Exposed [Book 4 in the Expiring Series]

31 Snow Garden

Erik~~

It's like my family's gone poof.

Jonas and Iris were secreted—not so secreted—away during the ball. Worrisome but not really something I can do anything about. As for Percy, Colton, and Vienna, I haven't seen any of them since some point during the ball.

I lower my fork, finished with my eggs, and reach for my glass of water.

Maybe they haven't yet woken. Though breakfast is being held late today, so they don't really have an excuse. Basile and Andrew are absent from the dining room too.

I'm sure it's nothing.

Across from me, Rydersin cuts into her pastry. She's hardly looked at me this morning. Though if I want to be completely honest with myself and only myself, she's been in a very anti-Erik mood since I didn't stop my cousin and Iris from performing the Death Waltz. What was I supposed to do? Run out into the center of the ballroom and yell time out?

Doesn't she see I'm putting her goal before my family? Shouldn't that mean something even if I don't particularly like my family?

Finally, after too many half bites of my muffin, I decide to break the silence. "Will the Order give their decision today?"

Her eyes languorously slide to mine, and for a brief moment I can imagine what it would feel like to have her run her eyes over every inch of me.

I wet my lips, reaching again for my glass.

"They are supposed to."

"If they say yes, we go to Acquaellia?"

She tenses. It isONLYONWATTPADBENDERafter all her father's Order she'd be standing before. "Yes."

"And if they say no?"

"We stay."

I cut into a slice of meat. "I'm not sure it's wise to overstay our welcome." Especially considering my family went poof.

Her eyes narrow. "I will not give up on this, and Gadfrie already said they won't see me again until I have the support of the rest of the Orders. And I," she lowers her voice, "won't have my father's support. My only hope is the rest of his Order." Whose heirs' initiation into their own Order has been delayed by the age of Rydersin's brother.

I stare down at my food; the eggs and the meat haven't looked appetizing all morning but now they aren't feeling very appetizing in my stomach either. I don't want to stay in this mansion any longer. I don't want to discover the bodies of Jonas and Iris. I don't want to find out what fate Percy, Colton, and Vienna met.

And Andrew and Basile—what would the Order do to them when their purpose here was to testify that Andrew did in fact try to murder his cousin, his Preeminence—attempted regicide?

I push back my chair and stand. "Send word if you require my presence."

*****

She never does.

Either her meeting with the Order is going well or she's gone poof as well.

Standing on the powdered-covered path in the snow garden, I clench and unclench my hands.

What happened to Iris and Jonas? I've managed to catch a brief glimpse of Basile, which must mean Andrew is fine—I think.

Below me the stream is frozen. At the end of the curving stream is a stone fountain jutting out of the wall. The water has frozen solid in its short plummet through the air, and behind me the stream expands to make a tiny pond, barely large enough to be suitable for three ducks.