REAPER ─ kaz brekker

ten; enemy territory

010;            ENEMY TERRITORY

THE MOMENT THEY STEPPED OUT INTO THE HALLWAY, THE PAIR OF FEMALE GUARDS WAITING FOR THEM IMPATIENTLY WAVED THEM OVER.

Under the cover of her cape, Nina flicked her fingers. The guard closest to them made a sound somewhere between a strangled yelp and a loud gasp as blood began pouring from her nose and down the front of her shirt. The other jumped back, alarmed, but only a moment later she doubled over, clutching her stomach. Onyx glanced at Nina in her periphery.

Nina straightened her back out and lifted the end of her dress from the floor. "Your hem," she reminded them nonchalantly.

Onyx quickly pulled her hem from the floor just as the guard heaved and vomited her dinner over the tiled floor in front of them. Nearby guests shouted and shoved at one another, attempting to escape the mess before it reached them. With Nina leading way, the three quickly skirted around the mess and the guards without a second thought.

"The nosebleed probably would've done the trick," Inej whispered as they entered the rotunda.

"Best to be thorough."

"If I didn't know any better, I'd think you liked making Fjerdans suffer."

Onyx adjusted her cape and chuckled quietly. "I wouldn't blame you. It looked like a good time."

They slipped into the crowds then, trying their best to blend in with the swell of moving bodies entering the rotunda and moving about. The three made a point of ignoring the Zemeni fawn that attempted to wave them over with the other girls of the Menagerie on the opposite side of the room. The last thing they needed was to get close to the Exotics. They worked with each other everyday and she doubted a change of clothes and hair color would be enough to convince the other girls that they were the same fox, mare, and lynx that went in to be searched minutes ago.

"This one," Inej murmured, steering Onyx and Nina to a line toward the opposite end of the room from the Menagerie, putting as much distance between them as possible.

This line, however, seemed to be moving faster than the others they'd conveniently passed to avoid being seen. Onyx toyed with a loose thread on the inside of her cape as she listened to Nina smoothly lie and flirt her way through the stern-faced guard scrutinizing her paperwork. Before she knew it, Nina was sailing around the guard and onto the glass bridge leading to the White Island. Onyx watched her pause a few yards away as she handed her paperwork over to the guard.

The Fjerdan eyed her up and down, briefly consulted the paperwork, then took in her ensemble once more. "You're taller than what it says here," he said gruffly.

"My shoes are taller. Heels instead of flats," Onyx lied smoothly, glimpsing briefly down to her her red heels, before her eyes fluttered back up to the guard. She tilted her head and innocently shrugged a shoulder. "I've heard Fjerdan men were tall, and I do enjoy being able to look a man in the eye. Much more fun that way."

"And the scar on your neck?" he questioned. His gaze zeroed in on the silvery scar that ran horizontal across her neck. Though Onyx didn't miss the way his eyes travelled down to her plunging neckline as well. "It is not listed on the paperwork."

Onyx held her breath, bit her tongue, tried not to give a reaction away. She knew it was visible and she knew the Ravkan fox that was supposed to be standing in her place didn't have the same scar-- or any, for that matter. On the embassy roof, she'd told Nina not to tailor it away. She'd offered many times to make it disappear forever, but the last thing Onyx wanted was to have her telltale battle scar be erased from existence. And if the best hired blade in the Barrel couldn't lie her way through a Fjerdan guard, then what was she worth at the end of the day?