it." His voice was low and raspy.

Inej glanced at him. "Is that why your voice is the way it is? The plague?"

"Perhaps." He murmured.

She turned to him. "There's another procurer. Near First Harbor. And two slaving ships docking three days hence in Third. I hear one of them has a cousin in Harley's Pointers. Which, coincidentally, is short on money since their ship filled with indentures was lost to sea."

"Regrettable," Kaz muttered, but there was a hint of amusement in his voice.

"Oh, and one of the harbor authorities has a secret drawer in the wooden desk. I daresay you would find a great many useful little documents. "

His thumb brushed over her skin, and Inej fought down the urge to shiver. "You don't have to do this, Inej. I have spiders, good ones."

"And yet none of them told you this."

"How would you know?"

"Because none of them has been to the dock master's office today, or ever. I might not be the Wraith who stole secrets anymore, Kaz, but I still have my tricks."

"You are the Wraith still, no matter what you become." He looked at her, black eyes with a peculiar glimmer in them. "And the Suli Dagger. And the Crow Queen. The Ghost Ship. Whatever you want to call yourself, I've heard several titles."

"I don't know why I bother with you," Inej said, but she was smiling, and Kaz was looking at her like she was moonlight on seawater.

She should go. Jesper and Nina and Wylan were waiting for her, and she couldn't wait to see them again. The sight of her three friends made her greedy for more in a way her crew never did, even though she saw them everyday. She missed Matthias -that gentle giant- still. She loved the sea, of course. Loved her ship and her job. Loved the way light glinted off the water at dawn, or the welcome weight of her knives in her hands when they besieged slaver ships. But Nina and Jesper and Wylan,with their warm hugs and wicked smiles and gold hearts, were irreplaceable.

And then there was Kaz.

"Maybe it was for the better." He told her, interrupting her thoughts. "For the first time in a long time I don't regret what I've told."

Inej smiled. "Secrets are heavy."

He drew his hand away from her abruptly. Hesitated. His arm came up, behind her, and Inej was terrified-he'd never, ever done this unless she was falling. But it was strong and steady and she couldn't help but lean into him.

He breathed in sharply and froze.

She froze.

He relaxed slowly, gently.

Inej thought there were miracles in the world still.

And if she saw the shadow of a boy in the water, thin and lonely and young forever, she told herself that she was imagining it as the shadow lifted a hand and sank quietly.