Page 148 of Daughter of the Serpent

The air between them thickened, curling around them like black smoke.

“Think what you will. I haven’t come for you.”

Haldor finally looked at her. His expression softened - just barely - but there was desperation in it.

“Sylvie, please. Talk to me.”

She could see the earnestness in his eyes.

“Don’t listen to him. You know I care about you.”

Axel growled. "If you truly cared, you wouldn’t hold her back."

Sylvie shoved between them.

"Enough!" Her breath was uneven, her pulse a frantic drum in her ears. She turned to Axel first, inhaling sharply.

"Leave us for a moment."

His jaw tightened, his eyes drilling into hers. "I’m not going anywhere."

"Please." Her voice softened, a plea laced beneath the command. She searched his eyes. "I need you to trust me now."

A muscle feathered in his jaw, but after a long, weighted moment, he exhaled sharply and stepped back. His movements werestiff, reluctant, but he gave her the space she requested. Once he was a few paces away she turned back to Haldor.

"They were going to lock me up, Haldor." Her voice was a quiet rage, her chest rising and falling with the force of it. "And once I was in their grasp, who knows what they would have done to me."

His face paled. "I didn’t know - Rederick, he said you’d be safe if I brought you in." His eyes searched hers, pleading. "None of that was supposed to happen, Sylvie. Youhaveto believe me."

She met his gaze, searching it for the boy she had once trusted more than anyone.

"I believe you, Haldor." The words were steady, but there was something final in them. "I believe you would do anything to keep me safe. But you can’t save me from this. You can’t save me from my fate."

Her voice softened, but the weight of it only deepened.

"This would be my choice - even if the temple hadn’t willed it."

Something in him shifted. His shoulders stiffened, his fingers twitching at his sides. His eyes dragged over her face, slow and searching, as if he were looking at a stranger. As if he no longer recognized the girl who had once walked beside him. As if the person standing before him was someone entirely new.

She swallowed, then took a hesitant step closer, lifting her hand to his cheek, touching it softly.

"I care about you, Haldor," she whispered, the words fragile on her lips. "I always will."

Her fingers trembled as they slipped away from him, the warmth of his skin lingering. But no matter how much history stood between them, no matter how much shewantedto hold onto it - what he had done cast an unshakable chasm between them.

“But what you have done, I cannot forgive. Not now.”

His eyes flickered, raw emotion tightening his features, and it nearly broke her.

It had always been them.

Him and her.

Always.

It was never supposed to come to this.

Never should it have gotten so far.