Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
Lilly dropped her hands. “You’d better get back in there,” she said gently.
Tem nodded. She’d been gone far too long. She parted ways with Lilly on the landing, giving her one last squeeze before reentering the dining room. Everything was just as she’d left it, except the dessert had been served now: a chocolate souffl?. But the moment Tem sat next to Caspen, she sensed a shift in his energy.
“Tem?” Leo said. “Would you mind having a word with me after dinner?”
Tem had to concentrate in order to keep her mouth from falling open. Last time Evelyn had wanted her to stay behind, and now Leo wanted the same? What was with these two?
Tem’s eyes slid to Caspen’s. His expression was unreadable, but his body gave him away. His hands were balled into fists. Surely, this was unacceptable to him. Tem wished he would just say something
-forbid her to go or even yell. Anything would be preferable to his steely silence.
“I… Why?”
Leo glanced at Evelyn, whose expression was a mirror of Caspen’s. “There are…matters we should discuss,” he said slowly.
“What sort of matters?”
Leo didn’t seem to have an answer to that, and neither did Tem. The situation truly couldn’t have gotten worse. A meeting alone with Leo was the absolute last thing she needed. Tem had no idea if she could control herself around him. They hadn’t been alone together since the annulment, and that had nearly ended with her throwing herself at him. She doubted this would go any better. Before Leo could answer, Caspen stood.
Tem stood too, suddenly afraid of what he might do. But instead of saying anything-or even looking at her-Caspen left the room without a backward glance. The moment he was out of sight, Tem felt him slam the corridor between their minds shut. He was furious. But she would deal with him later.
Evelyn stood too. “Don’t take too long, darling,” she said, her voice lethally low. A warning.
Leo didn’t reply. Tem could see how it physically pained Evelyn not to reprimand him. But to reprimand him would be to shatter the illusion of their perfect marriage. Tem knew that wasn’t a price Evelyn was willing to pay-especially not in front of her. A moment later, she swept from the room.
Leo gestured silently toward the library. As soon as they were inside, he went straight for the alcohol. “Whiskey?”
“Please.”
Leo took his time pouring them each a drink, and when he handed Tem hers, she noticed he was careful not to touch her.
“Thank you.”
“Of course.”
They were being overly formal, but Tem didn’t know how else to be. This was a foreign situation to her, completely unprecedented. Nobody had the rulebook for this, least of all Tem.
They sat in the leather chairs facing each other. Leo looked tired, as he had last weekend. But he also looked beautiful. Tem couldn’t help but stare at everything she so desperately missed: the blond hair, the sharp cheekbones, the long fingers. She could see his heart beating in his temple. Tem wanted to press her lips against his neck, to see if he still smelled like summer. He would be warm. And soft and pliable and alive.
“Tem,” he said quietly, breaking her from her thoughts. “Why did you leave the table?”
Tem took a rather large gulp of whiskey. There was no point in hiding it. “I was about to transition.”
Leo frowned. “Into a…?”
“Yes.”
Leo took a rather large gulp too.
For a moment, neither of them spoke. In the silence, Leo studied her. Tem wondered if he was thinking all the same things she was. Did he want to touch her? To run his lips along her neck? Tem dearly hoped that he did. It occurred to her that they were all alone in the library. Her mind was closed off; no one was here to see them. The only people preventing something from happening was them. She had to distract herself.
“What did you want to discuss, Leo?”
He blinked, as if waking from a trance. “Our kingdoms, I suppose. That’s what my father used this room for, anyway.”
At the mention of Maximus, Tem gripped her whiskey. She pictured him and Bastian in this very library, discussing politics. It was a bizarre vision. Tem wondered suddenly whether she’d misinterpreted Caspen’s anger earlier. She’d assumed he was upset that she was meeting with Leo alone. But now she wondered whether he was insulted that she was meeting with Leo instead of him. These discussions were meant for the two kings. Perhaps his ire was actually directed at Leo, not at Tem. Immediately, she hoped it wasn’t. Tem could handle Caspen’s anger; she wanted Leo nowhere near it.
“Well.” She gestured with her hand. “You go first.”
Leo set his whiskey on the desk. “Very well. You already know we abolished the bloodletting. All basilisks have been returned to the mountain.”
“Yes. Thank you.”
“You’re welcome.”
Still too formal. Tem hated it.
“We are exploring other options for income.”
“Such as?”
“The sea is not far away. I thought perhaps fishing.”
“Great,” said Tem. “Keep me updated.”
“I shall.”
She took another gulp of whiskey. There wasn’t enough alcohol in the world to make this conversation tolerable. Tem wished Leo didn’t look so good; it was distracting her.
“There is another matter we must discuss,” he said quickly, as if he wanted to pave over the awkwardness.
“Which is?”
“I assume you heard about the incident with the villagers.”
Tem nodded. She neglected to mention that she had been there.
“We’re attempting to uncover who was behind it.”
Again, Tem pursed her lips. She knew exactly who was behind it, and she would never tell. “Do you have any leads?”
“Not at the moment. But we are in the process of investigating.”
Tem didn’t bother asking what that process looked like. Instead, she made a mental note to tell Gabriel to be careful who he spoke to when he came to work in the castle.
“The villagers are angry, Tem,” Leo continued. “And starving. They blame me.”
Tem understood his position. It was complicated, like hers. “What do you want me to say, Leo?”
He sighed, his eyes drifting to the fireplace. He didn’t answer, and he didn’t have to. Nothing Tem could say would fix the situation. They were trapped, both of them, in the circumstances they had created. Tem stared at the fire too. The room was warm-almost uncomfortably so. It reminded Tem of her chambers in the caves. The thought only made her warmer. Every time she was alone with Leo, her basilisk side uncoiled itself, seeking his scent. It was becoming impossible to subdue it.
“My father denies it,” Leo said suddenly.
Tem looked over at him in surprise. “Denies what?”
“That he wrote the letter.”
It took Tem a moment to understand which letter he was talking about. Evelyn’s.
“That’s…” Tem began but trailed off.