Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

56 The Society Will Get What It Deserves

Ever wanted Colton Blackwood to be on the Bachelorette? Well Scikick has put together a special treat for their readers in the #WattpadBlockParty. I'll put it as the external link for you to access if you're on a computer. Here's a trailer shadowcheah made for it. Colton has two parts in it. His introduction and when he meets Isla Blume from SarahPerlmutter 's Deathless!

Erik~~

It's not until late in the afternoon that I visit my cousin.

He's chained to the wall with the Amoris. Vienna has been transferred from the cell and into a dormitory bunker where she will remain by herself. I ignore the Amoris's scoffs, focused solely on him. He raises his head, his blue eyes dropping to the bucket of water I carry in one hand and the cloth and bandages tucked into the crook of my arm.

"I wondered when you would show up." His voice is hoarse, and I wonder if it has anything to do with the gas he inhaled.

The bloody scraps of cloth are still wrapped around his Expiration Date. I sit down beside him on the cold ground made of metal and unlock the cuff on his Marked arm.

"What are you doing?"

As I peel off the fabric, it sticks to his cuts, and he hisses.

"Seeing what's left of your Mark." I dip a cloth in the water before dabbing at the cuts, attempting to loosen the fabric from his skin.

He grimaces. "That's not what I meant. Why did you leave the Society? Why didn't you work with me to make the Society—Elleany better?"

A piece of fabric comes free, and I drop the scrap, crisp with dried blood, on the floor. I start on the next piece. "You don't care about changing the Society. You just want Iris to love you."

"If that was the case, why would I send her to France?"

"I'd say you aren't actually sending her away, but you have no control over that now." I drop the last of the rags on the ground. "Would you get rid of Expiration Dates?"

His arm is covered in blood, but it looks like Vienna didn't touch the beginning part of his Date. I wet a new rag.

"Erik . . ."

"I take it that's a no." I dab at the dried blood.

"Expiration Dates are the lifeblood of the Society."

"So, you don't think you're good enough of a Preeminence to rule without them?"

"I don't like them, but the county doesn't like us. What would happen if they no longer feared us?"

"A better man would try to make his county love him." I wet the tip of the rag. So far I can't make out the last three numbers. Vienna really did a nasty job. The cuts will need some antiseptic and will probably need stitches just to keep them closed. It looks like she was careful to avoid the arteries and major veins. Still, it's a wonder he didn't lose more blood.

"Do you think I don't want that? But Amoria rules me. Who knows what they'd do to us if we did away with Expiration Dates."

"Because they fear us not fearing them. Can't you see the situation is the same?"

Behind me, my aunt sighs. "You act as if you don't have any Amorian blood. We are your family. In time these rebels will shun you for what you are."

I wipe up the last bit of blood and take a fresh cloth to dry the skin. "We don't act like a family. If you haven't noticed, you don't give a damn about your own son."

"Erik," Jonas's voice is gentle, placating. "There isn't a person in the Society who thinks Molly's death wasn't tragic."

"Then why didn't anyone do anything to rectify it?"

"Nothing could have brought her back. It was her Date."

I reach for the roll of bandages. The second digits of the day and the year are too cut up to make out what they were. It's as if a dog had dug its teeth in his arm. But I'm almost certain the first digit in his year is a 1.

And if that's true, then he's supposed to die in this decade.

I swallow the sudden lump in my throat and start wrapping the bandages around his arm.

I know there's no bringing Molly back. I don't need to hear it. Molly's death wasn't just predicted, it was that predication that caused her death. If she hadn't known her death, she never would have been upset over it on that day. She wouldn't have been teased. I wouldn't have then decided we needed to leave the Estate.

The accident never would have happened.

I feel my heart crumbling again. I can't do this—be around him.

I need to return to ironing out the details of our demands.

I reattach Jonas's shackle. Someone will come by later to see to their needs. Even if I hate them, I don't want them sitting in their own filth. They are my family even if I reject them.

And someone will need to clean Jonas's wounds. The last thing we want to deal with is a feverish Preeminence.

The Society had their chance to do away with Expiration Dates, and they chose not to put an end to them.

"You know Arrietty got hurt in the attack," Jonas says.

I pause at the door. "What?"

"She was shot."

I tremble. Another woman I cared about hurt because of me. "Is she okay?"

"She was shot."

Their faces flash before me: Arrietty, Molly, Iris. I must be cursed.

I yank the door open, my knuckles whitening as I clutch it. "She shouldn't have been in the way then."

"You don't mean that."

If I look back, he'll see the pain in my face, so I slam the door shut behind me, letting the metal muffle their calls for me to put an end to this.

The Society will get what it deserves, and I'll be free.