Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
Then they were gone.
Tem focused immediately on the task at hand, opening her mind to the collective consciousness of the basilisks. It was full of communal pain-all throughout the mountain, her people were dying. Their deaths pressed against her like a thousand grains of sand, suffocating her, closing in.
Focus, Temperance. Find Rowe.
Apollo’s voice grounded her. She ran through the passageway, following the screams to the courtyard. The sight before her immediately brought her back to the weasel attack. Bodies were strewn in piles, blood seeped over the floor. The room was littered with severed limbs; the Senecas were tearing the Drakons apart. Tem didn’t linger. She didn’t wait to see if she recognized anyone. Instead, she kept running, heading for the lake, not stopping no matter how deafening the noise became.
The caverns were utter chaos.
Tem saw the Senecas’ strategy immediately; they had corralled the remaining Drakons here, pushing their backs against the water so there was nowhere to run. Here, at the edge of Kora’s bathing place, battle raged. Some basilisks had transitioned, whereas others were still human. They collided in horrible tangles of scales and hands and teeth, ripping each other apart. Blood soaked the shores; Tem’s footsteps sank deep into the wet, glistening sand. It was impossible to move quickly but she attempted to anyway, keeping to the edge of the cavern and searching for Rowe. It did not take long to find him. She felt him before she saw him, his presence so powerful, it seemed to warp the air. He was still in his human form. Blood covered his bare chest, accumulating between his legs and dripping from his golden cock in a cruel imitation of cum. Chaos reigned around him, but he wasn’t fighting anyone. He was standing on the shore, waiting.
Waiting for her.
Tem pushed her way through the crowd, heading straight for him. The moment Rowe saw her, a knowing smile split his lips.
Temperance. How nice of you to join me.
Tem pushed anyone in her way aside. When she reached Rowe, she stopped. He watched her hungrily, his eyes roaming over her body. She thought of the tournament, of the way he’d felt inside her. She was drawn to his cock even now. It was a thing of terrible power, and Tem stared at it as he stepped closer.
“I am surprised at you, Temperance.”
So they were doing small talk. Great.
“Why?”
“You are without your husband.”
It reminded her of what Apollo had once said:
You are without your chaperone. Tem no longer needed a chaperone. Tem only needed herself.
“He’s on his way.”
“Is he? And what condition will he be in when he arrives?”
Tem pictured the wound on Caspen’s neck, how it reopened when Rowe siphoned from him. “You tell me.”
Rowe laughed. “There is much to take from him, Temperance. I have barely begun.”
Tem knew he wasn’t just referring to Caspen’s power. He wanted to take Tem too. “You’ll never have me,” she said.
“And why is that?”
“Because you do not deserve me.”
Rowe laughed again. “We do not live in a world where we get what we deserve. When you want something, you must take it.”
“And what do you want?”
They circled each other as if they were two children in a schoolyard about to fight. And were they not? Tem had a score to settle. And the time to do it was now.
“I want what is best for my people.”
Tem cast her gaze around the cavern, where basilisks were brawling and bleeding. “Is this what’s best for your people?”
“This is necessary.”
Tem shook her head. “No. It’s not.”
“This is war, Temperance. It will be worth it in the end.”
“Even if it means hurting your own kind?”
“It is not the first time I have hurt my own kind.”
Tem frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that I gave a warning, and you did not heed it.”
She stared at him, trying to understand. What warning had Rowe given? Then she understood. “You were responsible for the weasel?”
An evil smile split Rowe’s face. “Surely, you did not believe that some idiot human girl could have thought of it.”
Tem had thought that the weasel attack was orchestrated by Vera-but it was far too clever of a plot for her. She may be cruel, but she never could have thought of something so deadly. Gabriel had overheard her saying she was “taking orders.” Orders from Rowe.
“You can’t just use people like that.”
“I can. And when I am done using them, I can dispose of them.”
Tem felt a sudden strike of fear for Vera.
“But you knew what the weasel would do. How-how could you- how could you do that to your own people?”
Rowe shook his head. “I am a Seneca, Temperance. The Drakons are not my people.”
“But there were Senecas under the mountain too. Senecas who died.”
“They chose their side long ago. They remained after you wed Caspenon. They are traitors.”
“They were innocent,” Tem cried.
“And what do you know of such matters? You do not know what it means to sacrifice, to make choices for the greater good.”
“I know I would never betray my own kind.”
“You have no kind,” Rowe sneered. “You are half-human. A blunt. You do not understand what it means to be a basilisk. You never will.”
Tem hated how much his words hurt her. It was exactly what she’d said to herself her entire life-the type of jab that nothing could truly heal because it was true.
“You are a waste, Temperance,” Rowe continued, his voice low as he drew ever nearer. “Think of what you could have been. Think of what we could have done together.” He swung his arms wide. “We could have been unstoppable.”
Tem shook her head. She would never be like Rowe. She hated people like Rowe. She would never do what he had done-would never choose bloodshed over peace. Men like Rowe allowed injustice to occur as long as they could benefit from it. Men like Rowe were evil.
Tem was nearly blind with rage. Nothing existed within her but anger-pure fury threatening to split her apart at the seams. Her entire body vibrated with power; she’d never felt this whole before, as if all the facets of herself were drawing into a single, sharp pinnacle. It was electrifying.
Rowe’s eyes locked on hers. “So how does this end, Temperance? What are you going to do?”
They were nearly upon each other now.
“I’m going to stop you.”