“The truth of the matter is that I was using you,” Kaz’s words felt as chilled as the water running through the canals throughout Ketterdam’s cursed streets. You stared at him with your brass knuckles loose around your fingers, unable to hold your fists and you felt yourself lean back against the wall behind you, disbelief clouding your judgement. Nina’s words echoed in your mind: “Kaz is a good actor, just as good as me and I’m military trained and yet… I couldn’t even pretend to be in love like that. I think he really does feel for you.”

“You’re a thief,” You breathed with dawning dread, brushing the back of your hand against your cheek and wiping blood and dust across your sweat soaked skin. The job had been perfect, gone smoother than anything and now you just awaited the signal from Wylan that it was clear to make a swift exit. You had played your role for months for this job and you hadn’t even realised you were a puppet on a string. All those nights in Kaz’s office, the coffees you brought him, the little notes he left around for you. It was all preparing you to play the role for that heist and selfishly, Kaz knew how to make you fall for him for real, reality winding you in the middle of a dingy storage room in a warehouse on some island off of the coast of Ketterdam.

“We all had a job to do and you’re the least reliable. I did what needed to be done,” Kaz’s icey gaze didn’t waver with uncertainty but there was a rigidness in his frame, all straight lines deadly still rather than flowing like waves licking at algae-slick rocks. In his impossibly dark suit, jacquard waistcoat and bronze pocket watch, he stood towering, tall and domineering and with just a single sentence, he turned from your favourite person to walk on the cobbled streets to the Devil himself.