Chapter Twenty-Nine #3
“I am surprised it took you so long to ask.” Caspen smiled. “The lake is sacred. It does not affect us the way other reflections do. It is the only reflective surface that cannot kill us when we wear our true forms.”
Before Tem could ask any more questions, Adelaide approached. “Temperance,” she said smoothly. “How are you this evening?”
“Fine, I guess,” she said.
Adelaide nodded. Then she turned to Caspen. “The council wishes to speak with you.”
Caspen nodded. “Very well.”
“It is nothing to fear, Temperance,” Adelaide said at the look on her face. “This is standard. The council always meets with the spouse the night before the tournament.”
Still, Tem worried. Every moment she was separated from Caspen felt significant, as if they might never be reunited. With one last lingering glance at her, he disappeared.
With Caspen gone, Adelaide became Tem’s guide.
They moved through the crowd together, and Tem used the time to look at all the Senecas.
They were staggeringly beautiful, just like the Drakons, but theirs was a different beauty: more ethereal, less harsh.
Whereas Caspen’s features were sharp and severe, the Senecas seemed softer somehow, as if they were sculpted by the same artist but from a different stone.
“So how does it work?” Tem asked.
Adelaide raised an eyebrow. “How does what work?”
“The tournament. What’s the…schedule?”
It felt wrong to refer to it as if it were a sporting event. But perhaps that was exactly what it was. And if Tem was going to be put through this ridiculous ordeal, she wanted to be prepared.
“It will officially begin tomorrow morning,” Adelaide replied. “There will be a feast in the banquet hall. Both quivers will be in attendance.”
Tem didn’t like the idea of breaking bread with Rowe or his stupid brother.
“You will choose eight contenders at the feast,” Adelaide continued.
“Eight? I thought there were twelve.”
“Some of them have been chosen for you. Rowe contested your marriage, so he will automatically participate. Caspenon is defending his marriage, so he must participate as well. Each of them will choose an alternate—someone they trust with you should they fail to win your hand themselves. The remaining eight contenders are up to you.”
Tem took a moment to process this. Who would Caspen choose as his alternate? Adelaide was already answering her question before she asked it. “Caspenon will choose Apollo. He has first rights to you anyway.”
Tem’s heart beat a little quicker. “And how will I pick the final eight?” She knew basilisks well enough by now to know that it would not be as simple as pointing her finger.
“Only men whose ranking is high enough to qualify for the tournament will be eligible. You will select from that group.”
“Just men?”
Adelaide raised an eyebrow. “Would you prefer to include women?”
Tem considered the question. The only experience she’d had with a woman was with Adelaide, and although she’d certainly enjoyed it, she didn’t crave women the same way she craved men.
For something as paramount as this—with her entire future on the line—it was probably better to stick with what she knew.
Tem shook her head. “No.”
“In that case, the men will present themselves for your consideration,” Adelaide continued.
Tem’s eyes narrowed. “Present themselves how?”
“They will stand before you,” Adelaide continued, her mouth upturned. “To give you an opportunity to compare their…physicality.”
Tem’s mouth fell open. “I’m supposed to make my decision based on their cocks?”
Adelaide smiled. “You are choosing potential mates, Temperance. It is essential that you see what they can offer you.”
“Is that all?” Tem asked, by now dreading the answer.
“Once you have made your selections, you will seal your choices with a kiss.”
Tem blinked. She would have to kiss each of the contenders?
Adelaide must have seen the look on her face, because she said, “The kiss is only the beginning, Temperance.”
Of course it was.
“The tournament will follow a specific structure,” Adelaide continued. “There will be three tiers of competition—one based on strength, one based on seduction, and one based on the heart.”
Tem waited for details. She already didn’t like where this was going.
“The first tier is simple: it will involve only Caspenon and Rowe. They will transition, and they will fight for your hand.”
Tem didn’t like that at all. “And then?”
“The remaining contenders will give a…demonstration.”
“A demonstration of what?”
“Of…virility.”
Tem crossed her arms. “I’m going to need exact details.”
Adelaide smiled. “Is this how you are with Caspenon? Your persistence is rather exhausting.”
“Yes.”
The beautiful basilisk chuckled.
Tem just shook her head. “Details, please.”
Adelaide was still smiling as she said, “The remaining contenders will bring themselves to climax in your honor.”
Tem stared at her blankly. “In my honor? And what exactly is the point of that?”
“It is meant to impress you. The men who can finish the quickest are the most qualified to wed you.”
“The quickest? Shouldn’t it be the opposite?”
“Not in this case. They will be touching themselves to the sight of you; if it takes them too long to come, you should view that as an insult.”
Tem was having a very difficult time wrapping her mind around this.
But she supposed that, in some twisted way, it made sense.
She wouldn’t want to be with someone who wasn’t turned on by her.
Still, she couldn’t imagine a group of men staring at her and stroking themselves all at once. She was just one woman.
“You said there were three tiers. What happens in the final tier?”
Now Adelaide fell silent.
But Tem already knew where this was going. She should have known the moment the tournament was mentioned at all. “Let me guess,” she whispered. “I have to have sex with them.”
“Yes,” Adelaide said simply. “You do.”
It was a testament to her indoctrination into basilisk culture that the news didn’t faze Tem whatsoever.
Her human side might have recoiled at the thought, but the basilisk side nearly roared with delight.
Warm, lush anticipation filled her center.
She thought of the ritual—of how she’d fucked Caspen’s father in Kora’s palms.
“And how exactly am I supposed to do that?” Tem asked.
“The men will line up and you will take them one after the other.”
Tem’s mouth fell open. “I have to fuck them all in a row?”
“Yes. We do it this way so that it is easy for you to determine who is best. It is meant to be quite straightforward.”
Tem almost laughed. The thought of going down a line of twelve men was preposterous.
Nothing about this was straightforward. But she understood how it seemed that way to Adelaide, how, in her mind, riding one cock after another was the best way to test their worth.
Tem had stopped trying to find reason within their customs a long time ago.
Now she simply took it as it came and tried not to lose her mind.
“Once you have completed the final tier, your heart will make its choice.” Adelaide said.
“I will choose Caspen.”
“You may. Or you may choose someone else.”
“How can you say that?”
“The tournament is bound by Kora’s magic—it is meant to reveal ultimate truths, to allow fate to run its course. While the outcome is technically determined by you, it is not entirely your choice.”
“I don’t understand.”
“The main tenet of basilisk culture is that we cannot lie. The tournament will force your heart to reveal its truth. It will call to your best match. No one, not even you, can know ahead of time who that will be.”
“You’re saying that it could call to Rowe.”
“To Rowe, to Apollo, to any of the twelve contenders. Anyone is a possibility.”
Tem couldn’t fathom how her mind could want Caspen to be the winner, yet her heart might call to someone else.
What if it called to Leo? But Leo wasn’t even a basilisk—he didn’t reside under the mountain; he wasn’t part of the tournament at all.
Or perhaps he was. She loved him, and she had crested him, and they had yet to consummate it.
Perhaps that bond would draw her to him.
Before she lost her nerve, Tem asked, “Can the heart call to someone who isn’t a basilisk? ”
Adelaide gave her a careful look. “I…do not know.”
Dread sat in Tem’s stomach. She probably shouldn’t have asked that.
“I can understand how this may seem frightening to you,” Adelaide said. “But to us, this is a momentous occasion. It will be the first tournament in decades. Everyone is looking forward to it.”
Everyone but Tem.
“Temperance,” Adelaide said gently. “You have nothing to fear.”
But of course she did. Tem had everything to fear. If the point of the tournament was to reveal ultimate truths, there couldn’t be a worse time for Tem to reveal them. She was keeping too many secrets, holding too many lives in her hands.
Before Tem could ask anything else, Cypress appeared beside her.
“Addy,” she said. “There you are.” Her gaze fell on Tem. “Would you mind if I borrowed her? I will bring her right back.”
“Of course.” Tem waved her hand. She’d kept Adelaide far too long anyway. “You should go. Enjoy yourselves.”
Cypress beamed. Adelaide gave Tem one last reassuring smile before disappearing into the crowd. Tem had no choice but to wander the cavern alone, drinking elixir and watching the festivities. She was surrounded by basilisks, all of them touching each other, all moaning in collective desire.
Eventually, it became too much. There were too many bodies, too many sounds.
Tem walked until she reached the lake, letting out a sigh of relief the moment her feet met the water.
The deeper she waded, the farther the relief spread.
Eventually she was swimming along the edge of the lake, passing grottos clustered around the perimeter.
Tem didn’t have to look inside to hear that they were occupied.
By the time she reached an empty one, her arms were growing tired.
Silence fell as she reached the gaping entrance.
A moment later her feet touched stone, and she walked out of the water onto a thick layer of moss.
The grotto was tall; she could stand easily with plenty of room.
Stalactites hung in glistening points above her, tiny droplets of water seeping from their points.
“All alone again, Temperance?” a voice boomed from behind her. “We really must stop meeting this way.”