Iris~~

Jonas's stories of Amoria fill me with a longing to see all of it. To take his hand and go on endless adventures in a world that is not my own. But I can't forget that this new world will not be welcoming to me and him. It will be hostile.

         All my life, I went through each day thinking that Elleany was all I would ever see. I was never going to be allowed to see other countries. But to think that entire time there was a whole other world where its people were going through their daily lives at the same time I was going through mine . . . it's still enough to almost knock me off my feet.

         Jonas slides his hands over mine, and I offer him the best smile I can muster. We might not have gotten to take our vows today, but I have to be his rock to lean on.

         "Your Mark will burn when we get to Amoria," he says.

         "I know."

         "So why are you here? Colton would have taken care of you had you stayed."

         "Wherever you go, I go. Haven't you realized that by now? Whether it's a peaceful meadow or a desert, I will be there, Jonas."

         Threading his fingers over my hand, he lifts it to his mouth and presses his lips against the center of my palm before raising his eyes to mine. "I've said it before and I'll say it probably at least a thousand times more, but you're too good for me."

         Shaking my head, I place my free hand on his forearm. "Don't say that. You never give yourself enough credit."

         He grabs my waist and tugs me against his side and leans us back until we're resting against the pillows at the head of the bed. He turns onto his side, facing me. "You know I cried when I saw you start to come down the aisle?"

         I reach up, brushing my hand through his hair. "I was two seconds away from losing control of my own tears."

         Jonas places his hand in my cheek, brushing his thumb over my skin. We don't need to speak. I only need to be near him. He moves his hand from my face and glides it over my neck and then down over my arm. I sigh, and Jonas frowns before pulling me against him so that my head presses into his chest, and he wraps his arms around me.

         "Tell me where we were going to go."

         I inhale deeply, taking in the scent of his cologne. "Singapore. And then Seoul. And then a couple days in Furong. It's in Hunan, China. One of your cousins told me about it. There are these waterfalls, and at night she said it's magical."

         Jonas takes hold of a piece of my hair and twirls it around his finger. "It would have been wonderful."

         "At the end we were going to go to Malaysia. Eli said he'd kill me if we didn't go and then gave me a list of places to see and things to try—all over the country."

         "We would have been tourists."

         I nod, feeling a lump growing in my throat.

         "I've never been a tourist. I don't think a visiting foreign dignitary is quite the same thing as a tourist."

         "No," I say shaking my head and laughing even as the tears pool. "It's not."

         "There's no one else I'd rather be a tourist with."

         "Don't let Colton hear you say that. He might get jealous."

         "Please, he'd choose Vienna as a traveling buddy over me any day."

         I give him a quick kiss. "Now who's jealous?"

         There's a knock on our door, and we're told we need to take our seats for takeoff.

         Space. How did I get here? One moment I was about to die and the next I was about to marry the Preeminence. And of course, the reason I'm actually getting to go into space is because my fiancé ticked off some old men on another planet that didn't exist in my mind two years ago.

         Jonas opens the closet door to secure our bags and finds two other bags that Alastair must have left behind. Hopefully, he doesn't have anything important in them. We're going to be on this ship for two weeks. How long until we're bored enough that we start venturing through his things?

         We strap into the seats positioned along the wall. The straps are a bit more complicated than a car's seatbelt. Jonas who only went to Amoria a few months ago has to help me. It reminds me of the moments before a roller coaster takes off, and a ride attendant has to come over and adjust the straps because you didn't make them tight enough when trying to do it yourself. This time I know the person hovering over me, which is much better than being up close and personal with some person you most likely will never see again.

After helping me, Jonas locks himself in, and a few minutes later there's a jerk as the ship starts moving, feeling exactly like the beginning of a normal plane ride as it taxis. It gains speed, and as the ship takes off, my stomach and heart do as well. The way the ship climbs is similar to a plane but steeper, but not like a space shuttle where the astronauts are flat on their backs. Though there is pressure, I don't feel the g-forces, that unbelievable amount of pressure that I expected to be pushing down on me until my eyes tear and my ears feel like they're going to explode. The pressure that is there is nothing unbearable, and I know it's thanks to Amorian tech.

The climb grows steeper, and suddenly a shoe slips out from underneath Alastair's bed. I let out a squeak, drawing Jonas's attention. He swears.

Oh hell. Who did Alastair kill? The footwear is a man's dress shoe, and it's attached to a leg that continues up underneath the bed. A whole body stashed underneath the heir to Amoria's bed. This is bad.

More than bad.

What is that?

A catastrophe?

Jonas told me about Alastair's reputation, but I didn't expect him to do something like this.

A hand appears, and there's a yelp, and a body rolls out from underneath the bed.

"Percy," Jonas hisses.

The Iota and body in question starts to say something when another dress shoe kicks him in the head.

Maybe there is more pressure than I thought because maybe I'm hallucinating. "What is—"

Colton crashing into Percy followed by Vienna slamming into the Beta cuts me off. Vienna groans while Percy rubs his head.

"What is going on?" Jonas manages to keep his voice low.

The three stowaways brace themselves against the frame of the bed.

Vienna's eyes are squeezed shut. "I think I'm going to be sick."

Percy shoots her a nasty look. "I swear if you throw up on me, I will—"

"Iota," Colton snaps, his knuckles white as he grips the bed.

"If you were actually seated and buckled in, you wouldn't be sick and flailing about," Jonas says, his voice low.

This can't be happening. They can't actually be here.

All pressure ceases, and there's a sudden quietness that comes over the ship, almost as if the silence was hovering, waiting for something. My hair rises and so does Vienna's and even the guys' short hair sticks up. I watch in awe as the three of them are lifted into the air by their ankles as if a string were pulling them. I want to unstrap, to float, to be the closest I will ever come to flying.

Unless flying in dreams counts because I've done that, but I've never liked it. It's always come with this out-of-control feeling where I might just collide with a building or drop out of the sky all together.

Okay not the best thing to be pondering when in a ship.

A panel in the wall the bed is against draws back revealing a window that displays white clouds draped over a large body of blue water.

My hair falls back into place, and the three stowaways hit the ground with a thud.

Jonas makes no move to unfasten his straps. "What are you doing here?"

Colton looks pasty. "Do you think I'd let you fight this battle on your own?"

Jonas looks unimpressed, merely arching an eyebrow.

"I've never been to Amoria," Colton says.

"You mean you aren't here to plead to Amoria to let Gwen be the one to marry an Amoris who I'm sure you would rather be anyone but Alastair who I'm sure is the reason you're on this ship."

Both Vienna and Colton look decidedly uncomfortable from where they sit on the ground.

Jonas continues, "But in the process of following his advice, you've now left him alone with our sister."

Colton seems to cave in on himself, but Vienna plants both of her hands on the ground, gathering her strength.

"Okay, maybe it's obvious why we're here," she says, "but can someone explain why Percy is here?"

That is the better question.

The Iota examines his nails. "I have to get married soon, don't I? And unlike the two of you, I'm not opposed to marrying an Amoris. I'll have more options on Amoria."

The ship jerks, and I grasp the sides of my chair.

Vienna topples into a Percy. "What was—"

"Remember that barrier of satellites and space junk floating around the earth?" Jonas leans back in his seat, gripping the armrests of his chair. "We have to maneuver through that."

Colton gulps.

Jonas closes his eyes. "I suggest you hold on tight."

So on TikTok I wrote part of a story that goes along with the woodchuck rebellion that is happening on TikTok. If you're confused why I wrote it, I'm even more confused. My username is MikaelaBender if you're curious about what it is I'm talking about.

I've seen a TikTok that was about Expiration Date. If you've happened to have made one, I'd love to see it!