Page 70 of Split or Swallow

I AM TRYING.

His rage was palpable. Tem was dripping with sweat; she couldn’t hold on much longer. Smoke seeped from between his scales, stinging her eyes.

“Focus on something else,” she begged. “Focus on me.”

Caspen didn’t reply. Perhaps he was beyond response. But Tem would not be dissuaded.

“Focus on me, Caspen.”

She said it firmly, like an order.

Close your eyes. He ordered back.

“No. Stay with me.”

Something was dripping onto the mat. Tem looked down to see blood seeping from Caspen’s mouth. He was biting his own tongue.

“Caspen, please,” she whispered.

The energy in the room shifted suddenly, as if a strong wind had blown through the smoke.

For the love of Kora, close your eyes.

“Caspen,” she whispered again. “Please.”

CLOSE YOUR FUCKING EYES, TEM.

Tem closed her eyes.

The moment she did so, Caspen wrenched himself away from her. He was retreating into his body—tearing himself apart just to keep himself together. Tem didn’t need to see him to know what was happening. She could do nothing to help him. She could do nothing but pray. But even her prayers weren’t enough.

She heard the ferocious growl that reverberated around the cave; she felt his mind violently extract itself from hers. The very air around her felt as if it had been set on fire. Tem knew, on an instinctual level, that he had transitioned—that she was now in the presence of a predator.

For some inexplicable reason, she was not afraid.

Instead, she felt the same peace she had felt the night before she came to the caves for the first time. She felt the same breath on her cheek—just one single breath, softer than a feather against her skin. She knew now what she had suspect⁠ed then: that it was Caspen in the dream—that he had drawn her to him like a moth to a flame.

Her eyes were still closed. But she longed to open them—needed to open them. She wanted to see Caspen in his true form. She wanted to understand this final, most fundamental part of him. It didn’t matter that it would surely kill her. Tem had never been afraid of dying anyway.

So she opened her eyes.

Thick, black smoke filled the cave. It choked her throat and forced tears down her cheeks. A dark mass came into view in front of her. Even when she squinted, she couldn’t make out his full shape.

Tem.

His voice was in her mind, in her body, it was everywhere.

“Caspen,” she said in return.

At his name, the claw pulsed, and Tem let out a desperate whimper.

It was so much stronger than usual—as if his true form allowed his power to operate at full force.

“Again,” she pleaded.

Another pulse came, more intense than the first. Tem cried out as her clitoris throbbed with pain instead of pleasure.

Beautiful.