Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

39 The First Dance

Iris~~

As I approach the ballroom, waltz music drifts toward me. It tugs at my heart, begging me to dance. The dance lessons at my orphanage were some of my favorites. I may never have been given driving lessons, but I could dance better than anyone else in my orphanage. I was the one who was going to die soon. The music spoke to me differently. I didn't simply hear the heartache in a song. I felt it. I poured everything I had into each step, each movement. No one wanted to hear how it felt to know I would die at nineteen. Those dances were my chance to show them what it was like.

I step into the ballroom, and my chest heaves from my breath being taken away. The ballroom has always been magnificent, but tonight there is not a word to describe it. It's so much more than magnificent. The dresses are styled similar to the ones worn for Colton's and Erik's ceremonies. But more intricate, ornate, elegant. My own is white with blue and silver gems sewn into it. I found it lying on my bed this afternoon.

It's like every color imaginable is swirling through a sea of stars. Truly a sea of them. Men and women glide through what must be projections of thousands and thousands of silver twinkling stars. I don't know where the stars in this room come from for some of them move when a hem of a dress brushes through them as if they were glitter. With the clear ceiling and the window wall on the other end of the ballroom that both show the stars shining and gleaming and with the looming, glittering silver chandeliers, the Society dances in a sea of stars even without the projections.

I spot a few laurel wreaths in that sea, but many Society members are wearing circlets. From what I remember growing up, any Society member can wear a circlet, but only those in or close in relation to the Order wear laurel wreaths. They're a way to set themselves apart from the rest of the Society.

"I've been waiting for you." Erik comes up beside me, a laurel wreath on his own head. "You look stunning."

"Thank you." The truth is, I do feel stunning. I don't know why it's scaring me that I think that. "What am I to call you now?"

"Erik. Always Erik. But you'll have to call Colton Beta now. His royal highness will insist on it."

I don't know why the thought comes to me now, but I wonder what Colton, and for that matter Erik, would think if they knew Jonas and I kissed? I can wonder all I want, but I absolutely do not wish to find out. Neither has been supportive of me even talking to Jonas. Nothing has happened between us since two nights ago. We haven't had the chance to be alone, let alone talk for more than a few minutes at a time. We haven't spoken a word about that night.

I told him he had to mean it, and now with not talking about it, doubt is starting to creep into my mind. It's entirely foolish of me. He's the Preeminence. It's better if we forget it happened.

"Would you like to dance?" Erik asks, the current song coming to an end. "That is, if you know how."

I take his hand and pull him, trying not to drag him, toward the dancers. "I suppose you'll just have to show me how."

Once out in the middle of the floor, Erik places his free hand on my waist, and I place mine on his shoulder.

You get into the heart of them and then you pierce them.

I duck my head. Stars brush up against my dress and thread through Erik's legs. "They're beautiful."

"It's one of the only things I love about the Society."