Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

25 The Rebel

Colton~~

As Iris and I make our way down the stone steps that take us deeper below the Estate, I can't help but think of how strange my life has become. I'm working with Iris—the girl I was trying to kill only days ago in another state—to find a rebel that's hidden themselves among the Society.

The candelabras set in the alcoves of the dark stone walls catch on the gems in Iris's dress making them sparkle. We've both left our masks on.

"How many more flights?" Iris asks.

"Three. Tired from all that dancing?"

"Don't."

"That's the best you've got?"

"Can we focus on the task at hand and on not alerting anyone that we're coming?"

I shrug. "Very well."

The library below the Estate takes up an entire floor, and its entrance waits for us as we step off the last stair and onto its flight. No doors guard the library. We'd never expect anyone to steal from it and never believed a rebel would have been able to find out about it.

There's a reason the Konkursi are only made up of Society members or newly minted ones who came from the Society's outer and inncer circles. The Society's staff aren't privy to knowledge of the Amorians nor are they allowed below the Estate.

We pass through the entrance of the library. Inside, shelves cover the floor of the library and are full of the clear books like the one I made. The tiled floor gleams with gems embedded in it that is meant to look like gold stars. The library would be completely silent if it weren't for the delicate treading of shoes against the floor.

If I were Jonas or Erik, I might push Iris behind me as I pull out my gun and make my way down the aisle that wraps the room. But I am not them, and I don't care if she gets harmed. She walks alongside me, a gun she tucked into a holster around her leg before venturing down here now in her hand. I made sure to retrieve a few weapons from hiding places on the ground floor near the staircase. They're hidden in the circumstance that rebels breach the Estate.
They were not intended for this kind of breach.

Usually a librarian is on duty, and you would have to check the book out with them before you could leave with it. It's the only way when living in an Estate full of people to keep track of the books.

Tonight, there is no librarian. Whoever would usually be on duty is at the ball.

Iris and I both tread with silence, and I have to begrudgingly admit that she's impressing me with her level of stealth while in a dress.

There's the sound of tapping and scraping most likely the rebel touching the different books to bring them to life or turning the books on their sides where the titles are carved as if they were the spine of normal books. It's all in Amorian, though, either the Romanized alphabet or the one from Amoria.

Not wanting the click to alert the rebel, I wait until I round the corner to pull down the hammer on my gun.

The sight that befalls me threatens to buckle me at my knees.

"Vienna," I breathe.

Blonde curls hang down her back, draped over her shoulder, and her silver ball gown I was pressed against barely an hour ago now brushes the floor of the library that holds my family's secrets. She stares at me through her mask, her lips parted and hand raised to the shelf. Even hidden underneath her mask, her eyes look haunted to me.