CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Daphne
There is something we must discuss.”
Daphne’s heart stopped. She was sitting in the cave across from Kronos, the fire crackling beside them.
She had hoped that after what happened last night they might spend this session in his chambers, but when she’d arrived he was already seated on the mat.
They hadn’t discussed the kiss, nor had they kissed again.
Daphne wasn’t sure what she’d expected, but it wasn’t this.
Perhaps for Kronos, the kiss had been a one-time thing, simply an experiment he wished to indulge in. For her, it was everything.
“What is it?” Daphne asked.
“The Frisky Sixty is soon.”
The Frisky Sixty was when the girls who remained in the competition would get exactly sixty seconds alone with Maximus to do whatever they wanted with the prince. The Frisky Sixty was nothing more than a way for the prince to see all the girls naked.
“You will be expected to undress for the prince,” Kronos continued.
At the thought of undressing for Maximus, a pit grew in Daphne’s stomach. What happened in his bathroom felt like ages ago. The only man she wanted to undress for was sitting right in front of her.
“I know.”
“Are you prepared to do so?”
Daphne pursed her lips. Why was he asking her this? She thought it would be obvious that she didn’t want to undress for Maximus. At her silence, Kronos leaned forward.
“Are you prepared to do so?” he repeated.
She still didn’t respond, because she did not know her answer.
Up until a moment ago, there was nothing that could have made her stand naked in front of the prince.
But now, in the face of Kronos’s ambivalence, she was becoming tempted.
Could basilisks feel jealousy? Or was Daphne the only one sitting here with a pit in her stomach?
“Daphne.” Kronos said her name so quietly she barely heard it over the crackle of the fire. “Answer me.”
“I don’t know.”
Now Kronos pursed his lips. There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other. For some reason, Daphne could have sworn Kronos looked relieved. Then his face hardened.
“The prince may eliminate you if you do not undress.”
“We have an arrangement. He doesn’t expect anything of me.”
“Men always expect things of women.”
Daphne paused. She knew that to be true. “I don’t care what he expects.”
“You may if he eliminates you.”
“Then he’ll eliminate me.”
“That is unacceptable.”
“Do you want me to undress for him?”
“I want you to win the competition.”
“But why?”
The question hung in the air between them.
It was something Daphne had asked herself many times before.
She had agreed to his demand under duress.
It had seemed like the right thing to do at the time, and Daphne hadn’t questioned him.
But now that they had spent time together, she was no longer afraid.
And she would no longer agree to things blindly.
“Tell me, Kronos.”
He straightened. “Is that a command?”
“It’s a request.”
He held her gaze, his pupils wide. The air was warm and rapidly getting warmer, and Daphne knew now that temperature was tied to his emotions. Was he angry? Jealous? She was desperate to know.
“Why does the competition matter to you?” she insisted. “What do you gain from it?”
The air was sweltering. Sweat dripped down her spine.
Kronos stared at her as if she were a puzzle he was trying to solve.
Daphne was quite sure that none of his other students had ever given him trouble like this.
Surely he was used to obedience in human women.
But Daphne was only interested in one thing, and Kronos was not giving it to her.
If they weren’t going to be honest with one another, she wanted no part of this.
“Power,” he said finally. “I will gain power.”
“What do you mean?”
He looked down at her, his expression suddenly cautious. Daphne couldn’t understand why he was looking at her like that. It seemed like a simple question. After all, she was doing this for him. She deserved to know why.
Kronos shifted, and his next words came slowly. “For the basilisks, our power is determined according to our sexual prowess.”
Daphne blinked in surprise. “Prowess?”
“It means ability.”
“I know what it means.”
The corner of his mouth twitched. He did not elaborate, and Daphne suspected he was giving her a moment to process this information. She still wasn’t entirely sure how it all worked. Basilisks were complicated creatures who clearly did not do things the way humans did.
“Basilisks are ranked according to their power. It is how we decide our position in society. A basilisk with a high rank is more powerful than a basilisk with a lower rank.”
“So if we were to have sex right now…” Daphne began.
“My power would increase,” Kronos finished. “And my rank would rise.”
Daphne stared at him in disbelief. “But…” Daphne said slowly, finally understanding what he was saying to her. “We’re not having sex.”
“That I know.”
Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt. The next question was out of her mouth before she could stop it. “Are you…having sex with someone else?”
Again, Kronos did not answer. Daphne tried not to be jealous, but it was impossible. She knew they were not together, and he did not owe her an explanation of his activities. She could stake no claim on the man before her. Yet she still felt as if he were hers.
“Sex is not the only way to improve your rank,” he continued. “There are other avenues through which to gain power.”
“Such as?”
“The competition.”
“Which competition?”
For the first time, Kronos looked confused. “Your competition,” he said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Daphne stared at him. Then she understood.
She remembered Kronos’s exact words from the first night in the cave: You will do as I say, or there will be consequences.
At the time, it had terrified Daphne. But now she understood that he had meant there would be consequences for him.
If Daphne did not perform well in the competition, it reflected badly on Kronos.
Every second she denied him took him another step further away from power.
“You never told me that,” she whispered, looking up at him.
He looked back down at her. “Told you what?”
“You never told me that there was a consequence for not training me. You never said it would impact you.”
He pursed his lips but did not reply.
“It hurts you,” Daphne whispered.
“It does not hurt me.”
His phrasing was an evasion. She could see it in his eyes, in the way they avoided hers. “Then it weakens you. There is a consequence, and you hid it from me.”
Kronos shrugged. “I would rather bear that consequence than go against your wishes.”
Daphne stared at the man before her, understanding for the first time what her obstinance was costing him. “But why don’t you just…make me?”
To her surprise, he laughed. “No one could make you do anything, Daphne. Least of all me.”
“But you could have—”
“No,” he cut her off firmly. “I could not have.”
There was such conviction in his tone that Daphne fell silent. She thought about how they had spent their hours together: talking, bonding, sometimes doing nothing. All that time, Kronos had been hurting. All that time, she could have done something to help him, and she didn’t.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered.
He shook his head. “Do not be sorry. I made a choice, Daphne. It was mine to make.”
She stared at him in the firelight. Kronos looked strained—as if this conversation was difficult for him. It wasn’t exactly easy for Daphne.
“Perhaps you should go,” he said.
Her stomach dropped. “Are you angry with me?”
“No.” He shook his head. “But you should still go.”
Daphne knew him well enough by now to know that there was no point in arguing.
Kronos had revealed something important to her tonight—something she would need to think deeply about.
The fact that the training affected him personally changed everything; Daphne would not only be doing Maximus a favor by winning—she would be doing Kronos a favor as well.
And in the process, what was she doing to herself?
Adrenaline pumped through her as she walked the trail back home.
Daphne spent the rest of the evening in bed, trying not to overthink.
Every time she found herself getting angry at Kronos for withholding information from her, she also thought about their kiss.
She remembered how Kronos had lifted her from the ground, supporting her weight with just one arm.
She remembered the heat of his body as it pressed against hers.
She remembered the unyielding rigidity of his cock.
He was a basilisk, yet his body behaved the same way a human’s did.
Daphne longed to experience everything he was capable of.
She longed to do what she hadn’t had the courage to do when he’d kissed her—to slide her hand down his trousers and hold him in her palm.
If she dropped out of the competition, she would never be able to do any of that.
She would be breaking her word to Maximus, and she would be condemning Kronos to a lower rank.
Nothing felt within her control right now; nothing felt easy.
The next day passed agonizingly slowly.
By the time the sun set Daphne was eager for a distraction, so she went to the Horseman in hopes of finding one in Ella. They sat in their favorite booth, sipping beers, going over the latest village gossip, and according to Ella, Daphne was the topic.
“Everyone thought he was going to pick Veronica. She had her tits out, after all.”
The memory of the Showing was still fresh in Daphne’s mind. Less than a week had passed since the prince had given her his coat. It only made her more curious about how the Frisky Sixty would go.
“Speaking of tits,” Ella said. “Are you going to get naked tomorrow?”
Daphne shrugged. “I don’t know,” she said honestly. Part of her wanted to do so simply to see if it would make Kronos jealous. But it would also give Maximus a look at her nude, which he didn’t deserve.