Page 263 of Kneel Before Me

His words were too heavy to bear. There was so much left unsaid between them. So many things she wanted to ask.

“Kronos,” she whispered. “What does mén zeseré mean?”

His eyes softened. “It means my heart.”

She remembered how he’d described love to her—how it felt like his heart was outside his body. Daphne placed her hand on his chest, her palm covering the Y-shaped scar.

“As long as my heart beats,” he murmured, “it beats for you.”

Daphne could barely see through her tears. It took great effort to say “And mine for you.”

Then she kissed him.

They kissed as if it were the last time, and perhaps it was. They kissed as if they were the only two people in the world, the only souls in the universe. They kissed despite the horrors they’d just been through and the horrors still to come. They kissed until they were both crying too hard to kiss anymore. Only then did Kronos say, “Will you do something for me, Daphne?”

She nodded. “Of course. Anything.”

A long pause followed. Daphne’s heart began to pound. She had a bad feeling—a sudden fear that Kronos was about to—

“Do not follow me.”

A familiar sensation returned to her chest, settling with slow insistence. “Kronos,” she shook her head, trying to fight the sensation. “Don’t.”

“Do not come looking for me.”

“Kronos—please—”

“You will do whatever it takes to keep yourself alive and safe,” he continued, his eyes holding hers. “You will take care of yourself because I will not be there to do it for you.”

“Please don’t do this to me. Please don’t—please—” Her words devolved into sobs.

Kronos kept going through them. “Tell yourself whatever you have to in order to leave me, Daphne. You will forget who we are to each other; you will forget what we have. When fate reunites us, you will remember.”

Daphne was crying so hard she could no longer see straight. “We’re supposed to be together,” she choked out through her tears. “You promised. You—”

“Daphne,” he cut her off, his whisper even quieter than hers. “I will find my way back to you. That is a promise. But you have a life to live, Daphne. I demand that you live it.”

“That,” Maximus said quietly, his voice cutting between them like a knife, “is quite enough.” He nodded at the guards. “Take him away.”

“NO!” Daphne screamed.

She tightened her grip on Kronos, holding on to him even as the guards hauled him upright. She clung to his shoulders so hard her fingernails drew blood.

“Let go, Daphne.”

Immediately, she did so. She tried to step forward, but something stopped her. He told her to let go, so she did. Daphne railed against the sensation, trying with all her might to move forward. But she couldn’t. Ancient magic much older than herself prevented her from fighting for the one person she didn’t care to live without.

“You can’t take him from me,” she screamed.

Yet they could.

She watched as the guards pushed Kronos into the carriage, snow flurries whirling around him. He held her gaze the entire time, the tears in his eyes matching the tears in hers as he went where she could not follow.

She could do nothing but watch as the carriage left, taking her heart with it.

The world seemed to darken the moment Kronos was gone. It was just her and the prince now, standing in silence. Maximus watched her with his hands behind his back, a feigned position of innocence. The sight made her want to scream.

She whirled on him. “Now allow me to have my last words with you.”