Colton~~

Gwen walks alongside me as we leave the meeting room. Erik is still in there chatting up Alastair. Gwen and Alastair only landed a few hours ago, but I don't know how the heir still manages to answer Erik's questions about Amoria so pleasantly. With the rate Erik's going, you'd think he was planning to purchase a condo and become a vacation club member on a beach on Amoria. Tobias has gone off with Abella and Jonas, and Sebastian speaks with Alix.

Gwen glances over her shoulder. "Do you think Iris is still alive? I wanted to ask you sooner but didn't want to say anything around Jonas."

Tomorrow morning before the sun has risen, we're going down into the catacombs, and we'll then find out what has become of Iris.

"She wanted to study Iris. Maybe Odette's final experiment was her death. We'll find out tomorrow, won't we? I wish Jonas weren't set on going down there." Or her. Or Vienna.

"It's his decision. You can't coddle him."

I wish I could tell her that it's not only his mental health I'm worried about, but his life as well. I can't tell her our brother is Expired, not when I don't know how she'd react. "Don't tell me you believe Jonas going down there is some sort of romantic gesture."

"It's not. It's love. It's what you do for family. I would do the same for both of you."

I look away from my twin and to two passing Amorian soldiers. "How has Alastair been?"

"Pleasant."

"He hasn't . . . lived up to his reputation?"

"You mean, has he flirted with me?"

I grimace. "Yes, that's it."

"As I said, he's been pleasant. Professional."

"Were he to express an interest, you'd know to be wary?"

She stops walking down the hall, rounding on me instead. "Considering your girlfriend betrayed the Society and was a rebel, you're one of the last people who should be telling me who I should and shouldn't be wary of pursuing, don't you think?" The glare she sends me before she continues walking promises hellfire.

"Gwen, I'm only trying to look out for you."

"When have I ever needed you to? My heart and reputation as you're so worried about are safe from Alastair, and were he to somehow hurt them carelessly, I'd handle it. But my heart strings are not so easily toyed with as yours are."

After that, we walk in silence and wind up in the garden where our paths cross with Jonas, Tobias, and Abella. Gwen falls into step with our brother and Abella, and Tobias holds back to walk with me.

"You look as if you just shoved your foot in your mouth."

I almost trip on the pavers. "How can you tell?"

He twirls a purple and white lily between his fingers. It must have been cut from somewhere in the garden moments ago. "You look frustrated and dazed."

"What do you think of Alastair?"

"I like him. He's going down there with us. He has no reason to take that risk besides wanting to help us. I respect that."

"But the stories—he isn't the most respectable person."

Tobias shrugs. "Maybe he is. Maybe he isn't. I think we should at least get to know him before we decide he's a dastardly lecher."

"I'm worried about Gwen."

"I'd be more worried about Alastair. Your sister is terrifying, if you have somehow failed to notice. You know when she was six, she constantly shoved me in the pool because I told her one time I was too busy to play with her."

"She pushed you into the pool?" Of the Order, Tobias is the oldest and about three years older than Gwen and me.

"Like I said, terrifying."

Up ahead the trio stops, interrupted by Erik and Alastair joining them.

"He seems nice enough," Tobias says.

The group splits, and Erik joins Abella and Jonas while Gwen walks behind them, Alastair at her side.

"You could find less amiable leches," my cousin adds. "Besides, if you want to marry Vienna, Amoria would be hard-pressed to say that Alastair's and our Tresais's heir could not be the future Preeminence because the Tresais is a woman."

"That's Alastairi Moretti. He's not settling down anytime soon. If he sleeps with others' wives, is it hard to imagine he'd continue to do so even once he is married? I don't want Gwen in a situation like that."

"Why? Because she deserves the world? Alastair will have a world."

Gwen says something to the heir, and he pauses in the walkway, laughing.

"Sebastian told me about you and Vienna," I say.

"There wasn't ever a me and Vienna. I simply liked her from a distance."

"It didn't have to be that way. I got in the way."

"True, but then I'd have been the one who dated the rebel who tried stealing from the Society, and that's not a good look."

"Undici."

He grins at me.

"The deadline for all of us to be married is soon. What are you planning to do?"

He brushes his knuckle over one of the petals. "You've met the ambassador of Mexico before?"

"Of course."

"I've been talking to his daughter for the past year. After all of this is over, and we're back in Elleany, I think I'll find an excuse to visit Mexico."

A space is kept between Alastair and my sister, but I can't help wondering if that would be the case if they were alone. Or maybe Alastair is genuinely a nice guy and the rumors about him are not all true. But I doubt that. As future Preeminence, Alastair has to know how to sway people to get exactly what he wants.

And maybe that's my sister.

"Colton," Tobias says.

"Hmm?"

"Let's hope you're more focused tomorrow."

Some of you might have already heard, but on Wednesday (July 29, 2020), my short story, "A Life of Scales and Wings" was published in the Wattpad Stars' Anthology, The One That Got Away. Mine is a modern-day sequel to The Little Mermaid, but instead of a mermaid, there is a very attractive merman. The genre is New Adult, which was really fun to try out.

Here is the hook Wattpad wrote for it:

A woman's ex, a merman, unexpectedly returns and asks for her help to become human permanently...but to do it, she'll have to risk her own humanity in the process.

Thank you so much to Medley_Lover and JulianaTheis  for reading the story. It is a Paid story so their support means the world. To anyone else who has read it and I didn't know, thank you!

If you want to read it, it's now posted on my profile for free in the book Of Sirens and Beasts.