Filed to story: Between Two Kings: A Split or Swallow Book PDF Free
She turned back to the statues, and her next words were a whisper. “You shouldn’t have to carry him alone.”
A pause. His whisper mirrored hers. “You should not have to carry him at all.” When she didn’t reply, he said, “It is my choice, Temperance.”
A choice he’d made without her. But Tem was used to that by now. Both Apollo and Caspen seemed to think they knew what was best for her. At a certain point, she wondered if perhaps they did.
“Can we please go now?”
Apollo nodded. “Of course.”
The walk back through the passageway was silent.
Tem was miserable. Her human side was horrified at what she’d just seen and mourned the man they’d killed. Caspen’s words ran once more through her mind:
It is a terrible thing to take a life. He was right; it was terrible. But there was a fine line between terror and pleasure, and Tem was experiencing both in equal measure. She couldn’t help it; the two sides of her were equally involved, as they always had been. Her human side wanted to cry. But her basilisk side felt what Apollo surely felt when he looked at those statues: absolute triumph. Holding both emotions at once was exhausting, nearly impossible, and all Tem wanted was bed.
When they reached the door to her chambers, Apollo turned to face her. “I did not mean to upset you, Temperance. Perhaps it was a mistake to show you that.”
“I’m not upset.”
“Your thoughts say otherwise.”
“Well, I’m not. I’m just tired.”
“I see.”
There was a pause, and before she could talk herself out of it, Tem said, “Thank you.”
A tiny smile twisted his mouth, and a fraction of the heaviness of the evening lifted. “For…?”
“You know exactly what for.”
“I should like to hear you say it anyway.”
Tem stared up at him, deciding whether she wanted to die on this hill. Apollo had given her his time tonight, among other things. He’d taught her something that Caspen refused to teach her, and he had done it well. Tem wondered if he’d known, somehow, that this was his way in with her. He’d found the one thing that Caspen wasn’t willing to do, and he’d stepped in to do it. It was a trait she could appreciate and one she was rapidly beginning to depend on. She relied on Apollo in ways she couldn’t rely on Caspen. He was there to fill in the gaps in her knowledge-for better or for worse.
“For teaching me how to petrify.”
“And?”
Tem rolled her eyes, finishing begrudgingly, “And for making me come.”
“There it is.”
“I hate you.”
“So you have said.”
“Can’t you just accept my thank-you and let me go to sleep?”
He smiled, baring his teeth. “I accept your gratitude, Temperance. And you are very welcome. It was, as I am sure you could tell, my pleasure.”
Then Apollo was gone.
Tem stood there, staring after him, trying to control her heartbeat. As his presence faded from her mind, she found she missed it. They’d been so connected for the last few hours that it hurt desperately to be alone once more.
Tem opened the door to her chambers, wanting nothing more than to collapse onto her bed and fall asleep. But to her shock, the room was occupied.
“What are you doing here?” Tem gasped.
Caspen was by the fire, as he often was. But something in the way he held himself made the hair on the back of her neck stand up. How long had he been waiting for her? Had he been listening in on her conversation with Apollo in the hallway? She’d just thanked his brother for making her come. Out of context, it was a horrifying thing to overhear. Then again, the context was that he’d taught her to petrify-which Caspen had explicitly refused to do. Perhaps that was even worse.
Caspen didn’t reply. Instead, his eyes traced down her naked body and a chill slipped down Tem’s spine as his gaze landed between her legs. His nostrils flared. An eternity passed.
Then he said, “Tell me, Tem. Why is my brother’s cum in your pussy?”
There was really nothing to say besides the truth. “He taught me how to petrify.”
Caspen blinked slowly. “I see.”
A deathly silence followed.
Tem knew Caspen would understand exactly what she was really telling him. He knew what had to happen after you petrified someone. Even if she hadn’t known the implications of that decision until an hour ago, Caspen certainly knew. And Apollo had known too.
“We didn’t have sex,” she said when the silence lingered too long.
“I see,” Caspen said again.
“He just…” Tem struggled to put the experience into words. There was no way to describe what had happened on that brick wall that would make it palatable to Caspen. She decided on “…helped.”
A muscle in Caspen’s jaw twitched. Tem knew he was picturing them together, imagining everything his brother had helped her with.
“I didn’t know,” she said quickly.
His eyes slid to hers. He blinked. “You did not know what?”
“I didn’t know what happens after you petrify.”
No reply.
Tem soldiered on. “You never told me, and Apollo thought I already knew. He thought…” She trailed off. It was pointless to tell Caspen that Apollo thought she’d asked him to teach her how to petrify because she wanted to sleep with him. It was a detail that would only make things worse.
Caspen still wasn’t speaking. He was simply watching her silently, his arms crossed over his chest.
Tem could do nothing but try again. “I understand if you’re angry but-“
“I am not angry, Tem,” he cut her off.
Tem gave him a cautious glance. “It seems like you are.”
Caspen sighed. He looked her in the eye. “I am not. I should know you better by now.”
Tem had no idea whether she should be offended by that observation.
Another silence followed. A myriad of emotions rushed through Tem’s chest, and she could only imagine that a similar set was rushing through Caspen’s. Not only had she gone behind his back to learn how to petrify, but she’d done it with his brother. There could be no worse combination of misdeeds.
“Caspen?” Tem said quietly. “Please say something.”
“What would you have me say, Tem?”
“Just…tell me what you’re thinking.”