Dedicated to TheWeirdPhilosopher for entering my Rafflecopter giveaway. She's got nine stories on here. Thanks for hanging out at the Story Fair! I hope you had fun! 

Iris~~

I toss off my blankets, sitting up in bed. It's dark in my room except for the moon and starlight that passes through the slit between the balcony curtains floating on the faint wind that blows through where the door is cracked open.

My hand darts under my pillow, wrapping around the hilt of my knife at the same time a hand closes around my throat, forcing me back down onto the bed. I rip the knife out from under the pillow and swipe up at the arm.

There's a hiss from the being who is no more than a mass of shadows above me. The hand slips from my neck before grasping at my arm, closing over my Expiration Date.

The hand feels as if it's searing into my arm, and I cry out. The being scrambles off me and hits the floor.

Before I can get off the bed, they're darting through the balcony doors. All I can catch is the silhouette of a male body and their dark hair.

"Iris!" Erik's shout comes from the other side of the door leading out into the hallway. It rattles. He must have thrown himself against it. "Iris, damn it, unlock the door."

"I will," I call back. Keeping myself angled toward the balcony, I flip the lights on and turn the lock.

As he throws the door open, he nearly slams me into the wall.

"What happened?" He scans the room, dressed only in loose pants and no shirt.

Still trying to catch my breath, my hand covers my arm. I turn it over half expecting to see angry red welts but it looks undisturbed, which I should have already known. Nothing was left behind when Jonas burnt me. "I was attacked."

"I guess it was foolish of me to hope you'd just had a nightmare," he mumbles. "Did you recognize them?"

"If I did, I'd tell you."

He heads for the open balcony door.

"Is everything all right?" the sound of Jonas's voice causes me to whirl toward my hallway door. The Preeminence stands in the threshold, his hand braced against the door's frame.

Out of the corner of my eye, near the dresser, something white on the floor catches my attention. An envelope.

"She was attacked," Erik says at the same time I assure Jonas, "I'm okay."

Jonas's attention is snagged by the balcony doors as well, and I use the moment to discreetly step on the letter. Whatever is inside, I want to read it first before handing it over. Jonas wouldn't stop me from reading it, but Erik would, and he wouldn't bother to tell me a damn thing that was inside.

"Someone finally tried to take her out?" Colton sidles up to my doorway and leans against the frame, his arms crossed. At this point I expect the entire Society will be showing up to my door. All three men wear similar pants, but both Colton and Jonas have shirts on. What time is it anyway? Will the rest of the Society arrive wearing bathrobes?

I am glad though to see the three of them, even Colton. It means that none of them could have been the suspect. They wouldn't have had time to get from my balcony, back into the Society, and up to my room.

Erik leans over the railing of my balcony. "No ladder. They must have had one though. I don't know how they could have gotten up here otherwise."

"They might have left fingerprints." Frowning, Jonas looks at me. "Did they hurt you?"

"I fought them off, and they didn't have gloves on, so you might be able to pick up prints."

Jonas rubs his hand over his face. "This never should have happened. I'm sorry."

"It's . . . okay," I lie, though not convincingly.

"No, it's not. At least until we can make sure your room is secure, you should stay elsewhere."

"Are you suggesting she rooms with you, brother?"

Jonas throws Colton an icy glare. "I was thinking she could stay with Arrietty." He looks at Erik. "Do you think that would be all right with her?"

Erik's already pulling out his phone. "I'll ask."

Arrietty, a Konkursi, which I now know serves the Amorians in the Society, and Erik's ex-girlfriend.

As the three men converse, Society members begin to gather in the doorway.

Song-ho, wearing only lounge pants and a dressing robe, pushes his way through the crowd. "What happened?"

I stifle a yawn. The letter under my feet has me itching to read it, but I can't very well pick it up with dozens of pairs of eyes on me.

Erik explains what's happened to him, and one after another, members of the Order start appearing until the entire group of men is standing in my bedroom, and besides for a concerned glance from Riley, none of the newcomers pay me any attention. The last one to arrive, August, shuts the door, providing some privacy, if having twelve men in your bedroom can even be considered private. Feigning—but not really—tiredness, I sit down and lean against the wall. The adrenaline from earlier is wearing off. It's not as if this is the first time someone's tried to kill me.

While the Order is distracted by examining what seems like every inch of my room, I slip the letter between the band of my dark linen pants, using the hem of my shirt to cover it.

There's a knock on my door. Before answering it, I grab a dressing robe of my own and pull it around me.

Arrietty waits on the other side of the door. She's dressed in the same white dress she wore when I first met her, and she's wearing makeup. Erik must have drawn her away from her Konkursi duties.

I swallow the lump that forms in my throat. This woman serves the Amoris.

She offers me what seems to be a sincere smile and nods to Erik.

On Erik's orders, the small crowd clears a path for me and her, and she leads me up the staircase to the fifth floor. She's quiet, her expression a bit contemplative, almost as if she can't quite think what she should say.

"How are you?" I finally ask as she unlocks her door. I haven't seen her since before Erik left the Estate with me.

"Honestly? Tired." Shaking her head with a soft laugh, she opens her door.

Inside, the walls are covered in paper that gives the appearance of woods. A deep burgundy rug lies in the center of the room over dark brown tile. She eyes her bed, with its gray metal frame and plush comforter.

"You can share my bed. I won't be done working for a few more hours so you might actually be up before I return."

The envelope presses into the skin of my back. "Thank you."

"Erik told me what happened. I hope they find out who."

I tug my robe tighter around me. "I do too."

She smiles ruefully. "At least it wasn't your Expiration Date."

I force myself to laugh, but it sounds shaky. "Yes. There's that at least."

Once Arrietty's gone, I pull out the envelope. Iris is the only writing on it, and it's typed in a font that reminds me of a typewriter.

Sitting on the bed, I open the envelope and pull out the letter inside, finding it printed in the same font.

You've returned to the Society's Estate, yet you know you don't belong with them. Rebels raised you; you'll always belong to us. Below the Estate is a library where you will find books containing the Society's secrets. Bring us a book that will expose their darkest one. In a few days we'll be in contact with you again with instructions on how to deliver the book.

Choose to turn your back on us, and we will treat you as a Society member, and as you are one of us, you know exactly what that means. We wouldn't suggest showing this letter to your friends. We already got close to you tonight. Do you really think we won't know when you run for help to the very people you betrayed us for in Nevada?

Bring us the Society's secret or we'll expose you to the world. You decide.

It's not signed.

I don't know how long I stare at the last word as I turn over the letter in my head.

The person who attacked me was a rebel.

But they're also a member of the Society, one with Amorian and Human blood if they were able to burn me when touching my Mark. If they wanted my help, why did they attack me? I was certain they were trying to kill me.

Though the two aren't named, the letter makes it clear I can't bring this to Jonas or Erik. Anyone in the Society knows that they are my only two confidants.

However, sneaking down below the Estate alone is not an option. If I'm caught, I'll only be seen as a rebel. I'll have to go to someone no one would ever expect I'd ask for help and someone who I know isn't the rebel.

Not Riley. He would go straight to Jonas. Whoever it is that's hiding within the Society can never suspect that Jonas and Erik are involved, and they might also expect me to go to Jay-yeon given his involvement with the rebels. If he hadn't betrayed my orphanage, I might even suspect my attacker was him. And though Arrietty is nice, she's loyal to the Society. She'd bring this to Erik in a heartbeat.

No one though, not even I, would expect me to go to Colton for help.

Groaning, I fold the letter. Jonas once told me that rebels had shot their mother when they were younger, and though their mother is very much still alive, Colton developed a grudge against the rebels fiercer than any other Society member.

With a long yawn, I realize I need to try returning to bed. If I'm going to have to deal with Colton Blackwood tomorrow, I'm going to need all the sleep I can get.