Crooked Kingdom (The Six of Crows Trilogy #2)

 Crooked Kingdom

(The Six of Crows Trilogy #2)

By Leigh Bardugo

My Rating: 5

Genre: Fantasy, YA Fiction

Finished on: 4th Aug, 2020

Sigh.

What do I tell? 

Another duology ended, and by the time I reached the last page, I was not having enough strength to let these characters go. 

It ended so beautifully, I couldn't decide whether I should cry or I should definitely cry. 

I did the latter. 

I'll admit, I found most of the book a bit slow. In the first one they had a purpose, an impossible heist to achieve. Breaking though the ice court, stealing an important and valuable hostage from Fjerdans and escaping in one piece. 

What was this book going to be about? 

Saving Inej, having revenge from Van Eck and Pekka, and what else? 

These were going to be the important events of the book, and I desperately waited for them to come up. 

But Leigh had me waiting for quite a bit of time. 

Quite a long bit of time. 

So in the beginning it was bit clear, Kaz is planning to get Inej back. He needs his spider. He needs her. 

So he plans to break through Cornelis Smeet's house to get info on where Van Eck might be hiding Inej. He gets it, the information, but then they turn to find Cornelis Smeet's daughter Hanna standing and watching them. 

What does Kaz do? He scares/threatens the poor girl 😭

Kaz was almost cancelled for me then.

And how does Kaz justify that? This was better than breaking her neck and making it look like an accident. 

How mean can he get? -_-

Anyway, from this point till execution of Inej's escape plan, the book's pace was a bit slow. In between we come to know Muzzen died. 🤕

The one who replaced Matthias in hellgate. 

Fjerdans killed him, assuming he's Matthias. For being a traitor. And we readers could feel how much Matthias felt about that. The guilt was gnawing on him, but he couldn't really do anything about it. 

So Inej's escape plan was closer, while reading one thing was sure, Van Eck was no fool. I almost thought Kaz will be duped again, as Van Eck pretty much assumed how Kaz would turn up to the place to save Inej, but thankfully, thankfully, Kaz surprised us with his wits. And we come to know what Kaz reaaally had planned. He took Alys, second wife of Van Eck, and the wife who's expecting his child, his heir.

Van Eck is distraught, and now he knows, if he so much as lays a finger on Inej, he would never get his wife back. 

I was so impressed with this plan xD

But during this time we come to know a little bit about Inej's insecurities. With every second of Kaz's delay in saving her, she had her doubts. What if Kaz doesn't come? What if Kaz doesn't need her anymore? 

Is she even important to him, apart from being a valuable investment? Someone who helps him get the info and someone who climb the walls/windows/chimneys, you name it, and spies on people like he wants her to? 

Had Van Eck broken her legs like he wanted to, would Kaz have easily given her up? 

These thoughts made Inej very uneasy, and with the way Kaz behaves with all, I believe it was a valid point. 

So yes, the trade happens very smoothly, but Van Eck had come prepared. He came with the Stadwatch and claimed Kaz had kidnapped his son, the son who now looks like a Shu. 

Chaos ensues, and this wasn't just it. The Shu soldiers come contributing to the chaos by causing disruption and kidnapping the Grishas. Jesper notices that those soldiers could smell Grishas. And that's why they were able to easily spot them.

With the team effort they were able to overpower the Shu soldier and escape, but they notice one thing. 

They didn't seem normal at all. They were almost like robot, they had wings! Later it was concluded that the Grishas under the influence of Parem might have been responsible in creating such soldiers, but, how dangerous can they get? And why are they rounding up Grishas? To create an extended army? 

On the other hand Kaz had already taken Inej to one spare warehouse which he owns. And later Inej confronts Kaz about her significance in the team. What would he have done had Van Eck broken her legs? Would he even come? 

And his response melted my heart. 

“I would come for you. And if I couldn’t walk, I’d crawl to you, and no matter how broken we were, we’d fight our way out together—knives drawn, pistols blazing. Because that’s what we do. We never stop fighting.”

Yea, yes, tears aside, let's move on :')

Inej was back, now they started strategizing how to defeat Van Eck, get their money back, and have a very satisfying revenge. 

Kaz, being Kaz, has already laid out some plan. They would crush him purely in terms of business. He owns some sugar silos, so plan is for them ruin everything using some vial which Wylan would be creating, and then see how his business, life and everything turns to almost nothing. 

Nina is concerned about one thing. From the way she suffered from Parem (and yes, she survived it!) and looking at how Shu soldiers are rounding up Grishas from Ketterdam, she wants to rescue all the remaining Grishas living here. She requests Kaz to include this as part of the plan, else take someone else in her stead in the team. Kaz straight up denies executing that plan, but Inej is determined to save Grishas too. 

Inej sides with Nina and says, if Nina isn't in, she won't be too. 

What else Kaz can even do now? xD

So the plan is, for Inej and Nina to execute the Silos part. Since Van Eck is checking every port and harbor for people coming in and out of Ketterdam, the only way Grishas could be freed is for them to be taken away via one of Van Eck's ship itself AND with a letter from Van Eck claiming his authorization for this bunch of people to be let in. 

And his authorization is validated with a seal. 

Which is present at a very secured safe in his house. 

So the rest of the plan is, for Kaz and Wylan to go and get the seal from his father's office, by burning the safe using a very dangerous chemical which will eat away anything. And there Matthias and Jesper would be protecting Kuwei from any possible danger, until everything is done and he can be freed along with Grisha heading towards Ravkan. 

So in order to make the anvil, Wylan claims the ingredients will be available at some place, which is nearby to where his mother is buried. And he and Jesper set off to get that for him. And this journey, we come to know the story of Wylan's mother. Marya Hendriks. A rich, beautiful painter who got ditched by her husband just because her son couldn't be a legitimate heir to his fortune, and the fortune which is mostly of his mother's as once his mother was gone, he inherited everything. 

And I had already guessed this, but it was revealed now that his mother is alive after all. Unlike what his father has been claiming all these years. He had made up the story that she was unwell, passed away, and was taken away and buried without giving Wylan a chance to meet her. But in reality, she had become mentally unwell, yes, but Van Eck sent her to some asylum for her to spend the rest of her life there. And Wylan didn't know about it at all. 

When he visits her place and sees her, he doesn't know how to react. Sad part was his mother didn't recognise him at all, and Wylan was more determined to free her from this prison. It wasn't just about being a worthless son to a father anymore. It was about giving his mother what she deserved. 

And Wylan was now determined to make his father pay. 

Matthias and Nina go visit the place where the refugee Grishas were residing. This is the place they officially confess their love to each other. And also the place where Nina discovers her new power. As when they were attacked by Zoya - a Grisha, who was also Nina's companion in the Second Army -  upon being mistaken for Shu soldiers coming to capture Grishas, Nina summons bones from a nearby place. Later they also recall how she summoned dust to choke a person to death when they went to fetch Alys, and they put two and two together, concluding the dust might have been remains of a dead person after all, as there was a graveyard nearby. Nina was a heartrender earlier, but now she seems to be someone who can manipulate remains of the dead. 

Wow.

Anyway, during this trip we come to know a little bit about Matthias past too. How the Fjerdans got to choose a wolf for themselves, and Matthias chose a big and wild one, allowing that wolf to bit his hand off and clear the wolf's personal  misconception that every humans mean harm to them. It was one feat which he performed there.

And ever since he left the ice court, he wondered how abandoned his wolf might be. Sitting somewhere at the north and waiting for his master to be home. As once the owner of the wolf dies, nobody is supposed to take 'em again. 

The wolf would be wandering all alone. 

Idk, this sounds so sad.

So. After this they return and share the Grisha's information with Kaz. Zoya has agreed to get the Grishas safely to the place from where they'd be sailed away towards their freedom. Anvil was ready. Everything was set. Now they only had to execute the plan. 

Kaz, Wylan leave. Inej, Nina leave. Matthias, Jesper and Kuwei remain at the Black Viel tombs place. Here we come to know about Jesper's story. Of why his father, Colm Fahey is so insecure about his son being a Grisha. And that was because his lost his wife because of the very same reason. 

She was a simple woman, whom her husband dearly loved. She liked using her power and making their life easier whenever possible. But one find day, she was needed elsewhere. A sick, dying girl needed to be rescued, but while Jesper's mother tried to take off the poison from the girl's body, she couldn't in time stop it from entering her own. And she succumbed to it. 

The girl survived. But at the cost of Jesper's mother's life.

Jesper and his father lost their loved one. And it's natural for a person to hate the very thing which claimed his beloved's life. Of course he had to hide his son for that as well. Wanted his son to lead a very simple life. And that's why he even sent away his son to pursue his studies, only for him to fail his father by getting stuck to petty habits. 😒

But Jesper has realised this, and he desperately wants to make this right. He wants to survive this everything and make amends with his father. 

But, I felt this was just too soon, can everything go right? Them executing this plan neatly and walking out, head held high? Of course not. The action started right after that.

They were all ambushed from all places. 

Starting from Black Viel. They were surrounded by armed men. Poor Kuwei thought this is it, this is the end, I guess? But this was the point Matthias proved he is a true soldier after all. He wasn't alone. He was with Jesper and Kuwei, and both aren't ordinary, are they? 

They BOTH are Grishas. Jesper is a Fabrikator, and Kuwei is an Inferni. And Matthias makes them both use their powers to get them out. A simple spark was enough for Kuwei to turn it into a little bit of fire, and using whatever resources they had around, they made it seem like something supernatural has been happening. And they escape from there. 

The same thing happens with Nina and Inej. They had around 12 minutes to get the job done. Nina would guide Inej about the movement of guards around the silos, and Inej would discreetly move from each silos and do her job. 

And everything goes smoothly, that is, until they were ambushed as well. In Inej's case, the attacker almost pushed Inej inside the silo as she was about to close the latch. But Inej being Inej, managed to get out of the way at the nick of time. 

Inej was attacked. Who was the attacker?

Her attacker was a girl. Dunyasha Lazareva. She was fast, and seemed better than Inej. Inej tried to fight, but Dunyasha was always a step ahead. She's not after money, it seems. Her goal is to kill as many criminals as she can. And Pekka is paying her for that.  Inej understood she can't defeat this woman without falling to her death, so she tries going back the way she came via the rope she used between silos. But Dunyasha keeps following AND attacking poor Inej to mess up her balance. Inej still manages to stay upright, that is, until that evil witch Dunyasha cuts off the rope resulting in Inej's fall. 

"Protect me", she whispered to her saints.

And, they did. 

Down below even Nina was surrounded. They had dime lions tattoo, the same as the men who surrounded Matthias. And Nina understood who they were, they were Pekka's men. 

She's a heart render, they are supposed to be scared of her, and for a moment they were, by not killing her before she cracks their bones and takes the breath outta them. But once they saw Nina's hesitation for using her power, they start to attack. But they didn't know. Didn't know that her power didn't vanish, but it started to change. And when Nina felt that change, she summoned whatever it was that she felt. And in this case, it was a pile of dead bodies from the river. 

She not only just summoned them, but also could order them to do as she liked, and in this case it was to attack her attackers. 

Of course seeing these dead bodies seem alive like zombies freaked the hell outta them, and they run away. It was at this point that Nina notices Inej's fall, and she manages to order her mini dead army to hold the net tightly around the supposed place where Inej would fall. 

And she did fall on it,

Bounced right off the net, and back again. Until she was secured safely. 

Dunyasha gracefully drops down, and looking at the army Nina just resurrected, she takes her leave. Meanwhile Nina and Inej embrace each other and wonder what just happened with them. And wondered what might have happened to rest. 

Coming to Kaz and Wylan. They manage to get to the safe, use the chemical to burn it and get the seal just fine. But they turn to find Pekka and his men waiting for them. 

This is the point where we readers stop and decide whether we must throw the book away or not. 

Kaz Brekker is supposed to be the mastermind of plans here! What went wrong? He got duped twice? And this time with Pekka Rollins who is already his biggest enemy? How could he let this happen to him and all? He jeopardised the entire plan. 

And even Kaz realises as he makes his calculations. 

Pekka claims Van Eck came begging for him the moment Kaz had taken Alys as hostage. You know, enemy of my enemy is an enemy sort of thing. And now, Pekka is working for Van Eck. Period. 

What now? 

Pekka doesn't say much apart from revealing the usual, and for now, Kaz uses the chemical to burn the entire floor, they both fight their way out and escape the place. And decide to go to Inej's place first as Kaz knew Matthias might have got the situation in control, somehow, hopefully. 

He was right. And that's what happened. 

They reach, to find Nina and Inej safe, albeit Inej bit wounded. And the moment Kaz and Inej see each other, Nina saw the look. And... 

Nina knew that look. It came after the shipwreck, when the tide moved against you and the sky had gone dark. It was the first sight of land, the hope of shelter and even salvation that might await you on a distant shore.

It reminded Inej of what Kaz had said, that he would come crawling for her and that they'd fight their way out. They knew they were defeated this time. But they are still together. And they will fight their way out of this. 

So now, with Van Eck and Pekka together, all the barrel thugs and Stadwatch joined forces in searching for Kaz's team. Kaz took them to the only place which is secured in Ketterdam, the hotel suite where Colm Fahey is staying.

 When they reunite, they are all relieved to see each other alive. But they are all very dejected. 

Their entire plan has been foiled. What now? 

They got duped AGAIN. What now? 

For now, they simply rejoiced in being alive and enjoyed the delicacies which Colm was providing them in the suite. But Kaz was the only one who remained in corner, all silent and not talking.

They could see from the clock tower how the entire city was being searched for them. Heck, it was heart breaking for them to see even Per Haskell leading his team in it. 

Was no one on their side? 

And to add to their troubles, Kaz and Jesper decided to break into a petty fight. Matthias simply watched. Kuwei and Wylan panicked a bit like me (I mean, they WERE fighting like crazy), but hilariously Nina and Inej simply watched and commented. 

"Jesper didn't shoot him yet", Nina said. 

"And Kaz has not used his cane.", said Inej

Seriously? 😂

But the only person who could Interrupt them AND make them feel guilty about it was Colm Fahey. 

Even Kaz was guilty, now THAT was surprising. 

So yeah, enough of all this, they had to plan their next action. And Kaz initially planned to give himself up, but now his new plan states to give Kuwei up. 

But, but, he needs a lil bit of extra support for this. He needs more resources. And for THAT, he planned to return to slat to gain back trust of his Dregs members. But the thing is, Kaz informed them that if he doesn't return in few hours, they must all find their way to safety. 

Now, would Inej listen to that? Of course she followed him to Slat, even though he asked her not to. 

There Kaz had to justify himself. But the Dregs wouldn't listen. They beat him badly, until he falls and Inej was pretty sure he won't make it with another blow. Inej is ALMOST about to intervene, before Kaz gives her a stern shake of his head. 

Inej is surprised, so Kaz knew she was hiding and watching all along, and Kaz doesn't want her to step in, lest they beat her too. Now what does Kaz do? Gets up, uses his cane to beat up half of the members who had done the same to him earlier, and then with his motivational speech, wins the hearts of few members. 

When Kaz returns to suite, Jesper finds him battered and bruised like never before. But he has an extra support now. And a zeal to make all those pay who wronged them.

They arrange a meeting with Triumvirate. There's Zoya, Genya and another person accompanying them. Genya is one of the most powerful Grisha's, and she can tailor. Wylan took this opportunity to get back his face, and Genya did an impeccable job of that. <3 💓

Meanwhile Kaz wanted to have a meeting with Sturmhond. Regarding their plan. And Kaz, being Kaz, saw through him and knew Sturmhond isn't what he claims, but he's King Nikolai himself in disguise. With Ravka being bankrupt, King Nikolai didn't want to step out of Ravka leaving it vulnerable behind. So he let his disguised self step out. 

Now, bits and pieces of the plan were clear. They are going to make use of Jesper's father (Colm) and Kuwei for the major plan. Plan is to humiliate Van Eck and make him bankrupt, and get all the money for themselves. The money which they are owed. 

We, as readers, were still not sure what the actual plan was. The entire talk was in business terms, which made no sense to me. 

But here's how it started:

Wylan and Colm to an empty bakery to wait out the start of the auction. Nina to the Barrel with her assignments in hand. Inej to the Church of Barter to take up her position on the roof.

‌Kaz would descend to the square in front of the Exchange with Matthias and Kuwei and meet the armed stadwatch troop that would escort them into the church.

It all started when Wylan was kidnapped from the bakery by some men wearing Dime Lions tattoo. 

Pekka's men. 

They took him to Van Eck, who ordered them to beat him up until he reveals whatever Kaz has been planning. He takes a hit, another two, and then tell him everything. 

WYLAN TELLS HIM EVERYTHING. 

This was the point I completely lost it. How many times will they get defeated?! Just how many times?! I actually took a break from reading because I was so done with this. 

Kaz was supposed to be ahead of everyone in his master planning. Why is he lacking this time?! 

And I... Just had to wait for a while to know that. 

There the auction has started, parties were bidding well, that is, until the Tide makers Interrupted them called this auction a scam. Everyone were confused, they raised voices, but Van Eck had been smirking all along. He pitched in and said yes, it was all a scam and Ravka had been involved. 

But nope, they said not Ravka. The funds were being channelled to Shu. And whoever made a deal with Johannus Rietveld is involved. The fictional person Colm Fahey has been impersonating for a while.

And who made the deal with him recently? It was Van Eck. 😏

From here, the tables got turned. 

Johannus Rietveld is nowhere to be found. Entire community who contributed for the funds are now panicking, and doubting Van Eck for the scam. Van Eck kept screaming Kaz's name, that he is to be blamed. But there was no proof of that. 

As a cherry on top, Wylan turns up exactly at the point where they were asking about his missing son. Upon Van Eck asking him who had him all this time, he says Pekka Rollins and tells "I'll answer anything Father, just don't ask them to beat me anymore" 

That's it. Now every single person around them have their suspicions on Van Eck. He's cornered so badly!

As chaos ensued, everyone heard a siren. And it wasn't an ordinary siren, but the siren which they have not heard for yeaaars. 

It was siren for Queen's Lady Plague. 

And that's it, everyone heard that and rushed for the doors. And they also heard a shot. 

Coming to Nina and her assignment in the Barrels. I didn't quite get what her task would be. They had visited a graveyard, yes. And seen a corpse, yes. But what of it? 

I couldn't really understand until Nina began to do, what she had already done in 3 places. 

In her purse, were the dead cells of the corpse, which she was not only simply carrying them, but also controlling them.

While gambling, she let the cells get dropped on a man's arm, and then the game began. Nina simply flexed her fingers, and the cells would do, what Nina commands them to do, that is spread from one person to the other, quite fast, and make it seem like a contagious, deadly disease spreading amidst them. The cells made their skin look like dead corpse, just like the one they had visited in the graveyard. 

It was no sooner that they heard the chime of bells, siren for the plague. 

A fictional plague. 

Nina's Plague!

As people started to fled, Nina joined the crowd, without any soul knowing she's the creator of this chaos. 

And there's Inej. She's perched and waiting at the top of the church. We don't know what her plan is either, but she's simply waiting. The wait wasn't long until her best friend/partner Dunyasha presents herself.

When Kaz was leaving for Slat, he had briefly asked Inej how Dunyasha was like. 

She's better than me, is what Inej had told him. 

Look for Dunyasha's tells, is what Kaz advised her. 

And that made her victorious today :') 

The reason Dunyasha had been invincible so far, is because she was too unpredictable to fight with. You can almost NEVER guess her next move. And you'll end up getting a scratch on your body before you even try. But this time, Inej was prepared. She scanned Dunyasha's moves until she could figure out her tell. 

And she did. 

Then she saw it—the slightest hitch of Dunyasha’s chest, followed by a lunge. A hitch, then another lunge. The tell was in her breathing. She took in a deep breath before an attack.

There.

Inej saw it. And from there on it was pretty easy for her. She was easily able to give Dunyasha a cut here and there. But not too deep, as she wanted to take it slow. But then when she got desperate, she finally gave one stab near her chest. 

But surprisingly, Dunyasha STILL did not give up. She still tried to fight with one arm, while using the other to stop bleeding from her wound. She was trained to fight with one arm anyway, but she was not trained to fight while being injured. And that's where she faltered. 

There finally came a moment when Dunyasha bent down and surrendered herself. Dunyasha surrendered, isn't that fishy?? Inej thought so too. But she was not too quick to notice Dunyasha spraying something powderish over her eyes. Which made Inej temporarily blind. 

She could see, but not clearly. She tried fighting but this got very easy for Dunyasha. 

She made Inej back away till the edge of the roof, after which Inej knew her plan is to make her fall to her death. 

But Dunyasha was injured, and determined to defeat Inej. In her attempt to do that, she failed to see Inej discreetly stepping out of the way, clearing the path for Dunyasha to fall for her own death. 

Inej agrees that had Dunyasha not been injured, she'd have survived this. But, alas. 

Today was not her day. 

But she had wasted enough of her time. We come to know Dunyasha was not part of the plan, and her main plan was to meet Jesper and hand him his gun. But when she reached at that certain rendezvous point, Jesper was nowhere to be found. Where is he? They were running out of time. 

As Kuwei had to die tonight. 

Wait, what? 

Kuwei had to die tonight? 

Okay yes, of course this could be part of their amazing plan, but diee? Whyy? 

And what happened to Jesper, where is he?? 

We come to know soon enough. 

While Jesper is enjoying the chaos inside the church, he's almost reaching the rendezvous point until he's ambushed by someone. The Shu soldier Sherguud. Who can smell Grishas. I'm thankful that this action didn't take long. After taking a beating or two from the soldier, Jesper feeds the spare anvil to him, which Inej was supposed to use for the rest silos. Nothing happened for a while, but soon we see that soldier crumble and fall down. But this had taken some of Jesper's time too. He was late! 

As he rushes, he finds Inej rushing to him too, full of concern. But there was no time, Jesper demanded his gun, and aimed, but with the chaos of siren it was impossible to aim. 

And he remembered Wylan's words. 

What if he was a sharpshooter BECAUSE he's a Fabrikator? What if all this time he was commanding his bullets to aim where he wants them to land? What if? 

Jesper had refused to believe it at first. But this time, he wanted to, and he wanted to try it first hand. As there was no other way. 

So he held his gun, pointed the gun as close to the target as he could possibly have, and then he shot. Aiming the bullet to reach right at the centre of Kuwei's heart. 

Kaz and Matthias heard the shot and saw Kuwei take the hit. Great, this is all going as per the plan.

And yes, Wylan had been right about Jesper :P

Kaz watches Inej and Jesper hurry toward them. He has one look at Inej and knows she's fine. 

Relieved to see she's alive. 

But the same can't be said for Jesper when he took a look at battered face of Wylan. 

But yes, at least he was alive too. 

But no time, no time. They go into separate ways again. Matthias takes Kuwei away, since he had escorted him for this auction, it becomes his responsibility to see to his safety. Jesper and Wylan were to stay here as the Merchant of Council might be wanting to have a word with him. 

Meanwhile Kaz and Inej hurry after Matthias, only be blocked midway by Pekka and his men. 

Finally. Finally. 

Face off between Pekka and Kaz.

Anyone would be expecting this to be sort of a mini war between both. At least a battle, anything! 

But here's what happened. 

Pekka is confronting Brekker, a person who ruined his future for him. But Kaz is facing his life long enemy, the one who ruined his entire past. 

And this time, Kaz doesn't waste any moment in getting to the point, letting Pekka know why he has always seen Pekka with such bloodthirsty and hatred filled eyes. 

But before that, he reminds Pekka of The Kaelish Prince. 

Nope, not the business one. 

The little Kaelish Prince. 

Pekka freezes listening to that. How does Kaz know? 

Kaz pushes it further by telling how the little Kaelish Prince likes playing with a lion toy, and has a sweet tooth. 

Pekka is pale. HOW does Kaz know? 

Pekka is furious, he strides forward to end Kaz's life, but Kaz presses telling how his son right now has been buried alive, and might not live long until his father goes and saves him. 

And that's only possible, if Pekka does what Kaz wants him to. 

Answer a simple question. 

What was my brother's name?

Remember, Pekka? The two young boys you duped all those years ago? 

Here's a little hint, you went by the name Jakob Hertzhoon. 

Does it a ring any bell? No? 

I remember every single thing about those times. 

Your fake wife - Margit 

Your fake daughter - Saskia 

And you can't even remember my brother's name? 

Tell me the name. And your son is saved. 

Those few minutes Pekka tried recalling Kaz's brother's name, begged him to let this go, was too agonising for him. 

Brick By Brick.

Is what Kaz had planned, and it had just started. 

With every passing minute, his son was breathing one last breath, and there was no way Pekka could recall the brother's name. 

Bribing, begging wouldn't work. This was a simple negotiation, an answer for a life. 

Pekka could think of no other solution, but this one. 

Begging on his knees. 

Which he does. 

The Dime Lions men behind him shake their head, nobody bends on their knee in Barrels. No one. 

And this little act of Pekka would cost him his reputation. But he doesn't care. 

He only wants to save his son. His only heir. 

He was just like Van Eck on this one. 

And Kaz gives him that. 

The moment he got answer, he shoots commands to fetch himself a Medik and rushes away, to save his son. Inej falls on her knees and puts her face in her hands. What has Kaz done? Buried a child? 

Why has he stooped so low? 

But when she's about to confront Kaz about this, his one look gave her the answer. Kaz didn't. 

How? Inej asks. 

It was just a guess. 

The Kaelish Prince. The Dime Lions. 

It doesn't take much to put two and two together. 

And then he also tells how he targeted Pekka's businesses to spread the fictional plague.

The Kaelish Prince. The Emerald Palace. The Sweet Shop. 

The fourth place was The Menagarie. 

Inej smiles at that :) 

This plan, and he brought down all his enemies in one go. 

That's Kaz Brekker for you. 

I was smiling broadly at this point. But there was more to the story. Kuwei is dying, he needs to be revived. And they all need their money too. 

Matthias takes Kuwei and some self centred Medik to a boat used for transporting people away from all this chaos to a nearby hospital. Nina was pretending to be a pregnant woman on board, with Rotty and Specht posing as the boatman and Nina's husband. They discreetly replace Kuwei's body with an actual corpse, with Genya helping with the tailoring part. 

Nina with her labour moans distracted the Medik from that as much as she could. 

Later when the Medik pronounces the corpse as dead, they were all relieved. 

Kuwei Bo-Yul is dead to the world. Kuwei is free. ❤️

But the real Kuwei still needed to be saved, and Zoya came in handy for this. It was an extremely risky step, but there was no other way. They had used a poison on him which lowers his pulse to an extent he would seem as dead, and he wasn't recovering even with the double dosage of antidote. 

Sturmhond aka King Nikolai orders Zoya to use her power. And she summons the lightening to revive his heart. It didn't work the first time. But did in the next one. 

And Kuwei was finally saved. :') 

Kaz leaves them, as he needed to be at the church to see how Wylan is faring with Merchant of Council. We come to know, the time when they were trying to steal seal from Van Eck's office, Kaz dropped something else too. Van Eck's custom will which Kaz forged. In which he has written all his assets and properties in Wylan's name. 

And now since with these charges, Van Eck will no longer be owning them, they will all go to Wylan. He has become rich overnight. And here Wylan uses his extraordinary talent of memorising stuff by reading out the will in front of everyone, thereby proving Van Eck's claims of Wylan's illiteracy wrong, and humiliating him even more. He deserves it well. 

Since Alys is a humble girl, she likes Wylan too. She'll manage to stay without Van Eck. No trouble there. 

So, that's it, all goes well. 

But something happens. A book with a happy ending, can't be truuulyy happy after all. 

Kaz, Wylan and Jesper are here.

Soon they'd be going to the place they had decided to meet. 

Inej was with Nina and Kuwei in the boat. Matthias had not come yet. What's taking him so long? 

He does come though, and hugs Nina. As they have finally accomplished what they have planned.

But something was not right. He falls down and Nina realises he's been shot. And bleeding badly.

...

...

...

What had happened? 

He met a Fjerdan. A 12 yo boy, who loathes Matthias for being a traitor. Matthias wanted to put some sense into his head. The boy had been indoctrinated and brainwashed by his people. He doesn't need to live with this hate. 

Matthias still took the risk, and tried to reason with the boy. But surprise to him and us, that's what took his life. 

“You don’t want to hurt me. I know. I was like you once."

“I’m nothing like you,” said the boy, his blue eyes blazing. Matthias saw the anger there, the rage. He knew it so well. But he was still surprised when he heard the shot.

I took a break here.

So Matthias dies? Seriously? All within just a few pages? When everything was going so well? 

Why did he had to die? What would happen to Nina? 

But then as I sat and pondered over this, I.. Somehow came to terms with it. 

Matthias was a traitor in his country. And an enemy to Grishaa and everyone in Ravka. Where could he have gone? Could Nina and Matthias even have a future together? When their people were after each other's blood? Could Matthias have lived in peace? Knowing he betrayed his country, knowing he once took part in brutally torturing and killing Grishas? Knowing Muzzen died in his place? Knowing his wolf is somewhere all alone without his master? 

I'm not sure. He still could have. But maybe Leigh thought this was best too. 

I cannot say I was happy though. With every character's death, it's like losing a dear friend. It was the same for Matthias. 

And worse for Nina. 

Let's cry together with this last quote of Matthias. 

“I promise, Matthias. I’ll take you home.”

“Nina,” he said, pressing her hand to his heart. “I am already home.”

💔💔💔

They were twin souls, soldiers destined to fight for different sides, to find each other and lose each other too quickly. She would not keep him here. Not like this.

“In the next life then,” she whispered. “Go.” She watched his eyes close once more. “Farvell ,” she said in Fjerdan. “May Djel watch over you until I can once more.”

He was on the ice once more, and somewhere he could hear the wolves howling. But this time, he knew they were welcoming him home.

💔😔

This was tough for all. Kaz, Inej, Wylan and Jesper. Knowing they accomplished everything, but lost their friend in the end. 

Kaz informs about the money they were owed, they would all be getting it in a month. 

Rotty and Specht would be getting the share of Per Haskell, as he does not deserve that anymore, anyway. 

And Nina would be getting Matthias's share as well. 

Kaz tells how he knows with Matthias gone, money might not matter to her much, but she stops him right there. 

“It matters,” said Nina. “I’ll find a way to make it matter.

And this is the moment, when they are finally going their separate ways. 

Jesper decides to stay back with Wylan, but gives all his share of money to his father to pay back the farm loan. And with this act, he earned Kaz's forgiveness too. 

And even Jesper apologises to his father in a Suli way. 

This action will have no echo.

Inej is emotional to see them go, but maybe, in the future, they'll meet again. 

So that's how all of them, Matthias, Nina, Specht, Rotty, Kuwei, Colm and the Grisha's were able to leave Ketterdam, without Van Eck, or anyone being able to stop them. 

We are almost at the end. 

Inej stays with Wylan and Jesper in Wylan's house. They are being treated like Royalty. And Kaz has learned to live without Inej, and by Inej, I mean without his spider. He has appointed someone else to be a spy for him, but Inej didn't quite leave him completely, she still leaves bits and pieces of information of Pekka on his table, without meeting him. 

But this time, Kaz decides to meet her, he writes her a letter to meet him at a certain place in the morning, sneaks up and walks all the way up to her room in Wylan's house to drop that letter (without meeting her ofc) and returns. 

He meets Tidemakers on the way, and we can figure they hate Kaz and are his enemy. But Kaz puts them off by claiming he started the plague. That scares them a good deal. But they'll come back later. And that's a worry for another time. 

Here, now, Inej and Kaz finally meet. 

Kaz starts off the conversation talking/asking about Wylan and Jesper, then gets to the point. 

He hands her a glass and asks her to look at the direction of Berth 22, the same location where they had set off for The Ice Court. 

To her surprise, she finds a warship present there with The Wraith on it. 

It takes Kaz a lot of courage to tell her this:

“Say you’ll return.”

And she surprises him by telling..

“I’m not done with Ketterdam.”

Instead of travelling the world and getting it rid off slavers, she wants to start with Ketterdam. And she needs Kaz's help in that. 

"I’m not ready to give up on this city, Kaz. I think it’s worth saving.” I think you’re worth saving.

But this was not the only surprise he had in store for her. 

The biggest one was saved for the last. 

Kaz asks her to look again and she does, and she comprehends what she's seeing, two blurry figures walking, two figures and they looked like Sulis

Inej gasps, and Kaz is not sure. 

“I wasn’t sure. Should I not have—”

“How did you find them?”

“A favor, from Sturmhond. He sent out scouts. As part of our deal. If it was a mistake—” 

"It was not a mistake."

Inej couldn't believe what she was seeing. Kaz found her parents, her parents! The one she got separated from all those years ago! She's so happy. So excited. 

She asks Kaz to come meet them.

“Wait,” he said. The burn of his voice was rougher than usual. “Is my tie straight?”

Kaz. Asking her if his TIE is straight. 

To impress HER parents. 

I swear, in these two books, that's the most cute he could ever get. :') 

And that's enough for us. 

Inej rushes to meet her parents. They watch, and rush to meet her. 

Her heart was a river that carried her to the sea.

The last chapter was of Pekka Rollins. Kaz's one threat did the job. He's hiding somewhere with his son, hoping to be safe but also planning to avenge Kaz one day. 

But The Wraith ruins even that plan by sneaking up on him AND his son, and threatening him with a knife on his throat. 

She got in without anyyy of the guards noticing. 

If she can do that with such heavy security, then Pekka realizes -  as he packs his bags hastily and decides to move far, far away - that he (and basically everyone who did the mistake of messing with Kaz)  needs to watch out. 

And that's the end of Crooked Kingdom :') 

This book has my heart. 

Though a fantasy one, it portrayed how corrupted, bad, deceiving the world can be. 

With the hate, and war and thirst of power. 

Each character had their own vulnerabilities they fought with. 

But with their wits and charm and courage and skills combined, they were invincible from the start :') 

This got me smiling. This got me crying. 

But most importantly, a new fantasy world has been created for me to live in. 

I thank Leigh Bardugo for that :') 

There are still quite a few questions unanswered. Why were the Shu soldiers rounding up Grishas? What are they doing with them? What about the Grisha's already under the influence of parem?

So, so, so many questions. But I guess, we may or we may not find out. 
Let's see :)

There are many quotes I love in this book. Will be dropping just one for now

Stop treating your pain like it’s something you imagined. If you see the wound is real, then you can heal it.

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