Page 176 of Daughter of the Serpent

Somehow she knew the gods were not done with her yet.

The flames surged, leaping higher with a sudden roar, their golden light twisting into vivid shapes. Sylvie gasped, leaning back, her pulse racing as the fire seemed to come alive before her. Images began to form in the flame, blurry at first, but growing clearer with every flicker. Her breath caught as she recognized herself - her younger self, standing in the center of the blaze. Her hair was tangled, her shoulders hunched, and her eyes…hollow, dim, burdened by a weight too heavy to bear.

More visions followed, faster now. Fragmented memories. Her arms wrapped around herself in shame. Her body crumpled in the wake of rejection. Her mouth twisted in silence, choking on truths withheld. Each flicker of fire became another wound, another scar she had tried to forget. Then the flames pulsed, brighter, hotter - almost unbearable, as a final vision rose from the depths.

A heart.

Raw. Bleeding. Suspended in darkness. It throbbed with anguish, grief, black energy bleeding out in treacherous waves. The sorrow was so thick, so palpable, it wrapped around her like weighted chains.

Her mother’s face flashed in the flames.

Her sister. Her brothers. Her father.

Tara. Haldor.

Her chest caved inward, and the tears came - silent, unstoppable. Every buried ache clawing its way to the surface. It was like her soul had been cracked open, and all the pain she had ever known poured out, was set free. She sobbed - a desperate cry breaking past her lips, hurling out of her heaving chest, finally free.

And then she saw it: a cord, black and pulsing, tethering her to that wounded heart.

A lifeline to everything she had endured.

The shame, the betrayal, the loneliness - it all connected there.

The voice came again, low and soft, but no less powerful.

“Set it free.”

The wind answered, howling through the trees and whirling around her in a tempest. It tugged at her hair, her clothes, her soul. Sylvie staggered, searching for anything to hold - but there was nothing.

Only the cord. Only the pain.

She felt it stretch inside her, that invisible tether linking her to a lifetime of hurt. And in that moment, she realized:

If she severed it, her future would change.

Her destiny would shift.

She would no longer be the woman shaped by that suffering but something new, someone unrecognizable even to herself.

And somehow that terrified her more than the pain ever had.

But then - a warmth kissed her skin, casting a golden glow through the darkness. She closed her eyes, leaning into it, feeling it seep into her bones.

“Remember who you really are.”

Axel’s voice.

Clear. Grounding. Real.

Her eyes flew open. He wasn’t there, but somehow - he was. His voice wrapped around her like a warm blanket, weaving through her bones, her soul, tethering her to the truth beneath the pain. Tears spilled again, but this time they carried something else - hope.

She nodded, breath shaking.

“I’m ready,” she whispered, barely a sound.

Yet she knew they held power.

The fire roared in response, engulfing her vision. Its light consumed her chest, and she gasped as heat surged through her - not burning, but cleansing, transforming. The cord to the dark heart writhed violently, trying to hold on. But the flames had already begun to devour.