Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

33 The Estate Is So Creepy. It's Almost Like . . .

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Iris~~

Jonas and I stand before the stone staircase. He's dressed in black slacks, and his white button up shirt his untucked, the buttons at his wrist and collar undone. On his head is the silver laurel wreath he wore on my first night here. He's barefoot like me.

He's also Expired, but I'm trying to push that to the back of my mind for later.

Jonas took me to the "supply closet" about an hour ago. The Society's seamstresses are expected to make clothes even when they don't have requests. So now I'm dressed in a blue toga-like dress that cinches around my waist in an X pattern.

"Colton told me you came down here."

I tense. "I assumed he would."

"Did you feel the burning?" his voice is low.

"Slightly. I wasn't down there for long."

"We'll be down there for a while, and you'll most likely feel it. A lot. So it's your choice; if you want to change your mind and not come, you can."

"But you can't change your mind."

He looks down. "No, I can't. But it doesn't usually bother me as much anymore."

"If you have to deal with it for the rest of your life, then I think I can deal with it at least once."

Erik's down those steps, at the very bottom. I haven't seen him yet today. Jonas said I would watch from a side room because it's not safe for me in the ceremony room.

"We should go then."

I step down.

Iris.

"I don't suppose you heard that?" I ask him.

"The voices? No. They're probably tired of greeting me." They.

As we descend my Mark starts to burn. The farther we go, the more it does. I bite back the pain. Jonas holds it in well. I can only tell something's wrong by the occasional wince between his cheek and eye. I'm not going to let him upstage me in silently suffering.

We reach the bottom floor where the members of the old Order, some of the new, including Colton, and four women dressed like me but in different colors are gathered. Unlike me though, they have ornate laurel wreaths in their hair. They must be the sisters of the new Order. Gwen is one of them and speaks with her father in a corner. The floor down here is no longer stone, but rather a mosaic of tiles. The room is round with an imposing set of wood doors embedded in the wall across from me. A narrow hallway runs to my right. Since I don't know where it leads, it seems my only escape route is up the stairs.

I haven't spoken to Colton since our conversation last night. If it can even be called a conversation. I saw him in spread-out moments at the party, but that was it.

He doesn't need to waste his time with someone like you.

Jonas stands beside me, and Colton is right, but not in the way he meant and that has been bothering me. Colton doesn't think I'm good enough for his brother. What would he think if he knew I was trained to be a rebel? More importantly, what would he do?

I spot Erik talking to two of the women, one in a red dress, the other in black. He looks up, his eyes narrowing on me. Without a word to the women, he storms toward us. I do mean storm. Erik is not a force with which to be reckoned.