Filed To Story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
“So…you didn’t like her because she was stealing forks?”
“She was stealing gold, stupid child.”
All the cutlery in the castle was a result of the bloodletting. Tem stared down at her own hands, which were turning the wires gold. She felt faint.
“She did not leave because of some ridiculous letter. She left because I offered her a higher price than what she could steal from me one fork at a time.”
Tem went cold.
Here it was, straight from Maximus’s lips: the truth. The thing she suspected but hadn’t wanted to face. The thing
Leo was unwilling to face. Because if what Maximus said was true, it meant that Tem had made a terrible mistake. It meant that she had been utterly wrong in ordering Leo to find Evelyn. It meant that everything they had fought for was for nothing-that the promise of a future for him and his supposed true love was moot. It meant that Evelyn was not who she pretended to be. It meant that nothing would ever be the same.
Tem said the only thing she could think of: “Fuck you.”
Another strangled laugh, dark with vindication. “Why do you care?” Maximus sneered. “You left him just like she did. And she will leave again.”
“Why would you say that?”
“Evelyn left on the promise of riches, and I have no doubt she returned for the same.”
Tem frowned. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means she only returned when my son became king. No doubt she thought that status would guarantee her lifestyle. As you can see”-he looked pointedly at the wires attached to Tem’s hands-“it didn’t. Evelyn did not return for love. She left once. She will leave again.”
“You can’t know that.”
“History will always repeat itself,” Maximus sneered. “We do not learn. We do not correct. We forget, and then we repeat the mistakes of our past. It’s a pattern, Temperance. One that cannot be broken.”
Tem shook her head. She refused to believe that the future was written-that they had no say in the outcome. It was what Apollo believed-that fate was predetermined. But Tem believed that history only repeated itself if you let it. And Tem would not let it.
“Tell me, Temperance. Have the villagers taken kindly to your decision?”
Guilt swooped in her stomach. “What decision?”
“The decision to cut off their food supply?”
The guilt only grew.
“Ah,” said Maximus. “You did not think it through, did you? The effects would have been nearly immediate, I assume. We pay for our imports on the day they arrive. Without the bloodletting, there would be no means to pay for more. But that was of no concern to you, was it? You just wanted to stop the bleeding.”
“I wanted to protect my people.”
“Are the villagers not also your people? Your mother raised you. Surely that counts for something.”
Of course it counted for something. But it was not everything. Just because Tem was raised a certain way, that didn’t mean it was the only part of her identity that mattered. Tem was made up of two things, both of equal value.
“Don’t talk about my mother,” Tem snapped.
Maximus gave her a slow, strange smile. “Your mother,” he said, “was just like you.”
Tem had no idea what to say to that. Of all the things Maximus had told her tonight, that was the least of her worries. “I was trying to do the right thing,” she whispered.
“Right is relative, Temperance. You are a fool if you think you can do things better than I did.”
“There has to be another way.”
“Ignorant child. This is always the way things have been done.”
“No.” She shook her head. “It’s the way you do them.”
“You know nothing of how the world works, of how adults make their decisions. Power is hard-won and not so easily kept. It takes a miracle to obtain it and a single moment of weakness to lose it.”
“I don’t want power.”
“That is because you already have it. And tell me, Temperance. Would you give it up?”
Tem stared at him. Did she really covet power the way Bastian had-the way Maximus had? It was abhorrent to her. She didn’t want to be like them. But perhaps it was unavoidable. Tem had never been powerful until now. She knew what it meant to want something, especially something she would never have. She certainly never thought she’d have power. It was a new thing for her to be like this-to be a Hybreed.
Would she give it up?
“You think you are so much better than your ancestors,” Maximus said, interrupting her thoughts. “You think you can do it all differently. But something always has to give, Temperance. Peace is an illusion.”
But Tem was not Maximus; she would not give up hope. She could choose a different path-for the kingdom, and for herself. “Peace is possible.”
“There is always a winner and a loser. The cycle cannot be broken.”
“You’re wrong,” Tem whispered.
“I am not wrong. And you will realize that before the end.”
But Tem was done listening to men who had no idea what it meant to sacrifice-men like Maximus who were born at the top of the food chain and would always remain there. Even now, imprisoned in his own home, he was sequestered from the outside world, safe from the basilisks he had tortured to get here. There was no justice, no fairness to any of it.
Tem whispered, “I will break it.”
Maximus didn’t reply.
They sat in silence until the guard returned to release her. The stairs were dark; Leo was nowhere to be found.
I will wait for you. More lies.
If Tem weren’t so weak from the bloodletting, she might have cared. Instead she ascended the staircase slowly, using the wall to hold herself upright. By the time she reached the landing, she was out of breath.
Caspen was nowhere to be found either. Had he gone back to the caves alone? Was he waiting for her in a carriage? She groped for him with her mind, but the corridor between them was still closed. Tem knew Caspen was angry about her decision. But she’d at least expected him to see her through this-to be here when she got out.
Tem was almost at the front door when suddenly she heard her name.
Leo was before her.
His lanky frame emerged from the shadows, his hair tousled. Tem knew that look.
“Are you drunk?”
There was no need to ask. Leo was clearly intoxicated-his face was flushed, his movements loose. Tem had only seen him this drunk once before, during the Frisky Sixty.
He let out a long breath. “You were down there a long time. I couldn’t bear it any longer.”
Tem didn’t know what to say to that. She didn’t feel like pointing out the inherent privilege Leo held in being able to get drunk while she bled. There was no point. “Where’s Evelyn?”
“Asleep.”