"No."

"Preeminence—"

"I said no." My hands are clamped together on the desk, relaxed. My voice says otherwise. The men gathered around the table worked with my father's Order. This is their first official meeting with me as Preeminence. Or wasbecause I'm about to call it.

Bradley Callar splays his palms face up on the table. His estate was bombed the severest. He's eager to blame my cousin, but we don't have proof. A part of me believes it was rebels instead. "You really don't think he deserves worse than exile?"

"What he deserves and what I want are two different things. My cousin deserves to be tortured. But I don't want him anywhere near my home, or your estates, or this town, or this country for that matter." I stand. "He stays where he is. That's final." I gather my tablet and jacket. "Good day."

I exit the room before they can protest.

I find Iris sitting in one of the chairs by a window. I didn't know she would be here yet. I told her driver to drop her off here at city hall, but I expected to be done before she arrived. She must have heard me yelling, and now she'll be scared of me again. She won't want to stay, and Erik will fight every day to leave. Erik—because that's what this is all about. Making sure Erik stays.

She looks at me with a blank expression.

Yes, it's absolutely about Erik and not about getting to know her.

"I'm sorry that you had to hear that."

She rises from her seat, her lips twitching.

"What?"

A smile settles on her face. "The Preeminence apologizing for a temper tantrum? What has this world come to?" She heads for the door and pushes it open.

"Temper tantrum?"

She's already outside, the door slowly dragging along the floor after her. I hurry after her. This is about Erik. A hundred percent. I think.

She's waiting for me on the sidewalk, an innocent expression on her face.

"Temper tantrum?"

"No," she deepens her voice, and I realize she's imitating me. "I said no. What does that sound like to you?"

Rolling my eyes, I walk past her. The restaurant's down the block. "You've certainly loosened up since last night."

"You walked in on me. What choice did I have but to laugh it off?"

"It was on accident, and I didn't see anything." If my mother were to find out I walked in on a young woman, she would run me out of the Estate. She'd be mortified and would most likely lecture me on how she raised me with a better sense of propriety than that. She'd drag Colton into the lecture to make sure he never did the same. Then she would kick me out.

"You really are flustered over it."

I should be angry right now. I shouldn't allow anyone, let alone her, to jest with me, but the way her eyes are shining right now, I can't find it in me to put a stop to it.

I reach the restaurant, a mom-and-pop place, and the staff have a table prepared for us in less than a minute. I didn't call to make reservations because I knew if I gave them time to prepare for the Preeminence, they would do something fancy, and I wanted Iris to experience this place for what it is—simple, no frills. Westerton is an old town but beautiful, mainly built of brick. When the Society moved to our Estate here a few years ago, this was the restaurant I would sneak off to when I needed space.

As she combs through the menu, she says, "How do you think lunch is going back at your home?"

"I'd say Colton has Erik in a choke hold by now."

She looks up, again with that twinkle in her green eyes. "My money's on Erik."

Erik who this whole game is about. I'm wining and dining the girl for him. The one he's supposed to win in the end. All so he stays happy and content. I pick up my own menu, my fingers leaving imprints in the plastic covering. He doesn't even like her; he brought her to the Society.

"I heard he's taking you to dinner tonight."

For a moment the hand holding the center of her menu tightens. "Yeah."

"What's wrong?"

She lays her menu down. "Look. I'm sorry if my teasing has gotten out of hand. It's—I mean this in the sincerest compliment—it's easy to forget that you hold my life in your hands because it's easy to forget you're the Preeminence because you're not what I've always expected."

I set my own menu to the side. I already knew what I wanted to eat before coming in. "It doesn't bother me. No one else would even try—maybe my close cousins and siblings—but everyone else I think is terrified to get on my bad side. When you tease me—this is going to sound completely inane—I feel human. Crowns are heavy and sometimes you have to forget the human part of you in order to lift your head up."

She opens her mouth but is interrupted by the waiter coming to take our orders for both food and drink. She seems confident in her order, like she's known for a while what it would be, and it makes me wonder if she was hiding behind a menu too. The waiter leaves, and I expect Iris to say what it was she was going to before we were interrupted, but instead her finger draws indiscernible designs on the tabletop.

"Did you want to say something?"

Her finger pauses. "I think it's too personal."

"You won't know unless you ask."

"What's it like being Preeminence?"

I lean back in my chair. There are many answers, but only one of them seems right. "It's unexpected."

"How so?"

I need to choose my words carefully. "I suppose growing up, I always assumed that when I became Preeminence and my Order came into power, it would be a clean slate. We'd be able to create our own legacies for our positions. It's been a month since I took the title, and I can tell the Society wants me and the rest of my Order to be carbon copies of our fathers."

"And"— she pushes her fork forward with her finger— "are you okay with that?"

The public weren't the only ones who were hurt by the actions of my father's Order. "The way I see it is that when the history books a hundred years from now are written, I want my Order to stand out. Can I ask you a personal question?" Preferably before our waiter comes back.

She shrugs. "It's only fair."

"Now that you've experienced being Expired, would you rather be this way or know that you'll live until an old age, even if it means knowing the exact date of your death?"

"I'm . . ." Her face scrunches up. "I'm not sure, but I think I'd rather be Expired if I didn't have to deal with the Society's wrath. And what would you choose, Preeminence, if you were like me?"

"Jonas," I remind her, spotting the waiter returning. I have a few seconds. "I'd choose the second option."

******

I leave Iris at the door of her room. She'll be off to dinner with Erik before I know it. As I walk away, I pull out my phone. Erik talked to me about going to dinner before I left for my meeting. I told him Vienna would go with them.

I text Colton.

Jonas: She can still go tonight?

Colton: I'd much rather be the official chaperone.

Jonas: I know, but Erik would throw a fit.

Colton: Then this better be our present to him.

I'm curious. What do you think of Jonas?

Thank you for any votes and comments!

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