Page 151 of Daughter of the Serpent

His name was a blade on her tongue.

“Idounderstand. I see more clearly now than I ever have.” Her voice didn’t waver, but her chest ached with the weight of the truth. “I have spent my entire life putting everyone else ahead of me. I’ve followedeveryrule,everydecree of the temple. I havetried- tried so hard - to prove that I am good, that I amworthy, that Ideserveto belong.” She swallowed hard. “But I’m done.”

A flicker of something crossed his face, but she didn’t stop. “They killed mysister, Haldor.” She felt her heart breaking all over again as she said the words. “I can’t live like this anymore. I can’t keep pretending, keep lying to myself. I can’t be whotheywant me to be. Whoyouwant me to be. No matter how hard I try, no matter how much I wish I could.”

She inhaled sharply, grounding herself, bracing for the impact of her own words.

“I need to make my own choices now. Forme. Even if it means my own death.”

Haldor’s jaw tightened, his fists clenching at his sides. “I see you’ve made up your mind then.”

His shoulders sagged, as if something heavy had just settled onto them. A weight he hadn’t wanted to bear.

“You’re choosing defiance,” he said bitterly. “Choosing to betray everything we’ve known. Risking your life - all so you canplay pretend.” His voice was raw, his fury coating every word. “You think this is a choice, Sylvie? That this isfreedom? All I see is a lie. A delusion.”

His eyes flashed with something darker, something dangerously close to desperation.

“You think you can defy the gods and they’ll bless you for it?” His breath came faster now, harsher. “You are running straight to yourdeath!And I - ” His voice broke, his throat bobbing as he swallowed. “And I can’t stop you.”

Sylvie exhaled through her nose, shaking her head.

His eyes burrowed into her own. “You’re going down a path I can’t follow.”

She breathed. “And Ican’tmake you understand.”

For a moment, they only stared at each other. The space between them felt impossibly vast, a chasm neither could cross.

Then, finally, it was Sylvie who broke.

Her breath hitched, her vision blurred. “I wanted you there with me, Haldor.” Her voice was quieter now, fractured. “Down to the very end.”

Something cracked behind his eyes then, something he didn’t want her to see. He turned away.

“Thisisthe end, Sylvie.”

His voice was barely more than a whisper.

“Even if you refuse to see it.”

Chapter Twenty-Four

The forest swallowed her whole.

She didn’t stop moving. Couldn’t.

Branches clawed at her, thorns scraped her skin, but she didn’t care. The ache inside her chest was too raw, too deep, and if she stopped, she feared it would consume her completely.

Axel trailed behind. She had tried to push him away, tried to make him leave - but it was useless. He wouldn’t go. Not now.

Not after everything that had just happened.

The moment she broke through the treeline and stepped onto the cliffside, the wind slammed into her - salty, cold, relentless. Its familiar embrace did nothing to quell the pain, the rising emotions in her chest.

A sob clawed its way free before she could stop it. Then another. And then she was screaming - raw, guttural - her grief tearing from her throat, hurling into the open sky.

Tara was gone.

Mave was gone.

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