77 The Chapter in Which I Have to Convince Them Not to Elope

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Iris~~

Leaning over the bathroom counter, I slip in the back of my emerald earring just as there's a knock on my door. I turn on my new phone that I purchased the day after my rescue to check the time. With the French government no longer trying to track us down, I'm able to freely use a phone without worry of being caught. I frown at the time. Jonas isn't supposed to be here for another fifteen minutes.

After yesterday when we visited the families of the victims, I told Jonas I needed to get away. Just me and him. A date was my idea, but I let him plan it.

Opening my bedroom door, I expect it to be Jonas and because of that, I don't fix on my face the fake smile I've been wearing in public.

But it's not Jonas.

It's Bently.

He adjusts the sleeves of his button up that's tucked underneath his blazer. "Hey."

"Hey."

Neither of us bother asking how the other is. We're both too aware we won't be okay for a long time.

"Do you have a minute?"

"A few. Jonas is picking me up soon." I pull the door open wider, and he steps in. The door feels heavier than usual when I shut it.

He takes a seat at the edge of my bed, a bed I haven't slept in since I've been back. "I wanted to explain my bargain with Odette."

"The one where she'd give you Abella?"

He sighs. "You would go on living and so would Abella. I knew if Odette won, she'd slaughter Abella and Alix. That's why I asked for her. To spare her."

I slip off the heels I had tried on moments ago. "Have the two of you talked?"

He nods. "With the Amoris captured, she wants to get serious with her relationship. We agreed the two of us could at least be friends and not try to tear each other's throats out."

"She does care for you, you know? Not in the way that you want but she does care."

"I don't want her that way anymore."

"But you—" He said her name. He imagined it was her when we were kissing.

"I still think she's attractive, but I don't want to date her."

I open my purse that sits on my dresser, making sure I have what I need inside. "There never would have been a dull moment for the Society if you two had gotten together."

He ducks his head, hiding a smile.

"How was Colton?"

"Irritable as usual."

"And you're always a ray of sunshine," I deadpan.

"I am."

I close my purse, the snaps catching. "If you ever need to talk about what happened, you can always come to me."

"Even on your honeymoon?"

I narrow my eyes. "You can call me, and I'll answer. I'll trust that if you do call, it's important."

"You trust me?"

"With my life, strangely."

"Iris, I—" He suddenly looks lost.

"What is it?"

"Nothing." He suddenly smiles. "I'm just really glad you're going to be a part of our family."

"You're stuck with me for life."

His smile falters, but he quickly puts another back up.

"What?"

"Jonas is lucky to have found you, and that he didn't immediately want to kill you like the rest of us. Is that why you love him?"

"I don't think someone should get credit for not wanting to kill me, but that trait is rare in the Society, I'll admit. But no, that's not why I love him. We always find each other. We're constantly being pulled apart, but no matter how far away the other goes, we always get back to each other." He has a different understanding of living that in all of Elleany, only I as a Expired understand. "He wants the world to be better, the Society to be better. I know he's going to do wonders one day, and I want to watch at his side for as long as I can and hopefully help him."

"He's fortunate we didn't manage to corrupt him growing up."

I snort. "Otherwise he might have been on Team Kill Iris."

Bently runs his palm over the comforter. "Where are he and you going?"

"He told me his goal was to take me on the most cliché Parisian date in history."

"So he's renting out the Eiffel tower?"

"Probably."

"There will be a violinist."

"Most definitely."

"Fireworks."

"That might be too much."

He puts his hands on his thighs and stands. "I'll let you finish getting ready then." He walks past me, headed for the door.

"About that last kiss."

I hear his footsteps stop. "Yes?"

"You said—"

"It was all an act. To save us."

"I know. We just didn't talk—"

"There's nothing to talk about."

I face him. His hand is on the doorknob. "Are you sure?" I ask.

"I've never been surer of anything." With that, he opens the door and leaves.

I sink down onto the edge of my bed, in the spot he sat in. I don't love Bently in a romantic sense, and I'd be a fool to think Bently would let himself love me, and I don't want him to. It would be unfair for him. But the way he looked at me when he said he loved me, could he have faked that?

Of course he could. He's an actor. Think about the revel. Him acting as Delta.

I stand, putting my shoes back on before grabbing my purse.

Bently is an actor.

He doesn't love me. Not the girl he tried killing. The girl who was raised a rebel.

The girl who saved his mother.

He'll find someone, and I truly hope he'll be happy. Not enough people in the Society are.

My phone buzzes. It's Jonas, letting me know he's on his way.

Two minutes later he's at my door, and the sight of him steals my breath from me. He's styled his hair tonight, and he's kept the stubble he's been growing out. Now that I know what he looks like with it, he can't ever expect to shave it off. He's dressed in a light gray suit with a blue tie that emphasizes the shade of his eyes.

He holds out his hand, and I place mine in his. The sleeves of my short dark green dress come down to my wrists, covering up my Expiration Date. The outline of the bandage is visible through it.

"Take it off." His voice is soft.

I furrow my eyebrows. "What?"

"The bandage."

"I can't."

"Your sleeve covers it."

"What if for some reason I needed—"

He pushes my sleeve up, revealing the white bandage. "Then let them see." He unwraps my bandage, revealing the black numbers that have haunted me all of my life. I thought it had stopped when Jonas and I got permission to marry. I thought they held no power over me, but then Odette wanted me because of these six numbers.

He bends down, pressing his lips against each number. My skin burns, but it has nothing to do with the presence of an Amoris or of Jonas's ancestry. When he raises his eyes to mine, they're dark. "I love you," he says, his voice low. "I will never stop loving you." He pulls me against him, wrinkling his suit. His hand presses into my lower back, and he runs his fingers down the side of my face. I shudder.

A smile touches his lips. "What if we got married tonight?"

"As tempted as I am to say yes, I can't." I rest my forehead against his shoulder. "There's this cloud hanging around me, and I keep feeling it press down on me. I need time."

He presses a kiss to my palm. "It was wrong of me to ask after what you've just gone through."

"Any other time and I would have said yes."

He tucks his Marked arm behind his back. I frown.

"Are you all right?" Something has been weighing on him for the past few days, but as far as I know, he hasn't told anyone what's wrong.

He pushes the door open and holds it for me. "You're back with me, alive. I couldn't be more all right."

I thread my fingers through his as we walk through the palace, relishing in the feeling of his palm pressing against mine and the warmth that seeps into my skin from his.

He's alive.

He's real.

I'm safe.

"So Colton wanted me to have Elleany's guards follow us around."

"Sounds stifling."

"Especially when we have Expiration Dates that won't let us die." He winks. "It would be futile to try to hurt us."

I smile at him. "Exactly."

"Tonight I want you all to myself."

"Only tonight? Because I was thinking more along the lines of every night after this."

He grins. "I'll try my best. The guards will be present though. They'll just keep their distance."

Outside there's an empty car waiting for us, and Jonas slips into driver's seat.

As he drives through the streets, the city's lights blur together.

"Where are we going?"

"I blackmailed Alix into shutting down the Eiffel Tower tonight."

"I knew it."

"I did say the most cliché date."

Jonas parks the car on the side of the road. The tower is lit up in lights as it stretches into the sky. At its base is a long stretch of grass. Behind us, at the end of the lawn, is the École militaire, a beautiful building lined with rows of windows and columns. There are soldiers from Elleany gathered around the base of the tower and the area between the tower and the car. I'm sure there are more that I can't see.

I step out of the car before Jonas has a chance to open my door. He gives me an exasperated glance, but I only flick his nose. He captures my hand in his and threads his fingers through mine.

As we walk toward the tower, Jonas asks, "On a scale of one to ten, how cliché is this date?"

"If we were just visiting the tower, then a seven, but you"—I nudge him with my elbow—"booked the whole thing because you blackmailed a king. I don't think there's anything cliché about that."

He tilts his head back, looking up at the tower, and rubs at the bottom of his face. "I am pretty extraordinary, aren't I?" There's a teasing lilt to his voice, and I know he's only joking, but there's something else there in his voice that makes me think he believes he's a long way from extraordinary.

I grab his arm and pull him down toward me so that my mouth brushes his ear. "I'm only marrying you for the perks, you know."

His eyes flash, and he wraps an arm around my waist before pulling me against him so that my hips press into him. "And what perks might those be?"

"The house. The money. The passport." I purse my lips as if I'm having to think hard. "I can't forget about the food. Your chefs are divine. Oh and the clothes."

"Is that all?"

I smile coyly. "I think so."

His fingers press into my sides, and he tugs me closer.

"I did leave out the only perk that matters though."

He brings his head toward mine, his lips hovering just above my own. "And what's that?"

"You, Jonas." I press my lips against his. "I'd marry you without the house, the money, the passport, the clothes, and even the food."

He chuckles, his lips brushing against mine. "Even the food? I really must have you wrapped around my finger. And here I thought it was the other way around."

I pull back and grab his hand. "As much as I'd love to remain right here, your guards are watching us."

He presses a kiss to my knuckles before leading me to the elevator that leads to the three viewing decks. Once the doors close, Jonas asks, "Is there anyone you want to invite to the wedding?"

A lump forms in my throat. All of my family and friends outside of Jonas's hate the Society. Except my cousin, Lila, but my uncle and aunt would never let her come. They're under house arrest, though Jonas has said we could see about freeing them in a couple years, which is a generous offer considering they took him hostage and would have killed him if they found out he was Expired.

My entire life has been divided between the rebels and the Society, and I've landed on the side with the Society.

"Anyone on my side would be more likely to try to stop the wedding with an attack than they would be to get horrifically wasted at the reception and embarrass us that way.

He threads his fingers through my hair and presses a kiss to my forehead. "I'm sorry."

The doors open.

"Don't be. I get to make a new family."

Our hands are joined as we step onto the empty deck. Through the grating of a fence that wraps around the deck, Paris stretches out from the tower, aglow in lights that reflect off the Seine. I rest my head against his chest, taking in the view. I never made it before to visit the tower. I had been on my way here when I discovered Odette's first victim.

I'm still not entirely sure how Jonas and I ended up here. In the beginning I refused to call him anything other than Preeminence and when he told me to call him Jonas as he helped me clean up after Gwen poured her wine on my dress, it was still an odd shift to make for my mind.

But now I can't imagine not having him by my side. The Preeminence. Some people dream of marrying a prince and never expect it to come true, but somehow for me it is.

"Do you remember when your sister poured wine on me?"

He swears. "I still owe her a bottle of wine."

I twist in his arms. "What?"

"For helping with the Amoris. She wanted an expensive bottle of wine."

I laugh. "Hopefully she won't waste it on my dress this time."

He kisses me, pulling back only far enough to say, "This time around I'd be happy to help you in and out of the dresses."

I poke his cheek. "Of course you would."

He leads me around the viewing deck where a table covered in a white linen has been set out with a bottle of champagne chilling in ice and a platter of brownies and blondies. For a moment I can imagine that the events of the past few weeks have yet to happen, the past months really, and that we're back when Jonas brought me up to the roof of the Estate and showed me the stars.

I hold onto him tighter.

He brushes the pad of his thumb underneath both of my eyes, wiping away tears I didn't know were there. "What is it, love?"

"I wish I could reverse time."

He frowns. "If I could, I would do it for you."

Holding his hand, I walk toward the table. "You've done a lot."

"I want to do more. For you. For Elleany."

"For Elleany?"

"What if we didn't rule using fear?"

"You want to rebrand the Society?"

He snorts, reaching for the champagne that's already been opened. On the deck is a champagne bar that's closed for the night. I assume the bottle came from there. He fills two flutes. "Maybe not that far." He hands one to me. "I want the country to love you, Iris. I want them to be excited about any children we might have. I don't want them to fear our kids."

I take a sip of the bubbling alcohol. "We have to help the country then."

He holds out his flute, and I clink mine against his. "How do you suggest we do that, my queen?"

"Start charities. Hold philanthropy events that we don't just attend, but we serve at." I stare down at the liquid in my flute. "I'd really like to work with orphanages."

"You could even open a few. Design them. Hire the staff. Make them into what you would have wanted."

"And if they raise rebels?"

Raising an eyebrow, he breaks a blondie in half and hands one side to me. "Should I be questioning your where your loyalties lie?"

"They lie with you, Jonas. Not the Society as a whole and not with the rebels."

He taps his half of the blondie against mine like we did so many months ago back at the Estate.

After a few minutes have passed and Jonas has finished his flute of champagne, he says, "If anything happens to me, I want you to make sure that Colton helps the country."

I set my glass down, the concern I felt earlier returning. "This doesn't have anything to do with you asking to get married tonight does it?"

He rubs at his face before leaning his arms against the railing. "I didn't want to worry you, but you deserve to know."

Coming to stand by his side, I place a hand on his back.

"One of Odette's Amoris found out I was Expired."

My heart plummets all the way to my stomach. "What?"

"It happened while I was wrestling him. I've been trying to find him in the prisoners, but there are so many that I lost track of him when we were down there. They haven't finished processing all of the prisoners and he's one of the ones that hasn't been added to the system. It doesn't matter now though. I'm sure he's already told others."

And when they go to Amoria, they'll use the information as a bargaining chip . . . "Can we keep the prisoners in Elleany?"

"No, the head Order is insisting they be taken to Amoria. They've only conceded to allow me to keep a few prisoners behind."

"What would Amoria do if they found out?"

"They'll at least take away my position." He frowns. "Maybe have me killed."

"But they allowed me . . ."

"Because you were born outside of the Society, you were ours to deal with."

"And you're Amoria's . . ."

He sighs. "Yes."

"Let's move up the wedding then. I know it's already soon, and there isn't much time but maybe we should try."

"What they decide to do with me won't change because we're married."

"I know. But it gives me a good excuse for when I show up on Amoria and drag them to hell and back."

He pulls me against him, resting his chin on my head. "Are you going to save me again?"

"I will always save you. Alastair seems to like you. Maybe he'd be able to keep Amoria from doing anything rash."

A sigh ripples through him. "Maybe."

"I'm not going to let them hurt you. Our fates didn't shift just for Amoria to intervene now. No matter what happens, I will be by your side."

He presses his lips against mine. "There is no one else I'd rather take on Amoria with."

I thread my fingers through his hair. "You could always flatter your way out of a situation with them."

He laughs and kisses me again. "I'm glad you think so."

I don't know how long we stand there, entwined in each other's arms with the city below and the stars above. I do know that if Amoria wants him, they'll have to pry him out of my hands. He is mine until all the stars have winked out of existence, and even then I will continue to hold onto him.



So I made my characters on Sims 4. Now I don't know what to do with them. Should I treat it like an alternate universe and have Iris end up with Eli and make Jonas a barista? Do I just watch them run around until someone sets their stove on fire? Let me know your ideas of what I should have them do.


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