Page 126 of Daughter of the Serpent

“You need to open your eyes.” He leaned closer still. “All this time you have been brought to believe that you are the villain, that you are the one worthy of shame - when in fact you are thelight.”

His gaze burrowed into hers, a certainty in their depths. “You have seen every darkness, yet you have never once stopped being the light.”

His fingers gently traced her cheek, words biting into her soul, liberating the broken shards of herself that were cast in shadow. “You may forget sometimes…but I will be here to remind you.”

He was so close now she could feel his breath, his words wrapping a cord around her heart - tugging lightly. “You are goodness itself.” His amber gaze consumed, dipping into every bend and curve of her body, her soul. “So good, so pure in fact, that no one can deserve you - not even me.”

Shock thrummed through her at his words, her eyes wide as tears spilt down her cheeks, unbidden. She had never heard such beautiful words, never dared dream that they would be strung for someone like her.

“How?” The single word slipped from trembling lips.

How could anyone see her in such a way?

Yet when she searched his eyes, his face, she saw it there - real and true.

He meant it.

He meant every word.

In that moment she realized when he looked at her, he saw nothing of how she saw herself. His eyes saw not her curse, not her deformity, nor the darkness she was said to carry in her veins - but something else entirely.

She faltered. “But, I’ve only proved everyone right - that I am exactly what they claim me to be - amonster.”

His eyes narrowed. “Lies of the temple and of small - minded people too blind to see beyond their own noses. You must see that they don’t define you, and they never will, unless you let them.”

His eyes locked onto hers with an intensity that made her stomach twist. “I seeyou, Sylvie.” His voice was low and intimate, each word brushing against her skin like a whispered caress.“I see who you really are, even if you fail to see it yourself.”

She wavered, struck senseless by his words.

She hadn’t realized - until this very moment - just how much she needed them. How much she had longed for someone,anyone, to believe in her. To see her differently. To tell her it was okay to be herself.

That maybe - just maybe - she wasn’t what they said.

Yet, even as his words settled over her, doubt curled in their wake - instantly questioning their truth.

“How can you possibly see that in me?”

His brow furrowed, the golden embers of his eyes seeming to flare.

“Because I saw you that night,” he admitted, his voice dipping lower, as though speaking the memory aloud was a secret he had kept close. “When you rose from the ground, bathed in light.”

A shiver ran through her.

“I had never seen anything like it - so beautiful, so pure.” His gaze flickered, causing warmth to swell instantly in her chest. “You completely disarmed me.”

She stared at him, unable to speak.

“And when I saw Baldr, his men, and what they had done - I had no choice.” He said. “Everything in me called out for justice, theirblood, their suffering.”

Her breath caught, the memory crashing over her - the chaos, the pain, the look in Axel’s eyes when she had begged him to spare Baldr.

“If you hadn’t stopped me….” His voice was dark, something wild lingering in the depths of his eyes. “I would have killed him. Made him suffer unimaginably for everything he did to you, for every sickening touch he dared impress upon your skin.”

His eyes dropped briefly.

"That’s why I couldn't believe it when you stilled my hand." Axel's voice was quiet, but laced with something raw. "After everything he did to you - you still spared him."

He exhaled sharply, shaking his head as if the thought still unsettled him. "You healed him, Sylvie, with no regard to yourself."

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