Kneel Before Me

Kneel Before Me is set in a world where basilisks, powerful serpentine beings who can shift between human and snake forms, live beneath a mountain near a human village. The two species are linked by a competition in which basilisks train eligible village women in seduction so the human prince can choose a wife. The basilisk whose student wins gains significant power within an internal hierarchy where rank is determined by sexual prowess and governed by the goddess Kora.

Caspen Drakon, eldest son of Serpent King Bastian, surveys the competition with unease. Political tension simmers between the two basilisk quivers, or rival clans: the Drakons and the Senecas. Caspen's position is further complicated by Harmony, a Seneca basilisk who took both his and his brother Apollo's virginity, creating a permanent debt she uses as leverage to play them against each other. Bastian has called for a Ranking, a rare multi-day competition to determine succession, and pressures Caspen to eliminate a rising Seneca rival named Kronos by cresting him, an act equivalent to murder and considered the worst crime in basilisk culture. Caspen refuses.

Daphne, a twenty-year-old village woman, enters her assigned training cave and tells her basilisk teacher she will not have sex. Her refusal stems from a traumatic humiliation: A village boy named Benjamin lured her out under false pretenses, then hurled degrading insults at her when she declined to sleep with him. Daphne has vowed not to have penetrative sex until she is truly in love. Her teacher, Kronos Seneca, is bewildered but respects her boundary, insisting only that she attend their sessions and compete for the prince. Rather than train, they spend their evenings talking. Daphne notices his Y-shaped birthmark and the constellation-like freckles on his palms, features unique to him among basilisks. A tentative bond forms between them.

At the castle, Daphne meets Prince Maximus, who is still grieving Lilibet, the mother of his infant daughter Lilly, who died during childbirth. Neither Daphne nor Maximus wants the competition, so they strike a deal: Maximus will choose Daphne as his top pick, provoking his controlling father Augustus into calling off the wedding. Daphne agrees because it satisfies Kronos's demand that she compete. Over subsequent events, including an outdoor vigil called the Showing and a timed encounter called the Frisky Sixty, Daphne advances in the competition while keeping Maximus at arm's length.

Meanwhile, Daphne and Kronos grow closer. He sends her dresses, walks her home through the forest at great personal risk, and asks permission before kissing her at her garden gate. He reveals that basilisk power depends on sexual activity, and her refusal to train with him has weakened his rank, yet he chose that consequence rather than pressure her. When Daphne ventures beneath the mountain seeking Kronos, Agnes, Caspen's younger sister who is fascinated by humans, finds her and guides her to Kronos's chambers in defiance of Caspen's orders. Kronos and Daphne share increasing physical intimacy, including oral sex, but he consistently honors her boundary against intercourse. When a basilisk woman arrives expecting sex with Kronos, he explains that basilisk culture is sexually communal, then offers to be exclusively faithful to Daphne, a turning point in their commitment.

Unable to bring himself to kill Kronos, Caspen instead bites him, creating a parasitic connection that lets him siphon the Seneca's power. Kronos, gravely wounded, drags himself to Daphne's bedroom. When another siphon causes Kronos to seize violently, Daphne insists he crest her, a magical act that makes her obedient to his commands but gives him enough power to heal. Despite his horror at controlling her, Kronos relents. The crest heals his wound but creates a bond that must be consummated through sex or both will die.

Maximus's feelings for Daphne intensify beyond their arrangement. He confesses he genuinely wants to marry her, but she cannot reciprocate. When he discovers love letters from Kronos in her home, his jealousy hardens. Meanwhile, Augustus reveals a secret: Captured basilisks are held in the castle dungeon, their blood alchemized into gold through a practice called bloodletting, the true source of the royal family's wealth.

Daphne agrees to serve as Kronos's guest in the three-day Ranking. The first challenge requires Kronos to bring Daphne to climax twelve times while she is blindfolded; they win. The second challenge requires guests to rotate among hosts for sex; Kronos forfeits rather than allow others to touch Daphne, causing his rank to plummet. In the third challenge at a sacred underground lake, each host must penetrate their guest on floating mats while basilisks from the crowd create motion. Daphne offers her mouth instead of full intercourse. Mysterious basilisks from the sea, bearing Kronos's same Y-shaped mark, help set their rhythm. As Kronos climaxes, he begins transitioning into his serpent form, injuring Daphne before she loses consciousness. They win the challenge, though Caspen wins the overall Ranking.

Queen Deltene, Caspen's mother, examines Daphne and reveals the unconsummated crest will kill them both. Daphne initially accuses Kronos of engineering the situation, but he drops to his knees in tears, swearing he would rather die than force her. She believes him. They make love for the first time, and Daphne tells him she loves him. His rank in the vials, blood markers that track each basilisk's standing, surpasses Caspen's.

At the closing ceremony, Deltene breaks her blood bond with Bastian, a mate-link whose violation triggers a lethal curse, by having sex with Solomon, a Seneca she secretly loves. The curse compels Bastian to kill her; he snaps her neck despite Caspen and Apollo's attempts to intervene. When Bastian orders Apollo to crest Solomon and Apollo cannot, Caspen performs the forbidden act himself, condemning himself to pariah status. Bastian's vial drains, but Kora chooses not to pass the throne to Kronos, so Bastian remains Serpent King.

In the ensuing chaos, Bastian's loyalists seize Kronos and Harmony. Agnes, who has become Daphne's unlikely basilisk ally, throws herself in front of Daphne to shield her from a transitioning basilisk and is killed. Maximus arrives with palace guards, having secretly negotiated with Bastian for basilisks to use in bloodletting, specifically requesting Kronos. Before the guards take him away, Kronos uses the crest's power to command Daphne not to follow him, not to search for him, and to forget who they are to each other until fate reunites them. Before dying, Agnes had sensed that Daphne is pregnant with Kronos's child, a supposedly impossible occurrence between species.

Daphne confronts Maximus about the bloodletting and refuses his marriage proposal. He responds with degrading insults, and she vows he will never hear her voice again.

In an epilogue spanning twenty years, Maximus marries Constance, Caspen's former student, who dies giving birth to their son Thelonius. He becomes a cruel king who expands the bloodletting and wears a golden cuff forged from Kronos's blood. Caspen accepts an arranged marriage to unite the quivers but finds no redemption. Daphne, compelled by Kronos's orders, gradually forgets him. She names their daughter Temperance and raises her on a chicken farm, where roosters provide protection from basilisks. Twenty years later, when Thelonius's competition begins, Temperance enters Caspen's training cave. He senses she is something far more than human, setting up the events of the next book in the series.