Page 39 of Between Two Kings

Tem frowned. “But I thought that basilisks don’t consider sex to be cheating.”

“We do not consider meaningless sex to be cheating. But my mother was in love with the basilisk she slept with.”

Tem’s father’s words returned to her suddenly: It is a dangerous thing to love two people. You must prepare yourself.

“Basilisks may be free with their bodies, but we are not free with our hearts,” Caspen said quietly, repeating what her father had told her. “If you are bound to someone by blood, it means you have committed your heart to them. By falling in love with someone other than my father, my mother betrayed that bond. By sleeping with that person, she broke it.”

A horrible feeling was forming in Tem’s gut.

Caspen continued: “When they slept together, he retaliated by killing her.”

Tem stared at him in shock.

“I saw it myself.”

“But how could he do that?”

“He did not have a choice.”

“I don’t understand.”

Caspen shifted, propping himself up on his arm and looking down at her. For some reason, dread pierced her. “There is nothing more sacred than the blood bond,” Caspen continued. “It is our greatest tenet. Blood bonds are done in honor of true love—in the name of Kora. They are bound by magic bigger than us.”

Tem remembered how Caspen had described the blood bond to her: It is an ancient magic, and it is irreversible.

The dread intensified.

“If the blood bond is broken, a curse is put into effect.”

“What curse?”

“Whoever was betrayed must kill the betrayer. My father did not want to kill my mother. But he had to. The blood bond forced him to.”

Tem was in awe. It was a horrible thing to hear. She couldn’t imagine what that must have done to Caspen’s family. She felt a sudden surge of sympathy for Bastian but quickly suppressed it. She would not pity such a man.

“Couldn’t your father resist?”

Caspen shook his head. “It is impossible to resist such magic. Blood bonds are sanctioned by Kora—just like the ritual, or any of our other traditions. He was bound by a magic greater than himself.”

“But if your mother knew what would happen, why would she sleep with the other man she loved?”

To her surprise, Caspen smiled. “Would you be able to resist sleeping with me?”

Tem would not. But Caspen was not the one she had to resist sleeping with.

What he had just told her was horrific. She couldn’t imagine a worse scenario than his father killing his mother. And to witness it himself was unthinkable.

“Why didn’t your mother just keep it a secret?”

“She tried. But the curse was triggered the moment she slept with her lover. The curse told my father.”

Tightness. It was all Tem felt. Encroaching on her chest, squeezing her lungs.

“We cannot lie,” Caspen whispered. “There are no secrets between basilisks.”

“But doesn’t it…bother you?”

Caspen sighed deeply. “Of course it bothers me, Tem. It is a horrible stain on my family. But in basilisk society, my mother is the one who was in the wrong. My father was merely enacting justice.”