Page 102 of Beg the Night

“You can’t take down every guard.” With a shake of her head, she turned back to the window.

“So this is what you’ve been in here doing all day? Arguing with each other?” I asked.

“No,” Margaret said. “After about an hour, we banished Katherine to the corner. Benedict and I are optimists. Glass half full, etcetera.”

“So we’re running on optimism here?”

She lifted one shoulder. “Optimism and a plan. Here. Look at this.”

For the next hour, Benedict went over every detail. He walked us through every note. Every diagram. They had even drawn scenarios where the plan could go wrong, where we would have to jump ship if shit hit the fan.

I couldn’t lie. It seemed like it could work.

Hope blossomed in my chest and a hint of excitement coursed through my veins.

Katherine kept her mouth shut, thank god, and Sinner made a few adjustments to the plan, insisting that he and I stay together at all times.

And I tried not to blush like an idiot at that. It was for the purposes of magic, nothing else.

“The guards open the doors of the dungeon to refill the supplies at dawn. I’d suggest we get a good night’s sleep, then set out first thing tomorrow. We can camp out one more day if we need to, but the sooner we get in, the better.”

Dawn. We had until dawn.

“Can you teleport us all there? Are you strong enough?”

“Yes, but I’ll need time to recharge. We’ll stop near the Ministry, and I’ll rest there.” He pointed to the map. “We’ll stay here for the day and move in before the sun rises.”

Benedict locked eyes with each of us one by one, his expression full of confidence. Thank god. I would rather him be ignorant and confident than pessimistic. Either way, we were going through with this. Either way, this was happening.

“Katherine,” Benedict called out. “Let’s go. We need our sleep, too.”

She scoffed. “Like it’ll matter.” Without bothering to glance at any of us, she sauntered out of the room. A moment later, a door down the hall slammed shut.

Benedict followed with a sigh.

“That waspleasant,” Margaret cheered. “I hope you two had a better day than I did.”

I cringed. “I’m not exactly a killing machine yet.”

“When the time comes, you’ll be ready,” she replied. “I can feel it. You’re a natural.”

God, I hoped she was right.

TWENTY-NINE

sinner

Iclosed my eyes and steadied my breathing in hopes that I could actually get some rest. I’d been lying here for hours when Athena shifted in the bed. She silently rose and crept toward the door, closing it behind her with a quiet snick.

If I were a normal, non-obsessed man, I would have minded my own business. But I wasn’t. I had completely lost my mind, had thrown all common sense out the window.

So I silently stood, made sure Mags was still fast asleep, then crept toward the door just as Athena had.

Rather than open it, I pressed my ear to it, listening.

“What do you want?” she whispered.

For a moment, I thought she’d heard me. But before I could respond, another whispered voice cut through the night air.

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