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00:00On the night before my mating ceremony, my twin sister climbed into the bed of my beastmate, Finn.
00:05Now 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.
00:39No, I wasn't.
00:41I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:47Finn shoved me to bind 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.
01:07Or their body tears itself apart from the inside.
01:10Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:12I was born with the mark.
01:14She was born a masterpiece.
01:16Every beast man in the territory fought to bond with her.
01:19And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:22Alaric, the dragon.
01:24The most powerful being in our realm.
01:27Beast men 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.
01:52Even 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.
02:12When a beast man reveals their animal form to their bonded, it means love, trust, everything.
02:19Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:21I 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.
02:40His true form.
02:42He was showing someone his true form.
02:44I 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.
02:56Sienna smiled.
02:58Soft.
02:59Unbothered.
02:59Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
03:02Samara, 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.
03:46Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:49The 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.
04:28Just 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.
04:41Just not to me.
04:43Ugh.
04:43I 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.
05:01And he lowered closer to my face.
05:03Sorry.
05:04Overcome with fear, I ran fast past him.
05:07Without realizing, he stood there and watched my back for a long time.
05:12Finn got busier by the day.
05:14Busier arranging Sienna's bond ceremony with Alaric.
05:17I 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?
05:25The flowers?
05:27The guests?
05:28The spectacle?
05:28Something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
05:32I thought, fine.
05:33I'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 Fing could want as a bond token.
05:43And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:46I showed up on the appointed day.
05:48I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:50He never came.
05:51The 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.
06:03How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:06He was obviously playing her.
06:08She'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.
06:16Silent.
06:17Trying not to drown.
06:18Someone shoved me from behind.
06:20I hit the ground hard, but I caught the nest tree sapling before it could break.
06:24Cradled it like it mattered.
06:26Then someone stomped on the pot.
06:28The clay exploded.
06:29The sapling went gray and dead in seconds.
06:33Shattered, I walked home.
06:34And heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:38Bright.
06:38Delighted.
06:39Finn, this dress is beautiful.
06:42You actually made this with your own hands?
06:44Sienna, 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.
06:59Red feathers lined the hem.
07:01Finn'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.
07:15The most sacred part of a phoenix's body.
07:19Just to get the color right for her.
07:21He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
07:24All those years.
07:25Every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her.
07:30Even agreeing to bond with me.
07:32I finally understood that too.
07:34It was just a reflex.
07:36A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:41Samara, they were right.
07:42Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:45I made up my mind.
07:46I 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.
07:55Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
07:58I finally tracked down Riven.
08:00A low rank lizard in the outer territory.
08:02And he agreed.
08:03I ran home.
08:04Told Finn.
08:05He didn't look relieved.
08:07He looked furious.
08:09Samara.
08:11You're serious?
08:13You'd bond with that low rank lizard instead of me?
08:18I didn't show up that day, but I had a reason.
08:21You saw-
08:21I stopped listening.
08:22I already knew the reason.
08:24Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
08:26He was busy.
08:27Too busy for me.
08:28Never too busy for her.
08:30Because of my face.
08:31Because I was the ugly one.
08:33Because apparently being born with a birthmark means I deserve to be stood up, mocked in public,
08:39and made to feel grateful for scraps.
08:42I closed my eyes.
08:43Yes, Finn.
08:46I'm bonding with Riven.
08:49Fine, Samara.
08:50Don't come crawling back.
08:51He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
08:54I genuinely could not locate his logic.
08:57I had no time to figure it out.
08:59My birthday was three days away.
09:01The next morning, I went to find Riven.
09:04Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:06Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night,
09:10and they'd already scheduled their ceremony for that afternoon.
09:13You think I would take someone else's reject?
09:17Then closed his door in my face.
09:19I 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.
09:28I was going to spend them eating well.
09:31I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe, the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before,
09:36and ordered everything that looked good.
09:38I was halfway through a plate of honey cake when I caught the conversation behind me.
09:42Heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood?
09:45The one with healing properties?
09:47Healing?
09:47If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
09:52Oh, wait.
09:53Obviously, because Sienna matters.
09:56Samara never did.
09:57He had a cure.
09:58He had a cure for my birthmark.
10:00He watched me get beaten, ridiculed, spat on my entire life,
10:05and 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.
10:12Tears ran down my face,
10:14and I bit my lip until it bled,
10:16to keep from making a sound.
10:18Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:19I 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.
10:30The house was blazing with light.
10:32A crowd had packed the main hall,
10:34shouting over each other.
10:35Alaric, Sienna's dragon,
10:38had died.
10:38Fully died.
10:39The feral curse had taken home.
10:41Without a completed bond to tether him,
10:43Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
10:45He'd tear through the entire city.
10:47Dragons in rogue state always did.
10:50Everyone was screaming at Sienna to go through with the bond immediately.
10:53Only Finn was standing in her way,
10:55locking her,
10:56keeping her back.
10:57But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
10:59I looked at him one last time,
11:01but Sienna sheltered behind his back like she was made of glass,
11:05and walked to my room.
11:06His footsteps came fast.
11:08He threw open my door.
11:09Why was he here?
11:10His priority was right down the hall.
11:12Samara,
11:13you're the only one who can save her.
11:15Me?
11:16The dragon bonded with Sienna,
11:17not me.
11:18You and Sienna are identical,
11:20except for the mark.
11:21No one will know the difference.
11:22I opened my mouth to ask how I was supposed to remove a birthmark
11:25on three seconds notice.
11:27And then I remembered the conversation at Mayfair Garden.
11:30He already knew.
11:31Finn raised his hand.
11:33His expression showed something I might have called regret,
11:36but his arm was completely steady as it swung toward my throat.
11:40Samara,
11:41I'm sorry,
11:43but Sienna once saved my life.
11:46I can't let her-
11:47Those were the last words I heard before the darkness took me.
11:51Finn,
11:51even now,
11:52not one word about me.
11:54I came back to consciousness in a moving carriage,
11:57dressed in red.
11:58Finn's dress,
11:59the one he made for Sienna.
12:03I almost laughed.
12:05He worked so hard on it.
12:07And it ended up on the wrong twin after all.
12:10Outside,
12:11drums and horns.
12:12The city celebrating.
12:14They weren't celebrating an honest era.
12:16They were celebrating trading my life for their safety.
12:19The altar was already in sight.
12:21I didn't struggle.
12:23I walked up the steps,
12:24heard the crowd's murmur shift.
12:26A single,
12:27sharp inhale of surprise.
12:29The kind of sound people make when they see something unexpected.
12:32How funny.
12:33I had heard people gasp at my face my whole life,
12:36always in revulsion.
12:38The one time they gasped in something else,
12:41I was walking toward my own death.
12:43My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
12:45He stood very still,
12:47staring up at me with an expression I couldn't read.
12:49This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
12:51I looked away.
12:52Alaric stood at the center of the altar,
12:55radiating red light,
12:56barely controlled.
12:57His muscles looked like they were about to rip his clothes off.
13:01His eyes were burning.
13:02All animal.
13:03No human.
13:04But as soon as our eyes locked,
13:06a flicker of blue light flashed in his eyes.
13:09He got closer to me and cupped my face.
13:12You are different.
13:13The ceremony will now begin.
13:18We exchanged the bond tokens.
13:20Blood on both sides.
13:21The bond snapped into place.
13:23The nightmare dimension opened instantly.
13:26It swallowed us both.
13:27I closed my eyes and waited to die.
13:30When I opened my eyes again,
13:32I was overtaken by the view.
13:35Not darkness.
13:37Not pain.
13:38Trees.
13:39Dense.
13:40Ancient.
13:41Green.
13:42A stream so clear I could count the stones at the bottom.
13:45A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
13:48This wasn't what the nightmare dimension was supposed to look like.
13:51And Alaric was gone.
13:53I turned in a slow circle.
13:55No dragon.
13:57No hulking rogue state predator.
13:59Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:02I looked down.
14:03A tiny white snake.
14:06Transparent scales.
14:08Two small delicate horns catching the light.
14:11Everyone who'd ever studied beastman biology could recognize those horns.
14:16Alaric.
14:17Reduced to his infant form.
14:19Small enough to fit in my palm.
14:21As long as there was breath, there was a way out.
14:24I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
14:28Trying every technique I knew.
14:31Healing herbs.
14:33Binding chance.
14:34Energy redirection.
14:35Nothing worked.
14:36He stayed small.
14:37His red light pulsed faintly, but never faded.
14:40I gave up for the night and went foraging instead.
14:45In the morning, I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
14:48Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me at some point in the night and was fast asleep,
14:54rising and falling with my breathing.
14:57I picked him up by the scruff.
15:01I don't know what you heard about mate binding, but sleeping on top of people is generally considered a personal
15:07boundary violation.
15:09He stared at me, completely unapologetic.
15:12His tail, however, slowly turned red.
15:21His tiny horns flushed darker as I kept holding them.
15:25I raised an eyebrow.
15:26I spent the next ten minutes poking his horns until he'd turned fully pink.
15:30Only then did I put him down.
15:32Satisfied.
15:34I went back to trying to fix him.
15:36Nothing worked.
15:36I pulled some leaves off a low branch and shredded them while I thought.
15:40One leaf caught my skin.
15:42Blood welled from a clean slice across my fingertip.
15:45Before I could move, Alaric flicked his tongue and licked the wound.
15:48The bleeding stopped.
15:50The cut started closing.
15:51Then he convulsed.
15:52I scrambled for medicine.
15:56Useless.
15:57Because he was already growing.
16:01The feral curse, gone.
16:04He was healed.
16:05We could go home.
16:07But he was also the most famous, coldest, most untouchable alpha in the territory.
16:13And I had spent the last two days poking him and calling him a personal boundary violator.
16:20I didn't get to figure out.
16:21He'd already shifted back to human form and landed in front of me.
16:26He was exactly as described.
16:28Sharp jaw.
16:29Cold eyes.
16:30The kind of face that made people get out of his way before they knew why.
16:35Samara.
16:36Are you familiar with a prophecy passed down through dragon bloodlines?
16:41Can't say I am.
16:42Only the goddess can break the curse.
16:46That he knew my real name or what he was calling me.
16:49I've examined the surrounding space.
16:50This isn't the nightmare dimension.
16:53It's a separate realm.
16:54One that appears to belong to you.
16:57I had a private dimension.
17:00I, Samara, the uglier twin, the spare, the girl who couldn't get a lizard beast man to bond with her,
17:06had a private dimension.
17:08We returned to the city.
17:10The streets stopped when they saw us.
17:13I went straight to Finn's estate.
17:16Alaric walked in beside me.
17:19I looked at my sister.
17:22Finn and Sienna were in the morning hall, performing grief in front of the assembled guests.
17:27Sienna, the name on that banner is wrong.
17:30The one who bonded with the dragon was me.
17:33Samara, not you.
17:34Prove it!
17:35How do we know you're even Samara?
17:37I smiled.
17:38I raised my hand.
17:41Sienna's birthmark, the one she'd painted on her face to impersonate me, dissolved.
17:48I already knew she wouldn't have actually damaged herself.
17:51She sent her own sister to die in her place.
17:54How is Samara's face?
17:58The heartwood.
18:00Finn had it the whole time.
18:05The feral curse.
18:07It's lifted?
18:08You can't possibly be walking around if it's not.
18:10You tear this city apart.
18:14The curse is gone, Finn.
18:16Samara cured it.
18:19The entire room pivoted to look at me like a single organism.
18:22Finn looked like he'd been hit.
18:25Alaric, you don't have to protect her.
18:27I know my sister.
18:31I'm not protecting her.
18:33Samara is the goddess our bloodline's prophecy describes.
18:37Her blood neutralizes the feral curse.
18:40Finn's hand tightened on Sienna's arm.
18:43Did you forget, Finn?
18:45Your feral curse broke the same way.
18:47Sienna who saved you that winter.
18:58I left that sentence in the middle of the room, like a lit match, and walked out with Alaric.
19:04The best revelations are the ones you don't finish.
19:07Life in Alaric's estate was the best 17 days of my entire existence.
19:11Food brought to me.
19:13Warm rooms.
19:14No one spitting on the ground where I walked.
19:16Then the requests started coming.
19:18Word had spread.
19:19A rogue beast man, a fire fox, had been brought to the gates.
19:23People wanted proof.
19:24Alaric and I looked at each other.
19:26Perfect timing.
19:27The crowd outside was enormous.
19:29I walked to the fire fox without hurrying, ignoring the way his curse form snarled at me,
19:34and drew a clean line across my palm.
19:37A few drops of blood.
19:38His throat.
19:39He screamed and convulsed.
19:41The crowd turned on me instantly.
19:42She's a monster.
19:44That birthmark was a sign all along.
19:47She's poisoning him.
19:48I don't answer.
19:49I don't negotiate with panic.
19:51Alaric stepped in front of me.
19:52One look.
19:53That was all he did.
19:54One look at the crowd.
19:55And every voice stopped.
19:57I watched his back.
19:58The width of his shoulders.
20:00The steadiness of his stance.
20:01And something warm cracked open in my chest.
20:0417 years.
20:05First time someone stepped in front of me.
20:08The fire fox stopped convulsing.
20:10The red light faded.
20:11He blinked, calm, recognizably himself.
20:13The person who'd been loudest about poisoning him now looked like they might faint.
20:17Goddess!
20:18Started moving through the crowd like a wave.
20:20Within a week, my name was on every street in the city.
20:23Sienna, I heard, hadn't left Finn's estate in days.
20:27The neighborhood children had discovered she made an excellent moving target.
20:31I was not sorry.
20:32A servant announced a visitor one evening.
20:34I already knew who it was before I reached the hall.
20:37Sienna, on her knees.
20:39Samara, tell them you went willingly.
20:41Please, just issue a statement.
20:43She was pale, shaking, still managing to make it sound like a command.
20:47My voice came out very quiet.
20:49Give me one reason.
20:51You watched them torment me for 18 years and said nothing.
20:55You knew I was the one who healed Finn.
20:57And you let him fawn over you anyway.
20:59And then you sent me to die in your place.
21:02Her mouth moved.
21:03No sound came out.
21:04She grabbed the hem of my sleeve and pulled like a child.
21:08Alaric had her escorted out.
21:09The moment he appeared in the doorway, something in me simply gave.
21:13The tears came without warning.
21:15I couldn't stop them.
21:16Didn't try.
21:17Alaric pulled me in without a word.
21:19I cried so hard I couldn't breathe.
21:2118 years of it.
21:22Finally out.
21:23I woke up in bed.
21:25Alaric was beside me, asleep.
21:26I remembered, distantly, grabbing his sleeve and refusing to let go as I passed out.
21:32My face was on fire.
21:33I had approximately 5 seconds to be mortified before a servant announced another visitor.
21:39Finn!
21:39He stood in the receiving room, looking wrecked, like he hadn't slept.
21:43His eyes found my face and stayed there, unblinking, full of something painful.
21:48Samara, I'm so glad you're alive.
21:50You have interesting timing, Finn.
21:52I'm only alive because you swapped me for Sienna.
21:54So technically, I have you to thank?
21:56Samara, every word you say right now is a blade.
22:00Good.
22:00I turned to leave.
22:01He caught my wrist.
22:02Mara.
22:03My old name.
22:04The short version.
22:05The one he'd used before he stopped seeing me.
22:07I hadn't heard it in years.
22:09Finn, you didn't lose me.
22:10You put me down a long time ago.
22:12I'm the one who finally stopped waiting for you to pick me back up.
22:15Finn and Sienna stayed away after that.
22:17What they didn't stay away from was a scheme.
22:21Rumors spread.
22:22A second goddess had appeared.
22:24One more generous than me.
22:26No conditions.
22:28No questions about character.
22:30And apparently effective.
22:32I sat in Alaric's garden eating candied plums.
22:35And genuinely could not find it in me to care.
22:39But I noticed something.
22:41Dead animals kept appearing outside the city walls.
22:45Strange variety.
22:47Wrong season.
22:48Sienna, if you actually had this ability, you would have used it before tonight.
22:53Alaric's people quietly investigated.
22:56The count of dead animals matched the count of beastmen Sienna claimed to have healed.
23:00Exactly.
23:02Exactly.
23:02She'd been extracting beastman essence.
23:05Killing animals to fake a cure.
23:08She was arrested within the week.
23:10I went to see her before sentencing.
23:13She was barely recognizable.
23:16Dirty.
23:17Small.
23:18The careful performance of herself completely gone.
23:23This is your fault, Samara.
23:25You sent Alaric after me.
23:27I didn't.
23:28But go on.
23:30You, you and your goddess title, you ruined everything.
23:34And Finn is throwing me out.
23:37Dissolving the bond.
23:40He's leaving me to die.
23:42I went still.
23:43Sienna, what you did to me, that only hurt me.
23:47What you did to those beastmen, to this city, that was bigger than both of us.
23:51The reason you're here isn't me.
23:53It's every choice you made when you thought nobody was watching.
23:56She was still screaming when I left.
23:58She died three days later.
24:00I had her remains collected.
24:03Whatever she was to me at the end, she was still the person I grew up beside.
24:08Then Finn appeared at the gate, and every inch of him was glowing.
24:12The feral curse taking hold.
24:15He didn't ask for my blood.
24:24Before I lose myself completely, let this feather find the person it belongs to.
24:29I recognized it immediately.
24:31Finn, do you know what the last thing Sienna ever said to me to me was?
24:35The lizard who rejected me?
24:37You arranged that.
24:39You sent someone to him the night before.
24:41You made sure I had no options left, so I'd have to stay within reach.
24:46That night, Alaric came to my room and set a dragon scale on my desk without a word.
24:50I pushed it back three times.
24:53His face went darker with each refusal.
24:57I took the scale.
25:01Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:03I spent two weeks learning the layout and still opened the wrong door half the time.
25:06One wrong door led me to a room full of dried flowers.
25:10Thousands of them.
25:11Every variety.
25:12Pressed.
25:12Labeled.
25:13Arranged in careful rows.
25:15After my mother died, I'd go out before dawn and pick whatever was blooming.
25:19Then spend the hot part of the day hawking them in the market.
25:22Until one morning, a house steward appeared and said his employer was very pleased with
25:26my work and wanted ten full baskets delivered daily.
25:29I had never seen the employer's face.
25:31It was Alaric.
25:33I summoned him to the main hall that evening.
25:36He stood in the center of them, unsure what to do with his hands.
25:39I didn't realize dragons had so many quirks.
25:42Sleeping on people's chests.
25:45Collecting flowers.
25:46Truly a complex inner life.
25:48Alaric, when we were little, you used to follow me around and call me Big Sis.
25:53I know I told you to stop once we were grown.
25:55I lied.
25:57I liked it.
25:59I looked at him.
26:01Waiting.
26:03He didn't move for a long, agonizing moment.
26:08Big Sis.
26:09We'd met before Finn.
26:10Before any of this.
26:11Him for being born without dragon horns.
26:13Me for the mark on my face.
26:14Left in the mountains to survive or die.
26:16He arrived after me.
26:17So obviously, I adopted him a little thing.
26:20We lived like that for years.
26:22Looking out for each other.
26:23Then his horns grew in.
26:25His family came to collect him.
26:27He didn't want to go.
26:28They tied him up.
26:29They told him if he fought it, they'd come back and kill me.
26:33He left to protect me.
26:35He found me again years later in the market.
26:39He was too afraid to approach.
26:41Afraid his presence would put me in danger.
26:45So he bought all my flowers instead.
26:48Every single day.
26:49At triple the market rate.
26:51He agreed to bond with Sienna.
26:53Because he knew what Finn was planning.
26:55He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
26:57He knew the swap was coming.
26:59He let himself be exposed to the feral curse of my family.
27:02To give me a way out.
27:03His own family found out and took it from him.
27:05An investment in keeping the dragon estate's power centralized in the younger side.
27:08He nearly died.
27:10So did I.
27:11And we both came out the other side.
27:14I turned the dragon scale over in my hands.
27:17A reverse scale I'd found out.
27:19The most sensitive point on a dragon's body.
27:21The thing they guard most carefully.
27:23He'd given it to me in a panic.
27:25Terrified I'd changed my mind.
27:27I pressed up on my toes and kissed his horn.
27:36He picked me up without any further discussion and carried me inside.
27:41I learned that night, thoroughly and at length, that dragon horns are not, in fact, for casual affectionate kissing.
27:52Life after that was sweet.
27:54Genuinely, embarrassingly sweet.
27:57Except for the bird.
27:58The phoenix had started appearing in the tree outside my window.
28:01Wherever I went, it followed.
28:03Said nothing.
28:04Just watched.
28:07Finn had disappeared.
28:08Some said dead.
28:09Some said he'd left the territory entirely.
28:12Today was my bond ceremony with Alaric.
28:15Some stories end with a bang.
28:17Mine ended with a bird being firmly escorted off the property.
28:22Works for me.
28:23This is a deÄźiĹź Ă„nderationaleier for me.
28:26I haven't vueled yet.
28:27I haven't ever thought.
28:27There we go.
28:28This is a shift in seven miles.
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