Chapter Seven
Tem gasped in surprise.
Leo’s eyes immediately narrowed. Tem wanted to moan.
But she couldn’t make a sound—couldn’t move an inch.
Nobody except for her and Caspen knew what was happening between her legs right now at this very dinner table.
The pulse grew slowly, bathing her core in warmth and bringing a flush to her cheeks.
Her nipples were hard, and the sensation of them against her dress was enough to send her mind into a frenzy.
Tem wanted to be naked. She wanted to fuck someone—anyone—who could bring her relief.
Did Leo know what was happening? He’d seen her turned on before; he knew what it looked like, would recognize the signs.
Or perhaps he had forgotten about that part of her, disregarded it as quickly as their marriage.
It didn’t matter anyway. The pulse continued to grow.
Tem let out a quiet gasp as it reached an unprecedented rhythm.
It was almost vibrating. She had never felt anything like that on her clitoris before, and the urge to jerk her hips against the chair was so strong she nearly passed out.
Tem reached for her whiskey glass before realizing it was empty.
She needed a distraction, and Caspen wasn’t helping.
Without thinking, she said, “Evelyn.”
Her tone was sharp—far sharper than it should have been.
Evelyn’s round eyes became even rounder as she looked up at her. “Yes?”
“Are you glad to be back?”
It was a loaded question. But Tem didn’t care. She needed to focus on something other than the hot, aching pulses between her legs. And some latent part of her also wanted to remind Leo that the only reason Evelyn was back was because Tem had made it so.
“Of course.” Evelyn squeezed Leo’s arm. “We’re so lucky we found our way back to each other.”
Another pulse. Stronger this time.
Leo was watching her, but she could do nothing about it. In fact, she wanted him to watch her. It only turned her on more to imagine that he knew what was happening—that he was picturing her naked just as surely as she was picturing him.
“Then why did you leave in the first place?”
A horrible silence fell. The pulses stopped.
Even the butler froze midmotion, his arm awkwardly extended to hand Leo another wineglass.
Evelyn’s face pinched into an unpleasant expression. She looked at Leo, who was looking only at Tem. Then she said, “I didn’t want to leave.”
She is lying.
Tem’s head snapped to Caspen’s. He said it casually, as if he were stating a rather boring fact. But that fact was everything to Tem. How do you know?
He didn’t reply. Perhaps his interest had already waned. But Tem’s interest was very much piqued, so she asked once more, “Then why did you?”
It was rude to repeat the same question mere seconds later. But Evelyn still hadn’t answered it. “I was…misinformed.”
Tem blinked. So did Leo. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
Beside her, Caspen’s hand touched her knee. Tem knew what he was saying: Relax. But she was about to get the answer to a question she’d wondered about for far too long, and she could not be relaxed about it.
“On the morning Leo and I were supposed to run away together, I received a letter.”
Tem straightened. Caspen’s grip tightened. “What kind of letter?”
Evelyn turned to Leo. “Did you not tell her?”
Tem turned to Leo too. “Tell me what?”
A tenuous silence fell. In it, Leo’s jaw twitched. When he didn’t answer, Evelyn said, “Leo wrote me a letter telling me he no longer wished to be with me.”
Now Tem was truly confused. As far as she knew, Leo had waited for Evelyn in the graveyard behind the church on the morning they were meant to leave.
When she hadn’t shown up, he had been the heartbroken one.
Was that all a lie? Had Leo played her? Doubt curled in her stomach.
His pitiful story about Evelyn had tugged at her heartstrings.
Such a tale would have swayed anyone. Now, for a terrifying moment, Tem wondered if it had all been false.
“Why would he do that? He loved you.”
“I didn’t.”
The words were spoken by Leo, and Evelyn bristled the moment he said him. At her reaction, he clarified.
“I didn’t write the letter.”
Tem frowned. “Then who did?”
“My father.”
The pieces clicked slowly into place. Tem remembered what Maximus had said to her in the foyer after she discovered the bloodletting: I have corrected my son’s mistakes before.
I will not hesitate to do so again. The letter was his way of correcting Leo’s mistake, of ensuring he didn’t end up with a lowly village girl.
But something about Evelyn’s story didn’t sit right with Tem.
In the silence that followed, she tried to pinpoint why she felt so angry.
It was irrelevant whether Maximus had been the one to write the letter.
What was unfathomable to Tem was the fact that Evelyn would have left Leo after reading it.
If she and Leo were so in love, nothing should have been able to drive her away.
Tem knew if Leo had broken up with her via letter, she never would have accepted it.
She couldn’t understand how Evelyn could have taken such a note at face value—not when her entire relationship was at stake.
At the very least, she should have shown up to the graveyard to hear it from Leo in person.
Before Tem could say as much, Evelyn finished wistfully, “When I got the letter, I could think of nothing else to do but to flee.”
Something flickered in Leo’s eyes. Doubt.
Tem’s eyes shifted to Caspen, whose expression was unreadable. Sometime in the last few minutes, the claw had begun to throb again. It was beginning to make her lightheaded. She clenched her fists in an attempt to focus, asking, “So why didn’t you come back?”
Evelyn blinked slowly. She placed her hand gently on Leo’s arm. Her power was quiet but no less present. Tem could feel it in the way she watched her every move at the table—sense it in the way her eyes flicked to Leo whenever Tem looked at him. She was watching—waiting—protecting her king.
“Are you implying something?” she asked quietly.
“You said the letter is why you left,” Tem said just as quietly, keeping her voice steady despite the erratic pulses between her legs. “But you didn’t say why you stayed away. So why didn’t you come back?”
Across from her, Leo took a sip of his whiskey. Caspen didn’t move.
“I was heartbroken, of course,” Evelyn said. “I didn’t think Leo wanted to see me ever again. As you can understand, I was devastated.”
“No,” Tem said. “I don’t understand.”
Evelyn raised an eyebrow. “What don’t you understand?”
“Do you have it?”
Evelyn frowned. “Do I have what?”
“The letter.”
Leo glanced at Evelyn. Tem wondered suddenly whether he’d asked her the exact same question. If she knew anything about him, he had.
“I burned it,” Evelyn said primly.
“Why? Seems like something you would hold on to.”
Evelyn tilted her head. “And why would I do that?”
“So you could show it to Leo. He has a right to see what his father was saying on his behalf.”
“That letter represents a terrible memory for me. I did not wish to see it ever again.”
“But if Leo—”
“Tem,” Caspen cut her off. “Enough.”
The pulses stopped too.
Throughout this entire exchange, Caspen had said nothing.
But he chose to speak now, and for once, Tem fell silent.
She was taking this too far, and she knew it.
But she couldn’t seem to stop herself. It was a bizarre story; Evelyn’s reaction made no sense to her.
If Leo had tried to break up with her using a letter, she would have marched right up to the castle to confront him face-to-face.
Clearly, Evelyn had done no such thing. How could she let Leo go so easily?
From everything Tem knew of their relationship, he’d truly loved her.
To be loved by Leo was a privilege—an honor. And Evelyn had thrown that away. Why?
Caspen’s voice was suddenly in her mind:
It is not your responsibility to speak for the human king.
I know that. I’m just trying to figure out why—
Their relationship is none of your concern.
Tem had nothing to say to that. Leo’s relationship with Evelyn was very much her concern.
She was the one who had orchestrated their relationship.
Concern was all she felt when she looked at them, and not just for selfish reasons.
Tem needed them to work. She needed Evelyn to be the love of Leo’s life.
Because if she wasn’t, everything she’d sacrificed was for nothing.
Apologize.
Tem looked at Caspen in disbelief. It wasn’t a suggestion. It was an order.
No.
Tem. You have offended them.
She had to physically stop herself from scoffing at that.
Perhaps she had offended Evelyn, but Tem could tell from the look on Leo’s face that he’d wanted to ask the same questions she was asking but hadn’t.
Was he suspicious of his newly returned love?
Of the truth that might come out if he pried too hard?
Relationships were built on trust. Leo had made Tem swear never to lie to him.
Clearly he’d made no such demands of Evelyn.
“Forgive me,” Tem said stiffly. It wasn’t an apology, but it was the most she could manage.
Evelyn immediately gave her a slow, saccharine smile. “There is nothing to forgive,” she said smoothly. “Of course you’re curious about what happened. Anyone would be, in your position.”
Tem didn’t like the sound of that. Her position? And what position was that, exactly?
Before she could ask, Evelyn clarified: “As someone who was formerly engaged to Leo, I can understand how you feel.”