“Let go of me!”
Talia kicked at his shin.
But Gareth was not foolish enough to fall for the same trick twice. He swiftly avoided the blow, then viciously twisted her arm behind her back and burst into light, mocking laughter right in her face.
“I never would’ve imagined it... The imperial family’s greatest nuisance secretly harboring feelings for the eastern young lord!”
Talia stared up at him with horrified eyes.
It felt as though every drop of blood in her body had frozen solid.
She hurriedly forced her expression back under control.
“Don’t talk nonsense. Who would ever—”
“You’re right. It is nonsense. An illegitimate bastard not knowing her place and daring to covet the heir of House Siorcan!”
Apparently delighted at finally uncovering the weakness of the half-sister he had always despised, Gareth was practically shaking with laughter now.
He seized her chin with one hand and breathed sour, alcohol-laced breath directly into her face.
“Blood never lies, does it? Then again, where would the filthy nature of a cheap whore who covets another woman’s man possibly go?”
Talia glared at him with blazing eyes.
Gareth smirked down at her vicious face before shoving her away and releasing her.
Then he added lazily,
“So stop dreaming impossible dreams. Varkas isn’t someone trash like you could ever dare to—”
“You forgot one thing, Brother. The blood running through me doesn’t belong only to a vulgar whore. It also belongs to a man who abandoned his heavily pregnant wife to fool around with a girl barely out of childhood.”
In an instant, the smile vanished completely from the Crown Prince’s face.
Talia slowly continued while staring directly into that grotesquely twisted expression.
“Now that I think about it, that shameless bastard’s blood runs through your body too, doesn’t it?”
She saw tension flood his massive muscular frame.
She knew she should stop here.
But she could not allow things to end with him alone holding her weakness over her head.
Talia curved her lips into the same filthy smile he had shown her.
“Since you uncovered my secret, perhaps I should uncover one of yours as well?”
For the briefest moment, faint unease flickered in Gareth’s eyes.
Talia watched it mockingly before leaning close to whisper softly into his ear.
“There’s a discreet rumor circulating among the maids. They say His Highness the noble Crown Prince only seeks out women with deep wheat-colored hair and eyes as blue as the sea.”
The bronze color drained instantly from Gareth’s face.
Talia smiled maliciously at his deathly pale expression.
“For some reason, I feel like I know exactly who the woman in your dreams was the first night you became a man and dirtied a bed for the very first time...”
Her lips curved further.
“Should I take a guess?”
His entire body convulsed as though struck by lightning.
A voice in her mind warned that if she did not stop now, he truly might kill her this time.
But as always, Talia listened to the devil urging her onward.
“There’s no need to tremble like that. I’m a kind sister, after all. I’ll keep your secret until the very end. The fact that His Highness the Crown Prince seems to have inherited the Emperor’s blood very, very strongly.”
The moment she finished speaking, a violent impact snapped her head sideways.
Talia collapsed onto the ground, clutching her burning cheek.
Her vision swam violently, as though she had suffered a concussion.
Dizzy, she tried to push herself upright—
Only for Gareth to climb over her and wrap both hands around her throat.
It felt as though her eyes would burst from their sockets.
Talia struggled desperately.
She clawed bloody marks down his arms with her sharp nails and kicked wildly against his stone-like body, but her weakened body was pitifully powerless.
Flopping helplessly like a fish dragged onto land, Talia soon went limp.
Then suddenly, the crushing force strangling her neck vanished all at once.
Talia twisted violently and sucked in ragged breaths.
Through tear-blurred ✧ NоvеIight ✧ (Original source) vision, she saw Varkas gripping Gareth’s arm.
Varkas looked down at her with an expressionless face that resembled a mask before shifting his gaze toward Gareth.