Page 47 of Kneel Before Me

He didn’t respond.

“You could…tell me more,” Daphne said tentatively. “If you wanted.”

From the expression on his face, it was clear Kronos didn’t want to. And as much as Daphne might want the opposite, she was also terrified of pushing him any further than she already had tonight. She was so close to clarity. She decided to try just one more time.

“You’re not being fair,” Daphne whispered.

His eyes hardened. “I am not trying to be fair.”

“Then what are you trying to do?”

Kronos dropped his hand. Before it could fall completely, Daphne caught it. She took his long fingers in hers, threading her own through them.

“Kronos,” she whispered. “Are you ever going to open up to me?”

An expression of great pain flashed over his face.

“I cannot.”

That much was abundantly clear.

“But… Do you want to?”

An endless moment passed. The fire crackled beside them. Tentatively, Daphne brushed her thumb over the back of his hand. At the motion, his eyes fluttered shut.

“Yes,” he whispered. “I want to.”

His words were like a lightning strike, filling her with a brightness she couldn’t control.

“Then why can’t you?”

He sighed, his great chest rising and falling.

“If I open up to you, I will draw you into my world.”

“Would that be such a bad thing?”

“It would be a dangerous thing.”

“For me?”

“For both of us.”

“But how?”

His eyes were still closed as he continued: “The basilisks do not consider humans our equals.”

“Do you consider me your equal?”

He pursed his lips. It was then that Daphne realized Kronos was not just reckoning with his own feelings for her—whatever those may be—he was also reckoning with everything his culture had taught him to think of the humans. Finally, he answered, “I do, Daphne.”

“Then what’s the problem?”

A long pause followed. His answer was a whisper. “It would cost me something to be with you.”

That didn’t surprise her. Of course it would cost him something: status, surely, and certainly the respect of his peers. If basilisks considered the humans to be below them, being with her was a risk. Daphne understood this was not simple for him. But it was not simple for her either.

“It would cost me something to be with you too,” she said honestly. “But… I want to try.”