Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
Tem snorted. The basilisks had barely begun to heal from the decades of torture. There wasn’t a basilisk alive who would choose to bleed again. And Tem couldn’t blame them.
“No one is going to volunteer to bleed for you.”
“It’s not just for us,” Leo said quietly, his first words in minutes. “It’s for the villagers.”
Tem glared at him. “That’s not true, and you know it.”
Silence.
She needed him to say it-needed to admit that he was doing this for the one person Tem had sacrificed her happiness to give him. To Evelyn, the solution to their problem was simple: bring back the bloodletting. If it had worked for many years before this, why stop now? But it was unthinkable to Tem. Leo had agreed to abolish it. She would not let him go back on it without a fight.
“We have to bleed for that gold, Leo. You want us to bleed for your wedding?”
Evelyn rolled her shoulders but didn’t speak. Her face was a mask of fury.
Leo shook his head. “I don’t want that.”
“Then why are you asking it of us?”
Leo opened his mouth and then closed it. His knuckles were white around his whiskey glass. Tem stared at him. Then she looked at Caspen. He’d been quiet throughout most this exchange. Tem knew he was controlling his temper, expending every ounce of his energy into staying calm. She also knew it was only a matter of time before his energy ran out.
She turned back to Leo. “Why are you doing this, Leo?” she whispered. “This isn’t you.”
He didn’t reply.
Tem thought about how Evelyn always pursed her lips during dinner whenever the topic of the bloodletting came up. At first, Tem thought it made her uncomfortable to talk about such unpleasant matters. But now she saw the truth: of course she wanted the steady supply of gold to continue. No doubt it was what she’d expected when she first returned to Leo. The royals were known for their wealth, after all. Leo’s recent financial change would have been a surprise to Evelyn, and not a pleasant one.
Leo looked at her finally, his jaw tight. “I just want peace.”
Tem let out a dull laugh. “Peace is not gained through bloodshed.”
Tem couldn’t believe this was happening. If she could put a face to the victims-if she could put her face to this horrible act-perhaps then finally Leo would understand what this would cost him. There would not be some anonymous basilisk in the dungeon, bleeding for the sake of the royals. It would be someone he cared about. It would be her.
“If you’re looking for volunteers,” she said through gritted teeth, “you have one. Me.”
“No,” Caspen and Leo said at the same time.
“Yes,” Tem insisted. “If you’re so eager for blood, you can have mine.”
Caspen’s grip tightened even more.
“No, Tem,” Leo insisted. “Not you. Never you.”
Tem straightened. “Why not? I’m part basilisk. I made that”-she pointed at the gold claw on Caspen’s chest-“and my blood is just as good as anyone else’s.”
Leo’s eyes flicked to Caspen’s necklace. His brow furrowed, and Tem wondered what he was thinking. He shook his head. “You’re not an option, Tem.”
“And why not? I’m no different than anyone else.”
“Of course you are.”
“No. I’m not. And if you want my people to bleed, that means you want me to bleed too.”
“I don’t want you to-” But he cut himself off.
Tem leaned forward, staring straight at him, her voice dangerously quiet. “Don’t want me to what, Leo?”
Leo pursed his lips. He understood. She knew he did.
Tem was making this difficult for him: forcing him to choose between keeping his soon-to-be wife happy and keeping Tem safe. It was a cruel choice but a necessary one. Tem needed to shine a spotlight on Evelyn’s asinine idea. Leo was only entertaining it in the first place because he thought some random basilisk would be the one to be harmed. But she wouldn’t let him off so easily. If Leo wanted blood to be spilled, that blood would be Tem’s.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Leo finally finished quietly.
His words fell on deafening silence.
Evelyn’s lip were pressed together in tight displeasure, her eyes flicking from Tem’s to Leo’s, then back again. Tem ignored her. This was between her and Leo. She already knew where Evelyn stood, already knew she was evil. But Leo was redeemable. Leo was good. Tem was going to remind him of that.
She looked him in the eye. “You say you don’t want me to get hurt, yet you also want the bloodletting to continue. So which one do you want more?”
Leo’s face was pale, his expression strained. Tem could see the toll this was taking on him, but she was not about to let up. She would not let him sit in his privilege and pretend that his actions did not affect others.
“If you want blood,” she said again. “You’ll need to take mine.”
As the silence deepened, Caspen’s grip grew even tighter. She could feel him pushing at the edges of her mind, trying to get in. But Tem had shut him out long ago. This was her battle to fight with Leo-her personal mission to make him understand that Evelyn’s request was unacceptable. If Leo wanted the bloodletting to continue, he would have to claim it and wear it proudly. If the kingdoms were to backslide, Tem was not going to make it easy to do so. If Leo was going to let this happen, he was going to have to let it happen to Tem. That was the only outcome that would teach him a lesson.
Caspen clawed at her mind. His presence was so strong, she was having trouble concentrating-finding it almost impossible to breathe. His fingers gripped her hand in an ironclad clasp. Still, she did not yield. Tem would face this alone because she did not want Caspen to have to face it at all.
Evelyn blinked her round, baleful eyes. She turned slowly to Tem. “I think it’s rather noble of you.”
“Noble?” Caspen spat.
It was the first word he’d said in minutes, and immediately, the hairs on the back of Tem’s neck stood up. She heard the danger in his voice, and it scared her. Evelyn was extremely close to crossing a line, and if she took it any further, there was a very real possibility that Caspen would snap. His presence was a storm, crackling and fierce.
“Noble is one word for it,” Tem said as calmly as she could. “Necessary is another. If a sacrifice must be made to keep peace between our kingdoms, I will make it.”
“I forbid it.”
Tem turned to Caspen. To her surprise, he wasn’t looking at her. His gaze was still on Evelyn, his golden eyes narrowed in pure loathing. Her eyes were narrowed in return.
“If Tem is volunteering, then we should allow her to make her own choice.”
Caspen and Leo let out identical noises of disbelief.
“Tem is altruistic to a fault. This is not her choice to make,” Caspen growled.
“Any choice concerning my body is my choice to make,” Tem said quietly.
Silence fell again.
Tem knew she was pushing this too far. Nobody at this table besides Evelyn wanted this for her. But Caspen, despite his intent to protect her, could not prevent this. Only Leo could protect her. And if he was unable to do so, he would suffer the consequences.
Leo’s eyes found hers.
Tem had never been able to read his mind the way she could Caspen’s. Leo wore his emotions on his sleeve, so it had never really been necessary. But now, in the lingering silence, she wished she knew what he was thinking. Did he understand the gravity of the situation? Did he realize that they were on the brink of complete regression? If the bloodletting continued, everything they’d been through was for nothing. The wedding, the crest, his entire marriage to Evelyn. If Leo allowed this to continue, he was no better than Maximus.
But Leo’s loyalty was to his future wife. And that wife was no longer Tem.
His eyes dropped. “Tem can make her own choice,” he whispered.
Beside him, Evelyn preened. She looked at Caspen triumphantly, her shoulders thrown back as if she’d just won the world’s greatest prize. Then her gaze moved to Tem, who finally understood the loathing in it. This was all about power for Evelyn-she wielded what little she had in order to make it clear that Tem, and the basilisks, were below her. Tem would be disgusted if she wasn’t already used to people like her. What disgusted her more was how Leo had allowed it to happen. Progress, when unmaintained, was not progress at all. It was just another lie.