Page 225 of Between Two Kings

“But you want to, do you not? You want to more than anything.”

She shook her head. “I…”

“It is easy to choose when there are no real consequences. It is not so easy when a life is on the line. How long does he have?”

Tem’s throat was tight. She couldn’t breathe. Leo did not have long. Her father had said that when she fully lost the ability to transition, it would already be too late. She hadn’t transitioned since Apollo taught her to petrify. And he had barely been able to pull her through.

“I don’t know,” she whispered.

“And if his time is near? What then, my love?”

He said it so condescendingly, she wanted to cry.

“Tell me, Tem.” Caspen leaned in. “Will you let him die?”

They both knew the answer to that.

“Perhaps I shall make it easy,” he said, his voice deadly quiet. “Perhaps it would be better if I made your choice for you.”

Tem looked up into his black eyes, staring at the endless pools. “What are you saying?”

“I am saying that your little human prince is fragile. And I am tempted to break him.”

For the first time, Tem truly feared for Leo.

It was one thing for Caspen to be livid with her. But it was another thing entirely for him to direct his ire at Leo. He had already threatened to solve this himself, hadn’t he? There was absolutely nothing stopping him from leaving the caves and going to the castle to enact his own revenge. Tem knew exactly what form that revenge would take. She pictured Jonathan’s and Christopher’s petrified faces. Caspen had already broken the truce. Caspen did not care about the humans.

That could not happen to Leo. She wouldn’t let it.

She refused to believe that Caspen would do that to her, not when he knew the heartbreak would surely kill her. Tem was too shocked to speak.

But it was Apollo, ultimately, who said, “You cannot do that.”

“Why not? It is a solution.” Caspen looked at him wildly. “Just as you said.”

“Have mercy, Brother.”

“Mercy?” Caspen spat. Tem flinched at his tone. “You want me to have mercy?”

His words hung in the air. Caspen owed no one his mercy.

Tem did not deserve his compassion or charity. There would be no benevolence for her. She didn’t even want it. She wanted to be punished, to reap the consequences of her actions. Why shouldn’t she suffer when her actions warranted punishment? Caspen had already suffered, and it had been at her hand. Tem deserved the same.

“It will destroy her,” Apollo said quietly. “You know it will.”

Finally, Caspen fell silent. A tortured shadow of tenderness passed over his face as he looked at Tem. He did not want to destroy her. It was the last thing he would ever do.

Apollo was truly standing between them now. His back was to Tem, his hand on Caspen’s chest. Caspen didn’t seem to notice, looking only at Tem.

“I do not want to hurt you,” he said slowly, each word drawn out.

“You should,” she whispered. “I deserve it.”

Incredible sadness passed over Caspen’s face. He stepped closer. The moment he did so, Apollo’s hand flattened against his chest. Finally, their eyes met. The two brothers stared at each other, and Tem wondered suddenly whether they were speaking using their minds. Both of them were closed off to her—she couldn’t listen in. An eternity passed.

At last, Tem caught part of a sentence spoken by Apollo: …know when to step aside.

“She is my wife,” Caspen said out loud, his voice dangerously low. “And this is between us.”