Page 164 of Kneel Before Me

“Have you thought more about the Ranking?” Kronos whispered.

There was no need for them to be so quiet; they were all alone in his chambers. Yet his hushed tone matched the importance of the moment, and Daphne found herself whispering back, “It’s…all I’ve been thinking about.”

Kronos sighed, his chest rising and falling against hers. “As have I.”

“I don’t want you to be angry with me…whatever I choose.”

He pulled away to look down at her. “I could never be angry with you, Daphne.”

She looked back up at him, seeing the depth in his eyes—endless refractions of gold. “You will be if I choose wrong.”

“There is no wrong choice as long as you follow your heart.”

Daphne swallowed. Her heart hardly had a reliable sense of direction. It had led her astray more times than she could count. “I don’t know what I want,” she whispered.

The thought of going into something like the Ranking was terrifying. She didn’t even know what it would entail, and she was hardly in the correct mind space to hear about it tonight. In a way it did not matter. All that mattered was whether or not she trusted Kronos.

“You do not have to decide tonight,” Kronos said quietly. “The Ranking begins tomorrow evening.”

Daphne nodded. In that case, she would worry about it in the morning. In the meantime, her head was still spinning from the wine. She needed a distraction.

“Can you…talk to me?”

Kronos shifted her in his arms. “What shall I talk to you about?”

“I don’t know. Anything. Tell me something about your childhood. It must have been fascinating.”

“If you find hunting and swimming fascinating, then I suppose it was.”

“Oh, come on.” Daphne propped herself up on her elbow, looking down at him. She liked hearing about his powers and the ways in which basilisks were different than humans. “You must have some stories.”

Kronos lifted a hand to tuck her curls behind her ear. She loved it when he did that.

“I assure you my childhood was uneventful. Basilisks mainly spend their youths learning how to hunt and control our powers.”

“But what about sex?”

He raised his eyebrow. “What about it?”

“Where do you learn everything? Were you born knowing what to do?”

As she said it, Daphne realized how interested she was in the answer. Where did basilisks learn everything? The truce dictated that they use their sexual knowledge to train the future queen. But how did they gain such knowledge?

“Basilisks come of age when they turn one hundred years old,” Kronos said. “On that day, they have sex for the first time.”

Daphne blinked. One hundred years old?

“Whoever they have sex with becomes their mentor,” Kronos continued, seemingly oblivious to her shock. “They form a bond.”

“What kind of bond?”

“A powerful one.”

“Love?”

“No.” He shook his head. “You are indebted to your mentor. They are the one who will teach you everything you need to know about sex. Without them, you cannot become a proper member of basilisk society. If they do not teach you well, you will be at a disadvantage from the start.”

Daphne processed this information in silent awe. Perhaps it was mundane to Kronos, but it was all quite magical to her. “Is your mentor…still around?”