“Why the net, Kaz?" I couldn't bear to watch you fall.
Kaz has a hard time watching Inej perform, not because he doesn’t trust her skills, but there’s that slight chance she could fall and get hurt. It’s another reason why he can’t watch Jesper shoot at her, even though he knows Jesper is a talented shot.
But as he turns his head to look away, Kaz observes the men staring up at her. With his intense stare, it seems as though Kaz feels another emotion. He knows what Inej has endured in the past, and Kaz becomes protective. We find out in Crooked Kingdom how hard it still is for her:
“It isn’t easy for me either.” Her voice, low and steady, the voice that had once led him back from hell. “Even now, a boy will smile at me on the street, or Jesper will put his arm around my waist, and I feel like I’m going to vanish.” The room tilted. He clung to the tether of her voice. “I live in fear that I’ll see one of her—one of my—clients on the street. For a long time, I thought I recognized them everywhere. But sometimes I think what they did to me wasn’t the worst of it.”
At this moment, it’s apparent that Kaz Brekker is demanding everyone show respect for Inej Ghafa—the Wraith of Ketterdam.
