Page 181 of Kneel Before Me

“Leadership?” Daphne whispered.

Kronos gave her hip a squeeze but didn’t respond.

The king continued: “A king must have obedient subjects. Any host who can command their guest is worthy of commanding the basilisks.”

Daphne tried to quell the squeamish feeling in her chest.

“Remove the blindfold at any time and your host’s rank will drop.”

She glanced up at Kronos. The information didn’t seem to worry him. But it worried her. What if she became panicked and needed an escape? Even with Kronos to guide her, she did not like the prospect of losing one of her senses in a room full of basilisks.

“You must trust your host to see for you,” Bastian continued. “They are in control.”

Kronos dipped his mouth to Daphne’s ear. “You are in control,” he murmured. “Always.”

She hardly believed him anymore. All around them, the basilisks in the crowd were fucking each other with unbridled enthusiasm. Daphne knew it was a preview of what was about to happen on the mats. Before she could utter a word, Kronos was already turning to her.

“We shall not do anything you are not ready for,” he said quietly, the words meant only for her.

There was only one thing she wasn’t ready for.

“Then how can we win?”

To her surprise, he smiled.

“There are many ways to make you come,” he said, “and I am quite adept at all of them.”

“Will it be enough?” she whispered.

He gave her a look. “I can do more with my fingers than most can with their cocks.”

Daphne already knew that was true. But she also wondered whether they could possibly win. “Won’t we be at a disadvantage?” she insisted.

He shook his head. “Our disadvantage is not what you think, Daphne. Our disadvantage is that I cannot read your mind. All the other basilisks are able to do so. It will make it so they are in sync in a way we are not.”

She hadn’t even thought of that. He was right; that was their true disadvantage.

“You must communicate with me,” Kronos continued. “If you do not like something, you must tell me. And if you want me to do something, you must tell me that too.”

Daphne nodded, trying very hard to process all of this information at once. “You said the crest makes me beholden to you.”

“It does.”

“So can’t you just…tell me to come?”

He shook his head. “I do not wish to give you orders.”

“Why not?”

“It would be taking advantage of you.”

“Only if you abuse the privilege.”

Kronos pursed his lips. “It is not a privilege, Daphne. It is a responsibility, and it is one I take seriously. To give you an order would be to control you. I never want to do that again.”

She noticed how he didn’t say he never would do it again, just that he didn’t want to.

“You could tell me what to do,” Kronos continued. “Everyone else will be commanded by their hosts. I would be commanded by you.”