The Gilded Wolves (The Gilded Wolves, #1)(52)

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WHEN SéVERIN ENTERED his room at two thirty in the morning, he found his bed occupied.

“Flattered as I am, get out.”

Enrique clutched a pillow.

“No. It’s deliriously comfortable.”

“You know I hate when my pillows get warm.”

“Like this?” Enrique started rubbing his face on the pillows and hugging them.

“Ugh. Just take them.”

On Enrique’s other side, Tristan lay on his back, staring up at the ceiling. He didn’t say anything when Séverin entered. Even when Enrique smacked his face with a pillow, he merely groaned and turned on his side. Blue-black circles hollowed his eyes. He looked exhausted, and he kept flexing his hands, sinking his nails into his palms. He got like this sometimes … lost in his own head. And then either Séverin or Laila would have to bandage his hands to keep him from breaking his own skin. Laila moved to Tristan’s side, carefully flattening his palms. When it came to Tristan, all of them acted a little differently. Laila coddled, Enrique teased, Zofia instructed. Séverin protected.

Ever since their fight in his office, he hadn’t been able to apologize. Everything left unsaid gathered and crackled in the air between them.

Footsteps echoed outside the door. Laila held a finger to her lips, glowering at the room.

The door opened. In glided Zofia. The first thing she did was kick off her heels. With the bed and chair taken, Zofia plopped on the floor.

“How come we had to hide out in the laundry to get in here, and she just strolled into your bedroom?” asked Enrique.

Zofia started rubbing her feet. “We’re having an affair.”

“It’s clearly very torrid,” said Séverin.

Zofia grunted.

To Enrique’s bewildered expression, he added, “We raised a glass of wine to each other across a dinner table and threw in a lingering look. Voilà. Easiest way to go somewhere unnoticed is to tell everyone where you’re going. Now. What do you have for me?”

The door creaked open. All five of them leapt up, hands immediately reaching for knives or fire tape—

Hypnos.

He grinned in the doorway and waved.

“Why are you here?” asked Séverin.

“It’s my plan too. I helped downstairs…”

“You’re drawing unwanted attention—”

“On the contrary, I’m affirming your penchant for eccentric proclivities. A rumor I judiciously spread at dinner. And as you just said, the easiest way to go somewhere unnoticed is to tell everyone where you’re going. If I left now, and someone saw, it might draw, what was it you said? Oh.” Hypnos beamed. “Unwanted attention.”

Séverin scowled.

“Fine. Just sit and don’t talk or touch anything. Or anyone.”

Hypnos sat on the floor beside Zofia.

Laila spoke first. “I confirmed that the only guards with loaded weapons are the ones surrounding the terrariums and hothouse garden wall. I also confirmed they’re being regularly transferred. Every eight hours, twenty guards are switched out.”

“And the outdoor grounds facing the library?” asked Séverin.

“All blanks in their shotguns.”

Enrique and Zofia looked shocked.

“How did you figure that out without firing their rifles?”

“I rummaged through their artillery and wardrobe room. It’s right next to the maids’ quarters,” said Laila.

“But why does the matriarch have her best men guarding her flowers?” demanded Enrique. “Does that mean she doesn’t care about the objects at all? Maybe the Horus Eye was moved somewhere else—”

“No,” said Séverin. “It’s here. On these grounds.”

“Then why wouldn’t she be hiding it in the library where she said it was?”

“It is in a library,” said Séverin, thinking of the mud. “She has another one.”

“In the greenhouse?” asked Enrique flatly.

“No,” said Séverin, grinning. “Beneath it.”

“How do you figure that?”

“I saw the mud on her shoes. Besides, you’ve seen the blueprints. The dimensions of the library are too small for the size of the rumored collection. She has to be accessing the real library underground. That must be why the guns are guarding the gardens. Which is where our next stage comes into play. Enrique and Tristan, are you all set to release the piranha solution?”

They nodded.

“Good. The solution will take about eight hours to work. Laila. What happened with the icebox?”

But Laila didn’t have a chance to answer.

“It’s all set to be debuted as a surprise to the matriarch for tomorrow evening!” said Hypnos. “I’ve even arranged for it to be wheeled into the office where the matriarch keeps the physical key to the vault. She can’t access it using her Ring anymore, so it’s not Forged. Laila’s nautch dancer costume has already been hidden under the cushion of the chaise lounge. Once she has the key, she can exit the office dressed as a nautch dancer who presumably got lost. Then, Séverin, the ever helpful gentleman, assists in finding her way while she slips him the key. He gives the key to Zofia, who makes a copy. At dinner, Zofia gives the key to me, and I return it to the study. Me and Séverin go through the House access, while the others go through the greenhouse and we meet in the library vault!”