Page 150 of Daughter of the Serpent

To seeher.

To see who she truly was.

Maybe he never would.

She exhaled sharply, pressing a hand to her ribs as if she could steady the ache blooming there. Something twisted, a knife turning, drawing fresh blood. It hurt - gods, it hurt - that she couldn’t share this side of herself with him. That he refused to love the version of her that had emerged from the chains, from the lies.

For so long, she had dreamed of him as her divine counterpart. But as she looked at him now, the weight of her realization settled over her like stone.

She could never make him see her.

Because he didn’t want to.

He had never asked.

Never wanted to know the parts of her that strayed beyond the temple’s approval, that didn’t fit neatly into its vision of who he wanted her to be.

“You’re right,” she murmured, searching his face. “Ihavechanged.”

Something in his expression shifted.

“But Axel didn’t change me,” she continued. “He helped me see the truth - to seemyself.” Her breath trembled as she forced the words out. “The person I’ve always been beneath the lies.” She faltered, emotion gripping her.

“Itriedto show you, Haldor.”

A tear slipped down her cheek before she could stop it. “Itriedto show you all of me. But you never saw.You never wanted to see.”

He stiffened, but she pushed forward.

“Do you know how much that hurt?” She asked, her eyes flaring. “You were the one person in the world I wanted to understand, to understandme.” She straightened, trying to hold herself together.

“But I see the truth now.” She wiped away a tear that escaped her eye.

“You don’t wantme, Haldor. Notreally.”

Her voice broke, but she didn’t back down. “You want the girl I used to be - the one in chains. The girl who didn’t know her own worth.”

His breath hitched. His eyes widened, as if her words had struck him harder than a blade.

“You truly think that of me?” he whispered.

She held his gaze, but said nothing.

Haldor shook his head, as if trying to will the pain away. “You think I don’t see you, Sylvie? Ido. Ialways have.”

“Then why don’t you support me?” she demanded. “Why do you make me hide? Fight me at every turn? Why do you try to stop me from my fate now?”

His face twisted with something raw - something desperate.

“Because Ican’tlose you.”

Sylvie exhaled, her breath shaking.

“You may not have a choice.”

He sighed, shaking his head. “Sylvie… you don’t understand.”

Her fingers curled into fists. “That’s where you’re wrong, Haldor.”