Expiration Date (Books 1 and 2)

43 How?

Jonas~~

"Am I dead?"

I jolt forward in the chair I've been sleeping in for the night. Iris stares up at the ceiling of her room. I blink, my eyes adjusting to the bright lights which I chose to leave on. When Colton and Riley walked out of the maze, Iris in Colton's arms, I was already there. Riley texted me first when he found Iris passed out and Colton trying to wake her up. Vienna told me what she said to Iris about Erik, but I want to know why she passed out. Why we couldn't wake her up.

My phone says it's 3 AM.

"You're alive."

"What happened?"

"I want to ask you the same thing. You were passed out when Colton found you."

She turns her head with more vigor than I thought she could manage in this state. "Colton?"

"Yes."

She frowns, her forehead creasing. "Bently. He walked away and then—I don't remember."

"Erik said Bently was supposed to be with you. Did he"—I struggle to say the words— "did he attack you?"

"No. I don't think so. I was overwhelmed. Maybe I passed out because of that."

"Because of what Vienna told you—about Erik?"

Her fingers dig into the comforter. "Is it true?"

For a moment I'm back at that night—at that wretched dinner and gathering afterward. I knew something was going to happen. I could feel it in the air, but I didn't know what. "Yes. As far as we know."

Her breaths come short and deep. I stand, placing my hand over hers.

"How?" she asks, her voice strained.

I squeeze her hand. "That's a question you need to ask Erik."

She calms her breathing down much faster than I would have expected someone to after hearing news like that confirmed. "How am I supposed to ask him something like that?"

"I don't know."

"A girl died—"

"And so did a major piece of Erik. He still had to be in my Order one day. We still had to have his cooperation after that night." Erik didn't die that night, but I still lost him. "We had to move on. For the Society—for us that's not hard to do. But Erik . . ." I shake my head and sit down at the edge of her bed. Her leg presses against my hip.

"Would you want to see the Order all together as one? See the whole point in all the trouble of getting Erik back here?"

"A Senate meeting?"

"Our first."

"That sounds honestly terrifying. Let me guess, it's under the Estate?"

"It is below but not at the bottom floor, so if your Mark does burn there's a good chance it won't be that bad. If you don't want to take that chance, I do understand, but"—I lean toward her ear, the bed shifting under me—"I would be honored to have you in attendance. After all it's the very first one I'm leading." My lips brush against her ear. "I'm nervous, Iris."

She groans in exasperation, not pleasure. "You win."

I press a kiss to her cheek. "Thank you."

"You're incorrigible."

"So you've said."