Iris~~

We're met by Colton, Percy, Vienna, and Ean at the steps in front of the large mer-creature statue.

"I don't know what will be waiting for us," I say as I start down the steps. "But he's being kept under the statue in the room on the right side of the Senate Chamber."

Colton cracks his knuckles. They're all weaponless. "We'll get him."

When we reach the bottom of the stairs, Erik looks at all of us. "Ready?"

I give a terse nod. "Do it."

He kicks the door to the Senate Chamber open. At least two dozen Veil wait for us between the empty thrones. No one hesitates. They swarm on us, and I duck and twist, moving in a dance I know so well unlike the one I pushed my way through up above. I slash out with the shard of my crown. It used to be that the idea of using a weapon against someone only armed with their fists would give me pause. But I don't care any longer. I can't care. They're keeping me from Jonas—they know that. Even if they're just following orders, they are orders they chose to follow.

My crown slices through the sleeve of a Veil who threw up his arm to shield his face. I push forward, forcing him back and drive my foot into his stomach. He crumbles in on himself, and I slice his arm again, jabbing my elbow into his neck.

I push past him and duck as the next Veil swings her fist through the air. I jab the shard in her leg. As her knee buckles and she cries out, I drive my elbow into her back, and she hits the floor.

Where are the Orders? I breathe deeply, ducking as a knife swings over my head. Have the Orders holed up in the next room? Are they having their fun with Jonas?

Colton barrels past me, driving his shoulder into the chest of a Veil. On my other side, Basile faces off against two Veil, his fighting much more uniform—more military-like than my family's. He fights more like the Veil.

Vienna and I were trained to fight like rebels. To take down Veil.

I sidestep one, and my fist catches the next in the jaw. I slice the shard upward over their chest. They hiss, but I slice again and again until they fall back. I pant, eyeing the shadows where I know the door waits.

There's no satisfaction in fighting these Veil. Not when it's really Leorus who I want under my fists.

"Iris," Erik yells.

As I turn, a fist catches me in the jaw, and my head flies back, my neck straining. I stumble, and before I can right myself, another fist drives into my stomach, dragging the air right out of me. The piece of my crown falls from my hand.

In a daze, I look up at the Veil. It's the one from earlier, whose nose I hoped I broke. He smiles cruelly and backhands me across the face.

I stumble to the left before catching myself as the Veil crouches to the floor and retrieves the shard of my crown. "You should have let us lock you up. At least then you'd—" He cries out in pain.

Erik appears behind him, and the Veil turns to get away from him. That's when I see it. The other half of my crown protrudes from his lower back, blood turning the gray of his uniform black.

Erik kicks him from behind, and the Veil falls forward, releasing the shard of my crown from his grasp.

Nostrils flaring, Erik looks me over. He opens his mouth, but nothing ever comes out. Instead, he turns, punching a Veil in his face. Only then does he look back at me. "You okay?"

My hand is on my stomach as I try to catch my breath, but I nod.

"Then let's go get your husband."

I swallow the lump that quickly formed in my throat and lead us forward into the shadows as the rest of our team holds the Veil back.

The moment we reach the door, Erik doesn't hesitate. He doesn't check to see if it's unlocked. He drives his foot into it, and it flies open.

Save for the statue of the mer creature, the room is empty.

I didn't expect the Order to be waiting for us, but I was ready for more Veil. Maybe the Order was arrogant enough to believe we wouldn't make it here.

Or maybe this room holds more hidden compartments than just the one they trapped Jonas in. Perhaps the Order counts on us letting down our guard. The shard of my crown in Erik's hand is covered in blood, and I don't know how he can keep a grip on it. I never saw him pull it out of the Veil.

"So the statue." He inclines his head toward it.

"Yes." I circle it. Can Jonas hear our footsteps? If so, does he think we're an Order member? That we're Veil?

"How do we open it?"

"That's the question."

At that moment, Vienna and Ean run through the door.

"Is Jonas—" Vienna's voice cuts off when she sees we're alone.

I lay a hand on the statue. "He's under here."

Vienna walks around the statue, her eyes never leaving it. "Did Preeminence Moretti have any sort of remote on him?"

"I didn't see one."

Basile rushes through the door only to immediately turn and face it. If the Veil decide they can't get past him, they'll go to the door on the other side of the room.

"Erik." I run my eyes over the statue. "There's another door, across the room."

"On it."

Colton and Xioazhi run into the room, immediately joining Basile in guarding it.

I clench the statue's arm. "Where's Percy?" I refuse to lose him like we lost Bently to the Amoris in Paris.

"He's coming," Colton yells, driving his foot into the chest of Veil, shoving them away from the door.

Ean takes a loop around the statue.

"Have you encountered one of these before?" I ask.

He nods. "The lock is usually somewhere on the floor near it." As he circles the statue, he swipes the tip of his boot side to side. He hesitates. "Ahh. There we go."

The ground around the statue rumbles as the stone vibrates and begins moving from its place on the floor.

As Percy rushes into the room and runs past me, he mutters an exclamation at the statue, and joins Erik in guarding the other door.

Before the statue has moved enough for me to be able to see Jonas, I call out his name. I'm met with no response. Ean gives me a look that seems to say are you sure they put him in here? "Jonas?" Nothing.

The statue makes it halfway across the opening, and I catch a glimpse of a leg clad in gray fabric.

"Jonas?"

The leg doesn't even flinch.

The statue reaches the other side and I finally see him—all of him—at the foot of the stairs, head pressed against the glass, eyes closed.

I gather up my skirts and run down the stairs, dropping down beside him and placing my hand on his neck, checking for a pulse.

Before I can find one, his face scrunches, and I take my face in my hands.

"Jonas. Can you hear me?"

His eyes squeeze tight before they crack open. "Iris?"

I pat his cheek. "I need you to stay awake. Stay with me."

Colton and Percy come down the stairs, and Percy swears. Together they loop Jonas's arms around their shoulders.

Colton eyes his brother. "How are you feeling?"

"Like death." Jonas's head lolls forward, and I slap his cheek, hard enough to keep him awake.

"Stay with us, Jonas."

Percy and Colton have to carry him up the stairs, and when we reach the top, we find the others still guarding the doors, but now both are closed. Have we trapped ourselves in our own cell?

As Jonas's eyes start to close, Colton pats his cheek. "We have to get you both out of the palace."

Erik grits his teeth as he braces his arms against the sliding door, his body angled. "How?"

"Ean." My voice is tight. He's on the other side of the room with Vienna and Basile. "You had a security briefing. What are the other ways out of the palace?"

His face clouds. "There are hidden passages, but the closest entrance is in the next room." A room that by the sound of it is full of Veil.

"And there's no other option?"

Ean's gaze on me doesn't waver. "None."

"Iris." Percy's voice is sharp like a blade. "You can't trust him."

I turn to the Iota. "He's gotten us this far. Unless you know another way to get us out of here, I'm prepared to trust Ean enough in this."

Percy presses his lips into a thin line, disgruntled, but keeps silent.

"Ean, get us out." I flex my left hand as I check the crown shard in my right. "Betray us though and I'll haunt you in my death."

Colton and Percy drag Jonas closer to the door, and as Basile and Vienna let go of the door leading into the Senate Chamber before running across the room, Xioazhi's and Erik's door slides open, revealing a wall of Veil.

I tilt my neck to the side, feeling the muscles stretch. Jonas is alive, and we have him. Now that my nerves aren't choking me, it's time to have fun. 

Happy 8/14! To all my readers in places where it's DD/MM/YYYY instead of MM/DD/YYYY, thank you for pushing through the weirdness and making it this far. I know it must be strange since it's strange for me whenever I see DD/MM/YYYY. 

I can't believe Expiration Date's 8th anniversary was just the other day, and that you all have made it almost all the way through book 4. My plan is that once I finish Exposed, I'll finish my rewrite/edit of Exported and then finally get to post all the updated versions of the books! It's a bit hard to write this one and work on that one at the same time.

For Expiration Date's anniversary, I shared fanart from over the years on Twitter. My username is MikaelaBender if you want to check it out.