This book is copyrighted. The copying of this text will result in charges. If you are not reading this on Wattpad, then it has been stolen. Please report this to me (MikaelaBender on Wattpad) and get off of the website you found it on, as you may be at risk of a virus. I can then let Wattpad know about the site.
Colton~~
I'm dying.
Six months and it's still the same. The pain hasn't gotten any better. I still ache. I still hurt. I should be over this. Her. Us. But I'm not.
I slam the drawer of the desk shut.
Even I'm fed up with how melodramatic I'm being.
I mean, this is ridiculous. Utterly ridiculous.
And maybe I could have gotten over her if it hadn't been for that. That newspaper.
A picture of Vienna, hidden behind Abella, the princess of France, lies on the desk, the newspaper its printed on folded and crumpled. This isn't my desk though, and it's not my office. I'd much prefer if it was. My office offers privacy. I wouldn't have to worry about nine cousins, a brother or a sister, an Iris, my mother, or my father bursting in and seeing this picture.
We—no, not we. My mother and father decided it would be a good idea for the Order to take a vacation. A two-week long one in Oregon.
"So let the country burn?" I asked when I was told about this.
But Jonas had already figured it out the technicalities, something for which our parents told him he'd be responsible; the old Order is in charge while we're gone, minus my father.
The house we rented is lavish but oh so incredibly small. I'm forced to share a room with Jonas, but August, Eli, and Bently are all squeezed in one together.
I rub my forehead, staring at the picture. She's dressed as if she was born for royal life.
If it wasn't for this trip, I would have never found the newspaper. Back home someone would have made sure it never crossed my path. But there was no one censuring the news in this town in the middle of nowhere.
Despite the travel ban, Elleany isn't closed off to the world virtually and our people devour the news from other countries.
But if Vienna's in France that means Erik's there. They were exported together, for their betrayal against the Society.
Now that I know where she is, what am I supposed to do? Jonas might not know where they were sent, but even if he doesn't see this newspaper, he'd have a very good idea of why I'd suddenly be headed to France.
And he'd stop me.
"Colton?"
I jerk my head up, hand going for the newspaper, but Iris has already lunged for it and grasped it in her hands. Her eyes are wide as she takes in picture and slowly those green eyes rise to meet mine.
"Iris."
She heads for the door but I'm out of my seat and have slammed it shut, positioning my back to it before she can reach it.
She lets out a huff. "I was just going to close it." She looks at the newspaper again. "They're in France."
"If you say anything to Jonas, I will kill you."
"You've tried that before."
"Exactly. I've had practice, and I won't fail this time."
She rolls her eyes but hands me the newspaper. "You're going then?"
"I can't."
"You're the Beta, of course you can." Her eyes shift to the newspaper. "Erik's there then."
"Probably thriving."
Her shoulders seem to have had weights set on them and I wonder if she's recalling Jonas chained to the wall of the rebels' cell, Vienna unconscious, and August and I being barely able to hold Erik back. "I came to tell you that the plans for the evening have changed. Your father's decided you all should join me and Jonas for dinner."
"All?"
"Your cousins. We're leaving in"—she looks at her phone—"ten."
I fold the newspaper. I was really hoping to have to third wheel with my family on my brother's date tonight. "And Jonas is okay with this?"
"I haven't told him yet. I figured you'd need more of a warning than him." Because Jonas is already on his way to the restaurant. She taps on her phone screen. "I'm texting him now."
Newspaper in hand, I take the stairs to mine and Jonas's room and hide it between a stack of my clothes in the dresser drawers before throwing on a pair of dark blue pants and a gray and white checkered blazer before meeting my family out at the front of the house. My father had his sports car brought out here to our house situated in what feels like the middle of a forest. My mother takes the front passenger seat and Iris is squeezed in the middle between me and Gwen. My cousins split themselves between Sebastian's and Riley's cars.
Iris stares at her phone where her messages with Jonas are pulled up. I try not to read them, try not to pry but despite that I still see that her message to Jonas about us coming to dinner hasn't sent.
"Do you want me to try texting him?"
She looks up sharply. "You—"
I smirk and pull out my phone, but when I hit send on the text, my phone doesn't have enough signal to deliver it. And I'm not sure it ever will with the restaurant being at the top of a mountain. Jonas probably doesn't have signal either.
Apparently being rich doesn't get you service where there is none.
Half an hour later we pull up before the restaurant, the sun starting to descend behind us. My father and cousins park near the entrance but when valet tries to take the keys, all three of them snap their fingers over their keys and drop them into their pockets.
Iris rolls her eyes as she smooths out her purple dress, silky and strappy, leaving her bandaged Mark on display. While she doesn't often where it at the Society after the Amoris learned her secret six months ago, she still has to keep it covered in public.
As we walk inside, the host greets us, fear on his face—the only natural reaction he should have. Besides for the staff, the restaurant is empty, none of the tables filled.
Jonas is across the restaurant standing near a table for two, the wall behind him glass showcasing the mountainous terrain, the setting sun casting the trees in a halo's glow.
Even I can admit it's breathtaking.
My brother's dressed in dark pants and a gray button up, his jacket a deeper shade of gray that's almost black. He looks confused, his eyes flicking between each of his family members. His eyes meet mine and I know.
I inhale the room feeling as if it could close in on me or that the building could dislodge itself and slide over the side of the mountain.
"I didn't know to expect you," he says.
Iris crosses the room to reach him. "Our texts weren't going through." He takes her hands in his and kisses her cheek. Did she know what this was meant to be? Does she know now? Does the rest of my family?
The restaurant staff pull together tables and bring over chairs. My brother sits next to Iris, and he smiles at all of us but it's clear it's forced—at least to me.
Maybe now he understands just a taste of what I've been feeling for months. Thinking you were going to propose only to have those plans ripped from you.
If he marries Iris, I'll have to marry an Amoris, a fact I've already resigned myself to since Vienna's betrayal. He'll have to get permission before he does though, and if he's denied and he has to marry an Amoris, it will probably still be my fate anyway.
We're halfway through our dinners when my father lowers his fork and says casually, "Jonas, I've been meaning to tell you, Preeminence Moretti will be visiting us after we return."
We all stop eating, and Jonas's hand tightens around his fork. "Why was I not told of this sooner?"
"We've all been busy."
"I should have been told immediately."
"It was decided right before we left the Estate." My father spears a roasted carrot with his fork. "I didn't think you'd want to spend the whole trip worrying about it."
"Then why tell me now?"
He shrugs placing the vegetable in his mouth.
But we know why he did it. He saw that Jonas was planning to propose and wanted to remind him that without Amoria's permission, a Preeminence's marriage with a human would not be permitted.
"Why is he coming?" Jonas asks, and our father continues eating. My brother's face darkens. "To check on me."
Jonas moves his hands from his silverware to below the table. "This is my country." Our planet.
"And yet we must still bow to Amoria's whim." My father sips from his red wine, no hint of fear that he spoke of Amoria around our citizens. Moretti is not just a Preeminence on Amoria. He is the Preeminence. The leader of the Head Order, and all four Orders and ours underneath it. "This was a charming engagement spot, Jonas, but don't get too swept up in dreams that you won't be able to make them reality."