Page 156 of Between Two Kings

Caspen didn’t reply. Instead, his eyes traced down her naked body and a chill slipped down Tem’s spine as his gaze landed between her legs. His nostrils flared. An eternity passed.

Then he said, “Tell me, Tem. Why is my brother’s cum in your pussy?”

Chapter Twenty-Six

There was really nothing to say besides the truth. “He taught me how to petrify.”

Caspen blinked slowly. “I see.”

A deathly silence followed.

Tem knew Caspen would understand exactly what she was really telling him. He knew what had to happen after you petrified someone. Even if she hadn’t known the implications of that decision until an hour ago, Caspen certainly knew. And Apollo had known too.

“We didn’t have sex,” she said when the silence lingered too long.

“I see,” Caspen said again.

“He just…” Tem struggled to put the experience into words. There was no way to describe what had happened on that brick wall that would make it palatable to Caspen. She decided on “…helped.”

A muscle in Caspen’s jaw twitched. Tem knew he was picturing them together, imagining everything his brother had helped her with.

“I didn’t know,” she said quickly.

His eyes slid to hers. He blinked. “You did not know what?”

“I didn’t know what happens after you petrify.”

No reply.

Tem soldiered on. “You never told me, and Apollo thought I already knew. He thought…” She trailed off. It was pointless to tell Caspen that Apollo thought she’d asked him to teach her how to petrify because she wanted to sleep with him. It was a detail that would only make things worse.

Caspen still wasn’t speaking. He was simply watching her silently, his arms crossed over his chest.

Tem could do nothing but try again. “I understand if you’re angry but—”

“I am not angry, Tem,” he cut her off.

Tem gave him a cautious glance. “It seems like you are.”

Caspen sighed. He looked her in the eye. “I am not. I should know you better by now.”

Tem had no idea whether she should be offended by that observation.

Another silence followed. A myriad of emotions rushed through Tem’s chest, and she could only imagine that a similar set was rushing through Caspen’s. Not only had she gone behind his back to learn how to petrify, but she’d done it with his brother. There could be no worse combination of misdeeds.

“Caspen?” Tem said quietly. “Please say something.”

“What would you have me say, Tem?”

“Just…tell me what you’re thinking.”

Tem didn’t dare enter his mind. There was a black cloud around it she couldn’t hope to penetrate and didn’t want to anyway. This was a conversation better had out loud.

“I am thinking that I have never met someone so incapable of following instructions as you.”

The words stung. They took her immediately back to the training, when she and Caspen had been student and teacher. It was a time when their relationship was unequal, a time when he made unilateral decisions without her knowledge or consent. Now she had done the same to him.

“I don’t understand,” she said. “You’re always saying how you want me to have the full basilisk experience.”