Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

11 The Hero & The Villain

Iris~~

"Harder."

I punch Jae-yeon in the stomach, right where he wants me to. I do it again and again and again. If I stop . . .

And I do. I try raising my hand, but it won't move from my side. Jae-yeon and I are alone in the gym, and I can't move.

He steps toward me, placing his hand on my arm. "You really ought to try harder. After all the work I've put into you, it's the least you can do." His fingers dig into my skin. "You're going to have to do better than that. The Society isn't going to show you mercy if they find us."

"I wasn't expecting them to."

"Were you expecting it from me?" With a careful twist of my arm and a kick to my legs, he sends me to the ground. "It's concerningly easy to take you down."

I don't remember the room being on fire. I don't remember it starting to burn, but the gym around us is engulfed in flames.

"Jae-yeon," I plead. "Jae-yeon, we have to get out."

The room fills with smoke, and I cough.

Jae-yeon doesn't seem effected at all. He rolls me over and pins my arms to the mat. His brown eyes darken until his eyes are all black and no white. He leers down at me. "You're not going anywhere. Your time's up."

I scream, the flames running along the wood panels of the floor toward us. I thrash against his hold.

He smiles, his black hair falling across his forehead.

My begging does no good, and I scream louder as the fire reaches me.

I twist and kick, darkness all around me. I keep screaming—a mixture of nos and pleases coming out in hoarse breaths.

There's a bang and then a rattle, and a light flicks on, Erik and Brydan standing in the doorway. My sheet and comforter are twisted together and spread across the bed like a snake.

"What's wrong?" Erik comes to the side of the bed. Brydan stays in the doorway. His gaze flicks between us, and he scratches his arm.

I sit up, pulling my knees to my chin. I don't understand. Jae-yeon's been out of my dreams for so long. Why now?

Erik reaches a hand toward me, and I scoot away.

"Don't touch me."

He snatches his hand back.

My face is wet, my body sticky.

Erik nods at Brydan who without a word leaves, closing the door behind him. I can't believe I woke him up; I'm so far from being the perfect uninvited house guest right now.

Erik hesitates before taking a seat at the edge of the mattress. The weight of him on it causes me to lean toward him as the mattress shifts.

"What happened?"

"Just a bad dream."

"About?"

I tighten my grip on my legs. "It was a bad dream." Shouldn't he understand that means I don't want to talk about it?

"A lot of people have bad dreams. They don't usually cause a person to scream loud enough to wake the whole household."

I gnaw on my cheek, not looking at him. "It's private."

"I'm not letting this go. You didn't give me a real answer about how you took down those Veil."

I sniff, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. "His name was Jae-yeon. They moved him to my orphanage when I was fifteen."