Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
Adelaide turned to her, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. “I am not angry, Temperance. Caspenon and I were not compatible, and I know he would say the same. Our future would not have been a happy one. I am at peace with the way things turned out.”
Tem nodded. She felt immeasurably lighter.
“And I am glad he found you,” Adelaide finished quietly. “You two are meant to be together.”
Sharp guilt pierced Tem’s chest. She wanted to believe Adelaide more than anything. But she was also breaking the one rule the basilisks held sacred-she was doing the one thing she wasn’t allowed to do: have feelings for someone else. Was she truly meant to be with Caspen if she was still in love with Leo? Only time would tell.
Despite Tem’s anxiety, she was enjoying this moment here with Adelaide. It was feminine and fun and light. Almost as if she were talking with Gabriel-as if she had found a new confidant. For the first time underneath the mountain, Tem felt truly safe. It was a wonderful feeling, and she savored it.
“What else should I know?” she asked, eager for more basilisk secrets.
“Hm,” Adelaide said with a smile, looking out over the crowd. “Let me see.” She pointed to a group of women in the corner. “They are king chasers.”
“What does that mean?”
“It means they will pursue the Serpent King at any cost. It is their dream to seduce him all at once.”
Tem wrinkled her nose.
That wasn’t going to happen.
At the look on her face, Adelaide laughed. “You have nothing to fear, Temperance.”
Tem looked at the group of women. They were stunning. “How can he possibly resist them?”
“Caspenon does not favor the desperate.”
Victory flowed through Tem. She watched as the women preened and giggled, all of them looking over their shoulder at where Caspen was standing, still talking to the group of men. The sight gave her a curious mix of jealousy and pride. Part of her was thrilled. It made her feel special that someone so desired had picked her. The other part of her was irrationally angry.
Adelaide seemed to sense this, because she said, “He will not stray.”
Tem glanced up at her. Were her emotions really so transparent? “How do you know?”
“Because he only wants you.”
Even after everything they’d been through, Tem found that hard to believe.
“Do not underestimate your power, Temperance.”
“What do you mean?”
“You hold more sway over him than anyone else.”
“Sometimes it doesn’t feel that way.”
“But it is that way. Beyond a doubt. I have never seen him like this. Nobody has.”
“What was he like before me?”
Adelaide smiled. “Rather insufferable.”
“Really?”
“Yes. His ego was unprecedented.”
Tem supposed she could imagine that. Anyone with a father like Bastian would surely take after him.
“You have tamed him,” Adelaide continued. “He is…more careful now.”
“Careful with what?”
“His life.”
Tem frowned. “What do you mean?”
There was a pause as Adelaide tossed her hair over her shoulders.
“Before you, it did not matter to him whether he lived or died. He was always the first to step into a fight. Now he refrains. I know it is for you.”
“Why would he refrain for me?”
“He wishes to keep you safe, Temperance. He views it as his duty.”
Tem processed her words slowly. She couldn’t imagine another version of Caspen, one who was rash and impulsive and reckless. Those were qualities she possessed, not him. Tem was struck once more by the fact that he’d lived an entire lifetime before her-that while her adulthood was largely shaped by him, his had not at all been shaped by her.
As if on cue, Caspen chose that moment to return.
His eyes flicked first to Tem’s, then to Adelaide’s, his brow furrowing in concern.
“Tem?” he said before he even reached her.
“I’m fine,” she said preemptively.
Caspen’s face softened but just barely. He looked once more to Adelaide, and his eyes narrowed. “If you are filling her head with lies, I will-“
“I’m fine, Caspen,” Tem insisted. “Will you calm down? Adelaide and I are friends now.”
That got an amused laugh from Adelaide and a distressed grunt from Caspen, who pursed his lips but didn’t press the issue.
“How did it go with…” Tem didn’t know how to address the group of men he’d been talking to. “Them?”
Caspen sighed, and his expression darkened. “The Senecas are angry. They feel I am corrupting one of their own.”
“The Senecas consider me…one of them?”
“Yes,” Caspen said. “They do.”
Tem couldn’t fathom that. She wanted nothing to do with Rowe or anyone associated with him.
“To add insult to injury, you are a Hybreed.”
“Excuse me?”
He smiled. “What I mean to say is that your status as a Hybreed makes you an asset. And since you are a Seneca, they feel they are owed your allegiance.”
Tem wrinkled her nose. She’d never felt like much of anything, and now she was an asset?
“The Senecas know that your basilisk side can draw power from your human side,” Caspen continued. “Once mastered, your power would be…limitless.”
Tem blinked.