https://youtu.be/czJHHta2vz8

The full version of Shoukei to Shikabane no Michi from Attack on Titan has been inspiring the music for the ballroom scene in this chapter for months. 

Iris~~

         Jonas narrows his eyes at Leorus. "If I dare ask why you need me to protect you, would you even tell me?"

Leorus smiles, and as he does, Gadfrie's Order rises from their thrones. It's a smile that says we've lost. That there's nothing we can do. That even if we hurt him, he still wins.

"If I let you return home, what guarantee do I have that Gwen will marry my son?"

A lump forms in my throat. I've been on and off the Gwen and Alastair ship, but the last thing I want is for Gwen's hand to be forced into that marriage.

Jonas curls his hand into a fist at his side. "A threat will not make Gwen do anything."

"Even if it spares the life of her dear brother?"

Jonas doesn't so much as flinch while fear—dread threaten to overwhelm me. I want to grab his hand and run. I want to kick. I want to scream. I want to cry.

"So I'm to be your hostage."

"You and your wife."

His words aren't a surprise. I expected them. And it's not like they would ever be able to make me leave Jonas behind.

My husband though snatches my hand, hauling me closer to him. "Why do you need both of us?"

"She"—Leorus casts his eyes on me, and I hold his stare—"is also insurance. She guarantees you'll be the paragon of a hostage, and when your brother returns to the Society without you, he'll be made Preeminence and your sister Beta. The Society won't be asking to break any more rules for a long time."

"So this no longer has anything to do with us being Expired," I say.

Leorus lifts one shoulder in a half-hearted shrug. "If we were going to kill you, you'd be dead." He raises his hand, and Veil step out of the shadows behind him. One with a red beard tries to grab me, and I reel back before throwing a punch at his face. He stumbles, but I don't have time to react before hands clamp down on my arms, pulling them behind me. I drive my head back. There's a crunch before whoever grabbed me releases a screech. My vision blurs, but he lets go in time for the bearded Veil to charge me. I duck, sweeping my leg out and tripping him. I stumble, the ground uneven, my vision not clear.

Jonas strikes a Veil in his stomach before driving his knee into another one. Five Veil against the two of us. I've had worse odds.

The two Veil come for me like wolves attempting to tire out their prey. The bearded one's eyes gleam, and the other's nose is at an angle and blood coats the space between his nose and lips.

They split, coming at me from two sides. I aim a fist at the bearded one's face, but I miss, and he grabs my hand, his fingers tightening around my knuckles.

He's going to crack them if I don't do something.

I try forcing my hand free, but the other Veil grabs my shoulder and twists me toward him. I have a second to take in his face before his fist slams into my cheek.

My head snaps back and black spots pulse across my vision. The two of them wrestle my arms behind me. I taste blood in my mouth, but I don't know where I'm bleeding from.

Jonas has knocked one of his Veil to the floor, and all are bleeding. Jonas pants, and he catches sight of me. It's enough of a distraction for his two standing Veil to grab and restrain him.

Leorus brushes off his jacket like he participated in the fight. I can't see Gadfrie's Order, and I don't want to. They could have left for all I know. Leorus heads into the shadows from where he came, and the Veil shove us along after him. A sliver of light appears as Leorus opens a door.

The room it leads into his similar to the Senate chamber besides for the lack of thrones and that there's a stone statue in the center of the room, a smaller version of the one above us in the ballroom. The ocean shows through the wall to the left, and either the water or the window creates an eerie blue glow that casts over our faces.

We're brought to a stop in front of the statue.

Jonas's arches a brow at Leorus. "Well?" One eye is bloodshot and blood vessels are broken on the skin near it. The sight is enough to make my own body buzz with anger.

In answer to Jonas, Leorus inclines his head, and the motion is followed by scraping on stone. The statue vibrates as it slides to the side, revealing a gap in the floor, the same blue light glowing out of it.

We're pushed toward it, and for a moment I panic, thinking we're going to be thrown down into the pit, but once we're close enough, I can see a narrow stone staircase. It's a long way down and the stairs are steep. All four walls are made of the same glass-tank-like material.

Moretti signals to Jonas's Veil, and they guide him down the steps. I struggle against my Veil, driving the back of my foot into the shin of the Veil with the broken nose. He falters but doesn't loosen his grip on me.

"Preeminence Moretti." I try tugging my arms free. "I will give you anything you want. Just let us return home."

"You had a chance to return home, but your husband wanted to be selfish and stayed instead."

I shake my head. "No. I pushed him to stay. Punish me but let him go. Don't use him against his own family."

Now halfway down the stairs, Jonas twists in the holds of his Veil and looks up at me. "It's okay. Iris, it's okay." Why haven't they started taking me down the stairs as well? Why am I still standing up here watching him descend into a room that surely must feel like you're drowning just to stand in?

I do the only thing I can think might work. I let myself go limp, and in that moment where the Veil have to quickly readjust to keep us from being thrown off balance, I lash out, yanking my arms free and driving my elbow up into the bearded Veil's neck. He teeters, stumbling to the side, neck arched. The other Veil slams into me from behind sending us both to the ground.

As I'm hauled to my feet, Leorus shakes his head. "Mrs. Blackwood, you really should have just behaved."

The Veil with Jonas suddenly release him, and dread doesn't even have time to work its way into me before they push him, sending him falling down the rest of the stairs.

I scream his name as he hits the last step and his head slams into the glass. The three Veil brush off their hands and climb the stairs.

"You should have just behaved," Leorus says again.

"Please." I struggle against the Veil as the statue starts to slide back into place—I don't have a choice but to struggle, to not behave. He's not moving. I have to— "Please, let me make sure he's okay."

"You think your husband is very fragile, don't you?"

"Jonas!" I scream again, but he never moves, and the statue lodges back into place.

Leorus's fingers wrap around my chin, and he yanks my head toward him. "Do you ever shut up?" The trio of Veil now flank him.

"He's Expired."

"And yet he's managed to survive this long. Veil, show the Preeminence's wife to her new lodgings."

"Please," I beg as the two Veil drag me to the other end of the room where another door is already opened. It was closed when we entered the room, and I should have noticed the moment it was opened. I'm too distracted, my senses overwhelmed. And if I want to hold onto any hope of getting back to Jonas, I can't be distracted. There's no room to be overwhelmed. Even if all I see in my mind's eye is his head slamming into the wall, again and again, on a loop.

The Veil have me turned away from Leorus, so I can only hear him as he says, "I hope you'll be more amiable the next time we see each other, Mrs. Blackwood. You really should be grateful for all this. You would have been a disaster as a Preeminence's wife."

My face is wet as I'm pulled through the door, but whether it's blood from when my face hit the ground or tears or both, I don't know or care. I hear the door slide shut on its own as we step away from it.

This room is nothing but a long hallway. The left wall is again like an aquarium where we're the exhibit. The raggioets put on display like mermaids in a sideshow. A school of fish swim in circles. And maybe it's only the stress, but I swear they watch me.

Jonas is strong, but falls have killed even stronger men. The fear threatens to choke me as it tightens in my throat. I'm useless. All that training, all those drills, and when I really needed them, when I fought, Leorus punished me for using that training, and now Jonas might be dead.

Dead.

I tremble, but the Veil don't seem to take notice. They finish dragging me to the end of the hall, and this time the Veil whose nose I'd like to think I broke has to open the door, his grip on me adjusting as he does so.

They pull me through the doorway, and the ocean is no longer visible, and that feeling of drowning lessens. Bookshelves line every spot on the wall that isn't taken up by a door, and almost every shelf is filled with clear, tablet-esque digital books like the ones the Society has below the Estate.

Seeing them, reminds me of Colton, when he made me a fake book. That was really the first time we had to work together.

I need him. I need him and Percy and Vienna. I very clearly can't handle all the Veil, and I have no idea how to make that statue move.

When we reach the next door, the Veil has to once more open it himself—no more automated doors I suppose.

It's another aquarium of a room, and couches and small tables fill the space. Directly across from us is a closed door, but to the right is a skinny staircase.

Does Leorus plan to have me dropped in a fish tank as well? The moment I'm locked up, all chances of getting to Colton are snatched away.

The Veil ignore the staircase, headed for the door instead.

When the Veil with the now crooked nose adjusts his hold on me to reach for the handle, taking the slightest step forward to put him closer to the door, I hook my leg around his and throw my weight to the side. The Veil falls forward, his forehead smacking into the door, and he slides to the ground.

In response, the bearded Veil grips my arm tighter. One look at his face and I know he thinks I'm going to try to punch him. I whirl to the side, dragging his arm behind his back until he's forced to let go. Before he can turn, I deliver a kick to his back, sending him into the wall with a thud that makes the picture frames rattle.

As the other Veil starts to get up, I gather my dress in my hands and dash up the stairs. The steps are made of stone, and my slippers hardly have a sole. Each step bashes my heels even if I keep most of the weight on the front of my feet.

Down below me the Veil shout and throw out curses, and it's not long before their boots thud on the steps, but then music reaches my ears.

At the top of the stairs is an open doorway where soft light comes through. The music is like a boat rocking side to side, a leaf caught in a current that sends it around in circles.

A harp plucks out notes; another instrument rattles.

I grip my dress tighter, not daring to look back to see how close the Veil are.

I burst out into the ballroom overflowed with an entire sea's worth of dancers. Their hands crossed, they circle around each other, creating hardly any gaps. To my right guests have paused plucking fruits from refreshment tables to stare at me. I have no idea what I look like, but I must be a sight to behold and not in a princess sort of way. If they don't know who I am, my laurel wreath says enough about what kind of person I supposedly am.

The Veil will be at the top of the stairs at any second, and they've surely already called for backup.

So I dive into the dancers, intending to get to the other side of the room, to hide. To find Colton somehow.

I don't know this dance, but every person has a partner whose hands they lock with in an intricate knot before twisting around themselves to undo it. I'm thrown disgruntled looks, but no one stops dancing, and I'm shoved from one pair to the next, being spun around as bodies twist and turn in too tight spaces.

The music picks up its pace, and I no longer know which direction I came from. If Colton was on the side of the ballroom I started on, he surely would have seen me. Or at least Percy or Vienna. Jonas and I saw them when they exited the Senate Chamber. They know we're missing. They wouldn't be dancing.

They must be on the other end of the ballroom. The side I need to get to. They have to be. Because if they're not, I don't know what to do. Jonas could be bleeding from his head. He could have broken his neck.

A violin enters the music as if it's the conductor, leading the rest of the individual strains of music to grow faster and faster until it all suddenly dissipates returning to when the music was only a leaf caught in a loop, a boat rocking gently, and as the dancers change their choreography to match, I finally stop spinning, and there only a few yards away is finally hope.

Any dancers that get in my way, I push to the side.

He turns to me, his eyes wide, right before I barrel into him.

"Erik."

He grips my arms. "Iris?" He rakes his eyes over me. "What's going on? Where's Jonas?"

His partner moves to the side, and I think she becomes responsible for keeping anyone from crashing into us. She's one of Rydersin's Veil.

"They took him. He's hurt, Erik."

He hesitates, looking at the Veil. She inclines her head.

"Can you get me to him?"

"Yes, but they overpowered both of us."

The Veil draws closer. "I'll come with you."

"Xiaozhi, no." Erik looks worried. "You don't have to do this."

"I want to help. It's what friends do, Erik."

"You don't even know Jonas."

"I'm talking about you."

Erik bites his lip, some sort of emotion passing over his face, before he nods once.

"The fastest way would be the Senate chambers," I say, and Xioazhi takes the lead. Something about the icy demeanor she throws over herself like a blanket, forces the dancers to stay out of our way even if it means they crash into another pair.

The three of us still won't be enough. If Jonas can't walk out of his prison, he'll have to be carried. And there will be Veil, and the last thing we need is the statue rolling back into place, trapping us beneath it.

I'm sure both Orders—Gadfrie's and wherever the hell the rest of Borilia's hides— know exactly where I am. But will they stop me in front of everyone? Or will they wait until we're isolated?

Erik clears his throat, sidestepping a dancer. "Can I see your crown?"

"Uhh yeah." I reach up and unpin it as Xiaozhi breaks us through the outer edge of dancers. Erik takes it from me and holds it in both hands. He jerks his wrists, and the wreath snaps in two. I flinch at the sound.

He hands one piece to me, keeping the other for himself. "Figured you might want a weapon."

I run my thumb over the rough edges of the metal leaves. "Thanks."

Xiaozhi leads us toward the mer statue that will probably haunt my dreams, probably accompanied by Odette. No Veil or Order members have gathered near it, or at least if they have, they aren't visible.

"Erik!" Cutting a fast pace from the front of the ballroom is Basile.

His shout is enough to get Erik to stop. My thumb runs back and forth along the leaves. We can't stop here.

"What's going on?" Basile asks as soon as he reaches.

"The Order has Jonas." Erik shifts his weight onto the balls of his feet.

"And you're going to get him back." It's not a question. "Let me help you."

I shift toward Erik, which means I'm an inch closer to the statue. Jonas might even be under my feet. "Why would you help?"

"Andrew once traded you for me, and the guilt has racked me every day since."

Erik crosses his arms. "Where is he?"

"He was with Miss Torellae when I last saw him."

"We don't have a weapon to offer you," Xiaozhi says.

"That's fine."

"You don't have an Expiration Date protecting you."

He holds her gaze. "But you know what it is."

She closes her eyes, and I start to think the worst—that his Date is today—but she nods. "You'll be fine."

As we start up again for the statue, the music begins to build, the dancers lost in the steps, but those who aren't dancing, stare at us. Erik pulls out a phone and after a few taps, holds it to his ear.

"Colton," he says. "Not now . . . I'm with Iris . . . the Senate Chamber, yes . . . They have him." Erik ends the call. "He's going to meet us."

I let out a somewhat steady breath—the first one in a while. Maybe we can do this. Maybe we'll be enough.

But the Senate chamber door will be locked though. I have no doubt about that.

I roll my shoulders back and look up at Erik. "When was the last time you kicked down a door?"

Did anyone ever get to play the Barbie Spy computer game? If so, do you remember the statues that would slide to the side and let you go underground? Apparently that has stuck around in my head for years.