Page 114 of Kneel Before Me

Daphne wondered wildly whether he was dead. Then she saw the steady rise and fall of his chest—so slow it was easy to miss it. She stepped tentatively closer and poked him on his shoulder.

He didn’t stir.

Daphne frowned. It had already been a confusing night, and this was only making it worse. Between meeting with Maximus and wearing oddly responsive lingerie, she had just about reached her limit for strange experiences for the evening. Without another moment’s hesitation, she touched her pointer finger and her thumb to Kronos’s broad shoulder and pinched hard.

A jolt of heat went through the lingerie as he stirred.

“Kronos,” Daphne hissed. “What are you doing here?”

In reply, he groaned.

“Kronos,” she whispered firmly, trying to sound stern while still keeping her voice down, “Answer me.”

He made a strained noise, and it scared her. When he spoke, the words were slow and muffled by her pillow. “I…am…here because…I had nowhere else…to go.”

That didn’t make sense. How could he have nowhere else to go? “I don’t understand,” she said. “What about the caves?”

In reply, Kronos finally sat up, turning to face her with a tortured grunt. With a gasp, Daphne realized he was bleeding. Blood dripped from his neck, trailing down his chest in horrible red streaks. Daphne couldn’t tell how bad it was from where she was standing—there was too much blood to see the wound clearly—but from the look on his face, she knew it had to hurt. Fear coursed through her.

“Kronos,” she gasped. “What happened to you?”

“Caspenon.”

Horrible dread filled her stomach. Daphne knew something had happened. She’d felt it in her bones—in her soul. She thought about what Kronos had told her about the Drakons, how they were bloodthirsty, ruthless, and cruel. Daphne wished she’d trusted her instincts and followed Kronos out of the castle.

“What did he do?”

“He…caught me unawares.”

“What does that even mean?”

“It means,” Kronos said weakly, slumping back on her pillows and causing the entire bed to creak. “He bit me.”

Daphne stepped closer. The moment she did so, the bite mark on his neck was thrown into sharp relief. Two deep puncture wounds glistened with blood. They were unlike any animal bite she had ever seen—these were perfectly sharp, almost surgical. Daphne had a wild flashback to the wounds on Maximus’s neck.

“But when—how?”

“I was…hunting in the forest…shortly after I left…the castle,” Kronos said slowly, each word an effort. “I needed to…release some energy. I should have known Caspenon would attempt something. It was…violent. I was not prepared. He is…stronger than me.”

There was a pause as he coughed up a significant amount of blood. Daphne sat down on the edge of the bed, unable to keep her distance any longer.

“I could not return…to the caves,” Kronos continued. “I knew if he attacked me again, I would not survive it. I…could think of nowhere else to go.”

His eyes found hers. She heard the apology in his voice—and also the desperation. She placed her hand gently on his chest. His blood felt as if it were boiling. She had no idea what to say. There were too many things to process in too short a time. She still couldn’t believe he was here, in her room, bleeding on her sheets. Part of her was thrilled he’d thought of her in his moment of crisis. The other part was terrified for him. Of all the things that needed addressing, there was only one that mattered.

“Kronos,” she breathed. “You need stitches.”

He shook his head, the motion clearly paining him. “Stitches will not help.”

“Why not?”

“A basilisk bite is magical in nature. Human methods will not heal it.”

“Can’t you—I mean—can’t you just heal yourself? Like you did in the cave?”

He shook his head again, causing more blood to flow down his neck. She wished he would stop doing that. “If it was a normal injury, I could. But an injury like this would take an extraordinary amount of power.”

Guilt laced through Daphne. Power he did not have because of her.