CHAPTER FORTY-SEVEN
Daphne
Weeks ago, Daphne would have been unsure where her loyalty lay.
But now, standing in front of Kronos’s people, she was unsure no longer.
She hardly noticed when Maximus left her.
All she noticed were the basilisks. As much as she wanted to, Daphne couldn’t free them herself.
Maximus had taken the key, and even if he hadn’t, this wasn’t the time to make such a move.
Daphne had no way of getting dozens of dying basilisks out of the castle and back to the caves unscathed.
For now, she just needed to speak from the heart.
Without thinking, she stepped forward, approaching the closest cell and kneeling so that she was eye level with the male basilisk inside it.
“I’m so sorry they did this to you.”
At first, she wasn’t sure whether the basilisk heard her. He was staring so intently at her stomach that she experienced a sudden jolt of realization.
“You can sense it, can’t you?” she whispered. “The baby?”
The basilisk nodded. “We all can.”
His voice was beautiful. It might as well have been Kronos talking. Daphne had a sudden, horrible vision of him here in this basilisk’s place. She placed her hands on the bars.
“Kronos Seneca is the father. Do you know him?”
The basilisk blinked slowly. Even that motion looked painful. “He is…a…”
But she didn’t get to hear what Kronos was.
The basilisk was fading, the light in his eyes rapidly dimming.
Sadness was all Daphne felt when she looked at the stooped man before her.
A cluster of silver wires were fused to his fingertips, disappearing up into a hole in his cell.
Daphne knew nothing about the bloodletting process, but she knew from the grimace on his face that whatever was happening with the wires was painful.
She felt first sympathy, then rage. Maximus was smart; he knew this was cruel.
And if he did not, he was willfully ignorant because it benefited him.
Daphne clung to the bars, leaning closer. “I will do everything I can to get you out. I promise.”
The basilisk hung his regal head. Daphne barely heard him say “Do not make promises you cannot keep.”
“I don’t,” she whispered fiercely. “That’s the prince’s job.”
Then she left too.
She thought about her circumstances the entire way back to the village, turning over the events of the morning in her mind.
Two men, two confessions of love. Daphne should be flattered.
But it was not their feelings for her that mattered.
It was her feelings for them. Kronos was the one who pulled her out of the depths, who shook her to life, who made her feel.
A future with him was unpredictable. But it was the future she wanted.
He was a worthy partner in every way, and he pushed her to be worthy in return.
He fought for her, defended her, protected her.
And he did so without expectation, without any hope that she would ever reciprocate.
He was something Maximus was not: patient.
Maximus was always dangling his affection and then taking it away when it most benefited him.
He kept score; his love was conditional.
And conditional love was not what Daphne was looking for.
There would come a day, no matter how far in the future it might be, when she no longer met the conditions that qualified her to receive such love.
With Kronos, there were no conditions. And that patience was exactly what Daphne needed.
She needed someone who could handle her in all her indecisive glory, who could handle her overthinking, who could wait while she made her decision and trust she would make the right one.
Kronos supported her emotionally; Kronos gave her time to grow.
And it was that, if nothing else, that was worth fighting for.
And then there was the pregnancy.
It should be impossible on every single level.
Daphne took the infertility herb just like everyone else her age.
Even if she hadn’t, basilisks weren’t supposed to be able to impregnate humans.
And certainly not so quickly. Hardly an hour had passed between the time Kronos came inside her and the time Agnes had told her she was with child.
If the basilisk in the dungeon hadn’t just confirmed it, she might not have believed it at all.
Clearly there was magic at work that she did not understand.
There had always been rumors, of course.
Rumors that, in rare cases, it was possible to carry the child of a basilisk.
But Daphne had never thought it would happen to her.
Before she knew it, she’d arrived at Ella’s. Her best friend lived only a few houses over from her. When they were younger, it made their sleepovers easy. Now that Ella was a mother, it made babysitting Gabriel easy too. When she knocked on her door, Ella answered immediately.
“Daph? What are you doing here?”
“Can I come in?”
“Of course. I just put Gabe down. Is something wrong?”
Daphne couldn’t begin to answer that. She sat at the kitchen table as Ella rummaged through the cabinets.
“Do you want a glass of wine?” Ella said. “I’m almost out of that last batch from the prince, but I’m sure I have a bottle here somewhere.”
“I can’t have a glass of wine.”
Ella turned to her and frowned. “You…can’t have wine?”
It felt like the same interaction she’d just had with Maximus. Daphne took a deep breath, looking her best friend straight in the eye and saying with unreserved finality, “No. I can’t.”
The significance of her words sat between them. Daphne watched as confusion, then concern, then slow realization passed over Ella’s face. Surely she, of all people, would understand.
Her eyes dropped to Daphne’s stomach. “Are you…?”
Ella didn’t say the word, and Daphne was grateful for it. She doubted she could say it herself. “Yes.”
“Daph.”
“I know.”
“Is it the prince’s?”
“No. It isn’t.”
Ella’s mouth fell open as she came to the inevitable conclusion. “It’s his?”
“Yes.”
“But that’s not even possible.”
“Believe me. It is.”
Ella grabbed the last bottle of wine, opened it, and drank straight from the mouth. Daphne rather wished she could do the same. “I don’t understand. You said you hadn’t even had sex yet.”
“Well…” Daphne said. “Now we have.”
Ella closed her eyes. “Kora,” she whispered. A pause. Ella opened her eyes. “So…you’re in love with him.”
It wasn’t a question, but Daphne answered anyway. “Yes.”
“Kora,” Ella said again, pouring a sizable glass of wine before sitting at the table. “This is…insane. Maybe even dangerous, Daph. Does the prince know?”
“No. Or at least, he only knows part of it.”
“Which part?”
“Not the important part.”
“You’d better hope he doesn’t find out.”
“How can he? I’m certainly not telling him.”
“But…he’s expecting to marry you, isn’t he? Everyone knows you’re his first choice.”
After what had happened in the dungeon, Daphne very much doubted that was still true. “I don’t know what he expects anymore.”
“Well, what’s the plan, Daph?” Ella insisted. “Take it from me, you need a plan.”
But Daphne had no plan. There was no way to plan for something like this.
As far as she knew, she was the only human alive experiencing these exact circumstances.
Up until now, Daphne hadn’t allowed herself to think about what the end of her arrangement with Maximus would actually look like.
If everything had gone as planned, he would have chosen Daphne and his father would have called off the wedding.
Now she had no idea where they stood. Before she could come up with something to say, a knock came on the door. Daphne glanced at Ella.
“Are you expecting someone?”
“No,” she said. “Nathan is out of town.”
With a frown, Daphne stood and opened the door to reveal the last person she expected to see. “Maximus,” she gasped. “What are you doing here?”
The prince wore an expression of dark determination. It almost scared her. “I did not like the way we left things.”
“But—but how did you know where I—”
“Your mother told me I might find you here.”
Daphne stared at him. She couldn’t believe the prince was here, on her friend’s porch, and clearly not ready to let her go.
“That is not how I want us to end, Daphne,” Maximus said.
But it was how they had ended. Daphne was under no impression that they could fix what they’d broken in the dungeon. Why was Maximus?
Before she could ask him, he was already getting down on one knee.
“I once promised you a diamond,” he said breathlessly. “This was my grandmother’s.”
Daphne watched as he pulled out a golden ring—a ring made from the blood of Kronos’s people. A ring Maximus expected her to wear on her finger as she married him and bore his children, all while basilisks bled to death in the dungeon.
She barely heard him as he whispered, “Will you marry me?”
Behind her, Daphne heard Ella gasp.
“Max.” She shook her head. “You know I can’t.”
“You said there would be only pain for us,” he continued. “But there won’t be. I will never hurt you, Daphne. I promise.”
Bizarrely, the words of the imprisoned basilisk popped into her head. You should not make promises you cannot keep.
“I can’t, Maximus.”
“Daphne,” he said. “I need you.”
Daphne had no doubt that was true. But it didn’t mean she needed him.
“I don’t just want you because I can’t have you,” he insisted. “I have always wanted you, and you know it. Since the moment I met you.”
Daphne stared down at him in bewilderment. “How can you say that? You met me when I was holding your child. You were furious with me.”
“Have you ever considered that I wasn’t furious? That I was just in shock? That perhaps I liked the way you looked holding my child? That you looked…right…together.”