Page 127 of Between Two Kings

So that’s what they were calling it: a sample.

Tem fought the bizarre urge to laugh. It was all so clinical. In Evelyn’s mind, Tem was merely doing them a service—giving something that her body was meant to give. But nothing could be less true.

“Will it hurt?” Tem asked pointedly, again directing the question at Leo. She already knew from her father that it would. But again, she wanted him to say it. She wanted anyone to say it, to acknowledge the inhumanity, to put a name to the cruel thing she was about to endure.

Utter and complete silence fell. A slow, sickly expression twisted Evelyn’s face. “I…do not know. Surely…it will not?” She looked at Leo.

He looked at the ground.

There was nothing more insidious than cowardice, and that was what Leo was demonstrating in this moment. He had the power to stop this. And yet he stood there silently, staring at his shoes as if they held the answer.

Beside her, Caspen rolled his shoulders. Tem did not condone violence, but right now, she wished wildly that Caspen would rip everyone in this room to shreds.

Do not tempt me, Tem. One word from you and I will kill them both.

You know I would never say that word.

In reply, Caspen closed the corridor to his mind.

Tem knew that his thoughts had likely become so furious that he chose to shield her from them, rather than subject her to them.

Finally, Evelyn broke the silence. “Well,” she said. “If we’re not going to eat…you…know where to go, I presume?”

Her voice was higher than usual. She was avoiding Caspen’s eyes. Perhaps she was afraid the Serpent King would hurt her. The thought cheered Tem enormously.

“Yes,” Tem answered. “I do.”

Without another moment’s hesitation, she stepped toward the door. The second she did, Caspen and Leo spoke simultaneously:

“I will come with you.”

“No, you won’t,” replied Tem and Evelyn at the same time.

A testy silence fell. Both men stared at Tem. Tem stared at Evelyn.

“Darling,” Evelyn said through gritted teeth, wrapping her fingers tightly around Leo’s arm. “You can’t go down there.”

“Darling,” Leo said just as tightly. “Why not?”

“Because…” She paused, clearly grasping for an appropriate end to her sentence. “You shouldn’t be around your father.”

Tem frowned. It was odd reasoning. She’d expected Evelyn to say that Leo shouldn’t be around Tem. Leo seemed to think so too because he asked, “And why shouldn’t I be around my father?”

Another pause. For the first time since Tem met her, Evelyn looked nervous. “I…”

But the rest never came. The three of them stood in stasis, locked in place.

Leo’s eyes slid to Tem’s, asking a silent question she couldn’t identify. Was he wondering, like she was, why Evelyn was acting so strange?

“I will accompany Tem to the door,” Leo said finally. “But no farther.”

Evelyn rolled her shoulders as if this compromise caused her physical pain. But rather than make a scene—which Tem strongly suspected she was too afraid to do in front of Caspen—she twisted her mouth into a strained smile and said, “In that case, I will retire for the evening. I’m feeling rather tired.”

Without a backward glance, Evelyn turned and swept from the room.

A beat passed. In it, Leo and Caspen looked at each other. They wore the exact same expression that meant the exact same thing: Are you really going to let her do this?

Tem didn’t wait for their answer. She brushed past them both, stopping only when she reached the door. Leo followed. Caspen didn’t.