Page 234 of Split or Swallow

“And what is so special about her?” Rowe snapped.

Bastian laced his fingers together.

“She is a Hybreed.”

Instant chaos.

Several basilisks cried out in disbelief, while others smacked the stone table in protest. Rowe’s voice carried over it all:

“If the Drakons knew of the existence of a Hybreed and they hid it—that is treason.”

“I did not know,” Bastian insisted, his hands raised. “Not until the ritual.”

“He knew,” Rowe pointed at Caspen. “He had to have known. He has been fucking her for weeks.”

“My son’s business is his own,” Bastian said. “I take no responsibility for his actions.”

Tem found that ironic.

“This is absurd,” a woman basilisk on the Seneca side insisted. “You play us for fools.”

Bastian shook his head.

“I am merely championing our liberation.”

“And let me guess,” the woman continued. “As the liberators of our people, the Drakons would remain in power.”

Bastian leaned back in his chair.

“One would assume the Senecas will yield to those of us who are bold enough to defeat the royals.”

It was a classic basilisk answer—evasive and ineffective. The council would not be swayed.

“Prove it,” Rowe snarled. “Prove she is a Hybreed.”

Tem didn’t wait for anyone’s permission. She was already feeling for the corridor to Rowe’s mind, gently opening the mental door that led to his consciousness. The moment she made contact, Rowe whipped his head around to stare at her, his mouth slack with shock. Tem whispered two words softly into his mind:

Hello Rowe.

Rowe recoiled in disgust, slamming a barrier between them so fast that she flinched.

“Impossible,” he growled.

Behind her, Tem felt Caspen’s amusement.

What did you say to him?

I just said hello.

Caspen’s amusement only increased. His fingers were still inside her, and his cock had been hard for a while now. Tem could feel it against her back, and want⁠ed nothing more than to turn around and mount him.

Not yet, Tem.

Tem squirmed in his arms. She was turned on to the point of distraction; she wanted to have sex right now. But Caspen held her in place as Bastian said:

“I assure you, it is not impossible. And neither is our freedom.”

“Your freedom,” Rowe insisted. “Meaning the Drakons.”