#nikolay andreyev | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

ricardian-werewolf · 3 months ago

Text

Chapter 7: We were Never Alive

Ao3 Link

Summary:

Alina and the gang find the stag in the wilds of Tsibeya, and are forced to come to terms with what the amplifier means for Alina. They must be ready for just how far the Darkling is willing to go to gain utter and complete power. What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men

Notes:

Tws: The Darkling, brutal violence, pain, abuse and physical assault

Taglist: @lordbettany, @fauxraven, @dreadbirate, @hysterionic

Chapter below the cut.

Tsibeya - Early Spring.

In the moment of lucidity that Alina felt while she stood between the Darkling and the stag, she realised just how unprepared she was.

To fight him. To live another day. The trek had been easier after they’d commandeered the Costa’s long-boat and bumped into Mal in the foothills. Weeks of tracking, traipsing up and down and back up mountainsides had brought them… here. To the clearing of the herd. On Mal’s advice, the four of them had reluctantly set up camp under a thicket of low-hanging pine branches and burned no fire. Alina’s light had given them enough heat to stave off dying of the cold. They’d eaten the last of their rations and Mal had prepared to lay traps.

Yet… When twilight had fallen, from the fringes of the clearing came the Darkling’s Grisha and the Black Heretic himself. Amongst them were First Army soldiers armed with rifles and bows, along with the needed local trackers from nearby mountain dachas . All had been going well enough until one of the soldiers saw Alina’s flash of uniform and chaos erupted. A scuffle had broken out - Three Grisha and one tracker against a centuries old Shadow-summoner and his team of well-trained soldiers, Grisha and not. It was an unfair fight by any standards. In the chaos, the herd had bolted, and someone had shot the stag clean through the left upper shoulder. It had staggered, then fallen, its legs breaking under it.

Alina had made the stupid decision to bolt for the stag at the same time one of the First Army trackers shot Mal through the stomach with an arrow. Charging into the mess, she yanked Mal up under his shoulder blades and the two orphans collapsed in front of the stag. Throwing her hands up, she summoned a dome of light.

“Bloody hell, Alina…” Mal groaned. “You idiot, what're you doing?!”

“Trying to keep us alive!” She yelled.

Alina’s hands shook, sweat pouring down her face and settling into her armpits and curves of her body as she fought vainly to keep the shield up. By her side, Mal lay prone. Genya was switching between her Corporalki training and work with Nikolai every moment it seemed.

And Nikolai… Her fox-prince was firing off on all cylinders. His pistols let off smoke in the frigid cold as he switched off on firing them with excellent accuracy or cutting down the Darkling’s Oprichniki with his officers' sabre. Either way, he was the blade Alina had desperately hungered for. Yet… even he was mortal.

She could only watch in terrified horror as his powers, stolen and corrupted by the Darkling, crept over him slowly. Merzost sunk its claws in deep and made his hands cramp with unimaginable pain. All of it made him that bit more sluggish. So when an Inferni ’s flame shot found him, Nikolai couldn’t dodge. It threw him backwards, crashing through Alina’s light shield. He hit the snow-bank with a sickening thud , and laid there, blood pouring from a wound in his leg.

But he still cocked his pistols back and got to his feet. Blood dripped in a steady stream onto the snowbank at his feet. Yet, he fought on. Alina’s hand gripped his arm and she shook her head, begging him not to exert himself so. “Please, Nikolai…” She whispered. “You’ll die.”

“At least I’ll die on my feet.” He shot blindly, the bullet clipping the Darkling’s left ear. Silence followed.

“Enough!” The Darkling shouted, shadows cloaking the ground around where the shield touched the snow. “Your tracker is hurt, you don’t know what you’re doing, Alina. Time is running out for your blessed prince! Before long, he’ll to a monster and kill you!” He taunted.

“No-” Nikolai groaned, stepping in front of Alina. He tugged off his greatcoat and rolled up the sleeves of his dolman . Alina’s eyes widened as the black veins stretched up his arms and writhed . Somehow, they were alive. “She knows just what she’s doing.”

He raised his hands in front of him, his nails becoming long black claws, jagged and edged with something sharper than diamond. Shadows - not the Darkling’s, but the ones Nikolai had cast long ago at the crossing in the caravan to the Little Palace - poured from his hands. They formed something monstrous at his feet. Something with teeth and jagged claws.

“Drop the shield, now!” He yelled over his shoulder. Alina barely had time to cry out as she did, and the shadows - the Darkling and Nikolai’s - careened towards one another. The explosion created a shockwave that rattled the trees, and in the darkness, Alina gasped as Nikolai grabbed her wrist. Light exploded out in a multitude of colours and surged up in a solid beam . Her other hand was latched tight around the antlers of the dying stag. In the twilight, Nikolai’s eyes burned gold . The beam of light formed a stronger shield, illuminating everything around them so that the snow was blinding .

“Sunshine, you’re glowing .” His grin was infectious, and Alina looked around at their little motley. Mal was still collapsed at her feet, but even his pallor looked healthier. Genya had stopped in her heart-rending to watch this light-show, and through the wall of darkness, Alina saw the Darkling’s soldiers stagger backwards in awe and horror.

“W-what…” The Darkling breathed as Nikolai waved his hand and the shadows faded. In its place, only a surge of light flowed upwards around Alina and her crew. Her left hand was clutched tightly in Nikolai’s, and her right still clung to the antlers.

Alina closed her eyes, the surge of power almost knocking her over. She needed the amplifier, like a dying man needed a healer. She grasped Nikolai’s hand tighter and kissed his bloodied knuckles. Snow fluttered around them, sticking fast to her hair and his coat-collar. But the moment of peace ended with a wet noise coming from Nikolai’s mouth.

None of them, foolish teens as they were, had remembered that Nikolai was wounded. That the clock to him becoming a monster was indeed ticking down. He sank to his knees in the snow and pulled Alina down with her. The beam faded and the shield cracked , its strength fading more with each second.

“Nikolai!”

Her grip on the antlers slipped, and the power surge died, leaving her wanting more than ever. Desperately, she lunged for the antlers once more, but screamed as a bolt of shadow drove into the back of her hand.

“NO! NO!” Panic filled her as she saw the Darkling advance and spread his hands wide. Shadows rose up in waves and rushed towards them. Desperate, Alina threw her hands over her face. Light fought against the inky blackness swallowed her, blocking out her vision. Distantly, she could hear Genya’s screams, and Nikolai’s hoarse cries filling the air.

“Nikolai! Genya! Where are you?! Help me!”

“Alina!”

The darkness lifted with a great, sudden whoosh of air, and Alina glanced up. Buried as she was in the snow, she’d fallen within a few feet of Nikolai. He’d caged Genya under him and his hand was scrambling in the snow for anything he could fight with. But he stalled as the wound in his leg became too much and fell sideways, pulling Genya against him. His free hand snatched Alina’s wrist and she was yanked harshly into his embrace. Rage had furrowed his brows and he glared up at the figure leaning over them.

Zoya.

“Don’t move. Not one of you.” She hadn’t lifted the darkness completely, merely moved it a few feet to shield the Darkling from the sight of her. She knelt before them and adjusted the collar of her kefta , then dug around in her pockets. She seemed to be looking for something, but in low words spoke to them:

“He’s going to wound you in more ways than one. He’s already got Nikolai, and Genya…” Her voice broke as Alina’s gaze snapped to the Tailor. Shuddering, shaking in Nikolai’s arms, Genya had thrown her hands over her face. She pulled them down to reveal black wounds dripping blood. Somehow, the shadows had slashed all over her body, torn her Sarafan in multiple places and ripped out her eye.

Vomit surged up the back of Alina’s throat and she crammed her hands over her mouth. No, By the saints, no! She gasped, reaching for her friend. Genya flinched, smacking Alina’s hands back. “No!” She howled. “No! Not me! Baghra said I had nothing to fear!”

“She was wrong..” Nikolai groaned. In the dim twilight, he looked pale. Distantly, Alina heard the moans of the dying stag and Mal’s whimpers. The arrow was still embedded in him. She looked up into Zoya’s eyes.

“What if we surrender? W-would he heal them?”

“Only to use them as pawns against you.” Zoya replied sharply, fishing out a dark blue hair ribbon. She tied back her braid and her sleeve slid down to reveal the amplifier embedded in her skin. The wound had festered and rotted for years, but such was the price to pay for such power.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men.

The greed of the Darkling has no end. He will never be satisfied. We are all just his means for an end. A way forward for his conquest of power.

Alina’s gaze locked on Zoya once more. “Do it. Go back and tell him we submit. Tell him that…” She closed her eyes. “That I’ll allow him to put the antlers on me.”

“Alina-” Genya grabbed Alina’s hand. “No.. no, please… no.” She sobbed weakly. “He’ll break you.”

“She’s right, Sunshine.” Nikolai growled as he sat up. “You’d be his slave forever. I can’t lose you.”

“You’d be dead!” Alina sobbed. “Both of you!” The rage of weeks, months spilled out of her, causing the shadows at their feet to rear back in fright. Light surrounded the three of them, bathing them all in its incandescent glow. She shook her head, the cold freezing her tears in their ducts. “I won’t let it happen. I’ll… think of something.” She gripped Nikolai’s shaking hands in her own, and pressed her face into the expanse of his shoulder blade.

“Are you certain, Alina?” Zoya asked softly, leaning over them once more. The light shining around the three of them bathed Zoya in the dimness of a new dawn, and her deep blue eyes reminded Alina of uncut sapphires.

“Yes.” She replied, her voice breaking. All of the hopes to be the first to take back the stag, to win against the Darkling once and for all, were dashed. She hung her head, and wept unabashed tears of defeat. The fight drained from her in that instant, and she felt Nikolai kiss her forehead. He murmured something against her eyelids, tears dripping down his face.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t protect you.”

Those were the last words Alina heard before she was pulled under by one of the Darkling’s heart renders lowering her pulse.

Alina woke in darkness.

In a sense. There were sputtering candles, but the dimness of a low heart-rate, pounding head and blurred vision made them glow like distant stars. She stretched out an arm and felt her knees buckle. Her face smashed into a rug of woven threads. She was tired - so, so tired. Rage, and the cost of fighting this endless race against the wretched Black heretic was getting her nowhere. He would win. He was stronger, older and wiser than she was.

Where the hell is this coming from?

Alina shook her head, knowing these thoughts of defeat were not hers, could not be. She had hoped this doubt had been behind her after all of these months under Nikolai’s care. She’d been shedding the skin of the little, frail girl she’d been. It was only upwards from here, right?

No. You’re back in his clutches. What will he do to you for this transgression?

Alina knew what was going to pass, knew instantly the cold, sickening bite of the antlers around her neck. A chokehold. She could feel the antler tips pressed to the fragile skin around her collar bone and brushing her chin. She knew what an amplifier did to a grisha’s skin - it dug in deep and the power fed into one’s very veins. Sickening their mortal bodies to open them up to the powers they needed to stave off death . There had always been the argument in Grisha theory that an amplifier strengthened a Grisha, sanctifying their craft with godly purity.

In reality, it weakened them. Broke them. To remove an amplifier was to strip their power from them. Alina had seen the greyness under Nikolai’s skin. The Darkling had first infected him and given him the amplifier when it was still an animal. He must’ve killed it and fused the bones to his wrist. Somehow, it had broken and fallen from Nikolai. His half-deathly pallor in the low light of morning showed just how sick he was.

What is infinite? The universe and the greed of men. What is Infinite? The Universe and the greed of m-

Her thoughts broke, scattering like petals in a gale with the sounds of low, pained moans. At the other end of the space before her, the door - no, tent flaps - parted, and in stepped the Darkling. He had Nikolai’s hands bound in chains. His shirt-sleeves were pushed up to reveal the black veins of his arms.

But it was his face that broke Alina’s heart. Blood trickled from a wound in his temple, and his face was blackened and blued from angry fists. She glared at the Darkling’s Corporalki guards, baring her teeth. Finally, she noted the Fabrikator with them - David Kostyk.

Genya’s sweetheart. He was fiddling with his glasses lens, wiping them on the hem of his kefta , and adjusting his dark mane of hair. His kefta’s sleeves were pristine… something that Alina had never seen once in her time at the Little Palace. She felt confused, terrified. What was Nikolai here for? To witness the Darkling shoving the antlers around her neck, to witness the removal of her power? If he wanted her acceptance, he had it already.

“Alina.”

Her gaze snapped to the ink black eyes of the Darkling. The endless depths of his pupils and irises dragged her into his thrall. She shook her head, bowing her head. “N-no.” She whispered. “P-please, no.”

“Alina!”

That focused her gaze. She looked up once more, tears beading in her eyes. “I am not going to kill him. Nor the tracker.” The Darkling’s gaze was almost kind. Almost . The hint of something dark and endless danced behind his pupils. “You surrendered. You came willingly. You accepted your sins as merely a girlish mistake. I am proud of you.”

I am proud of you.

Alina shivered. Not once had Baghra said that. Nor Ana Kuya. She had never heard anyone say to her that they were proud of her. No one had ever said it. She’d never received a scrap of love in her life, or from any sort of fellow figure of authority. And now…

Saints, how she almost believed him. She hungered to go back into his embrace, if this would be what awaited her. She could see herself once more, his pet , his beloved Sun Summoner. She could easily submit, turn her back on the Little Palace and its cliques, rule at his side, rule-

Nikolai! A small part of her mind screamed suddenly. If you go with the Darkling, he’ll be gone! Forever!

Maybe not. Maybe he’ll stay… be an advisor of sorts. Or he’ll go back to First Army and go quietly… A small, girlish voice begged. Alina realised it was her… before she’d met Nikolai, before all of this.

ARE YOU STUPID? The other part of her screamed. The only place he’s going is hell! The Darkling will kill him to make an example and make sure that you are so utterly broken, you’ll let him pour whatever nice words you want down your throat so that by the time the mask comes off, you’ve obliterated half of Ravka!

Alina flinched, imagining her power in the hands of the Darkling. She could see the fires burning from Os Alta to Kiribirsk, cutting a swathe of death and suffering. The power would not be hers, it would never. She would be all his, in name and word if not…

Body. He had made no uncertainties of his desires to have a romantic relationship with her, despite being thousands of years older. Despite her only being 17. Despite the obvious power imbalances… all of it. He wished to possess, to control her.

“Well?” The Darkling asked, tapping his booted toe against the floor of the raised platform his tent had been pitched upon. “Do you wish to renounce your sins, to come once more into the embrace of the Little Palace?” He stepped forward and tilted her head up. She skirted her gaze to Nikolai, to see her prince so broken, so wounded. This was a trap the too-clever fox couldn’t escape.

Not without help. Not without a lockpick and a few prayers. She settled her gaze upon the Darkling once more. “Not without one condition.”

The Darkling gave a lazy sort of smile, a one to lure prey in. The kind of movement a cobra made before it killed its target. Alina bared her teeth once more. “State your treatise, little Saint , and I will decide whether or not to meet it.”

“Nikolai is granted full pardon. He will be allowed to leave Ravka and come as he wishes. He will not be brought into whatever plans you decide to operate. He will be allowed a life you and I will never gain.”

She licked her lips, panting. Rage and the fight to survive had exhausted her.

“And what if he simply escapes across the True Sea to another place? Another time? We found this map on him-” The Darkling produced the map Nikolai had been studying in the Costa’s longboat. “He could simply go anywhere. Raise an army against us.”

“Then…” Alina’s gaze hardened. “Let him. Let him go against you. Saints know Ravka deserves a change from a thousand years of your festering rot creeping in under the floorboards.” She reared back, the chain that bound her legs snapping with her movement. The strike of the cobra’s fangs missed .

“David!” The Darkling shouted. “Undo the Prince’s chains.”

David’s eyes widened with fear. Alina stilled. What is he planning? She thought as the Darkling stepped over to the richly appointed sideboard and peeled off his gloves. He signalled to Feydor and Ivan, who gave him surprised, almost shocked glances. But they agreed to whatever pre-planned idea the shadow summoner had in hand, and raised their hands. Alina’s pulse dropped, but not enough to put her under. She grunted, her fingers twitching. Nikolai was shoved into position beside her, and his hand wrapped tight around hers. The momentary warmth of the contact was immediately poisoned as the Darkling had Genya - poor, ruined and wounded Genya - undo the shawl around Alina’s neck that hid the antlers. In the dim lamplight, they shone molten silver, and refracted the light back.

“I’m sorry.” Nikolai began. “I’m so, so sorry, Alina.” He whispered. She stilled. “W-why?” She breathed. “Why are you so-”

She was never given a chance to ask her question. David’s trembling hands touched the antlers at the planned joining point of the two pieces, while the Darkling’s hand gripped the upper tips in his slender, pale hands.

He closed his eyes, and the process began.

It was excruciating . As the antlers sunk into Alina’s flesh, they cut the skin and tissues of her collarbone and fused to her bones. The collar had no clasp, no endpoint. It was fused into her tissue, bound up in the very strands that made her… her. The moment passed with the agonising slowness of a bullet being removed from a wound - not that Alina had ever had it happen to her, but the screams of the wounded wormed their way under her skin regardless. She hoped, for a moment, as nothing happened, that the Darkling had gotten it all wrong.

But a whine from Nikolai showed her the wrongness of her hope. Her eyes flew open, and she clapped a hand over her mouth. In her moment of foolishness, she had grabbed his hand and wounded his hand from the pain. But… this was no mere whine of a trod upon foot. He looked sick, weak. As though the mere moments of weakness she had seen in his body were magnified.

“Summoners are the only Grisha capable of removing another’s power.”

Removing another’s power? She thought mutely. Both the Darkling and David looked no more different than they had moments ago, but Nikolai…

“Your hand in his caused the power surge to rend his powers from him.”

What?! Alina thought, her mind screeching to a halt. “W-what?” She breathed. She looked at her prince, felt his hand once more in hers. His skin was cold, clammy. Fever burned in his face. He had never been a healthy boy… but his Durast powers had been his stop-gap from illness, from the decay of whatever the Darkling had put inside him.

“Why?!” She cried suddenly.

“He could never be allowed to roam free, Alina.” The Darkling tutted, his face gleaming with a triumphant smile. He looked every inch a man who had just won a game of cards and walked away from the table leaving the other in crippling debt. “Now, he is merely nothing. A prince. A second son, too weak even to do any-”

Nikolai’s hand shot out and he yanked the Darkling by the jugular. “Shut up.” He growled. Sweat dripped down his temple. He was shaking with the effort, with the exhaustion. “St-”

He pitched to the ground. The Darkling leapt aside and nodded at Ivan. “Good job.”

“Thank you, Moi Soverenyi .”

“See that he is put on the first troop transport back to Os Alta at once.”

Alina’s eyes widened and she dropped to her knees beside Nikolai. “Please, please, no!” She cried, shaking his body. He gave a low, dying moan “R-run.” He whispered, his fingers twitching. “Run, Alina.”

Tears formed in Alina’s eyes as she pressed her head against his side. “I’m so sorry.” She cried. Sobs wracked her, blurring her vision as she wrapped her arms around him. “So, sorry.” She pressed her cheek to his, and felt his pulse dropping

Ivan and Feydor pulled them apart. Alina bucked wildly, lashing out like an animal. She kicked her feet and lashed out, baring her teeth. Screams tore themselves from her throat. “YOU MONSTER!” She cried at the Darkling as she was put back on her feet. Dimly, she watched Nikolai be carried out by First Army stretcher bearers. Bowing over at the waist, Alina tugged at the stag’s antlers and sobbed at the blood that coated her hands.

“W-why?” She wept.

The Darkling's hand returned to touching the antlers, and Alina screamed as Nikolai had. Light poured from her, framing her face. It was as gold as a prince’s hair, and as wild as the roaring ocean that he so loved.

But it was not hers. It would never again be hers to control.

The Darkling smiled, but his eyes were full of pain.

“He was no good for you, Alina. Men like him are no more than spring flowers. Beautiful in their blossoms, but so quick to fade. He will be a mere flash in the night sky, while you will be eternal. He would only break your heart.”

Through her reddened eyes and blurry gaze, Alina spoke with full malice, full rage.

“I would rather live knowing he will die in a month’s time than share my bed with you.”

The Darkling stepped back, and the light faded out, the tent returning to its dimness. He turned toward the exit, and had Zoya, who had stood by the doorway witnessing it all, wave her hand. The light snuffed out at once, and she departed with the man who had ripped Alina’s power from her.

Alina’s legs buckled, and she fell to the floor once more. She dimly crawled into the space Nikolai had laid in, and curled into a ball. She dragged the wool shawl over her shoulders, pressed her face into her hands and cried. Once more, fate had dealt her a cruel hand, and she would bear the burden.

Distant from her, Nikolai’s form was carried not to the waiting first aid cart, but to the grouping of buildings who made up this outpost of snow-covered tents and rotting buildings. It had been here that Nikolai had tapped into the merzost that had saved Dominik three years before. In the dim light, He was carried into the main barracks mess hall. The space was clear of tables except for a single one. Awaiting him was a first Army surgeon, a corporal, and a woman wearing a mourning sarafan and button boots.

“Go.” She croaked. The stretcher bearers bowed, and departed. The surgeon turned to his aid. The colonel shooed him away from Nikolai’s body, and instead began to unbutton Nikolai’s bloodied tunic. “Nik…” He whispered.

Nikolai’s face grimaced in pain. “Dom…” He breathed, his voice as light as a moth's wing. “H-help,"

“We will, old boy.” Dominik replied. He nodded at the woman in the mourning gown, and she pushed back her veil to reveal a mane of inky black curls so like her son’s. “The Little Saint has been careless, but there is still enough here to save. I will need time alone with him.” She indicated Dominik and Nikolai, then looked at the surgeon.

“Your services are not required.” She jerked her head toward the door. The Surgeon bowed and left, his aid trailing him. As soon as the door was locked, the 22nd Regiment’s elite soldiers stepped in front of every possible entrance, threw tarps over the windows.

Their major was wounded, nearing the inky blackness of death. But they would die before allowing him to cross the Styx. As the woman helped Dominik tear off his tunic, Nikolai spoke.

“Baba?” He whimpered.

“I’m here, my boy. Always.” Baghra kissed his knuckles and stroked her hand over his face. “Always here, when no one else would be.” She replied. “My poor son.”

Dominik froze, but continued to work. Nikolai’s healing took precedence over his lineage. He of all people, knew that. Turning back to the mending of Nikolai’s broken and scarred body, Dominik began to pray.

“Sankts, give us hope. Bring us not unto temptation, but saveth the man who layeth before me. Bring him not into your embrace, not yet. He has fought long and hard, but it is not his time.”

The same prayer was whispered over Alina’s slumbering form by Zoya and Genya, who carried Alina to her bed and cocooned her in blankets. The same prayer echoed in the words of Nikolai’s men, of the Grisha who had come to like Alina, even as the Darkling sat in his tent and penned a letter to the Apparat to be ready and waiting in Kirbirsk.

If the Saints were able to walk amongst mortals, they would discover how feverishly the intonation to protect the weak and dying was spoken. How desperate mere mortals were to save a little boy and girl who had seen more horrors in their short lives than their ancestors saw in decades.

Alina faintly heard her friend’s prayers, and in reply, reached out a trembling hand. She was too deeply asleep to stir, but somehow she felt that Nikolai was in pain, nearing the end.

“Nikolai..” She breathed. A faint shimmer of light flickered from her hand, before dying out.

All across the camp, the candle-lanterns and oil lamps snuffed out.

End of chapter 7.

#fic: I don't want to set the world on fire #shadow and bone #nikolai lantsov #alina starkov #nikolina #wyn rambles #the darkling #genya x david #Baghra #Dominik Vertov #Isaak Andreyev

3 notes · View notes

lunarthecorvus · 4 months ago

Text

Alternate Universe - Modern Setting (Not College/Uni) Kanej fanfiction recommendations

part of Lunar's soc fanficiton rec series

-------------------------------✩₊˚.⋆☾⋆⁺₊✧----------------------------------

Stains That Don't Wash Out by @SeeMaree

Wordcount: 79,901 Chapters: 19/19

Characters: Inej Ghafa, Kaz Brekker, Most other characters

Tags: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Some referenced violence, mentions of torture, mentions of rape/non-con, nothing graphic described, basically if you've read the books this is less graphic, kaz is a farmer, and inej works with foster kids, basically an angsty slow burn, but also with attempted murder, and intermittent fluff, quite a lot of fluff really, but quite a lot of angst too, Autistic coded Kaz

Author's summary/notes: To think, when Inej had heard that someone had bought the old Rietveld place that ran alongside her family farm she’d been pleased. That was before she met the man. A more unpleasant and insulting person she couldn't imagine. But she's got bigger problems than an annoying neighbor. And as it turns out, so does he. My summary/notes: This fic was so sweet, I loved seeing older Inej being a social worker and running a camp for disadvantaged kids, it was so nice to see her being in charge and more free. I found it so fascinating to read Kaz and Inej meeting each other for the first time in adulthood, the way it adapted their dynamic was so interesting and I loved reading them get to know each other. There is definitely angst though... also Inej's parents are in it aaaa

---------- ☾₊ ⊹

modern setting (series of modern au oneshots) by @whynotcherries

Wordcount: 6,689 Works: 3 Complete: No

Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa

Author's summary/notes:

1. For a few moments: "If someone would’ve told her this would happen in advance, Inej Ghafa would’ve laughed in their face. This was exactly where she’d found herself waking rather peacefully, though: Kaz Brekker’s sofa, some blanket she’d never seen before carefully arranged to cover her entire body, and with the sound of someone walking around in the kitchen." Or, an accidental sleepover.

2. Will we last the night?: "He was particularly curious why, of all people, she’d chosen him to climb in a ferris wheel with. At the very least, that meant ten minutes being alone with someone that she hardly knew, and at worst… Well, they’d get stuck." Or, Kaz and Inej get stuck on a ferris wheel as their second time meeting.

3. Don't look back, not for anything: "Thankfully, she’d succeeded in getting out of the house with what they’d needed. She had not succeeded, however, in staying alert for the entire ride back to their part of town. Rather, he was fairly certain she’d fallen asleep next to him, her head resting heavy on his shoulder." Or, Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, and the struggles of night trips.

---------- ☾₊ ⊹

When We Collide by @rupturedhaven

Wordcount: 106,364 Chapters: 9/? (still being updated)

Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Jesper Fahey, Wylan Van Eck, Nina Zenik, Matthias Helvar, Pekka Rollins, Dima (Shadow and Bone TV), Genya Safin, David Kostyk, The Darkling | Aleksander Morozova, Jan Van Eck, Alys Van Eck, Marya Hendriks, Nikolai Lantsov, Tolya Yul-Bataar, Tamar Kir-Bataar, Tante Heleen, Eroll Aerts, Isaak Andreyev

Tags: Kanej - Freeform, wesper, helnik - Freeform, modern day AU, Heist AU, Six of Crows, Found Family, AU/Source material hybrid, Other characters will show up eventually - Freeform, Potentially the start of a multi-fic universe, soc - Freeform, Six of Crows AU, Slow Burn, King of Scars

Author's summary/notes: The Bastard of the Barrel. The Wraith. The gambler. The wayward son. The Heartrender. The fugitive. A thirst for revenge brings the six of them together, but can they weather a storm of secrets, deceptions, unlikely friendships and heartbreak? And if so, who will they have become once the clouds disperse? Modern Day AU with a mix of elements from the books and show. Long-running narrative with plenty of time for all our favourite characters to show up... My summary/notes: I've recommended Rupturedhaven before beacuse they are such a good writer, would recommend every one of their fics. This fic has such good world-building and the heist is so fun to read. You will be sucked into this this fic and not want to put it down. The way it adapted the crows relationships was so interesting, its a modern crows hiest (I don't want to spoil it so go read it :)

---------- ☾₊ ⊹

Adiago by @whatanybodygets

Wordcount: 81,074 Chapters: 7/12 (hasn't been updated in over a year but you NEED to read it)

Characters: Kaz Brekker, Inej Ghafa, Nina Zenik, Jesper Fahey, Wylan Van Eck, Matthias Helvar

Tags: the gang's all here, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, mentions of past rape/non-con, Aged-Up Character(s), Touch-Averse Kaz Brekker, Minor Jesper Fahey/Wylan Van Eck, Minor Matthias Helvar/Nina Zenik, Slow Burn, Canon-Typical Violence

Author's summary/notes: Inej Ghafa is a principal dancer of the Kerch National Ballet, haunted by a past she'd rather forget. Kaz Brekker is a mob boss who holds the city in the palm of his hand. Perhaps if all were right with the world, two such people would never meet. Or perhaps fate will always give those who need each other a push in the right direction. It begins, as so many things in Ketterdam do, with a murder. My summary/notes: Of course I have to include a classic, its just a masterpiece and one of the most popular well known kanej fics. The writing is just so beautiful and this fic will take you on such a interesting journey. I loved reading Inej's pov in this fic, it really showed her struggles and her strength.

This category was asked for by the lovely @martinakl13 (p.s. check out her fics) <3

#lunars fanfiction rec series ☾₊ ⊹#lunars fanfic recs #lunars fanfiction recs #kanej fanfiction #kanej fanfic #kanej fics #kanej fanfic recs]#kanej #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #six of crows #grishaverse #crooked kingdom #soc #nina zenik #jesper fahey #wylan van eck #matthias helvar

40 notes · View notes