Page 153 of Daughter of the Serpent

How to become smaller, quieter. How to bend and make herself into whatever was easiest for others to love.

She wished - gods, she wished - that she could be that person.

The one that could be obedient. That didn’t long for more. The one Haldor could love.

But she wasn’t.

And she never would be.

And no matter how deeply she knew that truth, it didn’t make it easier. Didn’t loosen the grip of grief and guilt crushing her chest.

Axel’s voice pulled her back from the edge, his fingers grazing her chin, pulling her gaze back to his own.

“One day, you’ll see - you only shed what was never meant to stay. What was never strong enough to hold you.” His words poured into her, pure and true. “And when that day comes, you’ll stop looking behind you.”

His voice dropped to a whisper. “You’ll finally understand - you were meant for so much more.”

The words burrowed deep, pressing into the fractures of her doubt, the places where fear and longing warred inside her.

Her throat tightened. She searched his face, needing to see the certainty in his eyes. “How do you know?”

His gaze darkened.

“I just do.”

A shiver ran through her - not from the cold, but from the weight of his belief.

His presence wrapped around her then, anchoring her in a way nothing else ever could. His scent curled into her lungs - earth and stone, forest and brine, flame and fire - and she felt the overwhelming need to reach for him. To sink into his warmth, to feel his skin beneath her palms, to thread her fingers through his hair and pull - pull him closer. To trace the lines of his face, his skin - his lips. She knew their taste. Knew their heat. And gods, she wanted - wanted to feel him, to drown in him, his comfort.

Every inch of her burned with the memory of the fairy pool. When he was all fire and breathless restraint and wanting. When she had felt the truth of him - not just in his words, but in his touch, his hunger, his hands gripping her as if she was something precious, sacred.

She had lost so much.

Too much.

But as she looked up at him now, she saw it - everything she ached for, everything she never dared to hope for - reflectedin his eyes. The quiet recognition, the unspoken devotion, the steady thrum of his presence that always seemed to ground her in place.

He stood before her, unwavering. As he always had.

Not asking. Not demanding.

Just being.

Accepting her.

Valuing her.

Fighting for her.

And in that moment, she knew.

Maybe she had lost Tara. Maybe she had lost Haldor.

But she had gained something else.

Someone else.

Someone who could give her more than either of them ever could.