Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

32 Now He Gets Walked In On

Jonas~~

I step back into the bathroom to finish getting ready after taking a shower. I'm in pants, but I have yet to throw a shirt on as water still drips from my hair. I woke up at 4:30 this morning to start preparing for Erik's ceremony. It's now eight. I thought another shower might help to wake me up.

I leave the door only partly closed so I can hear if Iris comes in while I finish getting ready. I left her a note asking to speak with her in my room, but I have no idea when she'll show up. To be on the safe side, I start with my bandage. That way it will be wrapped before she's here.

I pull out a fresh bandage and position the end at my wrist. I hear a door close and look up, my heart catching in my throat when I see her in the reflection of the mirror, my Expiration Date exposed to her.

I indulged in one moment of carelessness that will now cost me everything.

07-28-14

Those numbers show bold in the mirror even reversed.

"Iris."

Her fleeting figure halts, and pulling my left arm against my bare chest, I step out of the bathroom. Her face is pale.

"I'm so sorry. I didn't mean—Your note said to go ahead and come in if you didn't answer. I didn't know."

"You saw?" I ask already knowing that she did.

She wraps her arms around herself. "How?" Her jaw trembles.

"How am I Expired?" The word doesn't feel right. How many times have I voiced that out loud even to myself since my Date? Once? I don't think I have.

She nods.

"Why don't you have a seat?" I walk past her to my dresser and grab a t-shirt. I pull it on before sitting down on the floor across from her.

She's watching me, silent, with wide eyes, her face pale.

"That day, I was supposed to be in my office finishing my final business—a letter to my brother telling him I knew he would do an incredible job at being Preeminence. He was always supposed to be the Preeminence. Growing up, I knew that. I had only been Preeminence for barely two weeks. If tradition didn't demand I be initiated the day after my twenty-first birthday, my father would have made up a reason to wait."

"That's why you said being Preeminence is unexpected."

I run my hand over my Mark. "Yes."

"Can I see it?" She must want to know if it's real. I hold out my arm, and she carefully touches one of her fingers to the lines. My chest tightens.

"I didn't want the last thing I saw or did to be paperwork, so I went for a drive even if it was my responsibility to finish up my final business." My eyes close when she begins tracing her finger over the lines. "I wanted to see the mountains even it killed me."

I hear her scoot closer, and her other hand is there, cupping my wrist.

"You sound so calm."

I open my eyes, finding her closer than I thought. "It's an odd feeling, knowing how you were supposed to die." I run my finger over the hem of her bandage, brushing her wrist while I do so. "When you met me in town for lunch, I was in a meeting about my cousin Andrew."

"I haven't met him."

"That's because Erik asked me to exile him."

She flinches, her head snapping up. "What did he do?"

"He bombed my office and the estates of those I met with the other day. At least we think the latter was him."

She grips my arm. "He wanted you dead?"

I slide my hand over the palm of her hand that was tracing my Mark. "He detested Expirations Date—the Society. If he was able to kill me or hurt me, it would be quite the statement." I can clearly picture him being brought into my father's office. He was so smug, and then he saw me, and I had the satisfaction and heartache of watching that smugness turn to rage. "After he was caught, I let Erik decide his fate. Everyone else wanted him tortured, but Erik was the one who was hurt in all of it."

She sits straightens, understanding filling her eyes. "The cut on his face."

"A piece of shrapnel hit him. He was delivering a letter from his father to my office but hadn't reach it, thankfully." That area of the Estate has been closed off while it's being reconstructed. I don't know what I would do if I had to see that area every day. I thread my fingers through hers, our palms pressing against each other. She doesn't pull away. "I could see bits of Andrew's personality in Erik. I didn't want the same thing to happen, so I let him take a short break from the Society, and he didn't come back when he was supposed to. I think you know the rest."

"You aren't going to kill me now, are you?"

I smile sadly at her. "I should." Removing my left arm from her hold, I brush strands of her red hair from her eyes. "But, of course, I'm not."

She gives a weak laugh. "Why do we have such a habit of walking in on each other?"

My eyes drop to her lips. "I don't know."

"You have my word that I won't tell anyone. No matter what."

"How can I trust you?"

"Because you kept my Date a secret." She stands, pulling me up with her. "I'm indebted to you for that and this is how I'll pay that debt."

Erik's replacement rings through my head as I stare down at her, my hand still in hers. I need to accept that. The loyalty of my Tresais is my priority. If I take her from him, his bitterness toward me will never end.

"Thank you." I bring her hand to my lips and kiss her knuckle. "Truly thank you."

Her cheeks redden. "Don't go get sappy on me. Why did you ask me to come here in the first place?"

I grin, pushing away thoughts of being Expired. "How would you like to come to Erik's ceremony?"

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