Page 198 of Split or Swallow

“Quickly.”

“I’d really rather you didn’t kill your own father because of me.”

The king began to walk toward them. Something flared within Tem—a familiar sensation—something she’d felt many times before, with Caspen. Perhaps it was the king’s resemblance to his son that made her feel warm. Or perhaps it was something independent of Caspen entirely. The king was naked, just like everyone else, and Tem couldn’t help but flush at the sight of his cock. It was the same perfect shape as Caspen’s, only slightly thicker at the base. He was already hard, which was no surprise.

At this point, Tem was no stranger to rigid cocks.

The basilisks knelt as the king made his way through the crowd. Time slowed with every step he took, and by the time he was right in front of them, it had stopped altogether.

For an endless moment, father and son stared at each other. Tem could only imagine what they were thinking. Then the king held out his hand. With a jolt, Tem realized she was meant to take it. Caspen’s lips dipped to her ear.

“You do not have to do this.”

Tem didn’t reply.

Instead she took the king’s hand. It was enormous; his palm swallowed her fingers as he led her up the steps of the statue. A hiss rippled through the crowd as they ascended, and Tem resisted the urge to cover her ears against the deafening noise. When they were standing right in front of Kora’s hands, the king turned to face her.

The soothing wave of calm slowly dissipated. But Tem didn’t look at Caspen. Instead, she looked at the king, seeing everything she was about to touch. She knew she shouldn’t be turned on. She shouldn’t be.

But she was.

Tem couldn’t help it. The warmth she’d felt when the king first walked in had only increased the longer he was naked in front of her. She would understand if it was merely a physical sensation—she was looking at a beautiful body, after all. But Tem felt an odd, magnetic pull toward him that she couldn’t explain. The king was tilting his head just as Caspen always did, considering her in that familiar, reptilian way. His expression was inscrutable. But Tem recognized a flair of heat in his eyes, identical to the fire that burned perpetually within Caspen’s. Something else stirred within her: a familiar stubbornness that was welded into her bones. She wanted to do this. And she wanted to do it well.

“What is your name?”

The king’s voice was rough, like gravel. Tem heard echoes of Caspen’s voice in it—they shared the same deep cadence and cavernous tone.

“Temperance.”

The parallels to her first night in the cave were undeniable. She’d stood before Caspen in the same way, and introduced herself just as she was doing now.

“Temperance,” the king said slowly, testing it out. His black eyes bore into hers, and Tem had the distinct impression he was looking straight into her mind.

She squared her shoulders, tilting her chin upward.

“And yours?”

The king’s eyebrows rose a quarter of an inch. Then he said smoothly:

“I am Bastian.”

Now that they knew each other’s names, Tem felt oddly calm. The king was no longer some nebulous, unknown force. Bastian was just a man like any other, and Tem was a woman who had been trained to seduce him.

“Do you understand your purpose here?” Bastian asked.

Purpose. Somehow, the question felt bigger than the ritual.

Did Tem understand her purpose?

“Yes.”

The king didn’t ask anything else. It would seem the time for talking had passed.

Without another word, he turned and climbed into Kora’s hands, reclining on his back so that her palms cradled his shoulders. It was clear Bastian wasn’t going to initiate anything; it was up to Tem to begin the ritual. And that was just fine with her. It gave her control in a situation that felt entirely out of her command, and she used the brief moment alone to close her eyes, preparing herself for what was about to happen.

Her mind was blank, Caspen’s presence noticeably absent. She missed him, but she didn’t wish he was with her. The next few minutes were not about him. They were about Tem, and they were about Bastian, and they were about showing everyone in this room what she was capable of. For some reason, she was perfectly calm. Some part of her liked this—the thrill of a challenge. She’d never felt particularly capable her entire life in the village—never excelled at much of anything. But she would excel at this.

Tem opened her eyes.