Page 5 of Ruthless Knot

Don't move. Don't react. Just stand there like marble statues carved from ice and cruelty and all the cold things that go bump in the night.

So I move for them.

One foot in front of the other, still en pointe, still maintaining that perfect ballerina posture even as I descend the stage steps. The spotlight follows me—I programmed it to, spent hours getting the timing just right—bathing me in gold as I walk toward my devils.

My hips sway with each step, a seductive roll that's pure predator, pure threat, purechallenge. My eyes never leave Kai's, even as I close the distance. Even as I can finally see him properly—the sharp cut of his jaw, the brutal beauty of his face, the way his alpha scent hits me like a physical blow.

Smoke and cedar and something darker. Something that smells like power and violence and a promise I can't quite name.

My bare toes—still shoved into those mismatched ballet shoes—stop just inches from his polished boots. Up close, he's even more devastating. Tall enough that I have to tilt my head back. Built like a fortress.

And looking at me like I'm either the most interesting thing he's ever seen or the most dangerous.

Smart boy.

The others have gone stock-still, their body language screamingthreat assessment. Calculating odds. Planning defensive positions.

But I only have eyes for Kai.

In one fluid motion—the kind that comes from years of practice, years of surviving, years of becoming something more than just a broken Omega—I pull the dual blades from where they've been hidden in the tattered layers of my tutu.

The metal sings as it comes free.

Matching daggers with black handles and wickedly curved blades that I've sharpened myself until they could split atoms. I twirl them once—a flashy little flourish that makes them catch the light—before bringing both tips to rest against the underside of Kai's chin.

His pack tenses.

I feel rather than see them move—Jett's hand going to wherever he keeps his weapons, Blaze's fingers flexing in that blade-work pattern, Sage already calculating exit routes and attack vectors.

But Kai?

Kai doesn't fuckingflinch.

He stares down at me with those devastating eyes—dark brown, almost black, with flecks of amber that catch the stage lights—and I swear I see the corner of his mouth twitch.

Like he'samused.

Like this is all some grand entertainment put on for his benefit.

The rage inside mehowls.

I press the blades harder, not quite breaking skin butclose. Close enough that one wrong move, one slight miscalculation, and I'd open his throat in a smile that would never stop grinning.

Forever used to sound impossible...

The song's final lyric echoes in my mind, a ghost of the performance still clinging to my skin. Forever. What a beautiful lie that word is. What a perfect piece of propaganda.

There is no forever.

There's only now, only this moment, only the sharp edge of a blade against the throat of the man whose family destroyed mine.

"So tell me, my ruthless enemy," I purr, my voice dropping into something soft and deadly, something that promises sweet violence and sweeter revenge. My eyes bore into his, unflinching, unafraid,unbroken. "What alliance is worthy enough for me to dare dance with the devils of Hard Knot Academy?"

CHAPTER 1

Letters To A Ghost

~SERAPHINE~