Filed To Story: Spit or Swallow: Kiss Of The Basilisk
“Would he?” Tem arched her eyebrow petulantly. “Your son already considers you cruel. Somehow I doubt this would help his impression.”
Maximus opened his mouth to retaliate. But another voice spoke before he could.
“Tem?”
Tem turned around to see Leo on the staircase. Concern for her clouded his face.
He stepped closer. “What’s going on?”
“Temperance was just leaving,” Maximus said coolly. “She got lost on her way to the kitchen.”
Leo’s eyes remained locked on Tem’s. She arranged her face into a neutral expression.
“Yes,” she said with a nonchalant shrug. “I was hungry.”
The tiniest smile twitched Leo’s mouth. “You always are,” he said quietly.
The smile disappeared a moment later. They were still at odds, still in a battle of wills. Not even a shared common enemy in Maximus could bring her and Leo together right now.
The prince turned back up the stairs. Without a backward glance at Maximus, Tem ran after him. She’d just told the king that the prince intended to marry her. The last thing she needed was for him to see that they were barely speaking.
When they reached the landing, Leo stopped. “What did my father want?”
Tem pursed her lips. “He would prefer that I not wander the castle.”
Leo shot her a look. “That preference hardly warrants a personal conversation. What did he really say to you?”
Tem avoided his eyes. She wanted to tell him what his father had done to Evelyn. But it wasn’t time. Leo was still so angry with her. He wasn’t ready, and neither was she.
Tem attempted to distill their conversation into something Leo could digest. “He thinks I’m not good enough for you.”
Leo’s expression softened almost imperceptibly. “Well,” he murmured. “He is wrong.” A moment passed. His expression hardened again. “Has he spoken to you today?”
Tem knew he was referring to Caspen. She decided to be honest. “Yes.”
Leo nodded, his jaw tightening. She expected him to walk away, but he stayed where he was.
“What did he say?”
Tem hesitated. She certainly couldn’t tell Leo about Kronos. Instead, she said, “We’re in a fight.”
Leo raised his eyebrows. “Is that so?”
“Yes.”
“What sort of fight?”
Tem didn’t answer.
“Well,” Leo said slowly. “I hope you two can resolve it.”
“You do?”
To her surprise, Leo let out a dull laugh. “Yes. I do.”
“Why? I would think you’d want us to fight.”
Leo scoffed, as if the answer was obvious. “A race won by default is no true victory, Tem.”
“I’m a person, Leo. Not a prize.”
He stepped closer, and she sensed his energy. “I know you’re a person. A person who is capable of making choices. I want you to choose me because you want me, Tem. Not because you’re in a fight with him.”
With that, he walked away.
Tem understood her punishment would continue-that Leo would favor the other two girls over her, possibly indefinitely, until she came to him herself.
More torture. Lucky her.
She sequestered herself in her room for the rest of the day. A servant brought her meals, and she ate without tasting them. At some point, she felt Caspen’s presence leaning on her mind once more.
Out of pure desolation, she let him in, speaking before he could. I’m still angry with you.
Then come be angry in my arms. I must see you.
I’m at the castle, Caspen. I can’t just leave.
Find a way.
Why don’t you come here if it’s so easy? It wasn’t a real suggestion. They both knew he couldn’t come here.
Be reasonable, Tem.
Tem rolled her eyes. Then she sighed. The truth was she wanted to see Caspen. It didn’t matter that she was angry with him. She missed him dearly; it felt as if a part of her were incomplete.
If I come, it will have to be at night.
Then I will await you with-His sentence cut off.
Tem frowned. Caspen? Are you there?
Tem. I-But he cut off again.
Their connection was spotty; she could barely hear him. It was as if someone was opening and shutting the door between their minds. Tem couldn’t understand why this was happening. Their connection had always been crystal clear no matter how far apart they were from each other. All the more reason to see him.
By the time night fell, Tem had made up her mind.
As soon as the servant cleared away her dinner tray, she flung open her bedroom window, hoisting herself over the balcony and climbing down the trellis until her feet were firmly on the ground. She looked up at Leo’s window, wondering who he would be sleeping with tonight.
It didn’t matter. It wasn’t Tem.
She took the backstreets through the village, winding around shadowy corners so that nobody would see her. The last thing she needed was someone spotting the prince’s future wife on the streets after dark. When she reached the forest, Tem allowed herself to relax. The cave was just as she’d left it-dark and deep, its entrance beckoning to her like an open mouth.
There he was.
It had only been a short time since she’d seen Caspen but also an eternity. He was just as gorgeous as he always was-if not more so-and Tem wondered what chance she possibly stood against such beauty.
“Tem.”
“Caspen.”
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.