Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
He turned again, and Tem had to run to keep up with him. “It doesn’t matter what I put in my body. He’s in my mind. He’ll always be there.”
Leo shook his head. “This cannot go on.”
They had come to it at last: the moment when Leo’s patience ran out.
“What do you suggest I do?”
“I suggest you shut him out.”
“I can’t.”
“Can’t you? Or do you just not want to?”
Tem stopped, suddenly hurt. Leo knew very well how difficult this was for her, how much she hated the position she was in. If she could make it easier for herself-and for him-she would. But her bond with Caspen wasn’t something she could just shut off. Nor did she want to. It was far more complicated than anything Leo could comprehend, and there was no possible way to explain it to him.
“You said you didn’t mind,” she whispered. “You said you would take what you could get.”
Leo stopped too, his hands clenched into fists at his sides. “I know what I said, Tem,” he growled, turning to face her. “But I want more. I want all of you. Anything less than everything isn’t enough anymore.”
“Why?” Tem asked, betrayal pinching her chest. “What changed?”
He shook his head. “That’s the fucking problem, Tem. Nothing’s changed.”
She stared at him in disbelief, tears in her eyes.
Leo leaned in, and she craned her neck to look up at him. “I want all of you,” he said deliberately. “Or I don’t want you at all.”
They stared at each other, both breathing hard. Then Leo turned once more, and Tem stayed two steps behind him all the way back through the maze.
When they reached the castle, Leo whirled around one last time. “And to answer your question,” he snapped. “Yes. You’re in the final three. Whether you want to be or not.”
He swept away, leaving Tem alone on the edge of the ballroom. Leo’s message was clear: he was punishing her for her connection with Caspen. He knew it was difficult for her to love them both-even more difficult when Leo presented himself as a viable option. It would be cruel to eliminate her, crueler still to keep her in the competition. He would force Tem to choose, to tear herself in two.
Torture indeed.
Tem found the closest glass of whiskey and threw it down her throat. She wished she could simply leave. But to go where? She couldn’t go back to the caves. She couldn’t go back to the farm. There was no place for Tem-no shelter from the storm. Her only option was to take another whiskey and slip into the crowd, losing herself among the guests until eventually she was drunk. At one point, Gabriel found her, pressing a quick kiss to her cheek before disappearing back into the kitchen with a wave of his bandaged hand. She barely noticed him. Instead, Tem watched as several footmen assembled the podiums, placing them at the end of the ballroom. There were only three. Tem remembered when there were eleven.
A sharp clink clink clink rang out, and Tem turned to see Maximus tapping a knife on a wineglass.
“Thank you all for being here tonight,” he began, his shrewd gray eyes appraising the crowd. “My family is grateful for your support.”
Beside him, Leo scowled.
“Would the five remaining ladies kindly step forward?”
Tem took one last gulp of whiskey before following the other girls to the podiums. They stood in a single-file line, the way they always did, facing the prince. Maximus was still talking.
“The time has come for my son to make an important decision. The three young ladies he chooses tonight will reside in the castle for the remainder of the elimination process. When he is ready, my son will choose a wife.”
Beside Tem, Vera puffed out her chest.
Maximus continued. “The next time we gather, it will be for a wedding.”
Dread darkened Tem’s vision. The whiskey wasn’t helping anymore.
Leo stepped forward, and the elimination began.
Instead of approaching the girls like he had in the past, Leo had them come to him. He extended his hand to the girl on Tem’s right, and the crowd cheered as she walked forward, took his hand, and stepped onto the second podium. Tem didn’t know the girl’s name, and she didn’t care to. She only knew the name of the girl Leo would pick next:
Vera.
Maximus’s mouth twitched into a smile as Vera took Leo’s hand and mounted the first podium. The crowd cheered even louder.
Tem stood between the last two girls, wondering if they already knew they were out. She straightened her shoulders. Leo didn’t even extend his hand to her. He merely looked Tem in the eye before jerking his head at the third podium, directing her like a dog learning a trick.
Last again.
Tem didn’t need to look at Maximus to feel the fury radiating off him as she walked forward to claim her podium. She stood there proudly, just as she always had, refusing to let anyone here make her feel like she was worth any less than the girls who stood beside her.
Vera was positively beaming; Tem could feel her condescending smile even from here.
Leo looked only at Tem.
There was such jealousy in his eyes. Such anger. The time for allowances had clearly passed; the prince was done giving Tem a break simply because he wanted her.
The time will come when you will have to choose.
Leo’s future would be easier if he chose Vera. She was the village favorite and his father’s favorite too. If Tem wanted him to choose her-and if she wanted to save his life-she had to give him a reason to do so.
Someone touched Tem’s hand-a servant helping her down from the podium. Tem followed the other two girls out of the ballroom and up a flight of stairs. They were headed to Leo’s floor. Tem recognized the towering portrait of father and son as she ascended the stairs. When they reached the landing, the servant directed each of the girls to their rooms. Tem’s room was at the very end of the hallway, farthest from Leo’s.
“Can I get you anything, miss?”
Tem blinked. She wanted many things: for Caspen to apologize, for Leo to understand her circumstances. But she couldn’t have either of those. So she said, “Whiskey.”
The servant nodded and disappeared.
Tem stood alone, staring at the bed in front of her.
It had all happened so fast. One moment, she’d been attending a ball, and now she was sequestered in the castle, doomed to wait until someone else decided her future for her.
She couldn’t stand it. She needed to talk to Leo.
Tem opened her door and stepped out into the hallway, ready to find him. To her surprise, he was already there, leaning against the doorframe of the room right next to hers.
He wasn’t alone.
Vera was giggling, pushing her breasts together as Leo twirled a lock of her hair around his fingertips, the same way he twirled Tem’s. His eyes slid to hers. For an endless moment, they looked at each other. Then Leo cocked a single, cruel eyebrow. His hand found Vera’s waist, pulling her down the hallway toward his bedroom. The last thing Tem saw before the door closed were Leo’s fingers unlacing the back of her dress.
Tem was no stranger to lonely nights, but this was one of the worst.
The claw was gone, lost in the maze. Caspen was utterly absent from her mind, the emptiness so glaring and foreign she could barely stand it. Tem didn’t dare reach for him. She didn’t know what she would even say. He knew she was in the castle; he knew the prince had chosen her.
And then there was Leo.
Tem would never forget the look on his face as he pulled Vera into his bedroom. She kept picturing his long fingers unlacing Vera’s dress-fingers that were inside Tem just an hour ago. No doubt they were already having sex in Leo’s four-poster bed. Vera would do anything he asked, endlessly eager to please the prince. The thought made Tem want to cry, and she climbed into her bed, pulling the unfamiliar blankets tightly around her. Her room was cold, but she didn’t make a fire. She simply stared at the ceiling, thinking about how just this morning, she’d stared at the ceiling of her childhood bedroom-the ceiling she’d wished so many times never to see again. Now there was nothing she wanted to see more. Eventually, her whiskey arrived, and Tem drank it in one gulp.
When she fell asleep, her dreams were filled with ice.
***
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.