The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)(47)

“Don’t,” said Zofia.

“A bomb?” he demanded. “Maybe lead with that?”

“It’s a light bomb.”

“That sounds oxymoronic.”

“A light bomb in the sense that it releases a lot of light.”

“Oh.”

Zofia pointed at the middle of the walking stick. “It’s hollow. The filler has a pyrotechnic metal-oxidant mix of magnesium and an oxidizer of ammonium perchlorate.”

“What the hell does any of that mean?”

“If you hit it against something, it will explode.”

“None of that bodes well.”

“And it will produce a flash that will cause your enemy to lose their sight for a full minute. Only use it in emergencies.”

“I figured, once you said ‘bomb.’”

Zofia pointed at the hump on his back that he had strapped on. She had made the prosthetic last week after Séverin had designed a verit-repelling vessel.

“Give me the hump.”

Enrique started laughing.

Zofia tilted her head. “Is rapid disintegration because of an industrial acid funny?”

He stopped laughing. Every line of his body went rigid. He leaned forward, arching slightly as if trying to distance his skin from the hump. “Is … is that what’s inside this?”

Zofia nodded.

“This is the kind of thing someone would like to know before they attach it to their body.”

The compartment slid open again. Séverin stepped inside, dressed in the attire of a government official. On his lapel, the golden Marianne emblem shone. A symbol of the Third Republic of France.

“Thank you for letting me know I was strapping acid to my back when you gave me the hump.”

Séverin started laughing.

Zofia crossed her arms. She hated when she didn’t get the joke. She wished Laila were here.

“What’s so funny about disintegration?”

“Nothing,” said Séverin. He wiped at his eye. “I needed that. Give it to her. She’ll show you.”

Scowling, Enrique took off his jacket, unstrapped the hump, then handed it to Zofia. Zofia took out one of her hairpins and gently pried it open.

“I need one of those—” started Enrique.

“It’s hidden in the heel of your shoe,” said Zofia. “Just click them together and it will pop out.”

Enrique let out a whistle. “First, the walking stick. Then the acid. Now this. Not to mention what you do with numbers. I like how you think, Zofia.”

Zofia paused, the pin still in her hand. No one had ever said that to her before. In fact, the way she thought was usually the thing that got her into trouble in the first place.

She frowned. “You do?”

Enrique smiled. A real smile. She knew it was real because he always smiled like that when Laila snuck him a second helping of cake.

“I do.”

I do.

Zofia returned to the hairpin and lock, but something fluttered low in her stomach. The hump opened with a small pop, revealing a glass tube on a velvet bed.

“Piranha solution,” said Séverin. “It’s what you’re going to use when you’re escorted to the greenhouse as Monsieur Ching—”

“It’s Chang!”

“Chang, my apologies. Point is, you’re going to get us started. Tell me what you’re doing.”

“This isn’t my first—”

“Enrique.”

“Hmpf.” Enrique crossed his arms. “We arrive at Chateau de la Lune before midnight. You, Zofia, and Hypnos go off and feast and do what rich people do, even though I’m an honored botanist who has traveled over many, many oceans and—”

“Enrique.”

“—and then we meet in your rooms and do a final rundown. Between the hours of three A.M. and four A.M., me and Tristan meet in the greenhouse. Then we break open the acid container, raise an alarm, and make sure the greenhouse is sectioned off.”

Zofia yawned. She already knew this.

“Correct.”

“Tristan will get us both gas masks so we can keep breathing after we use Zofia’s chemical death trap, and we show up there again by the eighth hour.”

“Yes.”

“I don’t know why you’re so fixated on the greenhouse, though. What do you think is there?”

“At the very least, it’s a safe zone for keeping the Horus Eye. But I think it’s more than that. Why else would all the guards’ guns be loaded there and not elsewhere? It’s a little too interesting,” said Séverin. “But I won’t make any guesses until after the midnight feast. Hypnos is bringing something precious, or so he said. Under Order law, he can demand that any object he deems important be immediately removed and taken to the House’s most protected vaults.”

“The library,” said Zofia.

“Exactly. The House Kore matriarch will have no choice but to put away whatever it is. While Hypnos does that, I’m going to be tailing him and the House Kore matriarch.” Séverin removed his tin of cloves from his jacket pocket and popped one into his mouth. “Zofia. Tell him how the piranha solution works.”

“It’s hydrogen chloride and sulfuric acid, so the chemical process is fairly simple—”