Page 67 of In The Dark

“I’m sorry,”I say, not knowing if he receives my words, getting nothing back. I bite my lip, fearing I may have been too harsh.“Can you come back so we can discuss our plan?”

Agonizing minutes go by. I’m still propped against the door when I push myself off, turning for the knob again when he finally responds.

“Say please,”he mumbles and I groan, banging my head against the door. Is he really going to make me beg?“Oh, come on. I know you can do it.”

“I’m not going to beg like a hungry animal.”

“I never thought you would, but I bet you’d beg if I?—”

“Please!”I blurt, stopping the train of thought before it enters my mind and ruins me. He makes me want to scream in frustration, but as soon as I blurt the words, a faint knock sounds at my door.

“Let me in,”he demands.

I only realize that I’ve slumped against the door again when my eyes land on the flower and sketch beside me. My stomach lurches, leaving me to frantically shove them into the drawer, my movements rushed. With a scowl tugging at my face, I yank the door open.

He storms past, folding his arms only to stop in the center of the room to stare at me. I mirror him, lifting my brows.

“I already apologized,” I say.

He unfolds his arms and walks to the table holding the whiskey bottles, then pulls the corks and sniffs them individually. “For what?”

“Did you discover anything last night?” I ask with a sigh. I suppose that’s how the rest of the day is going to go, pretending like nothing happened.

“I did. Are you going to rein in your anger long enough to hear it?” he quips.

“Yes,” I say slowly, hands clenching at my sides as I stare daggers at his back. He finally faces me, casually leaning against the table as if it were any other day.

“Good, because I think we’ll be able to sneak in fairly easily.”

“Really?” I ask cautiously, doubt lining my voice.

“Yes. There are two guards stationed at the archives?—”

“There are four,” I correct, shaking my head. “Two outside the doors, two inside the archives. You probably didn’t stay long enough to see that the two inside the archives change shifts around midnight. They take a break before retrieving the other two guards. I’m not sure if they’re supposed to, but after following the two of them, they stop outside to smoke a pipe.”

He blinks. “Regardless, it’ll be easy to get in. How long is the break?”

“Are you insane?” A disbelieving laugh bubbles out of me when he throws me another blank stare. And then I sigh. “It’s a fifteen-minute break.”

My brows furrow, and I glower like he’s grown two heads. I’d like to know at what point he thought this was going to be easy. Getting into the king’s private archives with four guards stationed there at all times will be difficult. With two of them being inside the archives, we’ll never be able to get in and look for what we need. It’ll be impossible to leave if we do happen to get in.

“Yes,easy,” he reiterates, taking a seat in front of the mantel and lighting a fire with a flick of his wrist. He must have refilled it with more wood last night, leaving my brow to arch. Silence stretches as he carelessly rubs a hand over his jaw as if lost in thought, clearly planning.

“Here’s what we’ll do,” he says, angling toward me. “We’ll arrive in the Veil just outside the doors and wait for the two guards stationed inside to change shifts. We’ll have fifteen minutes to look around before the next two arrive.”

“And how would we get in?” I ask because that’s the tricky part.

“We’ll sneak in the doors when they open for shift change, walking right past them as they leave. Then, we’ll Veil out of the archives and into the loft arriving with the map… or a copy of it. See? Easy.” He smirks and leans back, his posture reeking of arrogance as his forearms rest against the settee. Like he’s had a revelation formulating this plan, though I’m not convinced.

“What if it doesn’t work? We need another plan,” I say.

I’ve been in the brotherhood long enough to know we don’t go into missions without a secondary plan and another exit. He has holes, and in my experience, nothing ever comes easy.

He scoffs, looking like I’ve just wounded his pride.

“Don’t insult me. We can Veil out of there in an instant. We’ll be fine.” He waves a hand like he’s shooing my words away with a scowl plastered across his face.

“Okay, so when will we be doing that?”