Chapter 33
----------------------------------------------------------------- Translator: Diva Chapter: 33 Chapter Title: Talia's Resolve -----------------------------------------------------------------
Sending the attendants away, she followed him out of the colonnade, and a garden thickly overgrown with marigolds, daisies, and rosemary came into view.
The plants, soaked through with water, wafted a thick grassy scent into the air. Aila inhaled the sharp fragrance deeply before turning to gaze up at Barkas.
"Was something going on last night?"
At the question she spat out hesitantly, the man walking quietly beside her turned his head toward her.
Aila peered straight into his eyes. Those pale blue irises, glowing faintly, held nothing at all. Meeting those colorless eyes that seemed to reflect everything just as it was made her chest tighten anew.
Will the day ever come when I dwell within them?
Lost in such thoughts, she watched as Barkas's firmly pressed lips finally parted.
"There was nothing worth Your Highness's concern."
"...So something did happen."
Barkas made no reply and strode briskly into the garden where rain poured down.
Heavy raindrops blanketed his broad shoulders and back in white. She stared at his unyielding back ahead of her with dissatisfied eyes when Barkas extended one hand toward her.
"The puddle's deep."
Realizing what he meant, Aila flushed and shot him a quick glare.
She had no desire to fling herself into the arms of such a sly man. Yet she couldn't very well leave her fiancé waiting for her in the downpour. After feigning reluctance for a moment, Aila sidled up to him.
Barkas bent slightly, slipped one arm behind her knees, and lifted her effortlessly.
Aila rested her head on his shoulder, just as she had since she was a five-year-old child.
"You know you've got a sneaky side to you, right?"
His eyebrow arched faintly at the accusation out of nowhere. Rather than explain her tangled, nuanced feelings in detail, Aila simply hugged him tighter.
Barkas wrapped her body seamlessly in his cloak and crossed the wide rear garden. Aila buried one cheek in his collar.
Barkas's body carried the sharp scent of herbs, a faint metallic tang from his armor, and a distant aroma like dry leaves or hay. While lost in that cool, personal scent, her sour mood melted away like a lie. Aila let out a self-mocking laugh.
She felt ridiculous, her heart fluttering like some lovesick girl over an act that was nothing more than an old habit for him.
This man's affection toward her existed only to honor a vow made with her mother. Courtesy born of duty. Nothing more, nothing less. She knew that full well, yet she couldn't stop the ache in her heart.
Cruel man. You should just stop pretending to be kind. Then maybe I could have settled for a purely political bond...
She lowered her eyes sadly.
"I'll have bathwater sent to your room. Please warm yourself and rest."
Barkas, who had crossed the rear garden in moments, halted at the entrance to the lodging and spoke. Aila nodded.
Barkas ascended the stone steps with ease and bent slightly as if to set her down.
At that moment, the sky flashed, followed by a deafening thunderclap that echoed through the air.
Aila reflexively threw her arms around his nape.
The earth-shaking roar continued as golden lightning tore through the black clouds. Staring blankly over his shoulder at the apocalyptic scene, she suddenly caught sight of a pale figure perched at a second-floor window.
For an instant, she wondered if she was seeing some horrifying hallucination. Aila's mouth fell open in a daze.
The flickering light illuminated a face so gorgeously beautiful it bordered on the grotesque. The snowy visage atop a neck as fragile as if it might snap burned with a chilling hatred.
She had always known of her half-sister's unearthly beauty, so why did it shock her so?
In the heart of the storm, Talia's eyes gleamed with venom, making her look like the angel of death itself. Aila held her breath without realizing it at the profoundly ominous sight. Then, Talia—who had stood motionless like a statue—picked up the vase on the windowsill. Moments later, the porcelain flew toward the pillar near where they stood.
Aila screamed.
Thanks to Barkas shielding her, she avoided being pelted with glass shards, but a small scratch marred his face. Aila hurriedly pulled out a handkerchief and pressed it to his cheek.
Barkas took it with his usual impassive expression, dabbed at his face, and glanced upward.
Following his gaze, Aila spotted Talia still glaring down at her and stiffened.
Showing not the slightest remorse for her actions, Talia twisted her lips as she shot daggers with her eyes. Her bloodied mouth resembled a crushed rose.
A terror deeper than anger writhed in Aila's chest. The half-sister she had always dismissed as harmless suddenly felt like the most sinister and threatening presence in the world. It was as if the demon that had plunged her mother into misery would now drag her into the abyss of despair as well.
Aila shuddered with a chilling premonition.
* * *
The rain that had fallen all night finally let up at dawn.
Talia, who had barely slept a wink, gazed out at the garden in the pale morning light with hollow eyes.
The once-vibrant green leaves lay half-buried in mud, reeking of thick, fishy grass, while the flowers that had brightly adorned the beds now sprawled like broken-necked corpses.
Staring down at the scene with bleary eyes, Talia slid out of bed and approached the small table before the fireplace.
Untouched food had hardened stiffly on the silver plate. She glanced over it indifferently before picking up the small knife beside the tray.
Crafted for cutting food, it looked plenty capable of slicing flesh too.
Talia ran her fingertip along the razor-sharp blade, then slipped it into the pocket of her gown and slipped out of the room.
Damp moisture clung thickly to the corridor. She moved through the sticky, heavy air as if swimming, gripping the ice-cold knife tight.
Cold sweat slicked her palm. She couldn't tell if it was from tension, excitement, or both.
She moistened her parched lips and crept up the stairs like a furtive stray cat.
Aila occupied a room on the topmost floor. Reaching the top of the stairs, Talia pressed herself against the wall and scanned the pitch-dark corridor. Fortunately, no one stood guard at the door.
Letting out a small sigh of relief, Talia tiptoed toward the door at the far end.
As she neared the iron-banded wooden door, a faint herbal scent stung her nose—the aroma of incense burned to soothe the nerves.
Talia twisted her lips. It seemed even Aila's night hadn't been entirely peaceful. Recalling that face drained pale with fear at the sight of her, Talia let out a snicker. But the image that followed sent her mood plummeting to rock bottom.
Her face contorting ferociously, Talia thrust her hand into her pocket and seized the knife hilt.
Her entire body trembled. The moment she had seen Barkas carrying Aila through the pouring rain in his arms, something she had barely held together had come crashing down.
She roughly wiped her blurring eyes with her gown sleeve.
It was her one and only memory.
A treasured keepsake, buried deep in her heart and secretly unearthed over long years.
Did even that memory have to be reduced to nothing?
Couldn't they have left just one thing—something special that belonged only to the two of them?
Her mind seethed with rage. She knew the emotion was irrational. And yet she simply couldn't forgive those two.
She yearned to punish Aila for stealing even her last sanctuary. She wanted to repay that man with the same pain she had felt.
Talia glared at the firmly shut door, steeling her burning eyes. Crossing this threshold would mean fording a river from which there was no return.
She might even go down in history as the wicked sorceress who stole the life of a blameless princess. But what did it matter? She was already branded the worst villainess. What more was there to lose by sinking even lower?
With a hand that shook uncontrollably, she gripped the doorknob.