CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR #4
“Of course. I would feel the same in your position.”
“My position?”
He shifted, and the motion nearly forced another whimper from her lips. “I understand that you are…wary of me.”
Wary was only the start. The odds were stacked against them; the humans and the basilisks had been on opposing sides for centuries. Nothing could bring them together. There was no way for this to work.
“I’m terrified of you,” she whispered. “I’m terrified of…us.”
If he looked hurt before, he looked devastated now.
Daphne was almost surprised by his reaction.
Perhaps some distant part of her still believed he wasn’t capable of feeling the way she was.
But that was a lie, like so many of the other lies she had been told about the basilisks.
They were just as empathetic as humans were.
“That…saddens me,” Kronos said simply.
They stared at each other. Daphne wanted to comfort him but didn’t know how. There was probably nothing she could say anyway.
Kronos shifted, leaning away as if he wanted to give her space. “Have I…done something specific to make you feel that way?”
It wasn’t that he’d done anything. He simply was. “You haven’t done anything.”
“Then why are you terrified of us?”
Daphne thought of the way Benjamin and the other boys had taunted her and Maximus. What would the villagers say of her and Kronos?
“Because being with you is a risk,” she whispered.
“What we have is worth the risk.”
Daphne wanted to believe that. He was constantly telling her she was worth it: worth the price, worth the risk. But these were not facts—they were opinions, and given Daphne’s past, it was difficult to share them.
“How can you be sure?”
Kronos observed her calmly, his golden eyes on hers. “Basilisks believe in fate.”
That may be true. But even Kronos could not predict the future—could not account for the troubles that were destined to plague them.
Kronos sat up fully. Daphne looked at him, at his bare chest, covered in dried blood.
She sat up too, and silence fell as they studied each other.
Kronos was a man of few words; she knew that.
Yet he communicated with her anyway. He said so much just with his eyes, which held Daphne’s with a tenderness she found unnerving.
It was hard to believe that those same eyes were capable of turning her to stone.
“Have you ever considered that I am frightened of you too?” he whispered.
Daphne raised her eyebrows. She had certainly never considered that. “No. I’m not frightening.”
He chuckled softly, and the sound was like a waterfall. “You do not understand yourself.”
Nobody had ever said anything like that to her before. Daphne was fairly positive that she understood herself quite well, actually. “That’s not a fair thing to say.”
“Is it not?” He tilted his head, considering her. “You are formidable.”
Daphne blinked. Never, in her twenty years of life, had a man called her formidable. “You’re formidable.”
Kronos just shook his head, as if he was in on a secret she wasn’t privy to. “Perhaps to you.”
“Perhaps to everyone.”
He shook his head again, arching his neck to look at the ceiling. “Daphne,” he murmured. “Please.”
“Please what?” She said it louder than she meant to.
Both of them fell silent, and for a moment, Daphne listened to make sure her mother wasn’t awake. When no sound came from the room beside them, she lowered her voice.
“If you keep being cryptic, I’m not going to be frightened anymore. Just annoyed.”
He smiled at that. “Annoyance is preferable.”
“Not to me.”
“Daphne.” He leaned closer, and she finally stilled. “When I say you are formidable, I am not speaking of physical strength. I am referring to the hold you have on me. I am frightened of how much space you occupy in my heart. In this way we are no different.”
“So… You’re frightened of feelings too.”
“Yes.” He gave her a small smile. “I suppose I am.”
They were quite the pair. The ferocious basilisk and the human woman, both scared of each other. Both scared of their hearts. Daphne sighed. “I don’t think we can solve this tonight.”
Kronos nodded. “Perhaps not.”
“Should we…just…go to sleep?”
There were a hundred things she would rather do in this bed than go to sleep. But her mother was right next door. And what Kronos had just revealed felt…heavy. Anything they did immediately after such a confession would hold too much weight—would mean too much.
Kronos nodded again. He lay back down, pulling Daphne with him. They curled together beneath the blankets, holding each other close.
“I will most likely be gone when you wake,” Kronos murmured into her hair.
Anxiety tugged at her chest. “Why?”
“It is not wise for me to linger in the village in the daylight.”
Daphne nodded against his chest. She understood. But she didn’t want him to go. In honor of their recent shared intimacy, she decided to say so. “I wish you could stay.”
Kronos sighed. “I wish I could too.”
Cradled in the arms of a monster, Daphne fell asleep.
True to his word, he was gone when she woke.