Page 34 of Wicked Knight

Regardless of how I feel about him and what his intentions are, the sensible thing to do is ask him to release me from the contract. Release me and say goodbye.

I can’t see another way around it.

Maybe I’ll just have to take that kiss as a keepsake. And it will have to be enough.

Fear is a constant companion these days. Fear of never getting the chance to live my dream. Fear of wanting a guy I can’t have. Fear of crossing a line I can never come back from.

This is me being cautious.

Wanting Dmitri is a mistake I can’t afford.

I walk into the main hall of the Verge, the campus club, and admire the decorations. The Thetas and Sigmas always use the club for the joint parties because it’s the perfect venue.

The massive multilevels provide the perfect workspace to do anything they want.

Tonight, they’ve decorated the place in an old European style that reminds me of the classic castles in Romania and Italy. It perfectly matches the Venetian masquerade theme of the party.

Energy pulses around me in a swirl of sparkling lights, muted laughter and chatter, and glittering Venetian masks.

Everyone around me is dressed in their finest, wearing red-carpet-worthy ball gowns and suits. Those wearing decorative masks have selected the styles that have feathers and fur and diamantes.

Mine is a simple black lace mask that doesn’t do much to conceal my identify but matches the bodice of my mid-length A-line dress and my Louboutin heels.

I glance around the sea of students in search of my friends. And him—Dmitri.

Is he here already?

I look toward a group of Sigmas talking it up near the long casement windows. From their conversation, I can tell they’ve recently gone through initiation and became Knights. I recognize one or two of them. I went to high school at Raventhorn Academy with most people here, but even then, the student body was so vast that it was impossible to remember everyone’s faces.

Dmitri isn’t over there with the group. Nor is he with a group I spot talking to Caspian and Thorne Ivanov.

He and his friends either turn up just on time or fashionably late. Either way works because they makeeverythinglook and seem cool. It was like that in high school, too.

I don’t think he’s here yet. Even though I just arrived, I’d know by now from the attention he and his friends attract.

Like last year, there Verge has collaborated with Dark Odyssey—a sex club. So, as I look around, I catch glimpses of the sorts of risqué, racy plans they’ve yet to unveil for us tonight.

Most of the parties like these have some sexy element to them. As if to amplify a dark fantasy and highlight their differences between parties in the real world and parties here at Raventhorn.

I’ve actually been to Dark Odyssey before—I’m a little adventurous that way. Being that kind of adventurous can be good and bad in equal parts.

I first went to the club when I was seventeen. My then boyfriend, Dominic, took me. He was a guy I definitely shouldn’t have been with.

I actually met him at a party when I was sixteen.AndI kept him a secret from my parents. He was five years older, not from the Knights, and loved danger way too much. I was with him right up until the summer before college began.

We broke up when I caught him cheating on me with my skanky cousin, Jennifer.

Honestly, we were heading toward the end anyway because of his dangerous lifestyle. Last time I checked, I heard he was in some scandal for drug trafficking, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he was in prison somewhere.

After Dominic, I became a lot more street smart and savvy. Given what happened to me with Tommy, I should have never been with a guy like him. But it was what I call my rebellious stage. It started when Dmitri got his first girlfriend and I realised I lost him and we were never going to be the way we used to.

I walk down the little set of stairs toward the display of flowers and pink smoke floating around it. There I find my friends. They’re standing by the chocolate fountain, talking away.

Isabelle, Annika, Savanah, and Sawyer are standing by the bar, wearing long elegant gowns and simple black masks similar to mine.

While Annika looks like she could be Savanah and Sawyer’s sister because they have the same platinum hair, Isabelle’s raven hair stands out from them.

She has it down in long waves, and I’m glad she’s swapped her usual Lolita-style dress for a champagne-coloured sleeveless gown.