Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
Leo went completely rigid, his fingers twisting tightly in the fabric of Tem’s dress, still holding her behind him. His next words were so quiet-so deadly-that Tem felt a chill go down her spine as he said, “I will return when I fucking well feel like it.”
Something dangerous glimmered in Maximus’s eyes. He stepped forward-just a single step-to say, “Ignorant boy. You will face consequences for this.”
Leo stood his ground. “Then I will face them with my wife.”
Father and son stared at each other.
After an endless moment, Maximus turned, mounted his horse, and was gone.
They stood alone in the street, Leo’s gaze locked on his father’s retreating form. Tem placed her palm tentatively between his shoulder blades, feeling the tension in his body.
On a whim, she said, “Take me somewhere, Leo.”
He turned slowly to face her. “Where shall I take you, Tem?”
“I don’t know. Impress me.”
Leo tilted his head, considering her request. “Very well.”
He held out his hand. Tem took it.
They wound through the streets together, heading toward the church. When they reached it, they didn’t walk up the steps, like Tem figured they would. Instead, Leo took her around the back, where a sprawling graveyard stretched to the top of a sloping hill. She nudged his shoulder.
“Are you planning to kill me?”
A small smile. “Not tonight, Tem.”
They walked slowly among the graves. For once, Tem was content to let Leo lead. He seemed to know where he was going, although she couldn’t imagine who would be buried here. His mother, the queen, was the only person in his immediate family who was dead. Surely, the royals had their own crypts deep beneath the castle. There would be no reason to bury the queen among the villagers.
Eventually, they stopped. But not at a grave.
Instead they had ascended the hill overlooking the graveyard, where a bench sat beneath a drooping willow tree. Leo’s gaze was trained on the trunk. Tem squinted to see what he was looking at. Two letters were carved into the whorled wood:
E + L.
Something tugged at Tem’s heart.
“E and L?” Tem whispered, although she already knew.
Leo stared at the tree, his eyes unfocused. “Evelyn and Leo,” he whispered back.
Evelyn was not a mistake.
“Who was she?”
“She was…important to me.”
Tem squeezed his hand.
“What happened to her?”
Leo’s jaw tightened. He turned to face Tem. “A prince is allowed to bed whoever he likes before the training. It’s encouraged, actually-the more the better. But relationships are forbidden. I’m supposed to save commitment for my wife. So when I met Evelyn, I figured she would just be another girl in my bed. But she wasn’t. She was…” He paused, and Tem could see the pain in his eyes. “…everything.”
A long moment passed before he spoke again.
“We used to meet there”-he gestured at the bench-“to talk for hours. I’d never talked to anyone like that before. In the castle, everyone talks at me. Evelyn talked to me. And she listened. I think that’s why I fell in love with her. Then my father found out.”
The tug on Tem’s heart intensified. “What did he do?” she asked despite herself.
“He didn’t approve. He never does. Evelyn came from a family of fishermen. Her parents were dead; her aunt had raised her. She was a year older than me, so she wasn’t eligible for the training. He told me I had to end it.”
“And did you?”
“No,” Leo said simply. “I didn’t.”
Tem turned that information over in her mind. Leo had courted a girl-a girl his father didn’t approve of, a girl just like Tem. She understood now why Maximus was so against their relationship, why he insisted on keeping them apart. This was a pattern for Leo. It begged the obvious question:
“So…what happened?”
Leo sighed. “We made plans to run away.”
That shocked Tem. “You were going to leave your family for her?”
“Evelyn was my family.”
Tem felt a chill go down her spine. She looked up at Leo. His eyes held nothing but hurt. “You loved her,” Tem whispered.
“Yes,” he whispered back, his voice nearly breaking. “I certainly did.”
Leo spoke with such finality that a small part of her soul was wounded by his words.
Tem tried to imagine Leo in love, Leo happy, Leo with Evelyn. The same knife of jealousy that had pierced her earlier twisted again in her now. You don’t care about him, she reminded herself. This is all for show. Yet even as she thought it, Tem knew it wasn’t true. She cared now, whether she wanted to or not.
Leo dropped her hand. He continued quietly, “The morning we were meant to leave, she didn’t show up. Eventually, I figured she had changed her mind, and I left.”
Tem stared at the carving on the tree. Just those two letters-nothing else. She knew if she waited, Leo would elaborate.
Still, the silence stretched on for minutes before he finally said, “I had my servants ask around about her. But she was gone.”
“Where did she go?”
He shook his head. “I don’t know.” Leo paused, and his next words were a broken whisper. “I…still come here most mornings. Just in case.”
He fell silent, and this time, Tem let the silence sit, wondering if she’d ever seen Evelyn at school. She’d never been particularly concerned with anyone in the grade above her; Tem’s schooldays had been spent simply trying to survive. Perhaps Gabriel had known her. The village was small; it was entirely possible. But if Evelyn had gone away, there was no telling where she could be now.
Tem took a moment to consider what this part of Leo’s past meant for their future. If he was still in love with Evelyn, his heart was closed off-not just to Tem but to anyone. The elimination process was pointless if he wasn’t ready to fall in love again.
She thought about how Leo had been drawn to her from the very beginning-how he seemed to revel in the way their courtship got under his father’s skin. What was the point in telling Tem about Evelyn if all it did was show her that Leo wasn’t available, that he was using her? Was Tem just a placeholder-somewhere for the prince to store his pain while he worked through his grief? Did she even have a right to be angry if that were indeed the case?
“Why did you bring me here?” she asked softly.
Leo sighed. “Because you asked me to impress you. And the only thing that seems to impress you is honesty. So I’m trying to be truthful about my past.” He paused, meeting her eye. “If it was a mistake, I pray you’ll forgive me. But I want you to know who I am.”
“It wasn’t a mistake.” Tem didn’t think twice before the words left her mouth. She meant them.
Leo nodded. “I’m glad.”
Tem stared up at him, every bone in her body wishing things were different. She wished they had more time to get to know each other-that perhaps she might reveal herself to him in the same way he had just revealed himself to her. Leo was being honest and open-something Caspen couldn’t seem to accomplish.
Before she could decide how to move forward, Leo said, “You don’t trust me, do you, Tem?”
New Book: Returned To Make Them Pay
On her wedding anniversary, Alicia is drugged and stumbles into the wrong room—straight into the arms of the powerful Caden Ward, a man rumored never to touch women. Their night of passion shocks even him, especially when he discovers she’s still a virgin after two years of marriage to Joshua Yates.