Exposed [Book 4 in the Expiring Series]

48 Running Out of Time

Colton~

Vienna lays down a playing card from her deck, and I glance at my own weak hand of cards.

            She looks up at me, the picture of innocence. I was the one who taught her this game. "Face it," she says. "You should—"

            The door to the lounge opens, and Erik strolls in, plopping onto the couch beside our table. "Elisana left?"

            Behind my cards, I side eye him. "You sound surprised."

            He pushes himself into an upright position. "I am. Leaving so soon after Jonas and Iris, it makes it rather obvious, doesn't it?"

            Vienna makes a face as if to say lay down a card. "She said she was going home."

            "You believe that?" Erik asks.

"As you said, if she was going after Jonas and Iris, her leaving now makes it too obvious." She kicks me under the table, prompting me to lay down my card, and she looks smug when she sees it. "Maybe she got tired of waiting on Percy to make a move." She places her next card on the table, winning the game.

            I glare, reshuffling the deck.

            It's three rounds later that Erik decides he should start speaking again. "Look if Colton was right—"

"What do you mean by if?"

He rolls his eyes. "If in your great and powerful wisdom, you are in fact correct about Elisana, and Iris and Jonas wake up with her holding a knife over their bed, then they're going to realize they wished they had listened to me."

            Vienna flips through her cards. "I'm sure."

            She continues to win for five more rounds, so when Rydersin enters the lounged, I'm grateful because it provides me with the chance to reorient myself. She gives me a shallow curtsy before taking a seat beside Erik on the couch. Her shoulders are pushed back, her chin lifted, but her eyes seem absent of life.

            Tilting his head, Erik angles himself toward her. "Well?"

            "My father is now attempting to bribe his Order members to keep them from siding with me." Her words are directed to Erik, not to us, and I place a car on my pile to signal Vienna that we should keep playing.

            "Will they accept his bribes?"

            Rydersin doesn't answer right away, and I glance over in time to see Erik place a hand on her shoulder before he quickly pulls it back.

            Suspicious.

            After we finish our round, Vienna lays down her cards, rubs her neck, and yawns. "I'm bored of this game."

            "But you're winning."

            "Exactly. It's too easy."

            I mock bow in my seat. "I'm sorry I'm not making it challenging enough for you, your highness." My phone buzzes, Jonas's name appearing followed by his message, a response to the one I sent hours ago about Elisana.

Jonas: We'll be ready.

            The arrogant . . . that's all he says? He's not even worried?

            I'm sounding like Erik. Why is Erik even worried? Somehow those times when he just hated both of them feel simpler than now. I mean, before we know it, Andrew is going to come waltzing through that door asking for help, Basile on his heels. Help. From me. The man whose brother he tried to kill.

            "Colton?"

            I glance up, meeting Vienna's eyes. She shifts them to Erik who's looking at me as if he's waiting for something. So I hold his gaze and stay silent, not deigning to admit I zoned out.

            Finally, he sighs. "Why do you think Andrew was there? When I was taken?"

            Is that why I started thinking about Andrew? Because Erik had mentioned him? "He's stuck in a world of what he hates. I think it's obvious what both he and Basile want."

            Erik bites down on his lip, and I look at Rydersin.

            "He really didn't give you any more information," I say, "other than it was your father who took Erik?"

            She frowns. "He didn't. I'm sorry, Beta."

            I incline my head to her. "Well, thank you, at the very least, for saving my cousin."

            "My father took him because of me. I couldn't stand for that. He's my partner in this."

            Unsure what to say, I shuffle through my cards. When Erik came into our bedroom two nights ago, it was clear from the sorry state of his mouth that he had just been engaged in some not so innocent activities. And some part of me felt anger at that realization and all that it means. He's going to fall in love and stay here, on Amoria. Never again will my original Order all be gathered together in one place.

That shouldn't come as a surprise. Erik was Exported. He betrayed the Society, took Jonas hostage, and tried to expose the Amoris. He won't be welcome in Elleany, so seeing him with Rydersin shouldn't feel like a book closing.

            But it does.

            If I'm really being honest with myself, I didn't even know last night that it was Rydersin who he had been with. I thought it might have been the Veil that dropped him off at our room, the one he danced with in Borilia.

            "I understand my father denied your request out of his anger with me."

            "I believe he also mentioned Borilia," I say dryly. The diplomatic route would be not to let all the blame fall on her, even though it does.

I suppose the real culprit is her father, though we're all angry at him, so what does it do to place the blame on him?

            She continues, "I wanted to express my most sincere apology, and if at the end of all this I become my father's heir, you will have mine and my Order's support when I'm Preeminence."

            Vienna presses her lips together in a tight line and forces a smile. "Thank you." She drops her eyes to the deck of cards, but not before I catch the tears rising to the surface in them. Not tears of gratitude but hopelessness. I have to marry soon. Much sooner than Rydersin would become Preeminence. And I'm certain she realizes that but what else could she offer in apology?

            Every time I've tried to speak with the Preeminence, he either refuses to see me or refuses to listen to me, and I've run out of ideas of how to persuade him to my cause. Soon I'll have to return to Elleany and resume my duties as Beta, and now that Iris and Jonas have officially married, it's my job to sire the next Preeminence if I can't sway every Amorian Order to my side.

Sorry for the short chapter! My sister came to visit me, and so I wanted to spend all the free time I had with her. The next chapter will be from either Jonas's or Iris's POV. Probably Jonas's.

Now I just have to remember how I outlined this book in my head for the next part. *nervous laughter*

Also I really want to write a dance inspired by this music.