Exported [Book 3 in the Expiring Series]

60 She's the Hero

Jonas~~

I'm only a few blocks away from the flower shop now. I had the car drop me off about three blocks back. Walking feels right. Something about having a car drive me all the way there as if it were only dropping me off at a restaurant for dinner didn't sit right with me. It was too static and yet too fast. I need these steps to think, to say goodbye to the world above.

Amoris on Earth seem drawn to the underworld as if they fear what humans would do to them should they discover what they are.

On Amoria, they don't hide underground.

Ahead of me an older couple stands in the middle of the sidewalk, admiring the amber haze of the string lights reflecting in the puddles covering the stone streets. It stopped raining right before I exited the car, and now there's a light sheen over the cobblestone.

I step around them before I too am sucked into admiring the night.

Even though it's late, I still pass the occasional group of people. Most are drunk or tipsy, clinging to each other and laughing. They're enjoying life, breathing in every second and not taking a moment for granted.

I'm terrified about what's going to happen to me, but even more than that, I fear for Iris. She outweighs any anxiety I have for myself.

And Bently. My cousin. My Digamma. He is mine to protect. The Society might believe the rest of the Order should defend the Preeminence, but my men, my sister took an oath to me and became mine. I'll protect them until the end.

I can still be saved, I tell myself as I cross the street. Amoria is coming. If Odette keeps me alive as she has done so far with Iris, I might see my mother and sister again. My brother. My father.

But if Odette reveals that I'm Expired to the Society, they might realize they're better off without me and kill me themselves.

A harsh laugh slips past my lips.

Iris was always considered the threat to the Society. What would they all say if they were to find out their own Preeminence has been just as much of a threat all along?

Being the Preeminence—or the former Preeminence doesn't mean much when they all turn against me.

With every step my heartbeat quickens. I don't know if it's out of fear or at the possibility of seeing Iris even for a second. A second to apologize. Because maybe when I found out that Odette knew what Iris was, I should have come clean and turned Odette's focus on me and not her. Maybe Odette would have told Andrew she'd trade me for Basile and not Iris for him. He couldn't have taken us both. He never could have gotten us both out of that apartment.

I've let Iris suffer the scrutiny of the Society and Amoria alone. I should have taken the brunt of it. As much as I pray I'm good now, before I Expired and began to fear my family was I really any better than any other member? Didn't I delight in the misery of those who threatened my family? Didn't I look down on the world? Wasn't I bitter that my life was going to be cut short? Didn't I want the world to pay for that fact?

Sighing, I rub at my face.

There will still be guards posted around the shop. A few have been alerted that I will be going down into the catacombs. They've been ordered not to stop me.

Up ahead the road opens up, broadening in about a block and a half. I can just see a glimpse of the barricade they erected to keep the public out.

I rub at my arm where my mutilated Mark is. It might start burning once I go down there. It's hard to predict anymore.