Six of Crows

Men mock the gods until they need them, Kaz.”

“They fear you as I once feared you,” he said. “As you once feared me. We are all someone’s monster, Nina.”

He thought of Inej’s hand on his cheek. His mind had gone jagged at the sensation, a riot of confusion. It had been terror and disgust and – in all of that clamour – desire, a wish that lingered still, the hope that she would touch him again.

Inej could never be his, not really, but he would find a way to give her the freedom he’d promised her so long ago.

The heart is an arrow. It demands aim to land true.

I’m going to get my money, Kaz vowed. And I’m going to get my girl.

You could be stuck like this.”

“Why does it matter?”

“I don’t know!” Jesper said angrily. “Maybe I liked your stupid face.”

“Stay,” she panted. Tears leaked from her eyes. “Stay till the end.”

“And after,” he said. “And always.”

“I will have you without armour, Kaz Brekker. Or I will not have you at all.”

Everything in her wanted to say yes, but she would not settle for so little, not after all she’d been through.