𝐋𝐞𝐚𝐯𝐞 𝐘𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐁𝐨𝐝𝐲 𝐆𝐨𝐥𝐝𝐞𝐧 | 𝐓𝐊

xvi

Jeongguk sees red. His blood runs hot, thrumming with the burning desire to claw Jisung's chest open and rip his fucking heart out. The man is still attacking him, managing to hurt him now and then but Jeongguk digs his claws deeper in his chest, watching his blood seep out slow and painful. He wants the man to suffer, what is a quick, painless death to him?

No one is allowed to interfere in the fight, no matter what. It only ends if one man gives in or loses consciousness to fight more. Death is also a possibility. And when Jeongguk realizes that Jisung has bled enough to the point where he has to fight to keep his eyes open, only then does he ease some pressure on him. He can easily bare his fangs and shred the Alpha but he has more to say to the man before he has to kill him.

He pulls back as he shifts, he motions for the servant who is already half way in to wrap him in a new robe and hands him back his sword. Jeongguk turns back to face Jisung, seeing him fight with himself to stay awake. Carelessly, Jeongguk puts a foot over his still bleeding chest, weight resting on the sword which he uses to steady himself. He has lost blood too but nothing to knock him off his feet yet.

He leans down over the man, instead of cheers and yells, there is now murmurs around the arena. The Empress' face is not as amused as before. After all, Jeongguk did play her dirty trick back at her.

"How does it feel? Drugged, helpless, being taken advantage of?" He doesn't raise his voice, he knows Jisung hears him. "You must feel pathetic right now," he comments coldly as he watches Jisung cough up blood.

"You won't– you didn't win," Jisung tries to speak, words broken and voice hoarse but there's still this glint in his eyes as if he isn't just bleeding to death. "You cheat, you're out," he tells as if Jeongguk doesn't know that. As if Jeongguk gives a single fuck about that.

"I wasn't sure why you didn't declare a war on Mystik all this time," Jeongguk continues, he couldn't care less what the other man had to say to him, he continues what he is here to say, "Didn't make sense when you instead challenged me. If it was on me, I never would have spared you a single breath near my Omega again," he shakes his head, foot pressing down harder, "Until I received a very delightful letter the next day," he pulls back, instead crouching near the man.

There's almost an eerie silence around them now. Even if no one can tune in to hear what Jeongguk is saying, everyone is still holding their breaths as if they do.

"You knew he hated your guts, you knew he was gonna bite your limbs off if you dared to touch him," Jeongguk takes ta compose himself, he closes his eyes for a brief moment before he looks at the Alpha again, "So you drugged him to induce his heat that day," his voice doesn't waver but inside, his heart squeezes with anguish and fury by the mere thought of it.

"And this," he gestures to his sword before placing the sharp, thin blade over Jisung's throat, watches the moment reality of the situation sets with the man, "This challenge was my way to slice you open with my sword," the blade digs deeper, Jisung panics. But since he is too weak to move his muscles right now, he can not shift to save his life either. "As for my Omega, like I said, he was never a prize to be won." Blood splatters up, painting him in red as in the next moment, the sword slashes through Jisung's flesh.

Taehyung drops to his knees, unable to keep his body up. Nora surges forward to grab onto him, she is there, she is calling the maids to bring water for him, to help him stand up. But Jisung is dead and something inside Taehyung has died too, with the new revelations opening up to him all at once.

Nora's earlier words echo inside his brain endlessly. His mother knew he was drugged, his mother knew what Jisung planned to do that night if Taehyung hadn't ran away. She didn't know at the day of marriage but later after Taehyung ran away. But she still let the Alpha go for such a heinous act, because she didn't want Nevernight– Jisung's pack to bring war upon Mystik Kingdom. Nora had overheard the conversation in the courtroom, she had tried to find Taehyung, tried thinking of any possible way she could have helped him.