Chapter Seventeen
Tem stared up at him in shock. Did he know what they’d just been doing?
They were both out of breath, both flushed with desire.
Tem’s dress was barely on—Caspen had yanked it aside so aggressively that her entire thigh was bare, her breasts nearly exposed.
Leo knew very well what Tem looked like when she came.
Would he recognize it now? If the roles were reversed, she would recognize it on him.
“Leo,” she said, because she didn’t know what else to say.
Just then, Evelyn appeared. Her eyes ran first over Leo, then Tem, lingering on her askew dress. A cruel sneer twisted her mouth. “Shall we eat?” she chirped.
Nobody answered, but they walked to the dining room in silence, Caspen’s hand around her waist. His thoughts were especially loud: she saw him taking her in the foyer, on the stairs, against the dining room table.
Tem could barely put one foot in front of the other as he sent her vision after vision of them together, all over the castle, for anyone to see.
You’re out of control tonight.
Can you blame me?
Tem couldn’t. She sent him a vision back: the two of them in the middle of the ballroom, surrounded by people. Their own mini-ritual.
Do not tempt me, Tem. I will rip that dress off right now and fuck you in front of them.
I doubt that would help relations.
I doubt I care.
They’d arrived in the dining room. Tem sat slowly, aware of the wetness between her legs, arranging her dress to cover her thighs. Underneath the table, she placed her hand on Caspen’s and squeezed. Behave, Caspen.
He threaded his fingers through hers. Only if you do.
The vibe between Leo and Evelyn stood in stark contrast to the one between Caspen and Tem. Things were strained between them. Tense. Evelyn was glaring at Leo as if he’d deeply wronged her. Tem understood suddenly why they were late to dinner. They’d been arguing. The thought thrilled her.
“So,” Tem said lightly. “How are you two tonight?”
Leo cleared his throat. Evelyn said nothing.
Tem tried again: “How are the wedding preparations coming along?”
It was the last thing she wanted to hear about. But she was in the mood to push them, and the wedding was sure to get Evelyn talking. Sure enough, she answered, “They are somewhat stalled.”
“Oh?” Tem sat up straight. “And why is that?”
“Things are…difficult right now.”
“Difficult how?”
Evelyn glanced at Leo, who was staring at his whiskey. “Now that the bloodletting has been abolished, the kingdom is struggling. It was our main source of income.”
Income. As if the bloodletting was a job that produced a paycheck. To compare the basilisks chained up in the dungeons to employees was laughable.
“What does that have to do with your wedding?”
“Well,” Evelyn tutted. “It has affected our budget, of course.”
Rage surged through Tem. The church had burned down, and they weren’t even discussing it. The only thing that mattered to her was money.
“Surely there are other ways to pay for it.” Tem shrugged.
“None as lucrative as the bloodletting.”
A silence fell, the only sound was the scrape of knife against plate.
Tem wasn’t sure who should speak next, but she decided it wouldn’t be her.
Beside her, Caspen’s hand was still clasped in hers.
Only now, he was no longer in a good mood.
Now he held her as if her hand were an anchor—a desperate measure to control himself. Tem dearly hoped it was working.
In the silence, Tem considered the implications of what Evelyn was saying.
This was an unanticipated problem. Tem hadn’t thought this far ahead—she’d thought that if they could abolish the bloodletting, everything would be solved. It was Leo’s job to decide how to run his kingdom in the aftermath, and it was Tem’s job to protect her people.
Evelyn broke the silence: “Surely, there is a compromise.”
Tem’s eyes immediately narrowed. She opened her mouth to speak, but Caspen beat her to it.
“What do you suggest?” The words were icy. Restrained.
Everyone at the table looked at him, but he looked only at Evelyn. He was holding Tem’s hand so tightly it was beginning to go numb.
Evelyn shifted, clearly uncomfortable. Then she turned up her nose. “The basilisks could…provide us with a supply.”
Tem’s mouth fell open. “Of blood?”
“It would be on a voluntary basis.”
Tem snorted. The basilisks had barely begun to heal from the decades of torture. There wasn’t a basilisk alive who would choose to bleed again. And Tem couldn’t blame them.
“No one is going to volunteer to bleed for you.”
“It’s not just for us,” Leo said quietly, his first words in minutes. “It’s for the villagers.”
Tem glared at him. “That’s not true, and you know it.”
Silence.
She needed him to say it—needed to admit that he was doing this for the one person Tem had sacrificed her happiness to give him.
To Evelyn, the solution to their problem was simple: bring back the bloodletting.
If it had worked for many years before this, why stop now?
But it was unthinkable to Tem. Leo had agreed to abolish it.
She would not let him go back on it without a fight.
“We have to bleed for that gold, Leo. You want us to bleed for your wedding?”
Evelyn rolled her shoulders but didn’t speak. Her face was a mask of fury.
Leo shook his head. “I don’t want that.”
“Then why are you asking it of us?”
Leo opened his mouth and then closed it.
His knuckles were white around his whiskey glass.
Tem stared at him. Then she looked at Caspen.
He’d been quiet throughout most this exchange.
Tem knew he was controlling his temper, expending every ounce of his energy into staying calm.
She also knew it was only a matter of time before his energy ran out.
She turned back to Leo. “Why are you doing this, Leo?” she whispered. “This isn’t you.”
He didn’t reply.
Tem thought about how Evelyn always pursed her lips during dinner whenever the topic of the bloodletting came up.
At first, Tem thought it made her uncomfortable to talk about such unpleasant matters.
But now she saw the truth: of course she wanted the steady supply of gold to continue.
No doubt it was what she’d expected when she first returned to Leo.
The royals were known for their wealth, after all.
Leo’s recent financial change would have been a surprise to Evelyn, and not a pleasant one.
Leo looked at her finally, his jaw tight. “I just want peace.”
Tem let out a dull laugh. “Peace is not gained through bloodshed.”
Tem couldn’t believe this was happening.
If she could put a face to the victims—if she could put her face to this horrible act—perhaps then finally Leo would understand what this would cost him.
There would not be some anonymous basilisk in the dungeon, bleeding for the sake of the royals.
It would be someone he cared about. It would be her.
“If you’re looking for volunteers,” she said through gritted teeth, “you have one. Me.”
“No,” Caspen and Leo said at the same time.
“Yes,” Tem insisted. “If you’re so eager for blood, you can have mine.”
Caspen’s grip tightened even more.
“No, Tem,” Leo insisted. “Not you. Never you.”
Tem straightened. “Why not? I’m part basilisk. I made that”—she pointed at the gold claw on Caspen’s chest—“and my blood is just as good as anyone else’s.”
Leo’s eyes flicked to Caspen’s necklace. His brow furrowed, and Tem wondered what he was thinking. He shook his head. “You’re not an option, Tem.”
“And why not? I’m no different than anyone else.”
“Of course you are.”
“No. I’m not. And if you want my people to bleed, that means you want me to bleed too.”
“I don’t want you to—” But he cut himself off.
Tem leaned forward, staring straight at him, her voice dangerously quiet. “Don’t want me to what, Leo?”
Leo pursed his lips. He understood. She knew he did.
Tem was making this difficult for him: forcing him to choose between keeping his soon-to-be wife happy and keeping Tem safe.
It was a cruel choice but a necessary one.
Tem needed to shine a spotlight on Evelyn’s asinine idea.
Leo was only entertaining it in the first place because he thought some random basilisk would be the one to be harmed.
But she wouldn’t let him off so easily. If Leo wanted blood to be spilled, that blood would be Tem’s.
“I don’t want you to get hurt,” Leo finally finished quietly.
His words fell on deafening silence.
Evelyn’s lip were pressed together in tight displeasure, her eyes flicking from Tem’s to Leo’s, then back again. Tem ignored her. This was between her and Leo. She already knew where Evelyn stood, already knew she was evil. But Leo was redeemable. Leo was good. Tem was going to remind him of that.
She looked him in the eye. “You say you don’t want me to get hurt, yet you also want the bloodletting to continue. So which one do you want more?”
Leo’s face was pale, his expression strained. Tem could see the toll this was taking on him, but she was not about to let up. She would not let him sit in his privilege and pretend that his actions did not affect others.
“If you want blood,” she said again. “You’ll need to take mine.”
As the silence deepened, Caspen’s grip grew even tighter.
She could feel him pushing at the edges of her mind, trying to get in.
But Tem had shut him out long ago. This was her battle to fight with Leo—her personal mission to make him understand that Evelyn’s request was unacceptable.
If Leo wanted the bloodletting to continue, he would have to claim it and wear it proudly.
If the kingdoms were to backslide, Tem was not going to make it easy to do so.
If Leo was going to let this happen, he was going to have to let it happen to Tem.
That was the only outcome that would teach him a lesson.