THE KNIVES EDGE | M R ✔︎

SIX ⁂ RIDDLE

I knew Novaline couldn't follow through with her threats.

In order to bring on worry, she has to be believable.

She almost was.

She gave me the antidote, meaning the portion she drank is going to kill her off. I might just miss her.

Might.

Liar. I will.

For some, incredibly strange reason, I've grown to like this weird back and forth game between the two of us. It's fun.

"Aren't you just one annoying prick." She spits out, shoving me away from her. "Get the fuck out, Riddle."

There's emotion in her typically stoic eyes.

Fear.

"What can I say," I shrug, "I'd have to be annoying in order to put up with my brother."

"And he's somehow the more approachable one." She scoffs, biting the inside of her lip in a faux attempt to stop the tremble.

"No." I shake my head, reaching for the door. "No, he's not."

I don't look back at her as I pull the door open, pausing only a moment and then slamming it shut behind me.

I almost feel bad for her.

She isn't strong enough to kill someone. Hell, she isn't even strong enough to let someone die. She needed to save me.

Needed, not wanted.

Merlin knows Novaline wants me dead. Merlin knows all of the Wraths do.

My father is the reason that Ella Wrath and Grendel Wrath got locked away in Azkaban. They were disposable to my father. Expendable, even.

I approach the steps, my body in autopilot as I cascade down the stairs. The noise slowly refills my ears. Students dance, oblivious to the altercation that had happened just before hand. Novaline's were full of tears. Tears of fear. And despite the way she holds herself, brave, smart, emotionless, I'm the first of few to see this emotional side of her, raw with anxiety and nerves.

The Wraths would be ashamed.

I'm proud.

She's done well to hide her secrets, her deepest desires, and her lies. She's put on a show for all of Hogwarts and we've sat back and watched with popcorn in our hands and smiles on our faces.

She's a marionette, strung up and made to dance the way her freakishly large family wants her to. To put on a play and let us indulge ourselves in the mystery that is Novaline Wrath, all while others tug at her strings.

The moment I opened my eyes and saw that moment of weakness in her, I became determined to unwind those strings from her and set her free.

Because I saw myself in her eyes.

And I'm far too gone to be saved.

Novaline isn't.

I want to pull her apart and piece her back together. I want to know all of her secrets, her deepest desires, and her lies. I want to know her, not the her she was made to be.

I reach the bottom of the stairs, my mind racing a mile a minute. "Party's over! Everyone out!"

Nobody moves towards the exit, all turning their focus to me. They stare at me as if asking who I think I am. They stare at me as if they're trying to pick me apart and see inside my head.

They wouldn't survive a day in there.

"Now!" I demand, pointing at the exit.

That's when the chaos ensues, their movements all at once as they rush through the portrait.