Jonas~~

The sun has just risen over the tarmac where we wait as the first plane lands. There will be many more that follow. Colton stands on my right, Tobias on his other side, followed by Vienna. Sebastian's on my left, Erik next to him. Beside him is Alix with his guards. Abella remained behind in Paris.

We've driven outside of the city about two hours away to avoid Odette and her spies. To lessen the chance she finds out who is arriving.

Sebastian lets out a low whistle. "Alastairi Moretti. I can't believe he came. Do you think he'll live up to the legends?"

Vienna sniffs. "I find it hard to believe he managed to sleep with all the wives of an entire Order."

Erik lifts one shoulder in a shrug. "Eh, I could see it."

Leaning forward, Vienna smiles sweetly down the line at him. "See it for himself or you?"

"I wouldn't mind Jonas's future wife."

It takes everything in me to hold my ground and let his words roll off my back. I'm not going to make a fool of all of us in front of Alastair. Alix, well, he can go to hell. But with our luck, punches would get thrown just as Alastair and Gwen step off the plane, and Gwen would find a way to do the impossible and murder us all.

"But," Erik continues, looking her up and down, "I don't think I care for Colton's."

I steal a glance at Colton—I think we all do. He bristles, rolling his shoulders back.

"I would say the same about your future wife, Erik," Colton keeps his tone dry. "But I see you don't have any prospects."

Erik tenses.

"One step out of line, Erik, and you'll have Gwen to contend with." I keep my eyes trained forward as a crew works to line up a set of stairs with the plane's door.

I don't know why I'm so nervous to meet the heir. I've grown up around Amoris and have always been able to keep from making direct eye contact. As I am Preeminence, they've known not to try. That was my saving grace. A long-held tradition. There are many traditions that I hate, but not that one. Even if I wish it could be different because there's power that comes with looking into another's eyes. You can see their thoughts, their soul, their emotions. And for some, they can see the other person's death.

When you meet another's eyes, you feel as if you're in a game of cards, the dominance constantly shifting, and when the cards fall in your lap, you feel as if you could rule the world.

One look in Alastair Moretti's eyes and he'll know I'm a dead man walking. The heir to Amoria wouldn't hesitate to wipe out a fluke.

Despite the rumor that he went skinny-dipping with all of his servants during one of his birthday parties, he still has to be ruthless.

An attendant opens the door, and Gwen appears, dressed in light-colored slacks and a white blouse looking as if she's about to pose for a magazine shoot and is not someone who just spent roughly eight hours on a plane. She smiles at us, her eyes hidden behind her wide sunglasses. I didn't know whether to expect to see Gwen or Alastair first. The level of rank, for anyone in my Order, is a gray area where Alastair is concerned. We already hold positions, command the respect that comes with the titles, but we answer in various levels to all of the Orders on Amoria, and Alastair in a few years is to occupy the highest position.

He could have gone first should he have wished it. It's a statement to all of us that he's acknowledging we have rank over him. And the fact that this is Gwen makes this an even more powerful act. My father and I fought for Gwen to be recognized as Tresais, the first female member of any Order. For Alastair to let her demonstrate she holds rank over him . . . the implications are huge.

She begins to descend, her steps unfaltering even though the lengths of her high heels add quite a few inches to her height.

Alastair steps out of the plane and takes in the world, just as I'm sure he did when he disembarked in Elleany. His gaze settling on us, he breaks out in a grin, his clothes just as impeccable as my sister's.

When they both reach the bottom of the stairs and stand side by side, Gwen in her heels is as tall as him. She clearly put thought into her shoes. It's not merely a coincidence their heights line up. Nothing involving my sister is a coincidence. Everything is calculated. Planned out.

They approach us, keeping pace with one another, neither conceding to the other.

When they reach us, Gwen takes mine and Colton's hands—the equivalent of a hug. It's the most she'll allow herself around others in this moment. "Khaleediay." Brothers. As she pronounces the Amorian word, there is emotion there.

I squeeze her hand. "Khaleedessa," Colton and I both say.

Her eyes land on Vienna for a few seconds before she lets go of our hands to gesture to the heir. "This is Alastairi Moretti," she says to all of us, including Alix who remains standing with his guards.

I incline my head. "It is an honor to have you here, Moretti."

He bows. "Please call me Alastair, Preeminence, and it is an honor for me to visit your world. I haven't seen much, but I can already tell it's exquisite." His eyes roam over all of us. "Allow me to make sure I know who everyone is. Of course, Colton." He bows to my brother. "The Theta. The Undici." He bows to each of them. "The former Tresais, correct?" he says to my blond-hair cousin. "Erik, I believe?"

"You believe correctly," Alix says.

Alastair's gaze settles on Vienna. "I'm afraid I don't know who you are."

Keeping her head up, she curtsies. "Vienna Rosen. I'm from Elleany."

"A family friend of the Society," Colton clarifies. "A dear friend of mine."

"He says friend," Erik drawls, "but he means love of his life."

I'm about to throttle Erik.

Alastair looks confused. "Aren't you to marry an Amoris? Wasn't that why your Preeminence came to Amoria?"

Colton somehow manages to keep his expression neutral. "Yes to both of your questions."

The heir frowns. "I am sorry then."

As Gwen leads him toward Alix, Erik leans forward and mouths, You're welcome, to Colton and Vienna.

My sister introduces the king and the heir to each other, translating for both of them. There was a time I thought she might have had a romantic interest in Alix. How would she react if she learns what he wanted to do with Iris? That he strangled Vienna?

*****

After all the planes carrying the Amorian soldiers have landed and we greet them, we return to the limo that brought us here and wait as Gwen and Alastair finish talking to the soldiers. Alix is in his own car. Neither Vienna nor I want to be in a car with him, and I'm sure his feelings toward me are mutual.

Sebastian runs his fingers down the sides of his face, over the stubble there. "Could he be anymore unfairly handsome?"

Erik looks our cousin straight in the eyes. "That's funny. I think the same thing about you only I replace handsomewith ugly."

Closing my eyes, my hands resting on my thighs tighten into fists. "Both of you behave."

A minute later, the limo door opens, and Gwen steps inside, followed by Alastair. I make sure on the outside I look relaxed, but inside, I'm tensing, ready to run if Erik decides to breathe a word to either of them that I'm Expired. Though once the car starts moving, I admit that will be a bit difficult.

They settle in beside each other next to Tobias.

The car starts to move as a beaming Alastair takes us all in. Colton was right. He's too damnably happy. Not in a way that says he has us all right where he wants us or that he's just won a game we didn't know we were playing. No, he actually looks pleased—delighted to be here with us.

"Preeminence, your home is absolutely beautiful."

"Jonas, please."

"Jonas," he says, testing it out. "To be surrounded by those mountains every day really is a gift."

"Nothing compared to your palace." Most orders live together on Amoria, and the same goes for the Head Order, but each of its members has their own estate with mansions that can really only be called palaces, so immaculate are they. The Moretti's sits right at the edge of a sea, built out of smooth stone, the color of sand, that gleams when the sun hits it, especially in the mornings and evenings. A stark contrast to the main home of the Head Order that's usually blanketed in snow.

"I forgot you had visited it. I'm very sorry to have missed you. I'm sure my father explained I was visiting a friend in the south."

"He did." And so did most of the news channels with reports that his visit turned into a wild revel.

His smile dims, his face darkening. "I am sorry about your fiancée and Digamma. I wish to fight with you all to get them back."

"You're a future Preeminence," Tobias says.

"And my Expiration Date protects me from death as it does for all of you."

We might as well be dead for as still as we go, and I know my cousins', Colton's, and Vienna's thoughts all go to the same place. Neither Gwen nor Alastair seem to notice.

"I don't see why a future title should dictate whether I offer my help when I wish to. Jonas, you are planning to fight, aren't you?"

I swallow. "Yes. My title will not stop me from getting to them."

His expression lightens. "I look forward to meeting her. She's become a bit of a celebrity on Amoria. The Expired who saved my kind, whose Preeminence came all the way to Amoria to fight to marry her. The Tresais told me your wedding is in only a few months."

"I was given a deadline to be married by." With everything that has happened, there has been no time to plan it. The idea of even thinking about planning the wedding while she is Odette's prisoner is enough to make me sick. I don't know if both of us will make it to that date. I'm having trouble even imagining us at our wedding. "So yes, a few months."

"I'm sure we'll be able to wrap this whole matter up in a few days, and you both can live happily ever after." He turns to Gwen, brows furrowed. "That is the correct phrase?"

Gwen nods, a slight smile tugging at her lips.

Alastair relaxes. "Yes, happily ever after. I would love to return to Earth to attend your ceremony, if that would be permissible."

"Alastair, I assure you, you do not need my permission for anything. You are the future Preeminence of Amoria. I'd be delighted to have you in attendance." If, of me and Iris, I am the only one to return to Elleany, I'll still be getting married in the coming months. To whom, I don't know. Only that she will be an Amoris. Colton can marry Vienna. My heir will be Preeminence.

I could have planned all along to marry an Amoris who would die in a few years like Sebastian and Riley plan to do. But I don't have their resilience—to have an heir with someone they have no desire to be with. And as I have no romantic attachment to any Amoris that is dying soon, Amoria would see what I was trying to do and in all probability deny the marriage, making sure I found someone with a much longer lifespan. Sebastian and Riley will be granted their requests because they aren't attracted to women.

In the Society, bloodlines—our family trees are everything. It's why we're not allowed to sleep with anyone until we're married. Only the children from my wife that bears my heir would be listed on my family tree, only she would be listed beside me. And the idea that the Society would deem the life I would then spend with Iris worthless and without meaning . . . I can't do that. Not to her or me. Even if I were to be willing to do my duty, have the right kind of heir, there's no guarantee we could then ever be together. I couldn't ask her to wait.

There are many things I want to change during my reign and many that I'll have to fight Amoria on. The bloodline traditions are some of them. Sebastian and Riley shouldn't be forced to marry women just to have an heir that's deemed suitable by Amoria. Blood shouldn't matter. An heir should be a child you raise, regardless of if they're related by blood. Iris is not related to any of us by blood. It doesn't mean she's not already family to us. When she became a member of the Society, she didn't need a fancy bloodline to be accepted. Why should anyone in the Order have to have their children viewed as less than if they don't share blood with both of their parents—or either?

Preeminences shouldn't have to marry an Amoris, not when we are already barely human. We understand our connection to Amoria. Adding another Amoris to the bloodline isn't going to change anything. I am not the first Preeminence to love a human, and I won't be the last.

So right now, I'll fight with everything in me to get Iris out of Odette's grip. And then I'll marry her. And after, I'll challenge Amoria's rules and hope I'm not too late to give Colton the ending he wants, and the endings my cousins all want as well.

Looking at the heir, his eyes alight with joy as he speaks with my sister and Tobias, I can't help but wonder if he's the wildcard we've all been waiting for and just didn't know it. Maybe I will be too late to give my Order a happily ever after, but maybe I can give our heirs one.