Page 149 of Daughter of the Serpent

Never should she have been forced onto this path - but here she was.

The trials loomed just days away, and the one person who should have been her greatest ally, she couldn’t trust.

Haldor opened his mouth, hesitated, then forced the words out. "I did all of this tosaveyou, Sylvie."

A breath passed between them.

"I know that’s what you believe," she said at last, voice quiet. "But I never needed you to save me, Haldor." Her gaze met his, steady despite the ache inside her. "All I ever needed… was for you tostand beside me."

His gaze was piercing, haunted.

“I have, and I always will.” He said stubbornly. “It’sAxel. He’s poisoned you against me,” Haldor bit out, his voice sharp as a blade. “This never would have happened if he - ”

“If he hadn’t intervened?” Sylvie’s voice cut through his. “Haldor, we both know I’d bedeadif he hadn’t.”

His jaw clenched, something dark flickered in his eyes - something she had never seen before.

“Yet now, you only await a worse fate,” he said at last. His voice had changed - quieter, but steeped in something deeper. Not just anger. Malice.

A chill slithered down her spine.

“He’s changed you, Sylvie.” His gaze flicked past her, locking onto Axel’s shadowed form just a few paces away. “And you don’t even see it. He would lead you to your death, and you…you would follow.”

“That’s not true.” She snapped back. “Axel has helped me, more than you’ll ever know Haldor.”

"He has you so blind he’s even turned you against me, Sylvie - can’t you see that?”

She huffed as she avoidedhis gaze.

“You may hate me now," Haldor continued, his voice eerily calm. “You may think I’m the enemy. But we will see. We'll see who truly stands beside you in the end.”

The words cut through her like a blade, lodging deep. She faltered despite herself.

“He will abandon you.”

Her eyes drifted to Axel, his figure barely visible in the shadows of the trees.

She trusted him. With everything she had.

But the unanswered questions, the weight of the unknown - they slithered beneath her skin like poison.

What if she was wrong?

What if she was making the greatest mistake of her life, putting her faith in Axel over the boy who had been by her side all these years?

She hated this. Hated the way doubt crept in, the way she questioned herself at every turn.

But deep down, she knew the answer.

She wasn’t doing this for Axel.

She wasn’t doing this for the people.

She wasn’t doing this because ofanyone’sjudgment.

She was doing this for herself.

And Haldor still refused to see.