CHAPTER TWO #3
“My blood is red,” Kronos continued quietly, shaking her from her thoughts. “Just like yours. Perhaps we are not so different.”
Daphne just shook her head. She had been raised to fear the basilisks. She was not about to start relating to them now. It was an act of bravery to sit in this cave, unarmed, with a creature as powerful as Kronos. She would be a fool to forget that.
Daphne touched her own sternum, right over her heart. “Why didn’t you heal this?”
Kronos touched his own chest, running his fingers over the Y-shaped scar. “I was born with it.”
Daphne stared at the distinctive mark, wondering what it was if it wasn’t actually a scar. If he was born with it, that meant it was genetic.
“Can all basilisks heal themselves?”
“Yes. We can.”
“That’s impressive,” Daphne said quietly, and she meant it.
She’d never seen magic like that before.
There were greater implications of what Kronos had just shown her.
If the basilisks were able to heal themselves, surely they were capable of other miracles.
Daphne shuddered to think what those might be.
There had always been whispers in the village of the great capabilities of the basilisks, but Daphne had never imagined she’d be able to see them in person. She wondered briefly whether the other girls were also getting a magic demonstration from their teachers.
Kronos scoffed. “I do not aim to impress humans.”
Daphne bristled at his response. His cock was still hard, rigid beneath his trousers. He was not immune to her, no matter how much he insisted otherwise. And she was not immune to him.
She ignored her fight-or-flight instincts, leaning closer. “If you were to impress me, what would you do?”
Kronos raised an eyebrow. She wondered what he was thinking—whether he was deciding if she was worth impressing or not. It seemed like an eternity before he replied.
“I would put my cock in your pussy,” he whispered.
He said it easily, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. Daphne was sure she was blushing. Kronos wore an expression of total self-satisfaction. Barely keeping her composure, she replied, “That wouldn’t impress me.”
Kronos gave her a deviant smile. “Would it not?”
Of course it would. But she didn’t need him to know that.
“No. It wouldn’t.”
“I have lived for centuries, and your life has barely begun. Do you truly think there is nothing I could do that would make you tremble?”
Tremble. Daphne had to admit a man had never made her tremble before.
Orgasm, sure. Cry, definitely. But tremble?
That was something she had yet to experience, and she couldn’t deny that she was eager to do so.
But to admit it would be to let this monster win.
So instead of speaking the truth, she said, “No. Nothing.”
Kronos let out a soft chuckle.
She wanted to slap the smile off his face. “You are lying.”
“How do you know?”
“Your heartbeat is accelerated. Your pupils are dilated. It is easy to read you, Daphne.”
“Your pupils are dilated too. Does that mean you’re lying?”
He looked her straight in the eye. “It means I am turned on. As are you.”
There was no denying it whatsoever. Daphne was wet between her legs, and from the way Kronos’s nostrils flared, she highly suspected he could sense it.
But it didn’t change anything. She would not let him win this.
With far more ease than she felt, Daphne leaned away, shrugging her shoulders casually.
“Just because I’m turned on doesn’t mean I want your cock in my pussy. ”
“Does it not?”
“No,” she said, twirling the end of a curl around her fingers. Kronos tracked the motion with his eyes. “It doesn’t.”
Now he was the one leaning closer, breathing her in. “Then what does it mean?”
The fire crackled.
“It means my body doesn’t agree with my mind. Wouldn’t be the first time.”
He smirked. “I see. So you do not listen to your body.”
“Not if I can help it. It’s gotten me in a bit of trouble in the past.”
“What sort of trouble?”
It wasn’t an unreasonable question; she was refusing to have sex with him, after all. But it wasn’t wise to reveal such a private part of herself to a basilisk.
She dropped her curl. “I’d rather not say.”
To her surprise, Kronos looked amused. He seemed to find this entire interaction entertaining.
Daphne would have thought that he’d be annoyed with her by now.
Instead he was regarding her with a smile.
The urge to slap it off his face was rapidly disappearing.
She would rather kiss it off instead. But that wasn’t an option.
Especially not now that she’d established her boundaries and he was respecting them.
There was no doubt that Kronos—no matter how intimidating he might seem—was an honorable creature.
It was a stark difference to the boy she’d been with just last night.
But Daphne didn’t want to think about that.
“Are you prone to trouble?” Kronos continued, the same amused expression on his face.
“Sort of.”
“That is a rather evasive answer.”
“Maybe I’m an evasive person.”
Kronos tilted his head with reptilian precision. “You do not seem like an evasive person to me.”
“What kind of person do I seem like to you?”
He tilted his head in the other direction, his movements uncannily smooth. “You seem lost.”
Daphne frowned. She hated that she seemed lost. But she couldn’t exactly blame Kronos for saying it.
Truth be told, she had never felt more lost in her life.
The events of last night had unsettled her, casting her out into an uncertain sea.
It wasn’t a sensation she was used to, and it bothered her that Kronos could sense it.
What else could he sense? He’d already confirmed that he couldn’t read her mind.
So why did it feel like he could? The way his eyes held hers made her feel terribly exposed, as if she were naked before him—just the thought of being naked in his proximity made her even warmer than she already was.
She didn’t dare imagine it. It would only make her want to experience it.
“Are you?” Kronos said quietly.
“Am I what?”
“Lost?”
Daphne already knew there was no point lying to him. He’d made it clear he could tell when she did so. Instead, she said, “Maybe.”
It was a kinder sentiment than how she really felt. She knew she was lost. Kronos, apparently, knew it too. He nodded, as if she’d said something profound. Perhaps she had. “There is no shame in being lost,” he said gently. “As long as you are willing to be found.”
A moment of silence fell. The fire crackled merrily, and for the first time in a long time, Daphne allowed herself to experience hope.
How was it possible that the first connection she’d felt to another living creature was with a deadly basilisk?
It seemed contradictory. All her life, she’d been taught to fear the snakes.
Yet she’d found common ground with Kronos, and she’d found it quickly. Suddenly, her stomach growled.
Kronos glanced at it. “You are hungry,” he said.
“I’m fine.”
“Do not lie to me.” His tone was sharp.
Daphne straightened, squaring her shoulders. “I’m not lying. I said I was fine, not that I wasn’t hungry.”
If he was going to dissect her words, she would dissect them right back.
She was perfectly used to hunger; it was a regular occurrence in the village, especially with the winter months coming.
She was more than acquainted with the sensation, even though she was fortunate enough not to suffer from it as much as others.
But Kronos was already standing. “I will get you something to eat.”
“No,” she shook her head. “I don’t want it.”
She wasn’t trying to be obstinate; she didn’t want to owe the basilisk anything.
She didn’t need her teacher to take care of her; she could fend for herself.
It was embarrassing enough that her stomach had growled in front of him; it would be downright mortifying for him to consider it his problem to solve.
Kronos frowned. “But you are—”
“I said I’m fine.”
At her tone, Kronos slowly sat back down, keeping his eyes on hers the entire time.
“I don’t need you to do anything for me,” she said slowly, enunciating each word. “You’re not my boyfriend.”
Boyfriend seemed like an utterly ridiculous term to use in the presence of a basilisk. But Daphne didn’t know what else to call it. She was trying to convey to him that she didn’t need his help—she didn’t need anyone’s help.
Kronos’s expression darkened. Then he nodded. “Very well.”
Daphne had no idea whether she had offended him or not. At this point, she hardly cared. She crossed her arms, her walls firmly back up. “I should go.”
His expression was equally guarded. “If that is what you wish.”
“It is.”
“Very well.”
He stood, and she followed suit. They walked to the head of the path together, and the moment the icy air hit her skin, Daphne shivered.
She could have sworn Kronos reached for her, but he must have curbed the impulse immediately, because he stopped at the head of the trail, his arms firmly behind his back.
Daphne stared up at him, utterly at a loss for words.
Much of what she’d been taught about the basilisks had been wrong.
They were not bloodthirsty or cruel. Kronos had noticed her hunger and attempted to address it.
He had pushed her intellectually but not physically.
He was nothing she could have predicted.
“You will return tomorrow night,” he said.
An order.
“Fine,” she said back. It was clear she didn’t have a choice.
Kronos held her gaze. Then he dipped his head in a strange imitation of a bow, turned, and disappeared into the darkness.