Iris~~

If it wasn't for Erik, I would not have gone back inside. When Beth and Thomas tell me they chose my orphanage, knowing what it was, I want to punch Erik. They didn't want to be in my life, but they felt they could decide how it would play out. They gave my nineteen years to the rebellion.

Thomas explains how he's the one who runs things here. He's in charge of a group of rebels and, for some reason I can't imagine, didn't want his own niece to be a part of that group. Erik discreetly blocks the door when I eye it.

He manages to finesse the conversation to why I'm still alive. I mentally check out, letting him handle the explanation.

"Ma, Pa?" Standing on the top step of the camper is a girl, younger than me, with long wavy brunette hair. The sight of her brings me back to here and now. I have a cousin. A cousin who wasn't there to give me away.

Beth ushers her inside. "Lila, I'd like you to meet some very important people."

Lila's cheeks redden. "Tresais."

Erik scratches the back of his neck. "Please, call me Erik."

Her whole face becomes flushed.

Beth places her hand on Lila's shoulder. "This"— she smiles at me—"is your cousin, Iris."

This time, I'm the one to explain why I'm still alive and how I got here, and I find out Lila is fifteen and blessed with many years. I wonder if she was like me, if her parents would have given her up.

Lila offers to let me sleep in her room with her. I think she looked at Erik throughout our conversation more than she did me.

Thomas—Uncle Thomas tells Erik he can take the couch that's probably only half of Erik's size. Neither Thomas nor Beth seem thrilled with having a member of the Society sleeping in their home. If Erik was the Expired one, I wouldn't take my eyes off him.

Lila's room is narrow, with a desk, dresser, and bunk bed crammed inside. She sets me up in the top bunk after I change into my clothes that Thomas had retrieved from Erik's car. He's having it towed here now.

I close my eyes and burrow into the blanket and sheets and shut my eyes. I'm not going to be able to go to sleep anytime soon. My mind's too active. I'm too jittery.

"Are you and Erik Blackwood together?" her voice drifts up to me, quiet, as if she isn't sure how the words will actually sound coming out.

"He said you can call him just Erik."

A pause. "Are you and Erik together?"

Erik's not far from us. Can he manage to hear this?

"No."

"Why not? He's kind of, really, you know, handsome."

I twist my fingers into the blanket, the cotton hasn't done much to keep away the freezing temperatures of this RV. "He is, but we don't like each other like that. Half the time I'm not sure Erik even likes me.

"You were at the Estate; did you meet the Preeminence?"

Did I meet the Preeminence? She has no idea. "Yes. We spoke a lot."

She sighs. A dreamy sigh. "I can only imagine what that must have been like."

I furrow my eyebrows. Does my rebel cousin, whose father is in charge of a whole group of rebels, have a crush on the men of the Society? "He's something else."

"And the Beta? Please, tell me you met him."

I cough. "We . . . crossed paths."

"He's the handsomest of them all."

"I don't know about that—"

"Did you see those eyes?" she asks. I saw them, but his brother's eyes are the ones I prefer to see. "I'm sure his girlfriend can't keep herself from running her hands through that hair." This is getting uncomfortable.

"It sounds like you've spent a lot of time thinking about this."

"My pa did make me spend countless hours studying their faces."

"The flashcards?"

"You had them too?"

A grin spreads across my face, and I laugh. "Yes. Yes, I did."

"Iris?"

"Yeah?"

"I do hate the Society. I don't want you to think I don't. It's hard not get caught up in it though. It's so alluring and kind of romantic. The Tresais saved your life. That has me swooning a bit."

The grin fades. "Yes, he did."

"You're going to end up together. I know it."

"How?" I find myself curling my knees toward my stomach.

"He saved you. You're supposed to be together. The hero always gets the girl." Erik told me at the beginning of all of this that he is the villain and I'm the hero. "You think Erik's a hero?"

"He may be the Tresais, but he brought you back to us. Are you going to stay here?"

"Erik and I kind of stick together." Great, now she's not going to believe me about us not being together. "Can he stay too?"

"The Tresais helping rebels? My pa would love that."