Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
She shook her head. “No. He doesn’t. Not anymore.”
“Of course he does, Tem. He is no different from his father. He will never show us mercy. He would have us all killed.”
“Leo is not his father.”
Caspen stepped closer. Tem resisted stepping back. “You are a fool if you believe that.”
Anger coiled within her. “You don’t know him, Caspen.”
Caspen shook his head, leaning in. The shadows under his eyes hadn’t been her imagination. He was gaunt, his features drawn as if he hadn’t eaten in a long while. Tem hated seeing him like this. She had to fix it.
“You do not know him either, Tem. You cannot trust anything he says.”
“I trusted you, didn’t I?”
Caspen’s eyes narrowed. “What does that mean?”
“I had no reason to trust you, but I did. Now look at us.”
Caspen bristled. “Are you comparing me to him? Because I consider that an insult.”
“I’m not comparing you. I’m just saying that-“
“You are saying that because you trusted me, I should trust him. But one has nothing to do with the other.”
“That’s not fair. You can’t judge him without knowing him.”
“I can do whatever I wish, Tem.”
She knew he was angry. But she was angry too.
Critical analysis came second nature to Caspen, but for Leo, questioning his circumstances was a learned behavior-one he couldn’t possibly master in the short time since Tem had told him who she was. She was willing to give him allowances that Caspen wasn’t. She understood that he was still growing into the person she knew he could be-the person she knew he wanted to be. There was nothing black-and-white about Leo; he was not good or bad, cowardly or brave. He was many things at once. And Tem loved him for it.
She crossed her arms, standing her ground. “You’re better than that, Caspen.”
He laughed bitterly. “Am I? Why should I hold myself to a higher standard when you consider me equal to the human prince?”
“I never said you were equal.”
“You may as well have.” Caspen stepped closer, and Tem flinched. “Imagine what he would do if he knew what you really are.”
She gritted her teeth. He wasn’t going to like what came next. “He already knows.”
Caspen went completely still. His eyes searched hers, and there was nothing but betrayal in them. Tem knew she’d violated his trust-knew she’d chosen to tell Leo she was a hybreed without consulting him first. But it was her secret to share. Caspen didn’t have to like it.
“You told him? Do you have any idea how dangerous that is?”
“He deserves to know.”
“What else did you tell him? Does he know about the crest?”
Tem hesitated. Leo didn’t know about the crest, about how there was a plan for Maximus and the rest of the royals.
“No,” she said, keeping her voice steady. “And he doesn’t need to know.”
“And why should he not know? It concerns his family, does it not?”
“His family will be spared,” Tem insisted.
“Not all of them. Only himself and his sister. You made that very clear.”
His voice was dangerously quiet. A flicker of doubt passed through Tem. Leo hated Maximus. He’d said so himself. But did he hate him enough to condemn him to the crest?
“Shall I tell him?” Caspen taunted, his eyes flashing like flint in the darkness. “Or would you like to do the honor of informing him of what will happen to his father?”
The doubt intensified. The last thing Tem wanted was for Caspen to tell Leo about the crest. If he reacted badly, if for some reason his hatred for Maximus didn’t run as deeply as she thought, things between them could fall apart.
“You can’t do that,” Tem said.
“And why not?” Caspen asked.
Tem didn’t like his tone. He was threatening her.
“Because it could ruin everything, and you know it.”
“Everything? Or your relationship with him?”
“Nothing could ruin my relationship with him.”
Caspen’s eyes widened, then narrowed. Tem knew he understood what she was saying: that her connection with Leo had been solidified through sex. That it was permanent.
“I did not realize,” he whispered, his voice deadly, “that you could be so easily seduced.”
Rowe’s words came back to her suddenly: The plaything has fallen in love with her playmate.
It wasn’t a foreign thing to see Caspen so jealous, but it was to see him so petty. Tem wondered if it was an effect of the crest-if his usual stoicism was weakening along with the rest of him. He had always been steady. But no longer.
“I have to marry him, Caspen. That’s always been the plan.”
Little did Caspen know that his own life depended on that plan. He scoffed.
Tem continued. “Leo is on our side. I promise you.”
Caspen arched his face to the ceiling, the cords of his neck standing out beneath his skin.
“Kora. You always do what you want, Tem. You never think.”
This was going nowhere. Tem had to get them back on track. “Just talk to him. Please. Do it for me.”
Tem knew perfectly well that it was the last thing Caspen wanted to do. But he also owed her this for all the things he’d kept from her. He couldn’t be angry that she’d done something without asking him, and he knew it as well as she did.
After a seemingly endless pause, he said, “There is nothing I would not do for you.”
Without another word, Tem turned.
Caspen followed at a distance, staying two steps behind her. Just before they reached the cave, Tem saw that his hands were balled into fists.
“Caspen.”
He looked down at her.
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.