For the music inspiration for the dance in this chapter, it's the second song from the last chapter. 

My Love And... by Gaemi and Park Jung Hwan from The King: Eternal Monarch. The version in the YouTube video is the slowed and reverb. I'll include the original at the end of the chapter.

https://youtu.be/juP0ZUTPcUQ

Jonas~~

The crowd parts, peeling back like pages in a book, before us. From the orchestra across the room, a drumbeat joins the violas and piano, or maybe it's only my heart, slowed to an unsteady thump. It doesn't race, not when this feels too much like a dream where walking feels as if I'm fighting against tar.

Iris's fingers cling to my hand. She keeps her head straight, eyes set forward as if the crowd doesn't lie around us, and I fall deeper in love with her; even when she's scared she'll keep her head up in the face of all these Amoris. When she first arrived at the Society's Estate, I told her she'd have to keep her head down. Now that the Amoris know what she is, she'll never have to lower her head again.

Even when the Head Order has forced us into red.

Gold thread embroiders the Amorian symbol for Expired onto the black band around her
waist. The same symbol is borne on my lapels. It's the symbol engraved on Amorian coffins.

Her eyes meet mine as she catches me watching her. All I see is emptiness in them.

We reach the center of the dance floor and stop. The Amoris are circled around us on the outskirts of the floor. Their gazes burn into the back of my neck and on my cheeks, and there's even the flicker of a flame against my Mark.

There's a shift in the notes, a cue that in a fewONLYONWATTPADBENDERseconds we'll be expected to dance.

"Jonas?" The word is a question, but the voice is the answer to a question I've been seeking for what has felt like eternity.

My brother would kill me if he ever heard me say that aloud.

I raise her hand to my lips. "My queen," I murmer against her skin and raise my eyes to hers.

As the notes and instruments blend into one entity, we step away from each other.

The Death Waltz.

A weight has been on my chest ever since those words passed through the Head Delta's lips. I've grown up learning it but never thought I'd perform it. The waltz wouldn't have been one Iris's orphanage would have known about, and as far as I know, no one at the Estate thought to teach it to her, unless they were feeling particularly ruthless.

But the Head Order wants a spectacle. They want Iris to perform it for them, and so I am certain they found a way for her to learn it.

Standing on those balconies was the first time I saw her after I was locked in my chambers.

We step toward each other, our bodies angled, and we each hold an arm in the air, the back of our hands facing out. Our arms cross at our elbows but don't touch. It's a greeting—a meeting, separated by the great gap between life and death.

We step back before repeating the move again—this time with our other arms raised—to the strike of the music.

Twice more we carry out the move.

Four times in total to represent the four stages of life: babe, youth, adult, elder.

On the fourth time, we clasp hands, and a shock rolls through my body like a storm cloud as we touch. I want to drag her away from here to somewhere no one can force us apart. She spins underneath my arm until I place my hand against her lower back, and we fall into a waltz.

Our eyes hold each other, the green of hers the land I plan to always call home.

Waltzing, we spin around the room—our own galaxy in a universe of many. She twirls under my arm, her red dress whipping around her as the lights from the chandeliers catch on the chips in her crown like stars, turning the wreath into something radiant when it was supposed to be a disgrace.

I catch her against me and we waltz, the music threading itself through and around us, sliding between our arms and torsos and around our necks, and weaving through our fingers.

I don't know what the Order has planned for us, but I refuse to believe its death.

Somewhere in the crowd, my brother and cousins are watching us. They would not have been allowed to miss this. And what of Andrew and Basile? What happened to them once they were led out of the senate chambers? Are they in attendance tonight or does the Order have them locked away?

Iris clutches my hand, her grip on my shoulder tightening.

"I'm here."

Her shoulders relax but herONLYONWATTPADBENDERgrip doesn't.

"I've got you." I press firmly against her back, and she arches it, bending until her eyes stare up at the chandeliers and her hair falls from her shoulders to hang in the air. It's all to represent the widening gap as the seconds tick by, separating the Expiring from their life—their partner.

All the while I spin us.

How much does Iris understand the significance of this dance? I've never spoken a word of it to her.

I slow our waltz to a crawl, and as she rises, her eyes glisten with tears.

My heart cleaves in two.

As the music switches course, softening to only the violas, I unfurl my arm, and she spins away from me, letting go of my fingers at the last second and continuing to twirl on her own before rounding on herself to circle back to me.

We repeat the opening moves as the music chimes for each stage.

Babe.

Youth.

Adult.

Elder.

Alastair's father told me I'd regret it if I didn't perform the Death Waltz. Locked in my chambers, separated from Iris, I knew who would be paying the price if I disobeyed.

Iris places her hands on my shoulders, her fingers at the base of my neck, and I place my hands on her waist as the music begins the transition to its finale.

We inhale as one in a moment that's meant to represent the final breath.

And then we waltz.

We spin around the room to the ever-increasing tempo. Dressed in red, it's as if we're a meteor passing by the Amoris. Shooting stars are meant for the unlucky, a chance for them to make a wish for a different fate.Two Expired flying past them—two souls whose fate was changed. We're something so rare that no one has heard of it happening before. We're the burning meteor for them to plead for a wish upon.

And we're going to finish the Death Waltz.

Because we're not Expiring tomorrow. We're not dying tonight.

We're Expired—we're alive.

And we do not belong to this waltz.

It belongs to us.

I think Iris must realize the same thing because the barest hint of a smile appears on her lips and life sparks in her eyes as the song reaches the peak of its crescendo. The drum pounds once more, and we come to a stop with it, Iris once more throwing her back in an arch to represent the final cleave of fate separating the living from the dead.

My chest quickly rises and falls as I try to catch my breath.

Iris, locked in my arms, rises back up in one smooth motion. "Hello, Preeminence."

I smile. "Ms. Levine, have I told you you're looking particularly ravishing tonight?"

Her cheeks flush, and the room explodes in thunderous applause, and I imagine the Head Order are the only ones absent from participating.

I wrap my arm around her waist and pull her against my side.

The applause dies in a hush that settles over the room. Preeminence Moretti and his Tresais descend the grand staircase.

My grip on Iris tightens.

They stop a few feet from us. The Tresais smirks as if he's finding amusement in us finishing the Death Waltz.

The Preeminence looks at me before sliding his eyes to Iris. "Come," he says to the Amoris in attendance, "and meet those who lived."

With a nod, he turns away from us, disappearing into the crowd that's already started to push forward.

The Tresais's eyes linger on us before he follows after his Preeminence.

The crowd is almost upon us, and I have to remind myself that they cheered for us. If they wanted to tear us apart, they wouldn't have clapped when we finished the waltz.

I still pull Iris closer.

A few days ago was the seventh-year anniversary of me posting the first chapter of Expiration Date onto Wattpad. I want to thank each and every one of you for this incredible journey. Thank you for caring about these characters that I've grown so close with over the years. I can't even begin to express how grateful I am. You've inspired me to write the next chapter and the next and the one after that. You've made art and wrote stories, letting me see this world through your eyes. So from the bottom of my heart thank you. Thank you so much. 

~Love, Mikaela

https://youtu.be/xtNCZlJGDqQ