The Encounter

by ClubLulu333

Weeks into her initiation, Everly is struggling with her decision to stay in Amity. Pressured to stay by her family and friends, things become even more complicated when her chance encounter with a certain Dauntless leader puts her right on his radar. Will he be the one to change her life, or is she just another trophy on his hunt? This is an Eric meets Everly in Amity story!

21. Chapter 21

Thank you so much to Bamberlee for editing!

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the last chapter. Bonus points to anyone who can guess what game Rylan is playing in this chapter.

I'm still trying to figure out how many chapters are left. I'm thinking maybe five? Anyway, have a great weekend everyone! Stay safe!

---

"One…two…three."

I sneeze right as the man says three. The camera clicks anyway, and he makes a horrified face.

"Uh, okay that one is not…usable. Or I guess we could use it. Do you want me to redo it?" He looks at Eric, who's standing beside him trying not to laugh. The look on his face is total amusement, and he fails when he snickers at whatever is on the screen.

"Redo it. Send me that one, though."

I scowl at him, and from the sidelines, he smirks right back.

"Okay, try not to sneeze this time. Everyone has to have an ID card with a clear picture, including you. So, look here, smile, and don't move." The man clicks a few buttons, then looks at me like I should thank him.

I glare at both of them, and the man waits patiently for me to smile.

"Um…is your…your wife…gonna smile or what?"

From beside him, Eric smirks even wider.

This morning was off to an interesting start.

To my dismay, I'd awakened alone.

My immediate reaction wasn't panic or grievous horror that I'd left the Amity faction with Eric, but pure and utter betrayal that Eric wasn't in bed with me. I floundered under black sheets, and I threw them off me when I realized the clock beside his bed said it was nearly ten thirty. The last time I'd slept in late was the night I'd gone to Erudite with Eric, and this felt just as glorious.

Until I realized he really wasn't in the bedroom, or the bathroom, and I had no way to get a hold of him.

So I did what anyone would do: I stood in the middle of his bedroom, taking it all in.

I wondered what it would be like to stay here forever. I didn't know if I was worried there was a chance that once Eric's faux investigation was called off, I would be sent back to Amity. Part of me didn't believe he'd let that happen for a second. The way he spoke so disdainfully of my former faction told me he wasn't going to let me get stuck there, but there was the smallest chance someone would eventually point out I'd chosen the Amity faction and technically lived there.

I didn't have time to deliberate it.

I took a shower, brushed my teeth, and rifled through the dresses. The fabrics weren't all flimsy and soft, though most were. But there were a few hidden in there that were more structured, meant to secretly mimic the hard lines of his uniform. I picked one of those, figuring if I was going to commit to being here full force then I would start with what I wore. Next, I grabbed shoes, a pair of black and white shoes with black laces, and I liked how they felt far different from anything else I'd worn.

I brushed my hair. I left it down, knowing Eric would undo it anyway, and I gave myself one quick glance in the mirror. It was a strange sight; my hair was dark, the dress was dark, and I no longer looked like I was from Amity. Well, maybe I still did. I didn't have the same ferocious build that the more aggressive members had, nor did I look like I could fight my way through initiation.

But it was a start.

I smiled, pulled my shoulders back, and headed straight to the kitchen. It was there that I saw Eric, leaning against his counter as he rifled through a handful of papers. He looked up right as I walked in, and he stared for just a moment. He took in everything –the dress, the shoes, the hair not pulled up or back or braided into something complicated that he'd ruin no matter what –and he smiled before he could stop himself.

He then waved me over and told me he had something to show me and it wouldn't take long for us to get there.

Which was how I wound up here, getting an ID photo taken for the card.

It was also how I was mistaken as Eric's wife for the third time.

The first was the woman working reception. The second was the woman who brought Eric a file he asked for. Her hair was so blonde it was almost white, and it was cut sharply to her jaw. She tilted her head while she spoke, slowly and carefully to make sure he listened, and her eyes were piercing.

Eric immediately hissed for her to go get him coordinates of where Four was, or not return.

She ignored him for a moment. She dared to tell him she hadn't met his wife, and he stared her down until she stuck her nose up and walked away.

The third was the guy in charge of the cards for the faction. They had a complicated system which involved getting my picture taken, linking my card to an account, and waiting for it to print and scan. According to Eric, it was outdated. I wasn't in their system, and as someone who was here because I'd been arrested, my name wasn't exactly available as a member of Dauntless to assign a card to.

I was sure there was no way to make this work, but Eric got around this by having it linked to his account.

"She doesn't have to smile if she doesn't want to."

Eric's answer is easy, and he watches me stand there, still unsmiling.

His words evoke the exact reaction the photographer was hoping for.

I do smile.

Brightly.

But only because Eric was making it clear that being here is my choice, and he'll support it however he can.

Especially if it means I'm one step closer to officially being his wife.

---

"Is he behaving?"

Harrison sits across from me with his coffee in hand. His uniform is rumpled, like it's been on all night, and behind him, the offices of Dauntless are busy.

After getting my official Dauntless card –a heavy black one which unlocked Eric's apartment, allowed me to pay for things from the stores, and would grant me access to some of the places Eric assumed I wanted to go –we walked upstairs. Eric told me he had a briefing with Max and Tori, and I was handed off to Harrison as Eric walked into Max's office.

The transfer was so quick I barely noticed.

Eric announced he'd be right back, and Harrison cheerfully insisted I follow him. Despite looking like he'd barely slept, he led me to a breakroom, and someone dropped off coffee and muffins. The dark cups were immediately recognizable. The same drink Jason had delivered to Amity was brought up to me, and I sat there sipping it, while Harrison gave me a very cursory interrogation about my night with Eric.

It felt oddly appropriate.

Since finding out he was my father, I hadn't had a lot of time to process it. I liked the idea, since the man I thought was my father hadn't exactly liked me, and I liked Harrison. Even after talking to Hank, I was still holding on to the idea that he had liked me a long time ago. Maybe when I was younger. Maybe when I couldn't tell him I didn't want to marry his friend's son, or maybe when I would still subscribe to his way of life. As time went on, it was clear there was some struggle, and it hurt that what he thought was good for me wasn't at all in my best interest.

So Harrison's concern, once again, feels good.

"You tell me," I take another sip of the drink, and I wonder how I've lived this long without this coffee. "Actually, Eric was very nice. He had a bunch of things for me to wear. Even shoes. He made space in his closet."

I say this like it's a secret confession, and it is.

Harrison knows this, too.

He fights off a smile, and shrugs into his coffee. In between us is a box of muffins. The box is black, with a label hinting the muffins are extreme, and a warning on the back to share them. When I lift the lid, I am shocked to see muffins the size of small cakes. They all look intimidating, and almost as fancy as the dress I have on.

"He sent Christina to pick the clothes out. He asked me what size you wore. I told him I didn't know, but I'm sure Rylan could find out."

"Rylan could? How?" I watch him carefully, wondering what it would have been like if I'd grown up with him. He plucks a muffin from the box before he slides it back over to me, and he nods encouragingly. "Eat something. I'm sure Eric will take you to lunch but he'll be stuck with Max for a while."

"Are they good?" I pick one that looks safe: an oversized, dramatic blueberry muffin. The blueberries are from Amity, so dark they look black against the crumble, and I gingerly pull it free from the box. "You have to tell me about Rylan and Jason. I know them only because I met Jason first. Then I met Rylan, but I didn't know his name, so I was calling him Not Jason."

"Ah yes, NJ. I heard about that. Several times. He was absolutely delighted that someone had given him a nickname." Harrison reclines back in his chair, and his jacket is unbuttoned at the top. His hair isn't so much a mess as it is disheveled, and every so often, his phone beeps.

He ignores it completely in favor of talking to me.

"The kid can find out anything. Ask Arlene. He hacks into her accounts all the time. Sometimes he changes her schedule. Sometimes he changes the names of her patients. Sometimes he decides he knows more than the nurses working and changes the diagnosis. It's always a gamble when you go." Harrison sounds amused, though he shakes his head. "Jason, while arguably less trouble, is just as much of a handful. Everything is a conspiracy theory. The cafeteria runs out of mac and cheese? Conspiracy theory about how we're going to run out of food. Someone parked the trucks the wrong way? Conspiracy theory that one of the drivers is actually part reptilian. One of the railings broke? Aliens."

I choke on my coffee.

"Aliens?"

"According to him. If you ask me, or anyone else who took the time to watch the security footage, it was two morons fighting by the chasm." He stops himself before he says anything else, and he shakes his head a few times. "You know what? I'll let you get to know them. They're Eric's friends. They support him almost all the time. Both are good soldiers. They can fight, they can shoot, and they aren't afraid of much."

"I think they seem fun," I break off a piece of the muffin, and I glance around the room.

It's a decent sized room, with tables and chairs, but it's set up sort of like a kitchen. There's a microwave, a refrigerator, a toaster, and a sign demanding everyone clean up after themselves.

"Do you like it here so far? Other than the new wardrobe and Eric's apartment?" Harrison asks slowly, and he toys with his coffee lid. "Do you like the faction?"

"I do. At least I like what I saw. I sort of got to see a little bit when I was here last time, but all I've done today is get an ID photo and card," I answer honestly. "Do you like it here?"

"No," he answers immediately. "I hate it here. But it's not the faction. It's just…I promised myself I'd be elsewhere. When things went askew, I signed up for a few more years. Now that you're here…things are different."

"Would you have gone to Amity?" I stare at him, watching his eyes crinkle with a hint of mischief. "To stay with my mom?"

The hint of mischief dulls immediately, because we both know my father will return home at some point. I immediately feel bad; it's clear Harrison has struggled with not being with my mother, and Amity means more to him than just a faction to watch out for.

There's also the unspoken question of my brothers. Forrest would never leave Amity, but Zander might.

"Yes. Even if I never have my family together again, I won't end my days here. This faction is for the young. It wears on you. I've done my time serving the others, and I fully intend to take some time for myself. When I signed on, I signed an agreement to work so many hours, so many patrols, so many trainings. No one said how long I had to complete them. So I did them early. Now, I have a lot of free time. I was mostly hanging around to keep an eye on Eric and make sure they're on track. Twenty-four years old isn't exactly a seasoned leader. Once Max and I step back, it'll be him in charge. We've worked to make sure the transition to him taking over will be easy. So until I'm confident he won't hand over his loyalty to Erudite or destroy the faction in a fit of rage, I'm here."

He pauses, and I take a slow bite of the muffin. It's good, almost too good to be considered breakfast.

"Eric told me you were struggling. He was hoping you'd just fail your initiation so he could go get you. You'd be the first person to fail out of Amity."

"I know. I told him I couldn't fail on purpose," I reach for the coffee, and I wonder what would have happened if my scores had stayed at zero. Jerry had mentioned someone was messing with them, and my only guess was Landon had done it. "I honestly didn't think you could fail out of Amity. Jerry said my scores were really low but they weren't accurate."

"You really can't. Even if your scores are dismal, they'll let you stay. The fields are too large to limit their members. Unless you commit some heinous crime, they don't say much. Eric was disappointed to learn this," Harrison cracks a grin at this memory. "He got over it, though. He says you'll fit in fine here."

"It's very…different so far," I admit, and I try to think of how Amity could ever compare to Dauntless. The factions are extreme opposites, right down to the very room we are sitting in.

Johanna had a single office, high above the stables, with a lone, ancient computer. I'd caught a glimpse of the Leader's offices here, and they were very different. Lots of doors, each with nameplates mounted on the wall beside them. All kinds of paperwork being passed around, a few receptionists –including one who announced her name was Linda after she blinked at me in shock –and plenty of members going in and out. My guess was some worked as assistants to the leaders, and in a rush of rare, brand new jealousy, I wonder if Eric has one.

"I think that someday, maybe when I'm older, I would like Amity. I just felt like all I was doing was…raising Zander and spending my days hoping whoever decided they wanted to marry me didn't expect fourteen kids." I confess this right out loud, and he smiles.

"Are you telling me I'm getting zero grandkids from you? My only chance is Forrest?"

He's totally kidding.

He's looking at me like he's trying to keep a straight face, and I ruin his joke by asking him my next question.

"Would you have tried to get to know me if I hadn't ended up here?" I ask before I lose my nerve. "I know you said you wished you'd been around, but what if I was still in Amity? Would you keep coming there?"

Harrison is silent. His phone beeps again, then again, and he pushes it away even further. "At some point, I would have told you who I was and tried to see if you wanted to know me. Maybe…maybe when you were older. I wasn't expecting Hank to be injured, and I told your mother I'd stay away and let her help him. It wouldn't be fair for me to insert myself into your life right now. But things just…fell into place and I wanted you to know. I feel like I robbed both of us of our time together."

"It's not your fault," I start, then I stop. "Or is it?"

He snorts in response. "Oh, it's my fault. I fell in love with Eden the first time I saw her. I should have abandoned Dauntless without question. I could have had a life in Amity with her. I kept thinking…one more week. Two more weeks. Just another month. I can give Max another few weeks and then I'll leave. I tried working everything and anything I could. I stopped giving a shit when I couldn't make it work. She married Hank and I thought, what's even the point? Even if I get out of here, I don't have any reason to. I felt like I owed it to Zander to at least get to know him, any way I could. Then I saw you with him, and I knew I couldn't stay quiet."

"Is my…is Hank…is he okay?"

I suddenly can't bring myself to call Hank my father.

It's not that he isn't my father, but I find myself desperate to know my real father. The guilt isn't as insurmountable as one would think; Hank didn't always like me, and I know this. I'm sure he'd done his best, but ultimately, I was a low priority for him.

My only real accomplishment to him, no matter what he said or tried to say, was that I would have married Landon to please his friend and form some weird family alliance.

"Hank isn't doing so great. Your mother is back in Amity but your father isn't. I stayed last night to help her, but I left this morning to make sure Eric's paperwork is in order. A factionless war isn't good by any means, but Kang will want info on it. The less we can involve the other factions, the better. But no, Hank isn't okay. They're hoping for the best but expecting the worst. There's a chance he might never remember anyone."

"Oh," I sink back into the chair, and I feel a wave of guilt that I know isn't mine to take on. "I tried to tell him about Landon. Landon was messing around for a while. I wish he would have listened."

"He's not the most willing to hear what he doesn't want to hear," Harrison mutters, but it's low. "Erudite should be able to help. I'm sure one of their brain surgeons is staying up all night to fix this."

"Is Dauntless really taking over Amity?" I blink away the thought of my mother home alone, because I can't go back. Not right now. "Eric said –"

"Yes. Eric is meeting with Max now to pick whoever he sees fit. The idea isn't to change the faction in any way, but to make it more accessible to our soldiers. We want to hold off on the factionless attacking again, or trying to persuade members to join them. So they'll choose someone to go stay there. We'll rotate our soldiers out there as well. It won't be a bad gig. If you were still in Amity, I think Eric would have elected himself as their temporary leader."

The idea of Eric as the leader of Amity makes me laugh. "I'm sure he'd have loved it. Johanna gets a lot of visitors and guests. Do you guys watch Amity from here? Or…do you?"

"Sometimes," he answers casually, and I eat another bite of the muffin, hoping he'll keep talking. "If their cameras work. I can take you to the control room. It's not much. Members watch the cameras and make sure nothing is happening, but Amity prefers not to have the cameras on or working. It's on us to keep up with them. How on Earth the control room staff missed an entire army forming is beyond me," he rolls his eyes and his mouth turns down. "Are you alright? You were right in the middle of it."

"I'm okay now. I was a little shook up. I wasn't expecting to see Landon again or the army. I didn't expect you to…" I pause, and the next words are strange to say. "kill him."

"He was going to kill you. He proved he wasn't afraid to try, and with his luck, he'd eventually succeed. So I took care of it." Harrison lessens his frown. "I have a lot of leeway when it comes to the factionless army because I understand them. They needed a leader, and they got one. But things aren't good now, now they have too many leaders. Landon and Colton didn't like each other, Four was in the mix, and Evelyn doesn't want anyone upstaging her. She'll self-destruct before she tries again."

"Wait!" I sit up straighter, and he raises his eyebrows at me. "What about Four? Eric said he was with Evelyn last night!"

"He was but he's back now. Eric had him taken out of the control room in addition to the training room and he's been using him as his personal assistant. My guess is he probably got to take a nap since Eric's been busy," Harrison grins like he knows Eric was in his apartment with me. "Four should be happy you're here."

"He said Eric was trying to get him out of here and bring me to Dauntless," I tell him, and he smiles until his phone rings.

This time it's loud.

The sound is shrill, and even though he lets it go to voicemail, it rings again. He picks it up disdainfully, and he answers with an irritated snap not aimed at me. "Sorry, Everly. Someone claims this is important. I'll make it quick."

"It's alright," I busy myself with the muffin, but I listen carefully to him talk.

He's different than Eric when it comes to whoever he is speaking to. He listens with more patience, and he considers what they're saying, though he doesn't look impressed. When he does answer, it's far more authoritative, and less furious that someone's dared to ask for his orders.

"Unfortunately, I can't authorize that. If he claims she's gone back to Abnegation, she's probably gone back into hiding. Her army can't hide there, which means you'll run into them sooner or later. For now, I would go back to Amity and secure your perimeter. Your lead on this is Jason, though. He should be out there now."

I wait while he keeps talking, and he starts to mirror Eric the longer the person keeps asking him questions.

He finally shakes his head with a look of regret, and I smile back.

"I'll just finish this muffin. You can talk to them."

I'm in no real hurry.

He's already told me more than I could have hoped for. He tells me even more when he sighs, and reluctantly agrees to go meet whoever is asking for his help. He stands up and covers the phone with his hand, and his frown is less that he's leaving and more that our time has been cut short.

"I'll be back in a few hours. If Eric isn't giving you a tour of Dauntless, we can meet for dinner. If I'm not back, maybe tomorrow."

"Sure," I agree immediately, and I return to the overload of blueberries and sugar. I wave goodbye as he leaves, and I watch him vanish out the door. He calls out for someone to have a truck ready, and then he's gone.

It's just me and the muffins, and I make the snap decision to bring Eric one.

---

"Is she staying here forever? Did you make it official?"

Jason watches me stand beside Eric for all of two seconds. I'd walked out of the breakroom with the muffins and right into Eric coming to find me. He was with Jason, who was not in Amity leading any patrol, and they walked me to Eric's office.

Once inside, I stood and stared at everything in complete awe.

The office is large, vast in both darkness and violent awards. There are plaques lining the walls that offer all sorts of lavish praise upon him. In his six years as a leader, he's done a lot. Some of the awards sound good. Some of them sound…interesting, in a way that hints he works for Erudite and his main concern is keeping himself in the know of things. I touched a few while I walked in –one for superior excellence in commanding an army, and the other for being the youngest ranking leader to defeat some villain I wasn't even aware of –and then I return to him.

He sits back in his desk chair, watching me look around.

The rest of his office is what I would imagine. Everything is black, or light black. He has a computer, a laptop, a tablet, stacks of files, papers stapled together, a few books, and absolutely nothing personal. The closest thing in here is a note from Rylan, scrawled in chicken scratch, demanding Eric expand the cafeteria budget to allow for more fine dining options.

Behind him, is a large map. Push pins are stuck in areas of interest. A note is stabbed beside Amity with Harrison's name on it.

A smaller note has my name on it.

I observe all this before Jason can ask anything else, and Eric takes hold of my wrist. His fingers curl around the bone, pulling me closer.

"She is staying. She got her keycard today," he answers quickly, but carefully. Officially, I was here for causing trouble. Unofficially, he was slowly making this permanent.

The card I'd been given had his last name on it.

Neatly printed was Everly Coulter, along with a string of numbers and a rank for security clearance. Eric hadn't said anything about the last name, but I figured it was because Everly Carlen didn't exist here.

"Okay, but…what about once the investigation ends. What about once Harrison finds Evelyn? I just heard Four was with her, and they know where she is, but Harrison denied the patrols to go through there."

"She's in Abnegation," Eric's answer is casual, like Jason asked how the weather is. "Marcus doesn't want us in there. Andrew Prior is backing him for now. Harrison pointed out they're giving her the go ahead to destroy the faction from the inside out. I give it a day before they ask for help."

"Is that dangerous?" I look down at him, his uniform jacket unbuttoned halfway and his hair perfectly parted, and he nods. "Does she know people there?"

"Yeah, Four's whole family," Jason snorts. "His father is one of the leaders there, and the rumor is he's a piece of shit. We could send Four there, but Marcus doesn't want us there because the more we know, the less he can hide. The only good thing that can come out of this is maybe Evelyn will kill him and take over Abnegation. But like they tried in Amity, Abnegation doesn't want to fight a war. Marcus might try to goad them into one, but he'll more than likely fail."

"Oh," I'm not sure what to say, but this feels bigger than me and my opinion. "Where is Four?"

"Who cares?" Eric barks, and he yanks me back to sit with him. I hit his legs, and it takes him all of two seconds to pull me onto his lap. I nearly lose a shoe as he pulls me closer, and shockingly, Jason barely blinks.

"Well…someone might care. Maybe…maybe the guy he gets a beer with every once in a while."

"Well la di da, someone go tell Zeke that Four is with his mommy. I'm sure he can wait to hit up happy hour." Eric's arms snake around my waist, and I have to admit, he's pleasantly solid behind me. "He's going back tonight. He said Evelyn is suspicious of his return and isn't telling him much. Which isn't something I'm interested in hearing."

"Yeah, well…maybe taking Everly out of Amity and killing Landon tipped her off." Jason thinks out loud, then he perks up. "Hey, can Meghan meet Everly? Everyone wants to see her. You can't just keep her in your apartment the whole time."

"I'm not," Eric answers darkly, and I lean back further against him. I like how defiant he sounds, because he's not lying. If he had his way, I bet we'd go home right now. "She's been here for less than twenty four hours. And you ask Everly if she wants to meet Meghan. Maybe she's not ready for that disaster."

"Rude," Jason answers cheerfully, and he pulls out his phone. "Everly, do you want to meet Meghan? We're free at six. Unless Harrison calls me back out there. I told him I was done for the day, but he just messaged me he's leaving to go meet a few of the patrols now. Hopefully, it's quiet."

"Sure? Would we go to Clyde's?" I throw out the name of the one restaurant I know. "For dinner?"

Jason looks up and his eyes are wide. "See? She already knows where we eat. She fits in fine. No one will ever question where she came from."

"Uh huh," Eric is unconvinced. "Alright, fine. We'll meet you at six. Do me a favor and invite Rylan and Christina. See if Paul can hold a table for us."

"I'm on it," Jason heads out with his gaze on his phone. He presses something, and I hear him excitedly inform someone of this new plan.

"I'm excited to meet Meghan," I inform Eric, and I feel him shake his head no. "You don't like her?"

"She's fine," he mumbles, and his head drops forward. He presses it against mine, and his arms pull me back further. "Clyde's is going to be insane tonight. It's Taco Tuesday."

"What's that?" I stare down at his hands, much larger than mine, and he presses his fingers against my own. They stay there, circling through so he can slide them between mine.

"I guess you'll find out."

---

I do find out.

It becomes very clear that while Eric and I both are on the same unspoken page with a lot of things, he has the upper hand here.

"Um, you should…you should really stop," I gasp this, not at all wanting him to stop, and without much conviction. "We're going to be…. late."

I try a lot of things in this moment.

Reminding him of the time.

Grasping onto his hair and digging my nails into his scalp.

Nearly falling off the bed, which would undoubtedly make me end up back in Arlene's exam room.

"No."

He says this quickly, tearing his mouth away from between my legs to look up at me. I have to admit it's a nice sight, and it feels even better when he shakes his head, and his fingers dig into my leg.

"You took the dress off. I told you we had to leave," he points out, and he resumes biting the inside of my thigh.

Everything in Dauntless was slowly clicking into place.

One Jason was off, Eric and I left his office to go have lunch. It was a quick one, with Rylan and Christina, and they were so enthused to go to Clyde's that you'd have no clue I'd seen them both twice in the last twenty-four hours. I'd stayed with Eric for the rest of the afternoon, watching him fill out some forms, type away on his computer, and snap at people who called him. He had me sign a few things, telling me to read them carefully, but they were nothing more than forms meant to take my statement about the factionless war.

I read his notes while he worked; a brief outline of the attack, an overview of what happened, and a plan to dismantle both Evelyn and her army. My name was on the second page, and it stated my involvement as minimal. It was mentioned Landon had tried to kill me before, and our altercation was personal but unacceptable by the Amity standards. There was a page that would have been paperwork for my arrest, but it was blank. All it had was a giant X through it, and Eric's signature at the bottom.

We went back to Eric's apartment so he could change out of his uniform, and I decided to change out of the dress. I slid it over my head with the intention of finding something a little warmer. Dauntless held a strange, permanent chill. Amity was cold when it was winter, but this was different. It was like the ground was made of ice. Eric's apartment wasn't the only place that didn't appear to have heat. The offices were cold, the hallways were cold, even the elevators were freezing.

Eric took all of this as a sign that dinner could wait, or maybe this was better than dinner for him.

"I was cold! I was going to find something to wear," I try to answer him as best I can, but my brain melts when he moves his mouth closer, and my legs move wider on their own. "I'm not cold now."

He makes a noise of impatience. His tongue is everywhere, licking and sucking as I wiggle against him, begging him not to stop. He grasps my thighs, then my hips, and before I can point out we only have a few minutes, his uniform is completely off.

"They can wait. It'll be crowded. Jason and Meghan are probably already ordering drinks. We have plenty of time," Eric answers lowly, his eyes dark and his smile slow. It's not a full smile, more a crooked smirk as he pulls away, and my whimper of protest doesn't go unnoticed. "Oh, I'm sorry. I thought you said you wanted me to stop."

"I lied," I sit up, reaching to pull him down to me.

He falls easily.

Eric's body is heavy over mine. He pushes me back onto the dark sheets, his smirk unwavering as I help him shove his boxers down. I want him closer, because I'd expected this to take a few days. Eric wanted me here, but he was letting it unfold at my pace. He wasn't rushing anything that I knew of, until I took the dress off.

"Does that hurt?"

For half a second, the moment threatens to burst when his fingers touch my side. My wince is more of an unconscious reaction. The bruise does hurt, but it looks worse than it is. It's also a vividly fresh reminder that a day ago, I stood with another faction, trying to keep the peace at my own expense.

"Yes." I look up at him, and I nod before I can stop myself. His fingers press gently, inducing a different feeling than the waves of eye closing goodness I'd been caught up in moments ago. "It'll stop, right?"

His eyes, still dark and intense, soften as he nods. He holds tension in his jaw; the sight of the bruise making him stiffen, and his fingers splay wide as he covers the mark with his hand.

"I'll get you something for it," he murmurs, and his focus is back on my face. His other hand moves to touch my neck, my collar bone, then my jaw. "Arlene has something to put on it. If you'd stayed for your appointment, she would have given it to you."

He has a point.

I still shake my head no, and his smirk returns.

"You don't want to go visit her, Amity?" Eric moves his hand to my face, and his thumb brushes my lower lip. "She called looking for you."

"We can talk about her later," I change the subject. I slide my hands up to his neck, and I loop my arms around him, effectively knocking him off balance. "Next year. Maybe two years."

"Planning on sticking around, I see." Eric answers coolly, and he knocks my hands away. He kicks the boxers to the floor, but his gaze stays on me. "Good."

He takes my yelp as agreement. Eric is over me before I can answer, and inside me before I can point out that perhaps I should have gone to see Arlene.

I forget about her and her shots completely.

Eric's hips meet mine and the feeling of him over me is almost better than anything. He's heavy and warm, his thighs pressing me further into the bed and his hands skimming my side. He takes hold of my hand to move it where he wants, but he tenses when I touch his cheek with the other.

For someone who was so certain he wanted me there, the affection throws him off. I keep my palm pressed against the sharpness of his cheek bone, and when his eyes find mine, the smugness from before is gone. He's still arrogant, still much stronger and much larger and deeply buried in me, but he's far unlike the Eric who announced he was arresting me.

He's painfully human.

The contrast between him and Landon is once again striking. Both are tall and fit, both outweigh me to the point where I more than likely shouldn't be able to fight them off, and both have the capability of ending my life with their bare hands.

While Landon willingly exercised this ability, Eric does the exact opposite.

The man who I was warned about, who Four claimed would kill me and who my friends thought would bash my head into the wall for his own pleasure, is doing his best not to hurt me. Even as his fingers tighten on my ribcage, and the pace of his hips grows sloppy and frantic, he makes sure I am alright.

I am.

I keep my fingers on his face, sliding them back further to dip into his hair, and our eyes meet.

He doesn't smile, not the same unexpected grin that he couldn't stop or the quick turn of his lips. He doesn't blink or look away, nor does he stop what he's doing.

He looks at me with half hooded eyes, and his lips part open. He drops his head down to touch mine, and I raise my legs up, coaxing him closer.

His reverence for this isn't lost on me, not now, and certainly not when he groans my name and his teeth sink into my neck.

---

Our dinner plans fall through as not only Jason is called away to Amity, but Rylan, and Eric as well. I sit on Eric's bed, still undressed with sticky thighs and a dull ache from him pulling away from me, and I watch him put his uniform back on.

The happy aftermath of coming beneath him fades away as the realness of his life here slaps me in the face.

Were I back in Amity, I'd be at home, making dinner for myself or my brothers and sisters. My mother might have been back or might not, and at some point, I'd have called Eric and gone to bed.

Here, I sit in his bed with the sheets pooled around me, watching him lace up his boots. His posture is tense, the ease from our time in bed together sucked away, and it's clear he's irritated. He reaches for his jacket, buttoning it up while he looks at me, and I crane my head to stare up at him.

"You really have to go?"

He nods.

His grey eyes look icy in the dimness of his bedroom, and they flash with annoyance when he catches a glimpse of himself in the large mirror.

His hair, normally so perfect and neatly parted, is a disheveled mess.

"It's routine. I'm expected to be there since they've found someone they think has information I need. I'll have dinner sent up for you, and hopefully I'll be back before you fall asleep." His tone is tight, and he rakes his fingers through his hair in an attempt to fix it.

It sort of works.

"I could go with you," I offer. "I can look after myself. I can fight. You know I can take someone down."

My words make him pause. The dark look he throws me doesn't reach his eyes, but it's a pointed no.

"You'll stay here."

He dismisses me completely. I fight off a dramatic sigh because my offer to accompany him is insane. I'm not an actual member of Dauntless. I'm not a leader here, a volunteer, or even someone who could realistically fight off Evelyn's army.

I also don't have any clothes on, nor do I know where he kicked my dress.

"I'll be back in a few hours. We can go to Clyde's tomorrow." His words are terse as I move to slide off the bed, and I don't get very far. "If you need anything…you can go see Linda. She lives a few doors down. Everyone will be gone except for Tori and Jeremy. Apartment sixteen is Linda's. She never sleeps and she gets up early. If you're feeling brave, Arlene is working all night as well."

"Is that a hint?" I stare up at his torn expression, and I know he'd rather stay here. "I'll be alright. I'll probably just…eat dinner and go to bed."

"I'll be back soon." Eric's fingers find my jaw, carefully prying it upward toward him. He doesn't say anything else. He holds my stare for a long moment, then his lips brush against mine in a quiet goodbye.

He breaks away slowly, lips curling up for just a moment, and he's gone before I can appreciate just how surprisingly gentle he was.

Or the fact that he trusts me to be here, alone, in his apartment.

---

Quinten is very imposing.

He stares me down without blinking, and he almost doesn't hand me the dinner.

"You're Everly?"

He says my name with flat disbelief. It was a common theme around here, and I was noticing most of Dauntless didn't seem to picture Eric with a significant other. At least the ones I'd met. I idly wonder if he even considered me anything of the sort, because while I'd told him I accepted his non-proposal, it still didn't mean I was anything more than a girl from Amity he'd brought here.

I refused to think that. An entire wardrobe was unlikely for someone he brought here for fun. Shoes in my size were unlikely for someone he wasn't planning on having stick around. A pink toothbrush, next to his darker one, should have told me everything I need to know.

Still, my stomach dropped when I fumbled in the drawer for a shirt, and my fingers found a pack of hair ties.

For one sickening moment, I thought they might be Ashley's.

Though unfair of me to demand there be no presence of anyone before me, the thought of her being here hurt. It seemed like Eric allowed no one in his space, and him going out of his way to create a life for me here had to be rare. Finding out she'd stayed with him would have been devastating, and luckily, that was not the case.

When I flipped the pack of hair ties over, written in thick black marker was Rylan's name, along with a smaller warning not to throw them away because he never has one when he needs them and this is his emergency hair tie pack.

"I am. You're…Quinten?" I'm proud that I remember his name, and I only have a loose association with it. I know he works in the kitchens and seems to be the man everyone orders dinner from. I also learned that he actually runs the kitchens, and his job is much more than just making hamburgers and french fries.

"I am. I'm the one who makes sure the faction eats. I have a staff of over two hundred members," he announces, and I get the feeling he wants me to know he's not just a delivery man. "I know Amity has a large kitchen. It's an immense faction. I went there once."

"It is large, but I think Dauntless might be larger," I have to crane my head up to look at him, and he's somehow taller than Eric. His hair is very short, and his eyes are dark. "I bet it's a lot of work to feed this faction."

"It is." He stares down at me, still inspecting me like he doesn't trust me, and he relaxes only when I smile. "Do you like ice cream?"

"I do, sometimes."

We rarely had ice cream in Amity. It took up too much space in our freezers, and it wasn't widely served. I could think of the few times I had it, and it was always considered a big deal unless you made it at home.

"Good. Eric ordered you dessert. He said to bring everything up and he already paid so I don't need your card." Quinten glowers at me, going back and forth between looking concerned that I was here, and daring me to ask why he wasn't out on some patrol. "I'm from Candor. I took a fine dining course when I was ten. I was one of the youngest to attend. I transferred here with intent to work elsewhere, but…this faction needed direction when it came to cooking. You can only have cereal so many meals a day."

I'm right.

He's almost as intimidating as Eric, with the same unconscious desire to be seen as the person he really is. I decide I like him, and I want him to like me.

I think he does.

He keeps squinting at me, and he makes no move to leave.

"Do you think someday I could see your kitchen? The ones in Amity are nice, but probably not as nice as yours."

"If you want," he throws back casually, but he looks secretly thrilled until his watch beeps. "I gotta go. The shifts switch soon, and I have the second round of dinner ready to go."

"It was nice to meet you," I carefully take the bag from him, and he nods in approval.

"Enjoy your dinner."

He watches me until I shut the door, and I hear him take off down the hallway. I haven't been in the mess hall here, nor do I even know where it is. But my guess was it did take his entire staff to feed the faction, and he'd earned his position to oversee so many employees.

He's not a bad cook, either.

I eat my cheeseburger on Eric's couch, carefully, and I busy myself by picking up the lone book on his coffee table.

---

"How did he not know he's a wizard?"

The look on Eric's face is one I haven't seen before. It's pure horror, and not just because he came home to find me sitting on the couch, my feet curled beneath me, and my nose stuck in the book. I'd eaten my dinner with the intent of reading a few pages and then heading back into Eric's room to go to bed.

Instead, I found myself glued to the book, reading page after page, completely engrossed in the story. By the time Eric came home, I was a good chunk of the way through it, and I nearly fell off the couch when he startled me by flinging the door open.

I looked up immediately, and he came to a dead halt when he saw the book in my hands.

"Where did you get that?"

"It was on the table," I glance over at his bookshelf, and my eyes skim over the dozens of books there. Almost all have thick, heavy spines, but there are a few which don't. There are others similar to this one, and I immediately wonder if they go together. "I just picked it up and figured I would read it while I ate dinner. But I have a lot of questions now."

"I don't have any of the answers," Eric snaps, and his change in attitude is quick. "I'm gonna go change."

"Are you okay?" I watch him storm off, ripping the jacket from himself with pure annoyance, and it doesn't take a genius to figure out it's more than this book I'm reading.

Or maybe he just really hates wizards.

I set the book down, sticking in a piece of paper to mark my place. I toss everything from dinner back into the bag, and I walk it to his spotless kitchen. I struggle to find any sort of trash can, but I eventually win after pulling out every drawer and cabinet he has. By the time I get to the bedroom, I hear him on the phone, seething as someone tells him what he doesn't want to hear.

"What do you mean, insufficient evidence?"

He looks at me when I walk in and slip past him to go take a shower. His conversation filters in and out of the room, and I only catch a few words.

Four.

Jeremy.

Altercation.

Marcus Eaton.

I try my best to listen, but the words die out as the water starts up. I slip off my dress from earlier, and I step into the warm water. A wave of uncertainty hits me, right then and there. I'm not the one Eric is mad at, but I'm alone here. If he decides he's not speaking for the rest of the evening, or he's over this, I have almost no one. I suppose I could find Linda or Arlene, but ultimately, I don't want that. I just want whatever Evelyn is doing to stop, so Eric won't get called away again.

I rinse my hair until my eyes burn, and I nearly jump out of my skin when a hand touches my shoulder.

"I thought you heard me come in."

Eric's mutter is a half apology. He frowns at me once I'm looking at him, and he steps closer before I point out he's in the shower with me. He walks in further, until his own hair is wet, and the water spills down his skin in an oddly hypnotic manner.

"I figured I'd just take a shower and go to bed. That was Jason. Four punched Jeremy in the face and now they're both filing some report on each other."

Eric says all this in a rush of pure and utter loathing, and he screws his eyes shut. He opens them, but only because I've reached for him. I step forward so the water hits my back, and the size difference between us is something I'd never really considered.

He's much taller than me. My head comes to the middle of his chest. I press my hands there, feeling warm, wet skin and precisely defined muscle. There's a lot of work behind his physique, both physical and mental, and my guess is he rarely grants himself a day off from either.

"You're much smaller than I thought you would be."

His words break my trance and I tilt my head up to look at him. He's still sharp; everything on him is sharp angles and precise features. His lips are full, and I know they're soft, but sometimes rough. His hands aren't soft at all, but they're strong and unafraid.

"What were you thinking?" There is no horror or hesitation in my question. He's staring down at me like this isn't real, like I'm not standing beneath the water with my hands pressing over his skin. "Did you think I would be taller? Or something else?"

Ashley was taller.

Curvier, though it was unlikely she'd eaten any ice cream with her dinner.

Bitchier, if that counted for anything.

"I was with you enough to know how tall you are. When I thought of you, you were always…I don't know how to explain it. When I see you now, I wonder why anyone thought you'd be safe against Landon."

This is the first time I've heard him stumble over his words. He's less eloquent with them, and his confession that when he thought of me –in whatever manner –he imagined me perhaps stronger. Or taller. Or like the initiates, working to fend off their opponents.

"I haven't really stopped thinking about you. Not since the day you walked into me. Maybe that's why," Eric shrugs, and I can see him trying to figure this out. My presence in his mind is a good thing, perhaps even bettered by the fact that he was telling me about it. "I can keep you safe. I promise you I will."

"I know," I slide my hands up around his neck, and it's a stretch. I have to rise up on my toes, and the lack of warm water is immediately remedied by my skin against his. "You said you wouldn't hurt me."

"I won't," he declares, loudly, though it's lessened by the sound of the water. "Harrison made me promise, too. He said he'd kill me if you ever came to him and were mad."

"Are you afraid of him?" I pull back to look at his face, and his familiar smirk is back.

His eyes light up in delight at the thought, and he shakes his head.

"No. And the only reason I'm not, is because I think you won't let him kill me."

His arrogance returns just as quickly. He leans down to brush his lips against mine, and he mumbles he'll help me wash my hair.

There is no disappointment that it doesn't turn into anything more. He helps me work conditioner through my hair, and I offer to help him wash his. The absolute normality of this situation is so vibrant I'm surprised he doesn't back away or insist I get out and he'll meet me in bed. Every so often, there's a second when he doesn't look convinced. It's always so fleeting it's almost not there, but I know what it is.

He's afraid.

Not that this won't work out or that Harrison will come and kill him at my request.

That it will work out.

---

On Friday, the air is colder than ever.

I shiver as I walk through the compound, slowly trying to memorize landmarks. I can only pick out a few of them, though Eric often gave directions such as –go north at the end of the third hallway, then head west until you reach the pit –like I knew which way that was. Being underground was oddly disorienting. I got lost on the walk to his office twice, and once I wound up at what appeared to be a daycare.

The girl working waved to me. She wasn't much older than me, and her long blonde hair was intricately braided around her head. She was surrounded by small children, all screaming and yelling, and all dressed in black.

The second time, I wound up in an endless hallway. My fingers skimmed along the freezing walls, and the further I went, the colder it got. My only saving grace was Jason appeared, sprinting out of nowhere, and insisting I go with him before we got too far underground.

Today, I make a promise to myself to not get lost. Every so often, there is a map carved into the walls. They are all crude and very basic, like someone demanded they be placed around the faction, and they are very unhelpful. But now I don't need them quite as much. I head through a short hallway, around a turn that takes me to the shops, and I spy the elevator in the corner. My jaunt over to it is quick. I only glance at the stores for a second, and I press the call button a few times, only because I'd watched Eric do it.

Dauntless is so different from Amity that at times I feel like an imposter.

The feeling was going away, but it rose up when I wasn't sure how something worked or where I should be going. Eric promised me he wouldn't leave me alone to wander around for hours on end, but his job pulled him in a little more each day. Being a leader meant his phone rang constantly, and he sometimes had no choice but to answer. He had his own system of ranking whose call was important enough to answer: his friends came first, though he didn't always answer them, then Harrison, then Max, then Tori, and anyone below them didn't exist. I would guess I fell near the top, but I have no clue where my phone is. I also have no clue how to explain who I am here.

I had thought I should maybe get a job, but so far, I'd spent my days exploring Dauntless, and eating with Jason and Rylan.

"This way."

I'm not at all paying attention when the elevator dings and the doors open. I'm staring back at one of the stores, where I swear I see Christina, and I decide to go say hello. I move to step away right as someone says my name, and the voice catches me off guard entirely.

When I turn, I find Harrison, my mother and Zander, all staring at me, waving me over.

---

"I've missed you so much."

My mother crushes me against her, hugging me far tighter than one would think possible given her size. Her dress is pretty and warm, and her sweater isn't one I've seen before. She holds onto me like she's drowning, and beside her, Zander demands to ride in the elevator again. His tiny voice echoes, and he's loud enough I almost miss what my mom says.

"I heard he took you back with him. Are you…do you like it here?"

She whispers the words into my hair, one hand on the back of my head digging in, and the other on my lower back. Every time she moves, I feel like she might break apart. The stress of what's going on isn't lost on her and might even be worse for her. I'd left with Eric because I'd been arrested, though it was obvious he'd spent more time planning for me to come here than one could ever imagine. She'd left Amity to stay with her husband who'd been attacked, but now she was here, with Harrison and Zander.

It was pretty obvious to me she wasn't taking any peace serum, either.

"It's…different, but I do like it." I don't bother lying to her. Telling her I adored Dauntless would be wrong, since I barely knew my way around, but it was light years better than Amity. Not one person here had tried to kill me, and the worst thing anyone had done was assume I was married to Eric.

Even my time with Eric was so different that I often felt like I was in one of the stories I'd read to Zander before bedtime. He wasn't romantic or overly affectionate, but his actions betrayed his smirks and arrogance. The way his hands pulled me closer, his fingers pressed deeper, and his head bent toward mine told me everything.

He had no intention of returning me to Amity. No intention of ever giving someone the chance to get close to me. Whatever connection we had made him turn his life upside down, and his struggle to pretend it wasn't happening was interesting to watch.

Or experience.

"It's really cold," I confess into the dark maroon dress, and I wonder if she knows. I wonder if she's been here before. I wonder if Harrison had brought her here, or ever offered her the chance to live elsewhere. "Why are you here? Why is Zander here?"

"Everly, let go!"

Zander yells my name the second I say his, and when I lift my head up, the little brat glares at me. The last time I saw him, he had chosen Jerry's snacks over staying with me. I was a decent substitute while our mother was gone, but it's clear he's missed her. He tries to wiggle between us, and when he doesn't get his way, he stomps over to grasp onto Harrison.

He's busy watching all of this play out like he expected it.

"I have to fill out some paperwork," my mother answers, and she still doesn't let go. She shakes her head at Zander, and he ignores her in favor of trying to unbutton the sleeve on Harrison's jacket. After a second, he gives up, and he shoves himself as close as he can to Harrison so he can look at me in sheer annoyance. "Your…"

She stops right there, before she can say your father, and I know Harrison told her I figured out everything.

"Hank is not doing so well. Nothing is reversing whatever he was injected with. He's become agitated with everyone, including Dr. Coulter. He ripped out one of the IVs and he's…he's asked to come home. But he doesn't remember where his home is or who anyone is. He told me to leave a few days ago."

There's an ache in her words that hurts. She looks like she could disappear, like the weight of this might just crush her into a million pieces.

I stare at her wordlessly.

"This is my fault," I blurt out before I can stop myself. "Landon –"

"It is in no way your fault. The actions of Landon were his and his alone." Harrison cuts me off sharply, and he steps closer. Zander follows, and when he looks up at me, he smiles.

Sweetly.

Like he wasn't trying to be the center of attention two seconds ago.

"If anything, everyone in the Amity faction should have listened to you warning them. You told them what was going on. It's not Hank's fault, either." Harrison's stare is reassuring, but I still nod miserably. "With any luck, things will turn around soon."

"Is he staying in Erudite or is he going home?" I look at both of them, and only Harrison answers.

"Daniel doesn't want to let him go just yet. But we need your mother's statements about what happened. There's some pushback from Kang about how serious this is and how concerned he should be. So, I went to see Eden and I thought maybe you'd want to see your mom. It's Visiting Day, anyway." Harrison smiles, and he sounds hopeful. "Zander wanted to tag along, too."

"I want to see the trucks," Zander throws out, and I notice his clothes are the ones I'd dyed black. "Take me to get coffee!"

"Coffee?" My mother looks confused, even as he nods.

"That might be my fault," Harrison suddenly looks sheepish. "I gave him some of my coffee the last time I saw him. He said he liked it."

"Coffeeeeee," Zander says it like a robot would, then he laughs at his own hilarity. "Harrison, take me to the coffee and the trucks!"

"We'll get there. I'll show you the whole faction if your mom's okay with it. There's a lot of people here today, so I figured it would be a good day to visit. No one will even think twice as to why they're here."

"Oh," My mother looks overwhelmed at this revelation, but she finally smiles. It's not at all a happy smile, but it's less devastated than before. She lets go so she can step back and stare at me, though her gaze is soft. "You look so pretty. Much happier than the last time I saw you."

"I am. But…what about…are you going to Erudite?" The words are still hard to say. There's some brand new loyalty to Harrison, because Hank certainly hadn't tried to stop Landon the way Harrison had. It was unlikely Hank ever would, but the very basis of the argument was the same. Hank had helped raise me, but something had changed, and it wasn't for the better. It didn't warrant what happened to him, and the thought that he wouldn't be okay is nausea inducing. "Are you going back there?"

"Tomorrow," my mom's answer is quiet. "I left Paisley and Holly with May, and Leif and Wesley with Jerry. I have to get back to Amity at some point. I have some patients to follow up with. I sort of left Amity a mess."

Her stare holds a lot of remorse and a lot of conflicted feelings over what had happened. It wasn't a full scale war, but it was enough to shake the faction.

"They're waiting to hear what's going to happen. We have no leader. May has been helping everyone. She's keeping things going. Harrison said Dauntless will oversee it for a while, so that'll help." She looks over at him, and I wonder if he'll be the one to run it.

It would be fitting if it were him. He was looking for a way out, and this might be his chance.

Which I hate, since I just got here.

"With any luck, we'll have that answer today," Harrison shakes his head, and he reaches for my mom. He takes her by the elbow and pushes a button on the panel to shut the elevator doors. "Come on. I think we should get some lunch. I already told Eric to meet us at Clyde's. He's probably already there but I told him thirty minutes. I thought we could stop and see a few stores."

I'm surprised at this, but it's much better than my original plan of wandering around Dauntless until I knew where I was going.

I step back with my mother, and all four of us watch as the doors slowly close, and the elevator rises up.

---

"Is something wrong?"

My mother stares at Rylan, his hair down so long it touches the table. He's been sighing heavily every few minutes, and so far, the only who noticed was Eric. He kept glaring at him, trying to silently get Rylan to shut up, but it wasn't working.

He kept doing it, until my mother noticed.

"Everything."

"Everything is wrong?" She blinks at him in confusion, and she should be confused.

Rylan would normally have loved this. He loved visiting Amity, and it was easy to see he loved being involved in anything family related. This was even more family related, because it was my actual, secret but no longer secret family. If he looked hard enough, he'd see my mother and father eating lunch in Dauntless with my brother and me.

My mom and Zander sit on the side of the booth with Harrison, and the sight isn't all that strange. Harrison keeps surveying his bar and asking Lucy questions every time she comes by. My mother is sitting close to him, very close, and Zander is sitting by her, coloring intently. There are no children's menus here, which Harrison dryly pointed out was because it was a bar, but someone brought Zander paper and crayons and he was happy.

Eric and I sat on the other side of the table and judging from how close he had pulled me, our few scant hours apart might as well have been years. Eric's arm is around my back, and his fingers skim my side. His leg is touching mine, the rough fabric of his pants warm against my bare legs. Every so often, my foot hits his shin and his only response is to pull me so close I'm nearly on his lap.

At the end of the table are Rylan and Jason. Jason beamed when he walked in, cheerfully announcing he was sorry he was late but Tori wanted his signature on something, and next to him is Rylan, sulking like his life had been ruined.

"How is everything wrong?"

"My toilet caught fire," Rylan sighs, and everyone stops to look at him. Next to me, Eric closes his eyes, and his grunt of annoyance doesn't go unnoticed. "You didn't even care when I told you, Eric."

"It's not a real toilet," Eric hisses, and his tone of exasperation makes me choke on my drink. "He's fine. Nothing in his actual apartment caught fire."

"How does a toilet catch fire?" My mother looks concerned, but Harrison rolls his eyes.

"It doesn't."

"It ruined my game. The whole family got caught in the bathroom. I spent hours building that world. Do you think I wanted to make Eric and Everly all over again? No. It took me a long time to get Eric's angry face right." Rylan slams his fist down on the table, and Zander eyes him warily. He then mimics him, testing out the action so his crayons scatter.

"Wait, I'm in this game?" I stare up at Eric, and he looks close to exploding. "And you're in the game? What game? What are we doing?"

"What aren't you doing? Eric is quite the exhibitionist, and I didn't even pick that trait. He's lucky you're an understanding and very loving wife. Though you're both banned from the local library for indecent exposure."

I choke again, and this time, Eric looks startled. He tries to help me, but I push him away, doing my best not to inhale the gingery soda into my lungs.

"I'm…I'm sorry, I'm lost. What does this have to do with your toilet catching fire? What were you doing in the library? Are you two married?" My mother turns to me, and so does Zander.

He makes a face, then quietly whispers toilet fire, and goes back to coloring.

"Not that I know of," I cough when look up at Eric suspiciously, and he smirks in response.

Ever since the day I'd told him he was too old to marry, I knew it had bothered him. He isn't that much older than me, and he knows it. It had been funny to watch the insult on his face, and even funnier when he hissed his real age to me, as if he had to prove he wasn't too old.

"Okay, well if this is where it's going, I'd like to come to the wedding. Or maybe we can have it in Amity. We have plenty of space," my mother throws out, her face delighted as ever, and Rylan sighs again.

"You can't. No one can get out of the bathroom. And they're already married," he throws out despondently, and he reaches for his drink. "What am I going to do in my free time now?"

"You can go to Amity, instead of playing some stupid game for hours on end," Eric suggests darkly. "They need a leader."

"You didn't make your decision?" Harrison asks, and he accepts a drink from Lucy, then another, in a smaller black cup for Zander. "I thought Max met with you to finalize your plan."

"He did. Kang still isn't happy. They want someone impartial and Jack doesn't think that's us. I suggested May, but Max wants someone from Dauntless. I was thinking…" Eric pauses, and his fingers press firmly into my side. "I was thinking we send you. You already know the faction, you can get closer than anyone else can, and it's unlikely they'll attack if they know you're there. We aren't so worried that they'll try anything big, but that one will slip in and try to instigate from the inside. Colton's been tracked near the very outskirts of Amity. We're watching him, but who knows what he's planning."

"You want me to go?" Harrison is thoughtful and his stare swings to me for just a second. "For how long?"

"A month to start. Amity will eventually select their own leader, but right now, they fall under our guidance. It would make sense for it to be a leader from here, rather than training someone from there."

"Maybe Rylan can help. That might take your mind off your game," Jason suggests, and it's the first thing he's said. He's been busy messaging someone on his phone, and he looks up with a grin. "You love Amity."

"I do," Rylan shrugs, and he slumps in his chair. "I even built an Amity faction in the game. I live there, but also in my mansion with my three wives. At least I did, until I got stuck in the bathroom."

"What game are you playing?" My mother looks at him, and she's genuinely curious. "And why can't you get out of the bathroom?"

"It's a glitch. There was an update and it was patchy. I don't know. I might have to just start over. Everly, I'll need to see the dress you wore the day you crashed into Eric. I saw it on video but I forgot to save it. I also need to know what you wear to bed. Or don't wear to bed."

He winks, and next to him, Jason laughs so hard he spills his drink.

"Rylan, just go with Harrison. Forget your dumbass game." Eric barks, and Zander pauses his coloring to watch him. Eric pauses, too. But only because Lucy comes by to drop off our lunch. "Or have Jason look at it. Does Christina care that you spend all your time playing it?"

"Not all my time," Rylan insists, and he perks up when his plate of chicken fingers is dropped off. "Just, five or six hours a day. Nothing major."

"What is the game?" I half whisper, and my head hits Eric's when Zander pops up from under the table. He climbs between us, then knocks me away from Eric so he can sit by him. "Zander, go back to your own seat."

"No. I want to sit with Eric!" He says the name threateningly. It's a half shriek, and he doesn't ask before he sits down on Eric's lap. "Eric! Eric! Eric!"

He chants his name a few times, and Eric does his best not to look horrified. My little brother refuses to move, and he reaches for the large steak knife beside Eric's plate. He holds it up for a single second before Eric knocks it away, and he tries to move Zander off his lap.

"Go eat by your mom," he hisses as nicely as he can. "Or your… Harrison."

"No! I'm eating with you! Give me my noodles!" Zander whirls around to glare at Eric, and I watch him with wide eyes.

Eric's discomfort is clear as day. It's clear he's not usually around small children, and probably has never had one want to sit with him. It's also clear he's used to people listening to him, because when Zander refuses, Eric stares him down, fully expecting him to give in.

It's even more obvious he's never gone up against a toddler before.

"I hate to tell you, but you're not going to win against Z-man. You might be able to kill your other enemies, but uh, you can't order him around. He also makes a mean cupcake," Rylan laughs as Eric and Zander silently glare at each other, and even my mother smiles.

"Zander, come sit by me. Let Eric eat his lunch."

"No."

Zander refuses, and he turns around, then leans back against Eric. He reaches for another fry off Eric's plate, and slowly eats it, daring someone to come move him.

"Zander one, Eric zero. You've met your true match," Jason grins, and he pulls out his phone. "I'm sending this to Meghan."

"Jason," Eric says his name threateningly, and Zander repeats Jason's name in the same manner. "I swear if you take a picture –"

"Do you guys need refills?" Lucy saves the day by stopping by, and her gaze sweeps over the table like she's memorizing all of this. Rylan, still groaning about his game being ruined while he eats his chicken fingers. Jason, taking a picture of Eric and laughing when he declares both Zander and Eric are making the same face. Harrison and my mother, now whispering quietly, as she expresses her total concern for what's going on in Erudite.

And finally me, sitting by Eric, while he keeps glancing in my direction, silently demanding I move Zander.

All in all, this feels more like a family lunch than anything I've experienced before.

"Lucy, can you bring me the check? Whenever you get the chance?"

Harrison catches her attention, and her eyes widen. She's cool looking, her eyebrow pierced with a row of rings, and her eye makeup dark and dramatic, but in front of Harrison, she looks nervous. Clyde's is packed right now, and I've watched her bounce around from table to table. There are people from every faction in here, and she hasn't' stopped for a second. Visiting Day is something I'd completely forgotten about, but it's in full swing here.

"Sure. Um, give me a minute. I'll be right back."

"If you do get married, you'll let me know, won't you?" My mother looks at me pleadingly, and she's more coherent than ever. I wonder if she's stopped taking the peace serum altogether, or if this is because she's with Harrison.

I also wonder what part of her logically thought it was a great idea for me to marry Eric. I wasn't opposed to it, but it seemed odd that she was so willing to let me spend the rest of my life with a man from another faction that I only knew because I walked into him.

Next to her, Harrison listens. He cracks the barest of smiles, and right then and there, I know they've talked about this.

"Um, sure." I answer, carefully taking another sip of my drink. "I'll keep you posted."

"I thought you didn't want to get married," Eric looks at me out of the corner of his eye, and he's smug. "Even though you said you accepted my proposal."

I stare up at him, his grey eyes flashing with total amusement, and a tiny speck of warmth. There's nothing angry or mean, nothing rude and demanding, just pure and total want, along with the desire to remind me I told him he was too old to marry.

"Wait, you proposed? In my game, you just married her. There was no proposal. She just woke up and was married. I thought we were going with that plot," Rylan huffs, and he crosses his arms over his chest. "Why wasn't I there for this proposal?"

"There wasn't one," Jason elbows him, and I realize Eric's friends know a surprising amount about him. "He just…the paperwork, remember?"

I stare at him curiously, and suddenly, I find myself wondering if what I had signed was not at all a statement of what had happened, but something else altogether.

"Everly?" My mother says my name, and Eric smirks even wider.

I smile back at him, unable to answer my mother, because I have a feeling the name on my card isn't just a way to make me exist here, but the name of Eric's wife.

---

"Are we married?"

I stare up at him in front of the chasm, and the roar of the water is so loud I can barely think straight.

It's not at all an ideal location to be asking him this, but it is a few steps behind everyone else, and the water offers some privacy.

"Eric?"

"Everly," he finally answers me, slowly, and his eyes are dark. He's a single step ahead, but he stops when I tug on his hand. "Why do you want to know?"

There is a slow clink in my head as I put this all together, and the most prominent realization is how hopeful I am. Not because I think this will end badly, but because I want it to be him and me. I want all of this, my family visiting with Harrison, Eric and his friends eating lunch together, us being together, without anyone trying to come between us except my little brother.

"Did you ever want to marry Ashley?"

I ask the words without thinking. She wasn't exactly a threat these days. I hadn't seen her call or text him, and I hadn't heard her name mentioned. She would marry him without question, and I wonder if he liked that.

"Knock it off." He snarls his answer at me, and he closes the distance between us. Up ahead, Harrison points to something in the distance, and my mother and Zander follow him along the pathway. "Why are you asking me about her?" Now he looks mad. His eyes burn with irritation, and his hands clench into fists. "What gave you that idea?"

"I don't know. I was just thinking…she would marry you the second she got the chance," I look up at him, and he looks at me. "I don't know anything about your past relationships. I don't know anything about what happened before me. I just… sometimes I wonder if it was easier with her. I only said I didn't want to marry you because everyone thinks I can't do anything on my own. Not because I don't want to be married someday."

He relaxes a fraction of an inch. The tension in his shoulders lessens, and he drops his chin down. He lets me finish talking, and he's temporarily patient.

"Rylan said something and I wondered if maybe what I signed wasn't just… a form about Landon."

"It wasn't," Eric relents, and he suddenly looks uneasy. It's a strange look for him, but it's gone in a second. "Part of it was. I needed your statement on why Harrison killed Landon, but the other part…"

He stops, and his hands find mine.

They are warm. I step closer and everything else is drowned out by the roar of the waterfall.

"The other part is paperwork to make sure you stay here. Once we oversee Amity, the boundaries fall away. If I marry you before they elect a new leader, then you're a member of Dauntless, not Amity. It's never happened before, but we involved Candor to make sure it would work. Rylan has been helping. So has Harrison."

"But he's leaving…"

"If he accepts. He said he wishes he hadn't wasted so much time not knowing you. More than likely, he'll go to Amity and oversee it and play it by ear. My guess is he won't return. Even if Hank does."

"Have you heard anything?" I look up at him, and his hands find my waist. "Harrison said he still wasn't doing any better and he keeps asking to leave."

Eric is silent in a way which tells me he does know something. His fingers curl into my back, inching me closer, and when he looks at me, there's a slight hint of hesitation in his eyes.

"Daniel called me right before lunch. Hank has asked for you to come see him, but only you. I told Daniel I'd bring you there."

"When?" I gasp the word. Around us, the water seems to pick up. It gushes over the rocks and into nothingness, and it fills the air with a cold dampness that hurts. Eric must sense this, because I'm against his chest before I can say anything else, and his fingers work up my spine, neatly pressing one by one.

"Tonight."

---

My goodbyes are rough.

For one, my mother isn't leaving and neither is Harrison. Both sit next to Zander, in the mess hall, trying to downplay their panic.

I had spent the rest of the afternoon with them. Harrison didn't exactly take them on a tour of the faction, but more or less the safer places. We wandered through stores, we got coffees from a cavernous underground coffee shop, and he showed us where and how one got a tattoo here. Zander was fascinated with all of it; he cried when my mother refused to buy him a pair of the dark boots that were for sale, and he looked smug when Harrison did buy them. I trailed along behind them, and I was shocked at what I saw.

They should have been together.

My mother and Harrison's relationship was far unlike the relationship my mother and Hank had. There was an ease to them, and a genuine connection that couldn't be hidden behind forced kindness. Harrison kept a careful eye on my mother and Zander, and he was never far away. He smiled when he looked at her, warm and happy, and it only faltered when he saw me watching. He flashed me a grin, and I couldn't blame him.

He loves her.

He loves her so much I could visibly see it. Every single part of him loves her, even though she was here to talk about her husband. It made my chest hurt when he touched her arm to show her a sign on the wall asking members not to run through this area, and it made my stomach turn over when she smiled up at him.

Her own happiness was as rare as mine.

Her days were spent pretending, carefully shoving pieces of a life together in hopes of making a complete picture. From the outside, it looked good. A doting husband, a million children, a large, rambling house full of hot meals and warm desserts. Bright clothes. Two dedicated members of Amity, helping their faction the best they could.

Up close, the stress was more than visible.

An unhappy marriage, doomed from the start.

Two sets of children, looking nothing alike, all vying for love and affection.

A large, rambling house, full of secrets.

I wonder what it would have been like to grow up here, or even in Amity, with Harrison. I wonder a million things, but none of them are real, and they all make my head hurt. It hurts even more when I realize I don't have much longer before I have to leave for Erudite.

I linger by a row of knives, most real and some fake, trying to figure out what to do.

Eric had asked me to keep quiet about going to see my father. My mother didn't know he'd asked for me, and neither did Harrison. Eric looked uncomfortable when I told him I should say something, and when pressed, he told me Daniel was insistent I was the only one there.

I loathed the idea of keeping a secret from my mother. She was the one who fully supported me and my decision to be in Dauntless, and she'd never once told me to stay away from Eric.

But now she looks suspicious, and rightfully so.

"We'll be back in a little bit. I have to get a few more statements and Everly is coming with me."

Eric's words aren't a total lie. He informed me he wanted to talk with Jeremy, and Jeremy is currently in Erudite. Since Four had punched him in the face, they had to be separated. I wanted to ask why they'd been fighting, but all Eric would say was that they were both annoying and they deserved each other.

"What time will you be back?" Harrison looks at Eric, not me, and his tone isn't impressed. "You can call Jeremy, you know."

Eric throws him a winning smile, but it's more fake than ever.

"I did. He didn't answer his phone. Plus, I need his signature."

"Alright," Harrison shrugs. "You don't need my permission to leave the faction. Neither does Everly."

The tone of his voice implies he knows I could very well stay here. It's not detrimental that I go along with Eric if I'm going for the reasons Eric gave him. His stare tells me he assumes I'm going to see Hank.

"Will you still be here when I get back?" I hug my mother goodbye, hoping she'll say yes. She moves to the side so I can hug Zander, and he flings himself at me like he hasn't been annoying me all day. "Will I see you again?"

"I'm sure," my mom smiles, and Zander holds on tighter.

Tiny hands paw at my skirt, and he threatens to pull the whole dress down as he tries to get me to pick him up.

"I love you, Everly. Come home," he whispers. He clings to my dress, and when my mother comes to pry him away, he shrieks. "No! I want to stay with Everly!"

"I won't be gone long. I meant to ask you, did you like Dauntless?" I bend down so I'm at his level, and he stares back from beneath a mess of dark hair. "Maybe Harrison will take you to the kitchens. Or…the waterfall."

He considers this.

"Coffee?"

"I'm sure he'll take you back to get more coffee," I grin at his bargain, and so does Harrison.

"We can go back. You can show me the way if you remember," he throws out, mostly convincing Zander. "Actually, if we head that way, they might let you make your own drink. There's a shift change and one of the owners will be working."

"Okay, well…just be careful. I'll wait until I see you before we leave. I wanted to go say hello to Jake. I saw him and his mom earlier." My mother makes a promise she can't really keep, but it's alright. I'm so happy I got to see her, and I hope she's here when I get back. "Everly…"

"I love you," I hug her again, and I break away only because Eric clears his throat. He's not impatient or trying to hurry me, he's just standing there talking to Max, like all of this is completely normal.

It's not.

It's not even normal when, twenty minutes later, he helps me climb up into the truck. The docking bay is quiet. There's really no one else here, except for a few soldiers. They linger; a few wave in approval as he backs up the truck, and one waves him on to head through the gates. He's even quiet as he approaches the security checkpoint, and one sharp turn later, Dauntless is a blur behind us.

It's funny to watch. I feel like every time I leave somewhere, my time there isn't really done. I'd felt a weird closure with Amity, but I knew it wasn't the last I'd set foot there. Now, I feel a weird longing for Dauntless. I want to return, and I know I will, but having my mom and Zander there makes it feel wrong to leave.

I think about this the whole drive to Erudite, quiet and dark, and ultimately, incredibly unsure of what to expect.

---

What I don't expect is to ask Eric a question that changes everything.

He drives through Erudite easily. He keeps one hand on the steering wheel, and the other toys with the ends of my hair. We head through a different part of Erudite that I don't remember seeing, or maybe I did and it was lost in the dark. Large houses appear before us, and I stare at them, each one more grand than the last. The street is long, and it winds around and around until I have no clue where we are. It's dark, but well lit. Each house has a large gate in front of it, and some are set so far back I can't see them.

Eric is silent as he weaves down a hill, and the back of a building comes out of nowhere. I make a guess it's the hospital, and when he drives around to the front, I'm right.

Like everything else in Erudite, the hospital is large and white, looming over me with a rather ominous feeling. Eric parks in a lane marked Priority Vehicles. I want to ask if anyone else in Erudite could drive. Only a handful of people in Amity know how to drive. The work trucks are old, and often hard to maneuver if you didn't know what you were doing. In Dauntless, it seemed like plenty of soldiers knew how to drive the trucks, though it was a select group who did.

In Erudite, there are a few unmarked cars parked along the lane, including one sleeker than the rest. I stare at it as I slide over to climb out of the truck, but I stop when Eric reaches for me.

"Are you okay?"

His hands find my waist. The gesture is both chivalrous, since the drop down is nearly as far as I am tall, and an easy way for him to touch me. His fingers curl into my waist, and I hesitate for a split second before I fall forward. My feet hit the solid, pristine street, and even their roads seem pretentious.

"Everly?"

"I just need to ask you something." I stare up at his face, basked in warm, attractive lighting pouring out of a streetlight. Eric considers my statement, and I watch him mentally debate answering me.

He isn't great with sharing information.

It had taken a lot to learn the few things I knew about him, and a lot more to get him to admit he wanted me to live with him.

"Fine. One question, Amity."

"Two," I take a page out of Zander's book and I try my hand at bargaining. Eric shakes his head, and I scrunch up my face. "Three. Four?"

"That's the opposite of how this works," Eric retorts, but he doesn't let go of me. "What do you want to know? Why I didn't tell you Daniel called sooner? I didn't have time. He called as I was walking to lunch."

"No, not that. I wanted to ask you, would you have married her if I wasn't here? If you and I had never met, do you think you would have married Ashley?"

He flinches at her name. It's quick; so fast I nearly miss it, but there.

"Did you sleep with her in your bed?"

"Everly," he says my name warningly, and I don't know why I'm suddenly so fixated on her. Maybe it was seeing my mom and Harrison together. Or maybe it was my night spent with Eric, feeling safe and happy and finally like something in my life was right. Maybe I was afraid of Ashley, that she could ruin all this for me. She hasn't even been around, nor is she in front of us, but I want to hear him say what we had going on wasn't what he'd already had with someone else.

Giving up my entire life in Amity, even if it was a miserable time with an even more miserable future coming for me, was still nerve wracking.

"I just need to know if you…"

I can't say the rest.

He waits.

His stare is dark and unhappy, heavy with a reluctance to answer me, but he knows what I'm asking. He finally looks away, and shrugs.

"Yes."

My stomach sinks, and I don't know which one he's answering.

"I never would have married her. Ever. She was no one. She was convenient. But she's been in my apartment a few times. Not like you. She never stayed the night," he answers tightly, and I feel marginally better knowing this. "Why does she bother you so much? Why do you want to know about her?"

His questions are sharp, but it helps hide his defensive feelings regarding her. "Why? Did she hurt you? Has she tried to hurt you?"

Eric's grip tightens at the thought, and when I shake my head no, he steps closer.

"Everly…"

"I just don't want her to have the same thing. Every time I've ever met her, she's been awful. I don't want to think about you with her, or that maybe this is what you two shared." My concerns, valid and honest, seem dumb when I say them out loud.

Eric had made a place for me in his life, and I was acting like her photo is hanging in the hallway.

"Landon only liked me for one reason. I guess, I just want this to be real." My voice wavers at the end, and I shake my head, hoping to dispel the sick feeling that I might cry in front of him.

I try to stop it, but he doesn't miss much.

"You have no idea how real this is," Eric answers thickly, and he drops his head down. One hand leaves my waist to grasp the back of my head, and he carefully tilts my head up to look at him. "You have no idea what you signed."

"The paperwork?" I ask, and my answer is his lips brushing mine. It's slow and soft, and he gently bites down on my lower lip. He doesn't move, but when he does, my next words are quiet. "Did you…are we married?"

His nose grazes mine.

I feel him suck in a sharp inhale, and his grip tightens in my hair.

I don't get my answer.

Behind us, the doors to the hospital slide open as an alarm goes off, and someone yells out his name. He lifts his head away, turning it in the direction of the voice, and his lips part open as he starts to sneer.

There, a few feet away, dressed in blue scrubs, is Daniel and a woman I can only assume is Eric's mother.

Blythe.