Fjerdands

"I told you to be gentle," Kaida said out of the tent next to The Darkling, looking at how Alina was refusing to get in the coach and how Ivan was trying to not lose his patience.

"I was," he said.

"No, you weren't," Kaida said laughing. "You were acting the same way you act with the rest, cold and distant" she said looking at him.

"I'm cold and distant with you?" he asked with a smirk.

"No, but it's because you know I would kick your ass" she mocked and then smiled making him smile.

"No!" they heard and they turned their heads to see Alina confronting Ivan.

"She is a fighter," Kaida said, a little bit proud.

"She reminds me of someone," The Darkling said, looking at Kaida. "But she was worst" he said with a smile.

"Maybe, I wonder who she was," Kaida said with a smile. They saw Alina disappearing inside the coach and a healer after her.

"You should get going," The Darkling said.

"Let me say goodbye, please," she begged. "I'm not going to be able to see him again in a while. I just want to say goodbye and check if he is alright."

"When you finish you go immediately to the coach, do not stop. Go" he said clearly.

"Thank you" Kaida said with excitement before she started running to find Jake.

"Jake? Has someone seen Jake Wellerman?" Kaida asked none in particular.

"Kaida?" Jake asked, walking out of a tent.

"Jake" Kaida runned after him and hugged him. "Are you okay?" she asked worriedly.

"I'm fine, and you? Are you hurt?" he asked, looking at her body checking if she was okay.

"I'm fine. I was so worried about you" she said, hugging him again.

"Same" he said, hugging her back.

"I'm leaving back to Os Alta, I just wanted to say goodbye and give you the gift that I couldn't give you because it was in the coach with The Darkling things" a Grisha with a red kefta appeared carrying a box and gave it to Kaida. "I asked a friend to do them for you," she said. Jake opened the box finding a new pair of winter boots. "I've seen yours and they are broken"

"They are wonderful," he said, hugging her. "Thank you so much"

"I have to leave, but please take care of yourself and be careful," Kaida said sadly.

"I will, don't worry. The same for you. Be careful and have a good trip" Jake said with a sad smile.

"I love you," Kaida said, hugging him again.

"I love you too," he said, hugging her strongly. Kaida broke the hug and started walking to the coach.

"Finally, I thought you would never finish," Ivan said, annoyed.

"Shut up your stupid mouth if you don't want to see your worst nightmare" Kaida snapped angrily.

"Wow, someone is in a bad mood," Fedyor said.

"Fedyor, nice to see you," Kaida said with a small smile.

"I saw what happened inside the tent with the new girl. Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," she said, giving him a smile of gratitude. They were in front of the door of the coach and Alina was already inside.

"Ladies first," Fedyor said. Kaida laughed and entered the coach sitting next to Alina but as far as possible.

A Healer healed Alina's wounds and then Ivan ordered the Healer to give Alina her kefta.

"You know? You could be more kind and less rude, it won't kill you" Kaida said when the Healer left the coach.

"Where is she going?" Alina asked.

"Back to Kribirsk" Ivan responded. "We'll travel faster with less weight"

"Then get off of the coach, we would get to Os Alta in less that one day without you" Kaida snapped.

"Put on the kefta" Ivan said, ignoring Kaida's comment.

"Why?" Alina asked.

"Because it's made with Materialki corecloth. It can withstand rifle fire" he explained.

"Do you all wear this stuff?" she asked again.

"When we're in the field"

Alina turned to see Kaida, who was looking out of the window ignoring the people that were around her.

"Does she hate me?" Alina asked, confused. "I mean, I noticed how she tried to sit as far away from me as possible."

"She doesn't like people touching her. It's not personal, the only people that can do it are The Darkling and her friend, the one that was in the First Army with you" Feydor answered.

"Jake," Alina said. "Why?" she asked.

"No one knows, even The Darkling knows almost nothing of her history, whatever Kaida had to go through, I don't think there's anyone in this universe who does know."

Alina looked at her with surprise. Kaida heard the conversation, and she didn't care what Fedyor had said, he wasn't lying. They started talking about other things so Kaida decided to ignore them.

Flashback

Kaida was aboard the Volkony sleeping within the same cabin as Tamar in a hammock, but as usual she woke up in the middle of the night sweating and with irregular breathing because of the nightmares. It was summer so she was just wearing a thin dress without sleeves, she just used it to sleep, during the day she wore pants and a shirt. She got off the hammock and walked outside.

The wind hit her when she got out to the deck. She walked to the end of the boat and rested her forearms on the wooden board that kept her from falling into the sea and left a long sigh to get out of her lips.

"I know I'm wonderful, but I never thought I would hear you sighing for me" the voice of her captain called her attention. Sturmhond walked towards her but he stopped when he saw the scars on her back. "Kaida...Your back. What happened?" he asked worriedly.

She kept quiet for a long moment."I trust you Sturmhond, I really do. Despite your insufferable flirting and ego you showed me that the people of this crew follow you, not because they fear you, but because they respect you and you treat them well. And even if I want to tell you what I once went through I can't, I'm just not ready to face it. You are the only person who has made me laugh since I was 14 and now I am 17. For the first time in my life you have made me feel safe and I will always be grateful to you for that, but please don't ask me questions about my past. I will tell you when I am ready" Sturmhond was amazed with her words, it was the first time she opened to him and showed him how she was feeling.

"I won't ask questions, it's your life and I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable or that you can't trust me. But I just want to ask you to do something for me" he said standing next to her. Kaida turned her head and the two were face to face.

"What?" she asked calmly.

"Let me help you," he said with a soft voice. "Don't keep everything just for you. I hear you every night having nightmares, and you are keeping that to yourself and that's going to end up destroying you. Let me help you and let it go" he said. A tear ran down Kaida's cheek and then another and another and another, until her cheeks were bathed in that salty water. Sturmhond hugged her tightly and she hid her face in his chest, finally letting the tears she had been holding back for so long come out and let someone see how broken she was.

"You know? I think it is the first time I see you taking something seriously" Kaida said with a small smile and breaking the hug.

"Yeah, I don't take things seriously if I can help it. It makes life tedious" he said. "But this is important to me. You are important to me." he said egocentrically, making Kaida smile wider. "But also, I think it's the first time you allow me to touch you"

"Yeah, I don't like human touch." They kept silent for a long moment, "Thank you, Stumhond," Kaida said before leaving.

End for flashback

"Kaida'' she heard someone calling her, Fedyor. "Are you alright?" he asked.

"Yes, sorry I was lost in my thoughts" she said with a distant voice.

"Really? We didn't notice" Ivan said, rolling his eyes. Kaida got mad with him and tired of his attitude so she made a purple mist fly to Ivan's eyes and he started to breath heavily and sweat.

"What did you do to him?" Alina asked, alarmed. Ivan let out a grunt.

"Kaida, it's enough," Fedyor said seriously. Kaida made the mist go back to her hand and Ivan looked at her angry.

"Show some respect when you talk with me, remember your position and what I can do," Kaida threatened.

"My apologies. Moya soverenyi" Ivan said, annoyed.

"What kind of Grisha are you?" Alina asked in disbelief.

"I'm an Empathic Grisha" Kaida answered.

"I never heard about an Empathic Grisha"

"It's because I'm unique," she answered.

"What was that purple mist? And what can you do?"

"I can control the fear of the people and their emotions," Kaida explained. "And that mist is how I do it"

✴✴✴

THE TIME PASSED, Kaida didn't know how many hours she had been sitting down, but her butt was screaming at her to stand up.

The coach stopped. Kaida looked out of the window noting they weren't in Os Alta.

"Are we–" Alina began, but the guard beside her shut her up with a warning look.

"Something is wrong," Kaida whispered, looking around.

"There's a fallen tree across the road,"the guard said. "But it could be a trap. Be alert and—"

He never finished his sentence. A shot rang out and he fell forward, a bullet in his back. Suddenly the air was full of gunshot sounds. A volley of bullets struck the coach.

"Get down!" Kaida screamed, shielding Alina's body with her own.

"Fjerdands" the guard said, peering outside.

Kaida's heart skipped a heartbeat. There were only two things in the world that Kaida wasn't able to face, Fjerdands and those who left the scars on her back.

"Fedyor, go with him." Ivan said, looking at Fedyor and the guard beside Alina. "You take this side. We'll take the other. At all costs, defend the coach" he ordered, and before leaving the two girls in the coach he got close to Kaida. "You'll be fine, just stay in the coach" Ivan said, trying to calm her down. He was there when they saved her two years ago and he could see how terrified Kaida was. Kaida nodded and tried to calm down.

"Stay close to the floor and quiet" she said to Alina trying to hide her shaky voice.

The two girls could hear everything that was going on outside. The coach shook as a body slammed against the window of the coach making the girls jump with surprise and fear. They saw with horror that he was one of the guards.

The coach door flew open and a man with a wild, yellow bearded face appeared. Kaida and Alina scrambled to the other side. The guy said something in his native tongue and the other door flew open. One of them took Alina's ankle and pulled her out and the other one took Kaida by the ankle too. Kaida started to move and move her other leg trying to get free. "Come on Kaida, don't get paralice" She told herself. The purple mist came out of her hands and flew to the guys eyes who started screaming terrified. She got up and a bullet hit her shoulder making her scream with pain and fell to her knees. Kaida tried to calm her breathing and got to her feet decided to find Alina.

Alina's scream called Kaida's attention and she started running towards her voice to help her, but another Fjerdand took her ankle again, falling to the floor and hitting her head strongly making her dizzy and have a blurred vision.

The Fjerdand that took her got on top of her preventing her from moving her legs and flashbacks of what happened two years ago started to hit her.

"I remember you" the guy on top of her said. "Kaida Deveraux. Do you recognize this symbol?" he asked with mockery, putting up his sleeve showing the symbol of a black circle with a white star in the middle. "He would pay me a lot of money for you," he said with a smile.

"No, no," Kaida said, terrified. Kaida started moving trying to get free but the guy punched her making her blink confused. Approaching this, the guy got up and started to drag Kaida far from the fight. "No, no," she begged, terrified. "Please! Please!"

"Shut up, none is going to help you, they are all concentrated on that little girl" the guy said angrily.

They started getting farther from the fight and Kaida was more frightened with every step they took. More scared than ever, she let her small science fly through all her body and then she extended her arms in the boy's direction. When she opened her gray eyes she saw the guy cutted in half. She screamed and with all her body shaking she began to crawl as far away from the guy as possible.

The Darkling was in front of Alina, trying to calm her down after using the cut in front of her against one of the Fjerdands that was trying to kill her. But immediately he started searching for Kaida.

"Where is she?" he asked, looking around. "Where is she?!" he screamed looking at Ivan.

"We lost track of her during the fight," Ivan said as calmly as possible. Kaida's scream echoed throughout the forest.

The Darkling started to run towards the direction of the scream, finding Kaida with her gaze on a certain point and with her whole body shaking. The Darkling looked in the direction that Kaida was looking to find the body of the guy in half, and then he knew that she had used the cut.

The Darkling got in front of her and carefully kneeled in front of her.

"Kaida, look at me," he said in a calm voice. Alina and the rest of the guards were looking at the scene, some worried, some confused, and some curious. Alina was worried, confused and at the same time curious about who Kaida was. Kaida didn't move her eyes from the dead body. "Kaida, look at me" The Darkling said more seriously. The shining gray eyes from the tears of Kaida looked at him. "You are okay. You are safe. It's over" he said in a calm voice. Kaida nodded but her body was still shaking and she hugged him. No tears, no sobs, she just wanted someone holding her until she stopped shaking. The Darkling put his arm around Kaida's back and the other one under her legs and lifted her from the floor.

"Bring me Kaida's horse and my horse" he ordered. "Alina will ride my horse and I will ride Kaida's with her" he said. No one said anything and got ready what The Darkling ordered.

"I..." Alina started to say.

"Something to object?" The Darkling asked her. Alina looked at the girl that was still shaking in his arms and denied.