The Bride

Chapter 17//: It's an attack!

♕✿~♕✿~Chapter 17//: It's an attack!♕✿~♕✿~

Ahren's POV

Nick frowns as he watches me walk down the stairs to join the other guards getting ready to go out to look for Madi.

He saunters up to me, his eyes going up and down my body. A smile plays on his lips. "This is your attempt at a disguise?" He asks me with a raised brow.

I adjust the King's Guard mask on my face. "What? I'm covering my face. Just going for the same look as you," I joke. The actual King's Guard mask on Nick's face definitely looked more authentic than my own copy, but nobody would be able to tell as long as they didn't look too long.

"And what's with your hair? Are you actually trying to look like me?" Nick asks incredulously as he takes in my hair, which a maid had dyed blond with some temporary dye. I run a hand through it.

"Well, having only the mask would be pathetic. And so the maid dyed my hair. This dye should wash out after one or two showers," I inform Nick. He crosses his arm, looking slightly impressed.

"I'm surprised you actually let anyone change your hair," he tells me. I shrug a bit. "Actually, this wasn't my idea. Gregory's a bit paranoid, so he made me do this. He said it was either this or possibly get killed when rebels recognize me," I say as I run my hand once more through my hair. I really hope this was temporary hair dye. In the past, there's been cases where people mistook permanent hair dye for temporary. And I was not in the least bit interested in having blond hair for the rest of my life.

Nick looks around at the gathered guards, then beckons me to follow him as he walks towards the doors of the palace so he can be in front of the other guards. "Let's go," he calls out to the other guards, who walk at a leisurely pace behind him.

I walk beside Nick. "So, how do these searches usually work?" I ask him as we walk out to see two large trucks meant to carry many people. We enter one of the cars with other guards following after us, while the rest go into another large car.

"For this search party, we're going to southern Norta. It'll take a few hours by car, so feel free to sleep. But when we get there, we'll separate into groups and scout the area and ask the locals about the Rogue Dawn and Madi," Nick explains to me.

I nod as he tells me this information. The car's engine revs up and soon, we're on the road. Not knowing what to do, I first try to look out the window. But being stuck between two people made it awkward to even look up. So then I opted to just spending the car ride to look down at my shoes and fiddle my fingers. Halfway into the drive, my head started to droop. And before I knew it, sleep was beckoning for me and I fell into its arms.

♡

A quick shake of my shoulder has me bolting up from my seat, blinking in confusion. Nick keeps a hand on my shoulder.

"We're here," he says as he beckons with a jut of his chin outside the car window.

I look out the window to see a town teeming with activity. People were walking past our car at fast paces. As far as I could see, this was most likely a Red village; everyone walked hurriedly, and not with the grace I was used to seeing at the palace.

The doors of the car open, and the guards file out. I jump down from the car and take a moment to scan the rest of the village that I couldn't see from inside the car. The ground beneath me was a mixture of dirt and decayed grass. People looked at us as they passed by, but quickly looked away if they made eye contact with any of us.