The journey had gone in complete silence for some moments, you sitting across from Arken and inspecting him as he looked at his pocket watch, while telling you to load more coal every once in a while. You saw shadows going over the train a few times, indicating something moving over. Maybe they were trees, maybe they were ruins of old buildings - but you were pretty sure they were Volcra.

A clank echoed through the train, making you flinch and everyone but Arken looked up.

"What was that?" Jesper asked, moving his hands to his revolvers.

Arken gestured up. "I've erected a system of timers along the line. Bits of metal hung on poles to keep me apprised of our pace."

Kaz looked at the fireplace, glancing at Arken. "How did you know where to put the poles?"

Arken smiled a little. "Physics and engineering account for... most of my success."

"And the rest?" Inej asked as she turned to look at Arken.

"What we might call divine intervention. Others may call it luck. After all, the Fold is thick with Volcra, and the tracks are not complete." He turned to you. "Coal, please."

"I'm sorry," Jesper said, his confusion shining through, "did you just say the tracks weren't complete?"

"I said they aren't complete."

"What–"

Jesper almost lunged forward, but Arken stopped him by raising his hand up. “Ah, ah, ah, no moving. You must never shift your weight. There are wheels under the train, that will help us through the gap and catch the tracks again once we reach them.”

"How much longer will this take?" you asked, your eyes still glued on the crack on the roof. You had a terrible feeling, and every sense in your body told you to run.

"Patience," Arken said, and another clank echoed through the train. "The noise might attract the Volcra, but it's the only way through," he continued, leaning forward and pulling a lever, and in a few seconds, you felt how the train jumped off tracks. The train shook and jumped and Arken shouted over the noise, "there's a nest nearby, but usually I get past them unnoticed. It won't be a problem and we'll be fine, it's unlikely that–"

A shriek. Another. Third, flapping of wings, getting closer.

Arken's eyes widened and he immediately looked up. "Well, now we've got a problem!"

Everyone started shouting, and your breathing quickened as you saw dents forming all over the train. Jesper hugged the goat, Inej prayed and Kaz and you turned your heads as new dents formed around you. Arken ordered you to throw the rest of the coal into the fireplace, but soon, he turned grim. "We're twenty seconds late."

"What does that mean?" Kaz shouted over the noise, and Arken's shoulders slumped.

"It means the train will stop inside the Fold and... we'll die."

You scoffed, leaning back and crossed your arms. "Should have guessed I can't trust a strange guy with way too much confidence. I should have known that trusting him would get me killed!"

Arken glared at you, but didn't say anything.

But then, Jesper suddenly stood up, holding the goat. He walked to the middle of the train, his eyes closed, as if all his fear had melted away and something that was not him had taken over. You almost believed Inej's praying summoned something to take over Jesper, because that's how calm he looked when compared to just moments earlier.

Then, he started shooting, and the train started picking up speed again when the weight of Volcras were taken off it. One of the Volcras managed to break through the roof, and Arken screamed. But Jesper, still so unbelievably calm, pointed at it with his gun, and with his eyes closed, he shot the Volcra into the head and it flew off the train.

Then, sunlight. You had gotten out.

All of you sat there for a moment in silence, just wondering about how close to dying you all had been for a moment there. Had it not been for Jesper, you'd all be flying across the Fold without your heads by now.

But you reminded yourself to get your head straight. You still had a mission. To get the Sun Summoner, and to get rid of the Crows along the way. And probably also Arken, considering he was planning to betray you.

After a moment more, Arken stood up, still shaking. "Right. Uh. We should go. There's a pub around the corner where I'm usually meeting my clients before taking them over to the Fold, we can rest there and think about our next move."

—

While the rest of you sat at the counter of the pub, Jesper gifted the goat to some lady who promised to take good care of him, and he gave the goat so fond goodbyes that you thought he's going to marry it next. You watched him put a bullet around the goat's neck, and hummed in amusement. When he came back to the table, you cocked an eyebrow at him. "You know he could get hurt if he gets near to the fire of something hot with that bullet hanging around his neck?"

Jesper pouted. "I had to give him something to remember me by."

You nodded slowly a few times before shrugging. "Well, you can show your love in a multitude of ways I guess. I have never heard of one where you blow the other's head off to show your love, though."

Jesper's eyes widened as he turned to look at you, clearly offended. "Milo is a very smart boy, he knows he can't go near the fire."

You couldn't help but laugh a little. "Sure he is."

Jesper spun around to face Inej while gesturing towards you, but she just shrugged. Jesper groaned, but then fell silent.

"Could we return to the real problem that's waiting for us here?" Arken waved a little paper announcing a winter fete at the Little Palace. "The palace is crawling with guards and Grisha because of this party. Without Nina, we have no chance of getting in."

"We're in luck," Kaz suddenly emerged from behind you. "There's a good chance we can crack on. Now that we're three days away from the capital, the next play is finding a way inside the Little Palace. It turns out Kribirsk Archive house the Little Palace blueprints." He fell silent for a second.

You put your drink down. "But?"

"They're kept under the lock and key," Kaz sighed, but then smirked. "Far from the prying eyes of the masses."

Jesper hit the table. "Yes!"

Arken looked between Kaz and Jesper. "What does that mean?"

Jesper patted Arken's back. "Time for a heist."

They stood up from the table, leaving you there, unsure if they wanted you to follow. Kaz turned to Arken, handing him some cash while muttering something and then met your eyes and nodded his head towards the doorway.

Jesper groaned as he saw you coming out behind Kaz. "We really need the Blood Hound?"

Kaz scoffed. "We don't need her. But I can't trust her enough to leave her alone with Arken."

Jesper nodded, tapping his hands on his revolvers. "Right. Makes sense. Where will she be while the rest of us are inside?"

"I can pretend to be great sculptor Ivanovski's muse," you joked before Kaz could reply, and Kaz gave you a death glare. You sighed. "Okay, maybe not then."

Kaz turned his eyes away from you and back to Jesper. "She's going to wait by the door as I'm tricking that archive caretaker. After I leave, I'm going to stay with her. We don't need her until we're in the Little Palace."

Jesper frowned. "That's the most crucial part of the plan. How can you know she's not going to betray us then?"

Kaz gave you a side glance. "She won't be able to leave without us. If she's going to snatch the target without us and is planning to take her back to her father, she won't get far without us catching up. She will wake up with a knife in her back as she's paralysed and bleeding to death."

You knew he probably said some of it to scare you, but some of it was true. If you were to betray them at the Little Palace, you wouldn't get far. Especially not if the Wraith was after you. It would be pure idiotism to do that - you'd need to eliminate them first and only after that, take the Sun Summoner back to Ketterdam.

You knew Inej wouldn't kill at this point, but high stakes were on the line and you didn't believe risks were worth taking. What the Wraith would do under pressure - when her friends would be in serious danger. She cared too much to be part of a gang.

Something to use against her.

You imagined yourself bringing the Sun Summoner to the Emerald Palace. The moment they would see who you caught, your father would thrive. Dregs would be given two options, either die or join the Dime Lions. There were some who would be stupid enough to be loyal to Kaz, dead Kaz, but some would surely jump the shrinking ship.

—

The birds were singing. It was so different in Ravka, almost dream-like - blue skies, sun shining, flowers blooming. You couldn't smell drainage anywhere, you hadn't seen any rats, it almost felt like you were visiting the royal family, when you had been used to Ketterdam.

When you were a child, if you ever misbehaved, your father locked you into a cold cellar with rats. As you slept, the rats saw you as food, and you woke up screaming as they nibbled you. The wounds got infected sometimes, and your legs still had small scars from those times.

You learned that to prevent yourself from ending up in that cellar, you had to prove you were worth the Rollins name - being cunning and manipulative. Helping your father to trick those poor people who came to him for help. Only after being helpful in that in your early teens, you never again ended up in that cellar. You just had a natural talent to make people trust you - they never knew.

"Come," Kaz's voice pierced your thoughts again and he led you back to the carriage. "We are going to go and wait for Inej to come out."

"Is everything alright?" you asked, climbing inside.

Kaz glanced back at the building before nodding at the carriage driver and climbing inside himself. "Jesper is securing her if something was to go wrong. I got us some uniforms so we won't be suspicious while waiting."

The carriage started moving with a tug, and with a frown, you met Kaz's dark eyes. "Do you think I could ever be worth your trust?"

Kaz scoffed. "Me trusting a Rollins will never happen."

"Why did you take me along, then?" you asked quietly. "Why drag me along if–"

"Pekka took everything I had left from me. The mere thought of having someone–" Kaz cut himself off and pursed his lips. "I need to find out if we really have a common enemy or if there's a chance of you pretending."

You felt a rush of triumph. Vengeance. He almost opened up to you.

You took in a shaky breath and held your chin up. "I swear, I'm worth your trust. Pekka needs to die for what he has done, what he did to my family - what he did to me, what he turned me into."

Kaz looked at you from behind his eyebrows. "He will get what he deserves, whether you speak the truth or not."

The carriage stopped again, and Kaz shoved a garment bag to you. "Put that on."

Then, he exited the carriage, and you couldn't help but smile. Your charm had started to squeeze its venom into Kaz.