Royals (Book 1)

Chapter 28 : The Transcript

The guards practically threw us inside, both of standing there with unsure expressions and heavy breathing. Alarik was the first to break after a couple of moments, letting out a laugh as he pushed his raven hair away from his face. 

"You have no idea how long I have dreamt of that moment." He admitted. 

"I think I was dreaming of it longer." I agreed with him, the eye contact between us after the adrenaline rush felt much more electrifying. 

"What is wrong with you two?" Luis charged into the foyer, shutting the french doors behind him. "How are we supposed to proceed if you two are meant to stay here and wait to get scolded?"

"We'll have to do it now." Alarik decided, Luis had the gaze of someone who was ready to tell him it was not that simple.

"My people are not ready yet, it is an hour ahead of schedule." Luis reminded us, Alarik and I both glanced at each other as we came to a mutual agreement. 

"Either get them now or this isn't happening, Alarik and I can go as soon as we see a majority of the guards come out." I commanded, Luis looking as if he had something to say but eventually agreeing. He raised his phone to his ear and started making demands, resulting in an argument until they finally came around. 

"Done." Luis hung up his phone.

"Do not hurt anyone Luis." I warned him. "We just need you to make a distraction."

"I did not realize I was taking orders from you, would you like a water on top of that?" The ginger mocked me.

"You just took one of them, what's another?" Crossing my arms over my chest, I lifted my chin as I saw the comment strike him down. Alarik chuckled, and I quirked my brow up at his avoidance of a rebuttal. 

There was a sudden commotion outside, I could see through the glass doors that let out that the guards that were tending to Nigel suddenly ran off and were now out of sight. Just as we had planned, multiple guards from inside of the building ran by us while warning us to stay inside. 

"My people are rioting outside of the walls, trying to make it look like regular civilians just looking to pick a fight. You better hurry it up." He ran outside against the guards' warnings, I grabbed Alarik's arm and led him to the alleged pantry room. We made our way up the stairs and to the east wing of the castle, and I spotted the ballroom that was labelled as a kitchen. 

"Where is the door to the pantry room?" Alarik asked as we stepped into the ballroom, searching for an entry point.

"I don't know."

"You don't know? Rayna we do not have the time to look for it." He groaned, pressing his ear against the wall and knocking against it. He continued to this against the wall that supposedly connected to the pantry room, try to find an inconsistency that could lead us there. There was a large painting that got in his way, I helped him get it down and place it gently on the floor. That is when we saw hinges for a door that they attempted to mask with matching wallpaper. Alarik attempted to pry his fingers into it and open it but it did not work, consistently trying while I looked around the room. There had to be a way for them to go in easily, that was when I noticed the air vent at the corner beside the door. 

One of the screws was not fully in, I bent down and looked into it and that was when I saw it. A little button in the vent, a gentle red light emitting from it. I reached my hand through the vent and attempted to reach it, feeling the joint in my shoulder start cramping from stretching it too much. Finally, I pushed it and there was a loud thud as the door opened for us.

"Your family must have some secrets to keep this installed." Alarik breathed out as we made it into the room, the flooring changing from wood to a non-slip metal. We proceeded down when we reached a room filled with filing cabinets, they lined the walls and I could not believe how much information we had hidden from public record. There was one computer in the corner, I walked over to it to see a checklist with dates and times for different files.