Page 215 of Split or Swallow

“Why did you leave father?”

“I left him because we could not be together.”

“Why not?”

“His family would not allow it.”

Tem had assumed that meant her father’s family had looked down on their occupation. But now she wondered if it meant that her mother had faced the same obstacles Tem had—the same ritual. Perhaps her basilisk hadn’t been as supportive as Caspen was—perhaps he had cast her out. Or perhaps his quiver hadn’t even given her mother a chance to prove herself the way the Drakons had. Her mother had gone on to be a chicken farmer—to surround herself with roosters, the one thing that would protect her from snakes. She’d done everything she could to ensure she would never get hurt again.

Tem stared straight ahead at Caspen’s chest.

“Are you saying you know my father?” she whispered.

A weighted pause.

“I do not know him personally.”

She looked up at him now.

“But you know who he is?”

Another pause.

“Yes.”

Rage coiled within her.

“Where is he? Is he here?”

Caspen shook his head.

“No, Tem. He…went missing.”

Tem’s heart nearly stopped. She remembered the memorial—the etched names of the basilisks kept deep beneath the castle—the prisoners who were forced to give their blood so the royals could maintain their riches. She remembered the voice she’d heard in the castle: the one crying for help.

Her father.

“But I’m human, Caspen. Look at me—” Tem gestured at herself, “—I’m human.”

“You only appear that way, Tem.”

She gestured at him.

“You appear that way too.”

“My human form is simply an illusion. It does not mean I am part human.”

Tem burrowed her face in her hands. It was all too much. She couldn’t imagine herself as anything other than human.

Or could she?

Tem had always felt out of place—like she was wearing the wrong clothes. She’d always hated the farm, always loathed the sound of the roosters. It grated against her on a molecular level—on an instinctual level. She’d always wanted something else from her life—something more. But she’d never expected this.

She looked up at Caspen, and her resolve hardened.

“You knew.”

Caspen shook his head. “I only suspected.”