Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]

55 Of Juice and Legacies

Colton~~

For the past eight hours, Tobias and I have been camped out in my room within the palace as Jonas ordered. Over that time our positions have changed. We started off in the plush chairs gathered around the table Alix had brought in. Then Tobias spread out on my bed while I draped my legs over the arm of my chair. Somehow, I've found my way onto the table, and Tobias, on top of and surrounded by pillows, has lain out on the rug. We've been pouring over the maps that have the symbol for possession overlaid on them that Amoria sent four days ago.

When those maps had first arrived, it was Tobias who said Odette's base must be in the catacombs while Sebastian said they wouldn't be daft enough to put their stronghold in the capitol city of the country they're trying to overthrow. Alix then informed us that the catacombs have already been searched and—I thought—settled that debate.

I grab a pen and label a section of the map where I think Odette could leave a body while Tobias keeps muttering about how he's sure they're in the catacombs. And that has been my life these past eight hours—me doing all the work and Tobias daydreaming with a decent contribution every forty-five minutes or so.

And the muttering. Heaven help me. He's the Undici; he shouldn't be this butthurt when someone thinks his idea is asinine. He has a country to help run and now a country to save.

I tap the pen against the map. At this point all of the maps look the same even though they aren't all of the same view. Based on the lines Amoria drew, Tobias and I have to find where along them it seems the most likely Odette will leave a body, basing it on the area, the surrounding buildings, and the landscape. Many of the maps we have are zoomed in images of Paris.

Three days ago a new body was found, a young woman who the French identified as Ines Fraise. A wife, a mother, and an accountant. There's been no word from Mid'haa since she and her team member went missing.

Tobias presses his palms into the rug, the muscles under his umber-black skin going taut as he pushes himself up off the ground and stands. He twists his back in a S formation, cracking it, as he walks over to the bar cart. I roll my eyes as he reaches for the mango passion-fruit juice sent up specifically for him.

Drink something with caffeine, I want to scream at him and reach for my fourth cup of coffee. He's always wrinkled his nose whenever someone brews a pot while he's in the room. He likes tea but prefers juice. I myself enjoy the occasional cold glass of juice for breakfast, but I don't walk around the Estate with a tumbler of juice in my hand.

He frowns into his glass. "I've been thinking—"

"About the catacombs. I've heard."

He walks back over, the ice clinking in his glass as the yellowish juice sways side to side. "Well, yes, but about afterward. After our Order is done. About what I want to do."

"Is now really the time for that?"

"It's either that or contemplate throwing your coffee in your face every time you pour another cup and say how it hardly affects you anymore."

I grip the pen, my eyes boring down at the map. "I'm sorry that I'm committed to finding our cousin and doing my job."

Tobias sets his glass down on the table with a decisive clink. "Do you really think I'm not committed to the Society because I wanted to go to college?"

As my palm presses into the map—steadying myself—I raise my eyes to him. "Is being Undici not good enough?"

"Colton, I'm honored to be able to serve my country and the Society, but what am I supposed to for the rest of my life when I am no longer Undici?"