Page 347 of Split or Swallow

Your human side is dying. You need to crest someone in order to heal it.

And that someone has to be Leo?

He would do anything for you. You know this.

It’s not right.

He will feel only pleasure, Tem.

He’ll be bound to me, Caspen.

He loves you. The two of you are bound together already.

Tem knew the words pained him. But she couldn’t care about Caspen’s feelings right now. She couldn’t crest Leo. Not when he’d specifically told her how he craved agency—how the thing he wanted most was to be able to make his own choices—how he wanted to become the swan. There could be nothing crueler than taking that away from him.

Caspen was already turning away.

I will bring him to you.

He was gone before she could protest. Tem shut everything else out—the sounds of pain and death and anguish—focusing only on keeping herself whole. Every moment that passed, she became a fraction weaker. She knew Bastian had bit her to punish her—one last way to keep her beneath him. Tem stared at his mangled, chewed-up body, barely recognizable under wet clots of organs and blood. A death worthy of a king, she supposed: vicious and brutal. Epic.

An eternity later, Caspen reappeared with both Leo and Lilly in tow. Tem looked up at Leo. His hand was scraped and bleeding. Lilly had a scratch on her face that was gently seeping blood. Her normally bright eyes were red with tears.

“Leo,” Tem whispered. “You were supposed to leave.”

“Tem,” he knelt beside her. “I had to find Lilly first.”

His face tightened with concern when he saw the blood surrounding her. He glanced up at Caspen.

“What happened to her?”

“My father bit her.”

Leo removed his jacket, pressing it to her shoulder. He seemed short of breath, like he was on the verge of a panic attack.

“Is she going to die?” he rasped.

“Not if you help her.”

“Caspen,” Tem said. “No.”

Leo looked desperately between them.

“How can I help her?” he asked.

“You must let her—”

“Caspen,” Tem cried. “I already told you no.”

It took so much effort to speak. Her lights were dimming, her blood flowing slower. She could no longer balance; she tilted backward, and Leo caught her.

“Tem,” Leo’s eyes were a wild mess. “What can I do? Just tell me.”

When Tem didn’t answer, he turned to Caspen.

“Can’t she draw power from me?”

Caspen nodded. “Yes. But she refuses to do so.”