#video #film2026 #movie2026 #hot #Rejecting the Phoenix, Taming the Dragon - (2026) ✅ FULL EP
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00:00On the night before my mating ceremony, my twin sister climbed into the bed of my beastmate, Finn.
00:06Now she can marry that monster in my place.
00:11As long as you're safe, my queen.
00:13I didn't know their swapping plan.
00:15In a world where spiritual beasts are gods, I am the lowest thing breathing.
00:20It's simple, really. Beastmen are drawn to beauty.
00:23But I was born with a black birthmark on my left cheek.
00:26I thought by the time I turned 18, my body will explode for not finding a mate.
00:31But then Finn, the phoenix, rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:37I actually believed I was special to him.
00:40I wasn't.
00:42I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:47Finn shoved me into the mind with that monster without blinking.
00:52Here's the thing.
00:53Sienna and I are identical twins.
00:56Identical.
00:57Except for the mark on my face.
00:59I wasn't chosen.
01:00I was kept as a spare.
01:02In the spiritual beast world, every human must complete a bond before their 18th birthday.
01:08Or their body tears itself apart from the inside.
01:10Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:13I was born with the mark.
01:14She was born a masterpiece.
01:16Every beastman in the territory fought to bond with her.
01:19And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:23Alaric, the dragon.
01:24The most powerful being in our realm.
01:27Beastmen carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:30When it takes hold, they hunt their bonded by memory alone.
01:34Drag them into a shared nightmare and torture them to death.
01:37I always knew Sienna would pick Alaric.
01:40Power calls to power.
01:41What I never saw coming was Finn choosing me.
01:45The day he announced our bond in front of the whole territory, I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:51The air tasted sweet.
01:53Even the people who had spent years spitting on me blurred into background noise.
01:58I stopped hearing the insults.
02:00I forgot every ruse they'd left.
02:03I thought everything I'd survived was just the universe clearing the path to him.
02:08Except he never touched me.
02:10He never showed me his true form.
02:13When a beastman reveals their animal form to their bonded, it means love, trust, everything.
02:19Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:22I couldn't find a single feather in the entire house.
02:25I told myself it was just his nature.
02:28That he was private.
02:29Then one night, I stayed up until 3am collecting morning dew, his favorite,
02:34and carried it to his room like an idiot with a smile on my face.
02:38And I saw the flash of Scarlet.
02:41His true form.
02:42He was showing someone his true form.
02:45I stumbled through the door.
02:46That someone was my sister.
02:50The moment he saw me, Finn pulled his form back in like a fist closing around a secret.
02:57Sienna smiled.
02:58Soft, unbothered.
03:00Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
03:03Samara, you know Finn and I grew up together.
03:05Revealing his true form animal side to me, it's not a big deal.
03:08My chest felt like concrete poured inside it.
03:11I kept my face very, very still.
03:14Right, I just came to...
03:16The dew I'd carried all night had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:20I stood there, hands empty, useless.
03:23Finn looked at me once, cold, brief.
03:26Nothing urgent?
03:27Then go.
03:28I walked out with my head down.
03:30Sienna's voice followed me down the hall like smoke.
03:34Finn and I grew up together.
03:36But I met him first.
03:38I met him first, and nobody cares.
03:41That winter, I found Finn half dead in the forest while I was out cutting wood.
03:47Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:50The feral curse.
03:51He was losing control.
03:53Every survival instinct I had screamed at me to run.
03:56His eyes stopped me.
03:58There was something in them I recognized.
04:00The desperate, clawing will to live.
04:03I had been looking at that same thing in mirrors for 17 years.
04:07I brought him home.
04:08I didn't sleep for weeks.
04:09I watched over him, learned his fever patterns, held him down through the worst nights.
04:14His body healed.
04:15The curse didn't lift.
04:17Then one day, Sienna visited.
04:19She told me to leave him to die.
04:21That accursed beast wasn't worth the risk.
04:23I refused.
04:24Sienna left.
04:25The moment she walked out the door, Finn's curse vanished.
04:29Just like that.
04:29Like smoke in wind.
04:31He came back to himself.
04:33Powerful.
04:34Radiant.
04:34Healed.
04:35After that, he started showing up.
04:37At my place.
04:38At Sienna's.
04:39I thought he was paying a debt.
04:41He was.
04:42Just not to me.
04:43Ugh.
04:44I was so absorbed in the past memory that I forgot to see the front.
04:48When I looked up, I met the deathly gaze of Alaric.
04:52You do look exactly the same as your sister.
04:56Except.
04:58His fingers slowly traced my face, and he lowered closer to my face.
05:04Sorry.
05:05Overcome with fear, I ran fast past him, without realizing he stood there and watched my back
05:11for a long time.
05:13Finn got busier by the day.
05:14Busier arranging Sienna's bond ceremony with Alaric.
05:18I knew I should be grateful.
05:19I knew a bond at all was more than I deserved by this world's standards.
05:23But hearing about Sienna's ceremony?
05:26The flowers?
05:27The guests?
05:28The spectacle?
05:29Something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
05:33I thought, fine, I'll plan it myself.
05:35I spent everything I had.
05:37Literally everything.
05:38I bought a young firebird nest tree.
05:40The rarest thing Finn could want as a bond token.
05:44And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:46I showed up on the appointed day.
05:48I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:51He never came.
05:52The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
05:55Not to support me, but to watch.
05:58The flowers in my arms had died.
06:00I kept my chin down and my eyes on the ground.
06:04How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:07He was obviously playing her.
06:09She's the only one who didn't know.
06:10Any other day, I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
06:14Today, I just pushed through the crowd, silent, trying not to drown.
06:19Someone shoved me from behind.
06:20I hit the ground hard, but I caught the nest tree sapling before it could break.
06:25Cradled it like it mattered.
06:26Then someone stomped on the pot.
06:28The clay exploded.
06:30The sapling went gray and dead in seconds.
06:33Shattered, I walked home.
06:35And heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:38Bright, delighted.
06:39Finn, this dress is beautiful.
06:42You actually made this with your own hands?
06:45Sienna, as long as you like it.
06:47Finn's voice was as flat as always.
06:49But the upward curl at the end, that small, involuntary warmth, exposed him completely.
06:56The door swung open, and Sienna walked out in a red dress.
07:00Red feathers lined the hem.
07:02Finn's tail feathers.
07:03The feathers a phoenix only plucks for someone they love.
07:07So that was why he'd rushed me out of the house last week.
07:11He didn't want me seeing him make her a dress.
07:14He'd pulled his own feathers, the most sacred part of a phoenix's body, just to get the color
07:20right for her.
07:21He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
07:24All those years, every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her, even agreeing
07:32to bond with me.
07:33I finally understood that, too.
07:35It was just a reflex, a moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of
07:41him.
07:41Samara, they were right.
07:43Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:45I made up my mind.
07:47I would dissolve the bond before it was complete.
07:49I wasn't going to wait around to be discarded with an audience.
07:53I started looking for an available beast man, anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
07:58I finally tracked down Riven, a low-ranked lizard in the Outer Territory, and he agreed.
08:04I ran home, told Finn.
08:06He didn't look relieved.
08:07He looked furious.
08:11Samara, you're serious?
08:14You'd bond with that low-ranked lizard instead of me?
08:19I didn't show up that day, but I had a reason.
08:21You saw-
08:22I stopped listening.
08:23I already knew the reason.
08:25Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
08:26He was busy.
08:28Too busy for me, never too busy for her.
08:30Because of my face.
08:32Because I was the ugly one.
08:34Because apparently, being born with a birthmark means I deserve to be stood up, mocked in public,
08:40and made to feel grateful for scraps.
08:42I closed my eyes.
08:44Yes, Finn.
08:46I'm bonding with Riven.
08:49Fine, Samara.
08:50Don't come crawling back.
08:52He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
08:55I genuinely could not locate his logic.
08:58I had no time to figure it out.
09:00My birthday was three days away.
09:02The next morning, I went to find Riven.
09:04Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:07Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night,
09:10and they'd already scheduled their ceremony for that afternoon.
09:14You think I would take someone else's reject?
09:17Then closed his door in my face.
09:20I stood there, lifted my hand to knock again, let it fall.
09:23People like me aren't meant to survive in a world like this.
09:26If I had maybe three days left alive, fine.
09:29I was going to spend them eating well.
09:31I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe,
09:33the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before,
09:37and ordered everything that looked good.
09:38I was halfway through a plate of honey cake
09:40when I caught the conversation behind me.
09:43Heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood?
09:46The one with healing properties?
09:47Healing?
09:48If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
09:52Oh, wait.
09:54Obviously, because Sienna matters.
09:56Samara never did.
09:57He had a cure.
09:59He had a cure for my birthmark.
10:01He watched me get beaten, ridiculed,
10:04spat on my entire life,
10:06and he had the antidote in his pocket.
10:08He chose to give it to Sienna as a backup plan,
10:11instead of giving it to me.
10:13Tears ran down my face,
10:15and I bit my lip until it bled,
10:17to keep from making a sound.
10:19Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:20I was going to die.
10:21They would laugh at the way my body destroyed itself,
10:24so I would not cry.
10:25Not tonight.
10:26Not where anyone could see.
10:27I went home.
10:29Nowhere else to go in this world.
10:31The house was blazing with light.
10:33A crowd had packed the main hall,
10:35shouting over each other.
10:36Alaric,
10:37Sienna's dragon,
10:38then had a full of pain.
10:40The feral curse had taken hold.
10:42Without a completed bond to tether him,
10:44Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
10:46He'd tear through the entire city.
10:48Dragons and rogue state always did.
10:50Everyone was screaming at Sienna
10:52to go through with the bond immediately.
10:54Only Finn was standing in her way,
10:56blocking her,
10:57keeping her back.
10:58But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
11:00I looked at him one last time,
11:02but Sienna sheltered behind his back
11:04like she was made of glass,
11:06and walked to my room.
11:07His footsteps came fast.
11:08He threw open my door.
11:10Why was he here?
11:11His priority was right down the hall.
11:13Samara,
11:14you're the only one who can save her.
11:16Me?
11:16The dragon bonded with Sienna,
11:18not me.
11:19You and Sienna are identical,
11:20except for the mark.
11:21No one will know the difference.
11:22I opened my mouth to ask
11:24how I was supposed to remove a birthmark
11:26on three seconds' notice.
11:28And then I remembered the conversation
11:30at Mayfair Garden.
11:31He already knew.
11:32Finn raised his hand.
11:33His expression showed something
11:35I might have called regret,
11:36but his arm was completely steady
11:39as it swung toward my throat.
11:41Samara, I'm sorry.
11:44But Sienna once saved my life.
11:46I can't let her-
11:48Those were the last words I heard
11:49before the darkness took me.
11:51Finn, even now,
11:53not one word about me.
11:55I came back to consciousness
11:56in a moving carriage,
11:58dressed in red.
11:59Finn's dress.
12:00The one he made for Sienna.
12:04I almost laughed.
12:06He worked so hard on it.
12:08And it ended up on the wrong twin after all.
12:11Outside, drums and horns.
12:13The city celebrating.
12:15They weren't celebrating an honest era.
12:17They were celebrating trading my life
12:19for their safety.
12:20The altar was already in sight.
12:22I didn't struggle.
12:23I walked up the steps,
12:25heard the crowd's murmur shift.
12:27A single, sharp inhale of surprise.
12:30The kind of sound people make
12:31when they see something unexpected.
12:33How funny.
12:34I had heard people gasp at my face
12:36my whole life.
12:37Always in revulsion.
12:39The one time they gasped in something else,
12:41I was walking toward my own death.
12:44My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
12:46He stood very still,
12:48staring up at me with an expression
12:49I couldn't read.
12:50This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
12:52I looked away.
12:53Alaric stood at the center of the altar,
12:55radiating red light,
12:57barely controlled.
12:58His muscles looked like
12:59they were about to rip his clothes off.
13:01His eyes were burning.
13:03All animal, no human.
13:05But as soon as our eyes locked,
13:07a flicker of blue light
13:08flashed in his eyes.
13:10He got closer to me
13:11and cupped my face.
13:13You are different.
13:14The ceremony will now begin!
13:19We exchanged the bond tokens,
13:21blood on both sides.
13:22The bond snapped into place.
13:24The nightmare dimension opened instantly.
13:27It swallowed us both.
13:28I closed my eyes
13:29and waited to die.
13:31When I opened my eyes again,
13:32I was overtaken by the view.
13:36Not darkness.
13:38Not pain.
13:39Trees.
13:40Dense.
13:41Ancient.
13:42Green.
13:42A stream so clear
13:44I could count the stones at the bottom.
13:46A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
13:49This wasn't what the nightmare dimension
13:51was supposed to look like.
13:52And Alaric was gone.
13:54I turned in a slow circle.
13:56No dragon.
13:57No hulking rogue state predator.
14:00Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:03I looked down.
14:04A tiny white snake.
14:07Transparent scales.
14:09Two small, delicate horns catching the light.
14:12Everyone who'd ever studied beastman biology
14:15could recognize those horns.
14:17Alaric.
14:18Reduced to his infant form.
14:20Small enough to fit in my palm.
14:22As long as there was breath,
14:24there was a way out.
14:25I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
14:29Trying every technique I knew.
14:32Healing herbs.
14:34Binding chance.
14:35Energy redirection.
14:36Nothing worked.
14:37He stayed small.
14:38His red light pulsed faintly,
14:40but never faded.
14:41I gave up for the night
14:43and went foraging instead.
14:46In the morning,
14:47I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
14:50Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me
14:52at some point in the night
14:53and was fast asleep,
14:55rising and falling with my breathing.
14:58I picked him up by the scruff.
15:02I don't know what you heard about mate binding,
15:05but sleeping on top of people
15:07is generally considered
15:08a personal boundary violation.
15:10He stared at me,
15:11completely unapologetic.
15:13His tail, however,
15:15slowly turned red.
15:22His tiny horns flushed darker
15:24as I kept holding them.
15:26I raised an eyebrow.
15:27I spent the next ten minutes
15:28poking his horns
15:29until he'd turned fully pink.
15:31Only then did I put him down.
15:33Satisfied.
15:35I went back to trying to fix him.
15:37Nothing worked.
15:38I pulled some leaves off a low branch
15:39and shredded them while I thought.
15:41One leaf caught my skin.
15:43Blood welled from a clean slice
15:44across my fingertip.
15:46Before I could move,
15:47Alaric flicked his tongue
15:48and licked the wound.
15:50The bleeding stopped.
15:51The cut started closing.
15:53Then he convulsed.
15:54I scrambled for medicine.
15:57Useless.
15:58Because he was already growing.
16:02The feral curse.
16:04Gone.
16:05He was healed.
16:06We could go home.
16:08But he was also the most famous,
16:11coldest,
16:11most untouchable alpha
16:13in the territory.
16:15And I had spent the last two days
16:17poking him
16:18and calling him
16:19a personal boundary violator.
16:21I didn't get to figure out.
16:23He'd already shifted back to human form
16:25and landed in front of me.
16:27He was exactly as described.
16:29Sharp jaw.
16:30Cold eyes.
16:31The kind of face
16:32that made people get out of his way
16:33before they knew why.
16:36Samara,
16:37are you familiar with a prophecy
16:39passed down through dragon bloodlines?
16:42Can't say I am.
16:43Only the goddess can break the curse.
16:47That he knew my real name
16:48or what he was calling me.
16:50I've examined the surrounding space.
16:52This isn't the nightmare dimension.
16:54It's a separate realm.
16:56One that appears to belong to you.
16:58I had a private dimension.
17:01I, Samara,
17:02the uglier twin,
17:03the spare,
17:04the girl who couldn't get
17:05a lizard beast man
17:06to bond with her,
17:07had a private dimension.
17:09We returned to the city.
17:11The streets stopped
17:12when they saw us.
17:14I went straight to Finn's estate.
17:18Alaric walked in beside me.
17:20I looked at my sister.
17:24Finn and Sienna were in the morning hall,
17:26performing grief
17:27in front of the assembled guests.
17:29Sienna,
17:30the name on that banner is wrong.
17:32The one who bonded with the dragon was me.
17:34Samara,
17:35not you.
17:36Prove it!
17:36How do we know you're even Samara?
17:39I smiled.
17:40I raised my hand.
17:43Sienna's birthmark,
17:44the one she'd painted on her face
17:46to impersonate me,
17:48dissolved.
17:49I already knew
17:50she wouldn't have actually damaged herself.
17:52She sent her own sister
17:54to die in her place.
17:55How is Samara's face?
17:59The heartwood.
18:01Finn had it the whole time.
18:06The feral curse.
18:08It's lifted?
18:09You can't possibly be walking around if it's not.
18:12You tear this city apart.
18:15The curse is gone, Finn.
18:18Samara cured it.
18:20The entire room pivoted to look at me
18:22like a single organism.
18:24Finn looked like he'd been hit.
18:26Alaric, you don't have to protect her.
18:28I know my sister.
18:32I'm not protecting her.
18:35Samara is the goddess
18:36our bloodline's prophecy describes.
18:38Her blood neutralizes the feral curse.
18:41Finn's hand tightened on Sienna's arm.
18:45Did you forget, Finn?
18:46Your feral curse broke the same way
18:49Sienna who saved you that winter.
18:52It was me.
18:59I left that sentence
19:01in the middle of the room
19:02like a lit match
19:03and walked out with Alaric.
19:05The best revelations
19:06are the ones you don't finish.
19:08Life in Alaric's estate
19:09was the best 17 days
19:11of my entire existence.
19:13Food brought to me.
19:14Warm rooms.
19:15No one spitting on the ground
19:16where I walked.
19:17Then the requests started coming.
19:19Word had spread.
19:21A rogue beast man,
19:22a fire fox,
19:23had been brought to the gates.
19:24People wanted proof.
19:26Alaric and I looked at each other.
19:27Perfect timing.
19:28The crowd outside was enormous.
19:30I walked to the fire fox
19:32without hurrying,
19:33ignoring the way
19:34his curse form snarled at me
19:36and drew a clean line
19:37across my palm.
19:38A few drops of blood.
19:39His throat.
19:40He screamed and convulsed.
19:42The crowd turned on me instantly.
19:44She's a monster.
19:46That birthmark
19:47was a sign all along.
19:48She's poisoning him.
19:49I don't answer.
19:50I don't negotiate with panic.
19:52Alaric stepped in front of me.
19:54One look.
19:55That was all he did.
19:56One look at the crowd
19:57and every voice stopped.
19:58I watched his back,
20:00the width of his shoulders,
20:01the steadiness of his stance,
20:03and something warm
20:04cracked open in my chest.
20:0617 years.
20:07First time someone
20:08stepped in front of me.
20:09The fire fox
20:10stopped convulsing.
20:11The red light faded.
20:12He blinked,
20:13calm,
20:14recognizably himself.
20:15The person who'd been loudest
20:16about poisoning him
20:17now looked like
20:18they might faint.
20:19Goodness!
20:20Started moving through the crowd
20:21like a wave.
20:22Within a week,
20:23my name was on every street
20:24in the city.
20:25Sienna,
20:26I heard,
20:26hadn't left Finn's estate
20:28in days.
20:28The neighborhood children
20:29had discovered
20:30she made an excellent
20:31moving target.
20:32I was not sorry.
20:34A servant announced
20:35a visitor one evening.
20:36I already knew who it was
20:37before I reached the hall.
20:39Sienna,
20:40on her knees.
20:40Samara,
20:41tell them you went willingly.
20:43Please,
20:43just issue a statement.
20:44She was pale,
20:46shaking,
20:46still managing
20:47to make it sound
20:48like a command.
20:49My voice came out
20:50very quiet.
20:51Give me one reason.
20:52You watched them
20:53torment me for 18 years
20:55and said nothing.
20:56You knew I was the one
20:57who healed Finn
20:58and you let him
20:59fawn over you anyway.
21:00And then you sent me
21:02to die in your place.
21:04Her mouth moved.
21:05No sound came out.
21:06She grabbed the hem
21:07of my sleeve
21:07and pulled like a child.
21:09Alaric had her escorted out.
21:11The moment he appeared
21:12in the doorway,
21:13something in me
21:13simply gave.
21:14The tears came
21:15without warning.
21:16I couldn't stop them.
21:18Didn't try.
21:19Alaric pulled me in
21:20without a word.
21:20I cried so hard
21:22I couldn't breathe.
21:2318 years of it,
21:24finally out.
21:25I woke up in bed.
21:26Alaric was beside me,
21:28asleep.
21:28I remembered,
21:29distantly,
21:30grabbing his sleeve
21:31and refusing to let go
21:32as I passed out.
21:33My face was on fire.
21:35I had approximately
21:36five seconds
21:37to be mortified
21:38before a servant
21:39announced another visitor.
21:40Finn!
21:41He stood in the receiving room,
21:43looking wrecked,
21:44like he hadn't slept.
21:45His eyes found my face
21:46and stayed there,
21:47unblinking,
21:48full of something painful.
21:50Samara,
21:50I'm so glad you're alive.
21:52You have interesting timing, Finn.
21:53I'm only alive
21:54because you swapped me
21:55for Sienna.
21:56So technically,
21:57I have you to thank?
21:58Samara,
21:59every word you say
22:00right now
22:01is a blade.
22:02Good.
22:02I turned to leave.
22:03He caught my wrist.
22:04Mara.
22:05My old name,
22:06the short version,
22:07the one he'd used
22:07before he stopped seeing me.
22:09I hadn't heard it in years.
22:10Finn,
22:11you didn't lose me.
22:12You put me down
22:12a long time ago.
22:14I'm the one
22:14who finally stopped waiting
22:15for you to pick me back up.
22:17Finn and Sienna
22:17stayed away after that.
22:19What they didn't stay away from
22:21was a scheme.
22:23Rumors spread.
22:24A second goddess
22:25had appeared.
22:26One more generous than me.
22:28No conditions,
22:29no questions about character,
22:31and apparently effective.
22:34I sat in Alaric's garden
22:35eating candied plums
22:37and genuinely
22:38could not find it in me
22:40to care.
22:41But I noticed something.
22:43Dead animals
22:44kept appearing
22:45outside the city walls.
22:46Strange variety.
22:48Wrong season.
22:50Sienna,
22:51if you actually had this ability,
22:53you would have used it
22:54before tonight.
22:55Alaric's people
22:56quietly investigated.
22:57The count of dead animals
22:59matched the count of beastmen
23:00Sienna claimed to have healed.
23:02Exactly.
23:04She'd been extracting
23:05beastman essence.
23:07Killing animals
23:08to fake a cure.
23:10She was arrested
23:11within the week.
23:12I went to see her
23:13before sentencing.
23:15She was barely recognizable.
23:18Dirty.
23:18Small.
23:20The careful performance
23:22of herself
23:22completely gone.
23:25This is your fault,
23:26Samara.
23:27You sent Alaric
23:28after me.
23:29I didn't.
23:30But go on.
23:31You, you
23:33and your goddess title,
23:34you ruined everything.
23:36And Finn is throwing me out.
23:39Dissolving the bond.
23:42He's leaving me to die.
23:43I went still.
23:45Sienna,
23:46what you did to me,
23:47that only hurt me.
23:49What you did to those beastmen,
23:50to this city,
23:51that was bigger than both of us.
23:53The reason you're here
23:54isn't me.
23:55It's every choice you made
23:56when you thought
23:56nobody was watching.
23:58She was still screaming
23:59when I left.
24:00She died three days later.
24:02I had her remains collected.
24:05Whatever she was to me
24:06at the end,
24:07she was still the person
24:08I grew up beside.
24:10Then Finn appeared at the gate,
24:12and every inch of him
24:13was glowing.
24:14The feral curse
24:15taking hold.
24:17He didn't ask for my blood.
24:26Before I lose myself completely,
24:28let this feather find
24:29the person it belongs to.
24:31I recognized it immediately.
24:33Finn,
24:34do you know what the last thing
24:35Sienna ever said to me to me was?
24:37The lizard who rejected me?
24:39You arranged that.
24:41You sent someone to him
24:42the night before.
24:43You made sure I had
24:45no options left
24:46so I'd have to stay within reach.
24:48That night,
24:49Alaric came to my room
24:50and set a dragon scale
24:51on my desk without a word.
24:53I pushed it back three times.
24:56His face went darker
24:57with each refusal.
24:59I took the scale.
25:03Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:04I spent two weeks
25:06learning the layout
25:06and still opened
25:07the wrong door half the time.
25:08One wrong door
25:09led me to a room
25:10full of dried flowers.
25:12Thousands of them,
25:13every variety,
25:14pressed,
25:14labeled,
25:15arranged in careful rows.
25:16After my mother died,
25:18I'd go out before dawn
25:19and pick whatever was roomy,
25:21then spend the hot part
25:22of the day
25:22hawking them in the market.
25:24Until one morning,
25:25a house steward appeared
25:26and said his employer
25:27was very pleased
25:28with my work
25:29and wanted ten full baskets
25:30delivered daily.
25:31I had never seen
25:32the employer's face.
25:34It was Alaric.
25:35I summoned him
25:36to the main hall
25:37that evening.
25:38He stood in the center
25:39of them,
25:39unsure what to do
25:41with his hands.
25:42I didn't realize dragons
25:43had so many quirks.
25:45Sleeping on people's chests,
25:47collecting flowers,
25:49truly a complex inner life.
25:51Alaric,
25:51when we were little,
25:52you used to follow me around
25:53and call me Big Sis.
25:55I know I told you to stop
25:56once we were grown.
25:58I lied.
25:59I liked it.
26:01I looked at him,
26:03waiting.
26:05He didn't move
26:06for a long,
26:07agonizing moment.
26:10Big Sis.
26:11We'd met before Finn,
26:13before any of this.
26:14Him for being born
26:14without dragon horns,
26:15me for the mark on my face,
26:17left in the mountains
26:17to survive or die.
26:18He arrived after me,
26:19so obviously,
26:20I adopted him immediately.
26:22We lived like that for years,
26:24looking out for each other.
26:25Then his horns grew in.
26:28His family came to collect him.
26:29He didn't want to go.
26:31They tied him up.
26:31They told him if he fought it,
26:33they'd come back and kill me.
26:35He left to protect me.
26:37He found me again
26:38years later in the market.
26:41He was too afraid to approach,
26:43afraid his presence
26:44would put me in danger.
26:47So he bought all my flowers instead.
26:50Every single day,
26:51at triple the market rate.
26:53He agreed to bond with Sienna
26:55because he knew what Finn was planning.
26:57He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
26:59He knew the swap was coming.
27:01He let himself be exposed
27:02to the feral curse of my family
27:04to give me a way out.
27:05His own family found out
27:06and took it further.
27:07An investment in keeping
27:08the dragon estate's power
27:09centralized in the younger side.
27:11He nearly died.
27:12So did I.
27:13And we both came out the other side.
27:16I turned the dragon scale over
27:18in my hands.
27:19A reverse scale,
27:20I'd found out.
27:21The most sensitive point
27:22on a dragon's body.
27:23The thing they guard most carefully.
27:25He'd given it to me
27:26in a panic.
27:27Terrified,
27:28I'd changed my mind.
27:30I pressed up on my toes
27:31and kissed his horn.
27:34You absolute idiot,
27:35I said smiling.
27:37Why didn't you just tell me?
27:39He picked me up
27:40without any further discussion
27:41and carried me inside.
27:44I learned that night,
27:46thoroughly and at length,
27:47that dragon horns are not,
27:49in fact,
27:50for casual affectionate kissing.
27:54Life after that was sweet,
27:56genuinely,
27:57embarrassingly sweet.
27:59Except for the bird,
28:01the phoenix had started appearing
28:02in the tree outside my window.
28:04Wherever I went,
28:05it followed,
28:06said nothing,
28:07just watched.
28:09Finn had disappeared,
28:11some said dead,
28:12some said he'd left
28:12the territory entirely.
28:14Today was my bond ceremony
28:16with Alaric.
28:17Some stories end with a bang.
28:20Mine ended with a bird
28:21being firmly escorted
28:22off the property.
28:25Works for me.
28:26in the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the
28:29tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside
28:30the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree
28:30outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the
28:30tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside
28:30the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree
28:30outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the
28:30tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside
28:30the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree
28:30outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the
28:30tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside the tree outside
28:30the
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