Page 302 of Split or Swallow

Leo waited just a moment longer before turning the handle and stepping through the door. Tem followed, her throat tightening as the cloying smell of decay invaded her nostrils. The cells were just as she remembered them, row after row disappearing into the darkness.

Leo took a few steps forward, then stopped. His head turned to the side, and Tem watched as his gray eyes fell on the occupant of the first cell.

“Tem…” he whispered. “What is this?”

In reply, Tem took his hand, guiding him closer to the cell.

Leo stiffened as they approached the bars. He stared at the basilisk slumped against the cell wall, taking in the tangle of golden wires fused to her fingertips.

“What’s happening to it?”

It.

The basilisk was clearly a woman, yet Leo referred to her as an object. Tem tried not to take this as a bad sign.

“Basilisk blood has magical properties,” Tem began, realizing she had no idea how to explain the bloodletting.

Leo stared at the wires. Tem had never seen him stand so still.

“What kind of properties?”

Tem took a deep breath.

“It can be alchemized into gold.”

“Gold,” he murmured.

“Yes,” said Tem. “Gold.”

For a moment, Leo simply stood there. Then he turned to face her, and Tem raised her hand.

“These,” she whispered, brushing her finger over his lips, right where his incisors were. Her fingers fell to the golden cuff on his wrist. “This.”

Leo shook his head.

“No,” he said.

“Yes.”

His gaze returned to the cell.

“This is barbaric.”

The same thing she’d said about the ritual.

“Says the son of the man who allows it.”

Leo opened his mouth, then closed it. Disbelief flashed across his face, followed quickly by deep shame. He looked utterly devastated; Tem might as well have plunged a knife into his chest. Yet underneath his pain she saw reluctant comprehension dawning in his eyes. He might find it hard to believe what was happening in the dungeon, but it certainly wasn’t hard to believe that his father would allow it.

“I am not my father, Tem,” Leo whispered.

She wanted to comfort him. Instead she forged onward:

“Then prove it. Put a stop to this.”

“How?”

“Do what you’ve always wanted to do. Wield your power.”