Page 12 of Sardonic Burn

“This is reckless,” she says with a sly grin. “I’m here with my father, fiancé, and brother. One of them is bound to take you out. Do you thinkIwill let you leave this place in one piece?”

She throws my words back at me, and I can’t help but snarl at her. I’m gripping the handle too tightly and it leaves a red mark on the inside of my palm. But I can’t afford to care about the little imperfection on my otherwise perfect body.

“How bold,” I chuckle lowly.

This is the first time her expression switches from taunting and mocking to pure fear. It’s only for a split second, but it’s there, and I can see it. Noelle’s lip curls into something resembling a snarl, and I can’t figure out if it’s because I saw the fear that she’s been trying so desperately to hide, or because she realized she’s cornered.

“Get out of my face,” she spits, venom lacing her tongue. “Let me go.”

I tilt my head to the side with a grin. “Or what? What will you do in this situation?”

To make the threat seem greater, I slice another piece of her flesh. It’s small, not enough to kill her or hurt her too much, but the blood coats the blade, and she flinches.

“I’ll scream.”

I blink. “That’s it? How cowardly of the woman who so boldly took a life last night.”

Noelle clicks her tongue against the rooftop of her mouth. “Ah, so that’s what this is all about. An eye for an eye, right? Then go ahead. Kill me right now. But you know it won’t end here, right?”

“I don’t care.” I lean to whisper in her ear, catching the sight of goosebumps tugging on her bare shoulders. “If I get to killtheNoelle Campbell, I don’t care what happens to me.”

Before all of this happened, I’d heard of Noelle Campbell.

We never had any similar paths, as the feud had seemed to be put on hold. I’d seen her at official gatherings and events like this one, but not once did we interact. She radiated with power and intelligence. Every man wanted her, and they weren’t shy in showing it.

She rejected every single one of them.

Noelle was never afraid, and always acted with violence and brutality.

That woman is now quivering while I have a knife pressed against her throat, unable to move.

“Bring it on.” She raises her voice, but it cracks, and that’s enough for me. It’s like the prettiest melody that I’ll remember forever. “A pathetic being like you will never be able to take my life.”

I nod. “Whatever you say, your highness.”

Noelle stares at me with so much hatred in her eyes. Her lips thin into a line, and she doesn’t have a witty response. She’s being openly mocked, and she can’t do anything about that.

That look in her eyes.

She’s killing me with a mere gaze.

I want to gouge out her eyeballs and feed them to her.

But now is not the time.

I did what I came here for: to warn her.

She will be looking over her shoulder for quite some time after this, and it will give me another opportunity to strike.

“The next time we see each other—” my lips are pressed against her ear. I remove the knife from her throat and in a swift, quick motion, I push the tip of it into her thigh until the entire blade is inside of her flesh. “I will kill you.”

Blood coats my hand, and I leave the knife in there.

Noelle trembles but doesn’t release a single sound. She’s swallowing the pain, and it brings out the sadist inside of me. Seeing her hurt, broken, and utterly pathetic is such a magnificent sight.

As soon as I leave her, she slumps to the tile floor and screams.

FOUR

---