Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
I like Adelaide.
Do you?
Yes. She’s a girl’s girl.
I do not know what that means.
It means she would choose me over you.
His arms tightened.
Who could blame her?
And I would choose her over you.
She felt him smile.
Is that right?
Yes.
Should I be insulted?
It’s a compliment to her, not an insult to you.
In that case, I will allow it.
It’s not up to you to allow. But good to know.
He pressed a kiss to her forehead.
Tem continued:
Adelaide said you used to be insufferable before me.
Is that so? How kind of her.
She said it with love.
I very much doubt that.
She also said you had a big ego.
Now that…might be true.
Tem was getting sleepy. Caspen seemed to sense this, because he said, “We do not have to stay.”
“Are you sure?” The last thing she wanted was to leave early, especially if it might cause insult.
“Yes.”
“I don’t want to offend anyone.”
“You have done the opposite of that tonight, Tem.” He kissed her temple. “You did well. They will all be pleased.”
Tem smiled at his words. It was all she wanted, really-to please the basilisks, to please Caspen, to please herself. If pleasure was at the forefront of basilisk culture, then what could be a nobler goal?
I’m ready to go.
Very well. Let us go.
He lifted her into his arms. It was only once they returned to their chambers and Tem collapsed onto the bed that she realized how exhausted she was. She dearly wished to sleep. But there was something on her mind. “Caspen,” she said quietly. “How did your mother die?”
He shifted her in his arms but didn’t answer.
When the pause drew on, Tem leaned in close. “You never talk about her. Why?”
The last time Caspen had withheld information about a death, she’d learned he’d crested Rowe’s father. It stood to reason she was slightly anxious for his answer. Caspen was silent for a long time. Tem was used to waiting him out, and she did so now.
Eventually, he answered. “She died right before my father came into power.” His tone was matter of fact. Removed.
Tem contemplated the significance of that timing. “But how did she die?”
Caspen sighed, and Tem watched the sharp rise and fall of his chest. “My father killed her.”
Tem sat up straight. “What? Why?”
Caspen sat up too, and they looked at each other in the flickering firelight. “She betrayed him.”
“How?”
“She slept with another.”
Tem frowned. “But I thought that basilisks don’t consider sex to be cheating.”
“We do not consider meaningless sex to be cheating. But my mother was in love with the basilisk she slept with.”
Tem’s father’s words returned to her suddenly: It is a dangerous thing to love two people. You must prepare yourself.
“Basilisks may be free with their bodies, but we are not free with our hearts,” Caspen said quietly, repeating what her father had told her. “If you are bound to someone by blood, it means you have committed your heart to them. By falling in love with someone other than my father, my mother betrayed that bond. By sleeping with that person, she broke it.”
A horrible feeling was forming in Tem’s gut.
Caspen continued: “When they slept together, he retaliated by killing her.”
Tem stared at him in shock.
“I saw it myself.”
“But how could he do that?”
“He did not have a choice.”
“I don’t understand.”
Caspen shifted, propping himself up on his arm and looking down at her. For some reason, dread pierced her. “There is nothing more sacred than the blood bond,” Caspen continued. “It is our greatest tenet. Blood bonds are done in honor of true love-in the name of Kora. They are bound by magic bigger than us.”
Tem remembered how Caspen had described the blood bond to her:
It is an ancient magic, and it is irreversible.