- il y a 10 heures
Rejecting The Phoenix, Taming The Dragon New Sm
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00:00On the night before my mating ceremony,
00:02my twin sister climbed into the bed of my beast mate, 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,
00:18I am the lowest thing breathing.
00:20It's simple, really.
00:21Beastmen 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,
00:28my body will explode for not finding a mate.
00:31But then Finn, the phoenix,
00:34rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:37I actually believed I was special to him.
00:40I wasn't.
00:41I 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.
00:56It's identical, except for the mark on my face.
00:59I wasn't chosen.
01:00I was kept as a spare.
01:02In the spiritual beast world,
01:04every 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.
01:13I 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.
01:22Alamuk, the dragon.
01:24The most powerful being in our realm.
01:27Beastmen carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:30When it takes hold,
01:31they hunt their bonded by memory alone,
01:34drag them into a shared nightmare,
01:36and torture them to death.
01:37I always knew Sienna would pick Alamuk.
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,
01:48I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:51The air tasted sweet.
01:52Even the people who had spent years spitting on me
01:56blurred into background noise.
01:58I stopped hearing the insults.
02:00I forgot every ruse they'd left.
02:03I thought everything I'd survived
02:05was 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,
02:16it 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,
02:30I stayed up until 3am collecting Morning Dew,
02:33his favorite,
02:34and carried it to his room like an idiot
02:36with 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,
02:52Finn pulled his form back in,
02:54like a fist closing around a secret.
02:57Sienna smiled.
02:58Soft, unbothered.
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,
03:07it'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
03:18had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:20I stood there,
03:21hands empty, useless.
03:23Finn looked at me once,
03:24cold, brief.
03:26Nothing urgent?
03:27Then go.
03:28I walked out with my head down.
03:30Sienna's voice followed me down the hall,
03:33like smoke.
03:34Finn and I grew up together.
03:36But I met him first.
03:38I met him first,
03:39and nobody cares.
03:41That winter,
03:42I found Finn half dead in the forest
03:45while 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
03:55screamed at me to run.
03:56His eyes stopped me.
03:58There was something in them I recognized.
04:00The desperate, clawing will to live.
04:02I had been looking at that same thing in mirrors
04:05for 17 years.
04:07I brought him home.
04:08I didn't sleep for weeks.
04:09I watched over him,
04:10learned his fever patterns,
04:12held him down through the worst nights.
04:14His body healed.
04:15The curse didn't lift.
04:17Then one day,
04:18Sienna 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,
04:27Finn'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,
04:36he 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
04:46that I forgot to see the front.
04:48When I looked up,
04:49I 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,
05:06I ran fast past him.
05:07Without realizing,
05:09he stood there and watched my back
05:11for 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
05:21by this world's standards.
05:23But hearing about Sienna's ceremony,
05:25the flowers,
05:27the guests,
05:28the spectacle,
05:29something pathetic inside me
05:31started imagining my own.
05:32I thought,
05:33fine,
05:34I'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,
05:43and gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:46I showed up on the appointed day.
05:48I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
05:51He never came.
05:52The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
05:55Not to support me,
05:56but to watch.
05:58The flowers in my arms had died.
06:00I kept my chin down
06:01and my eyes on the ground.
06:03How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:07He was obviously playing her.
06:08She's the only one who didn't know.
06:10Any other day,
06:11I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
06:14Today,
06:14I just pushed through the crowd,
06:16silent,
06:17trying not to drown.
06:18Someone shoved me from behind.
06:20I hit the ground hard,
06:22but 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,
06:33I walked home
06:34and heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:38Bright,
06:38delighted.
06:39Finn,
06:40this dress is beautiful.
06:42You actually made this with your own hands?
06:44Sienna,
06:46as long as you like it.
06:47Finn's voice was as flat as always,
06:49but the upward curl at the end,
06:51that small,
06:52involuntary warmth,
06:54exposed him completely.
06:55The door swung open,
06:57and 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,
07:16the 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
07:28always 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
07:38after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:41Samara,
07:42they were right.
07:42Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:45I made up my mind.
07:46I would dissolve the bond
07:48before it was complete.
07:49I wasn't going to wait around
07:51to be discarded with an audience.
07:52I started looking for an available beast man,
07:55anyone willing to bond with me
07:57before 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
08:15instead of me?
08:18I didn't show up that day,
08:20but I had a reason.
08:21You saw-
08:22I stopped listening.
08:23I 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,
08:34being born with a birthmark
08:36means I deserve to be stood up,
08:38mocked 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.
08:51He said it like
08:52I was the one abandoning him.
08:54I genuinely
08:55could not locate his logic.
08:57I had no time to figure it out.
08:59My birthday was three days away.
09:01The next morning,
09:02I went to find Riven.
09:04Somehow,
09:04he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:06Apparently,
09:07someone had introduced him
09:08to a girl last night,
09:10and they'd already scheduled
09:11their ceremony.
09:12for that afternoon.
09:13You think I would take
09:13someone else's reject?
09:17Then closed his door in my face.
09:19I stood there,
09:20lifted my hand to knock again,
09:22let it fall.
09:23People like me
09:23aren't meant to survive
09:24in a world like this.
09:26If I had maybe
09:27three days left alive,
09:28fine.
09:29I was going to spend them
09:30eating well.
09:31I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe,
09:33the expensive coffee house
09:34I'd never dared enter before,
09:36and ordered everything
09:37that looked good.
09:38I was halfway through
09:39a plate of honey cake
09:40when I caught the conversation
09:41behind me.
09:42I've heard the phoenix
09:43is giving Sienna
09:44the thousand-year heartwood?
09:45The one with healing properties?
09:47Healing?
09:48If it can heal,
09:49why didn't Finn use it
09:50years ago on Samara's face?
09:52Oh, wait.
09:53Obviously,
09:54because Sienna matters.
09:55Samara never did.
09:57He had a cure.
09:58He had a cure
09:59for my birthmark.
10:00He watched me get beaten,
10:03ridiculed,
10:03spat on my entire life,
10:05and he had the antidote
10:07in his pocket.
10:08He chose to give it to Sienna
10:10as a backup plan
10:11instead of giving it to me.
10:12Tears ran down my face,
10:14and I bit my lip
10:15until it bled
10:16to keep from making a sound.
10:18Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:19I was going to die.
10:21They would laugh
10:22at the way my body
10:22destroyed 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
10:30in this world.
10:30The house was blazing
10:32with light.
10:32A crowd had packed
10:33the main hall,
10:34shouting over each other.
10:35Alaric,
10:36Sienna's dragon,
10:38had gone full of pain.
10:39The feral curse
10:40had taken home.
10:41Without a completed bond
10:42to tether him,
10:43Alaric wouldn't just hurt
10:45Sienna.
10:45He'd tear through
10:46the entire city.
10:48Dragons and rogues
10:49stayed always dead.
10:50Everyone was screaming
10:51at Sienna
10:51to go through
10:52with the bond immediately.
10:53Only Finn was standing
10:55in her way,
10:55blocking her,
10:56keeping her back.
10:57But Finn couldn't
10:58hold the crowd forever.
10:59I looked at him
11:00one last time,
11:01but Sienna
11:02sheltered behind his back
11:03like she was made
11:04of 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
11:11was right down the hall.
11:12Samara,
11:13you're the only one
11:14who can save her.
11:15Me?
11:16The dragon bonded
11:17with Sienna,
11:17not me.
11:18You and Sienna
11:19are identical,
11:20except for the mark.
11:21No one will know
11:21the difference.
11:22I opened my mouth
11:23to ask how I was supposed
11:24to remove a birthmark
11:25on three seconds notice.
11:27And then I remembered
11:28the conversation
11:29at Mayfair Garden.
11:30He already knew.
11:31Finn raised his hand.
11:33His expression
11:33showed something
11:34I might have called regret,
11:36but his arm
11:37was completely steady
11:38as it swung
11:39toward my throat.
11:40Samara,
11:41I'm sorry,
11:43but Sienna
11:44once saved my life.
11:46I can't let her-
11:47Those were the last words
11:48I heard
11:49before the darkness
11:50took me.
11:51Finn,
11:51even now,
11:52not one word about me.
11:54I came back to consciousness
11:56in a moving carriage,
11:57dressed in red.
11:58Finn's dress,
11:59the one he made
12:00for Sienna.
12:03I almost laughed.
12:05He worked so hard on it,
12:07and it ended up
12:08on the wrong twin after all.
12:10Outside,
12:11drums and horns,
12:12the city celebrating.
12:14They weren't celebrating
12:15the bond ceremony.
12:16They were celebrating
12:17trading my life
12:18for their safety.
12:20The 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
12:30people make
12:30when they see
12:31something unexpected.
12:32How funny.
12:33I had heard people
12:34gasp at my face
12:35my whole life,
12:36always in revulsion.
12:38The one time
12:39they gasped
12:40in something else,
12:40I was walking
12:41toward my own death.
12:43My gaze found Finn
12:44at the base of the steps.
12:45He stood very still,
12:47staring up at me
12:48with an expression
12:48I couldn't read.
12:49This is what you wanted,
12:51Finn, isn't it?
12:52I looked away.
12:52Alaric stood
12:53at the center of the altar,
12:55radiating red light,
12:56barely controlled.
12:57His muscles
12:58looked like they were
12:59about to rip his clothes off.
13:01His eyes were burning,
13:02all animal,
13:03no human.
13:04But as soon as
13:05our eyes locked,
13:06a flicker of blue light
13:08flashed in his eyes.
13:09He got closer to me
13:10and cupped my face.
13:12You are different.
13:14The ceremony
13:15will now begin!
13:18We exchanged
13:19the bond tokens,
13:20blood on both sides.
13:22The bond
13:22snapped into place.
13:23The nightmare dimension
13:24opened instantly.
13:26It swallowed us both.
13:27I closed my eyes
13:29and waited to die.
13:30When I opened my eyes again,
13:32I was overtaken
13:33by the view.
13:35Not darkness,
13:37not pain.
13:38trees,
13:39dense,
13:40ancient,
13:41green.
13:42A stream so clear
13:43I could count the stones
13:44at the bottom.
13:45A spotted deer
13:46drinking at the bank.
13:48This wasn't what
13:49the nightmare dimension
13:50was 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.
14:00Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:02I looked down.
14:03A tiny white snake.
14:06Transparent scales.
14:08Two small delicate horns
14:10catching the light.
14:11Everyone who'd ever studied
14:13beast man biology
14:14could 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,
14:23there was a way out.
14:24I carried baby Alaric
14:25through 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
14:39but never faded.
14:40I gave up for the night
14:42and went foraging instead.
14:45In the morning,
14:46I woke up with something
14:47heavy on my chest.
14:49Baby Alaric had coiled himself
14:51on top of me at some point
14:52in the night
14:52and was fast asleep,
14:54rising and falling
14:55with my breathing.
14:57I picked him up by the scruff.
15:01I don't know what you
15:02heard about mate binding,
15:04but sleeping on top of people
15:06is generally considered
15:07a personal boundary violation.
15:09He stared at me,
15:10completely unapologetic.
15:12His tail, however,
15:14slowly turned red.
15:21His tiny horns flushed darker
15:23as I kept holding them.
15:25I raised an eyebrow.
15:26I spent the next 10 minutes
15:27poking his horns
15:28until 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.
15:37I pulled some leaves
15:37off a low branch
15:38and shredded them
15:39while I thought.
15:40One leaf caught my skin.
15:42Blood welled from a clean slice
15:43across my fingertip.
15:45Before I could move,
15:46Alaric flicked his tongue
15:47and licked the wound.
15:48The bleeding stopped.
15:50The cut started closing.
15:52Then he convulsed.
15:53I scrambled for medicine.
15:56Useless.
15:57Because he was already growing.
16:01The feral curse,
16:03gone.
16:04He was healed.
16:05We could go home.
16:07But he was also
16:08the most famous,
16:10coldest,
16:10most untouchable alpha
16:12in the territory.
16:13And I had spent
16:15the last two days
16:16poking him
16:17and calling him
16:18a personal boundary violator.
16:20I didn't get to figure out.
16:22He'd already shifted
16:23back to human form
16:24and landed in front of me.
16:26He was exactly
16:27as described.
16:28Sharp jaw,
16:29cold eyes,
16:30the kind of face
16:31that made people
16:31get out of his way
16:32before they knew why.
16:35Samara,
16:36are you familiar
16:37with a prophecy
16:38passed down
16:39through dragon bloodlines?
16:41Can't say I am.
16:42Only the goddess
16:43can break the curse.
16:46That he knew my real name
16:47or what he was calling me.
16:48I've examined
16:49the surrounding space.
16:51This isn't
16:51the nightmare dimension.
16:53It's a separate realm.
16:54One that appears
16:55to belong to you.
16:57I had a private dimension.
17:00I, Samara,
17:01the uglier twin,
17:02the spare,
17:03the girl who couldn't
17:04get a lizard beast man
17:05to bond with her,
17:06had a private dimension.
17:08We returned to the city.
17:10The streets stopped
17:11when they saw us.
17:13I went straight
17:14to Finn's estate.
17:16Alaric walked in
17:17beside me.
17:19I looked at my sister.
17:22Finn and Sienna
17:23were in the morning hall,
17:25performing grief
17:26in front of the
17:26assembled guests.
17:27Sienna,
17:28the name on that banner
17:29is wrong.
17:30The one who bonded
17:31with the dragon
17:32was me,
17:33Samara,
17:34not you.
17:35Prove it!
17:35How do we know
17:36you're even Samara?
17:37I smiled.
17:39I raised my hand.
17:41Sienna's birthmark,
17:43the one she'd painted
17:44on her face
17:45to impersonate me,
17:47dissolved.
17:48I already knew
17:49she wouldn't have
17:50actually damaged herself.
17:51She sent her own
17:52sister to die
17:53in her place.
17:54How is Samara's face?
17:58The heartwood.
17:59Finn had it
18:00the whole time.
18:05The feral curse,
18:07it's lifted?
18:08You can't possibly
18:09be walking around
18:10if it's not.
18:10You tear this city apart.
18:14The curse is gone,
18:15Finn.
18:16Samara cured it.
18:19The entire room
18:20pivoted to look at me
18:21like a single organism.
18:22Finn looked like
18:23he'd been hit.
18:25Alaric,
18:26you don't have
18:26to protect her.
18:27I know my sister.
18:31I'm not protecting her.
18:33Samara is the goddess
18:35our bloodline's
18:36prophecy describes.
18:37Her blood neutralizes
18:38the feral curse!
18:40Finn's hand
18:41tightened on Sienna's arm.
18:43Did you forget, Finn?
18:45Your feral curse
18:46broke the same way
18:47Sienna who saved you
18:49that winter.
18:51It was me.
18:58I left that sentence
19:00in the middle of the room
19:01like a lit match
19:02and walked out
19:03with Alaric.
19:04The best revelations
19:05are the ones
19:06you don't finish.
19:07Life in Alaric's estate
19:08was the best 17 days
19:10of my entire existence.
19:12Food brought to me.
19:13Warm rooms.
19:14No one spitting
19:14on the ground
19:15where I walked.
19:16Then the requests
19:17started coming.
19:18Word had spread.
19:19A rogue beast man,
19:21a firefox,
19:22had been brought
19:22to the gates.
19:23People wanted proof.
19:24Alaric and I
19:25looked at each other.
19:26Perfect timing.
19:27The crowd outside
19:28was enormous.
19:29I walked to the firefox
19:30without hurrying,
19:32ignoring the way
19:32his curse form
19:33snarled at me
19:34and drew a clean line
19:36across my palm.
19:37A few drops of blood,
19:38his throat.
19:39He screamed
19:39and convulsed.
19:41The crowd turned
19:42on me instantly.
19:43She's a monster!
19:44That birthmark
19:45was a sign all along.
19:47She's poisoning him!
19:48I don't answer.
19:49I don't negotiate
19:50with panic.
19:51Alaric stepped
19:51in 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
20:00of his stance,
20:01and something warm
20:02cracked open
20:03in my chest.
20:0417 years.
20:05First time someone
20:06stepped in front of me.
20:08The firefox
20:08stopped convulsing.
20:10The red light faded.
20:11He blinked,
20:11calm,
20:12recognizably himself.
20:13The person who'd been
20:14loudest about poisoning him
20:16now looked like
20:17they might faint.
20:17Gauders!
20:18Started moving through
20:19the crowd like a wave.
20:20Within a week,
20:21my name was on
20:22every street in the city.
20:24Sienna, I heard,
20:25hadn't left Finn's estate
20:26in days.
20:27The neighborhood children
20:28had discovered
20:29she made an excellent
20:30moving target.
20:31I was not sorry.
20:32A servant announced
20:33a visitor one evening.
20:34I already knew
20:35who it was
20:36before I reached
20:37the hall.
20:37Sienna,
20:38on her knees.
20:39Samara,
20:40tell them you went
20:40willingly.
20:41Please,
20:42just issue a statement.
20:43She was pale,
20:44shaking,
20:45still managing
20:45to make it sound
20:46like a command.
20:47My voice came out
20:48very quiet.
20:49Give me one reason.
20:51You watched them
20:52torment me for
20:52eighteen years
20:53and said nothing.
20:55You knew I was
20:56the one who healed Finn,
20:57and you let him
20:57fawn over you anyway.
20:59And then you sent me
21:00to die in your place.
21:02Her mouth moved.
21:03No sound came out.
21:04She grabbed the hem
21:05of my sleeve
21:06and pulled like a child.
21:08Alaric had her
21:08escorted out.
21:09The moment he appeared
21:10in the doorway,
21:11something in me
21:12simply gave.
21:13The tears came
21:14without warning.
21:15I couldn't stop them.
21:16Didn't try.
21:17Alaric pulled me in
21:18without a word.
21:19I cried so hard
21:20I couldn't breathe.
21:21Eighteen years of it.
21:22Finally out.
21:23I woke up in bed.
21:25Alaric was beside me,
21:26asleep.
21:27I remembered,
21:27distantly,
21:28grabbing his sleeve
21:29and refusing to let go
21:31as I passed out.
21:32My face was on fire.
21:33I had approximately
21:34five seconds
21:35to be mortified
21:36before a servant
21:37announced another visitor.
21:39Finn!
21:39He stood in the receiving room,
21:41looking wrecked,
21:42like he hadn't slept.
21:43His eyes found my face
21:44and stayed there,
21:45unblinking,
21:46full of something painful.
21:48Samara,
21:49I'm so glad you're alive.
21:50You have interesting timing,
21:51Finn.
21:52I'm only alive
21:53because you swapped me
21:54for Sienna.
21:54So technically,
21:55I have you to thank?
21:57Samara,
21:57every word you say
21:58right 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
22:06before he stopped seeing me.
22:07I hadn't heard it in years.
22:09Finn,
22:09you didn't lose me.
22:10You put me down
22:11a long time ago.
22:12I'm the one
22:12who finally stopped waiting
22:14for you to pick me back up.
22:15Finn and Sienna
22:16stayed away after that.
22:17What they didn't
22:18stay away from
22:19was a scheme.
22:21Rumors spread.
22:22A second goddess
22:23had appeared.
22:24one more generous
22:26than me.
22:26No conditions,
22:28no questions
22:29about character,
22:30and apparently effective.
22:32I sat in Alaric's garden
22:34eating candied plums
22:35and genuinely
22:36could not find it
22:38in me to care.
22:39But I noticed something.
22:41Dead animals
22:42kept appearing
22:43outside the city walls.
22:45Strange variety.
22:47Wrong season.
22:48Sienna,
22:49if you actually
22:50had this ability,
22:51you would have used
22:52it before tonight.
22:53Alaric's people
22:54quietly investigated.
22:56The count of dead animals
22:57matched the count of beastmen
22:58Sienna claimed
22:59to have healed.
23:00Exactly.
23:02She'd been extracting
23:03beastman essence.
23:05Killing animals
23:06to fake a cure.
23:08She was arrested
23:09within the week.
23:10I went to see her
23:12before sentencing.
23:13She was barely recognizable.
23:16Dirty.
23:17Small.
23:17The careful performance
23:20of herself
23:20completely gone.
23:23This is your fault,
23:25Samara.
23:25You sent Alaric after me.
23:27I didn't.
23:29But go on.
23:30You,
23:31you and your goddess title,
23:33you ruined everything.
23:34And Finn is throwing me out.
23:37Dissolving the bond.
23:39He's leaving me to die.
23:41I went still.
23:43Sienna,
23:44what you did to me,
23:45that only hurt me.
23:47What you did to those beastmen,
23:49to this city,
23:49that was bigger than both of us.
23:51The reason you're here
23:52isn't me.
23:53It's every choice you made
23:54when you thought
23:54nobody was watching.
23:56She was still screaming
23:57when I left.
23:58She died three days later.
24:00I had her remains collected.
24:03Whatever she was to me
24:04at the end,
24:05she was still the person
24:06I grew up beside.
24:08Then Finn appeared
24:09at the gate
24:10and every inch of him
24:11was glowing.
24:12The feral curse
24:13taking hold.
24:15He didn't ask for my blood.
24:24Before I lose myself completely,
24:27let this feather find
24:27the person it belongs to.
24:29I recognized it immediately.
24:31Finn,
24:32do you know what the last thing
24:33Sienna ever said to me to me was?
24:35The lizard who rejected me?
24:37You arranged that.
24:39You sent someone to him
24:41the night before.
24:41You made sure I had
24:43no options left
24:44so I'd have to stay within reach.
24:46That night,
24:47Alaric came to my room
24:48and set a dragon scale
24:49on my desk without a word.
24:51I pushed it back three times.
24:54His face went darker
24:55with each refusal.
24:57I took the scale.
25:01Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:02I spent two weeks
25:03learning the layout
25:04and still opened
25:05the wrong door
25:06half the time.
25:06One wrong door
25:07led me to a room
25:08full of dried flowers.
25:10Thousands of them,
25:11every variety,
25:12pressed,
25:12labeled,
25:13arranged in careful rows.
25:15After my mother died,
25:16I go out before dawn
25:17and pick whatever was blooming,
25:19then spend the hot part of the day
25:20hawking them in the market.
25:22Until one morning,
25:23a house steward appeared
25:24and said his employer
25:25was very pleased with my work
25:27and wanted ten full baskets
25:28delivered daily.
25:29I had never seen
25:30the employer's face.
25:32It was Alaric.
25:33I summoned him
25:34to the main hall that evening.
25:36He stood in the center of them,
25:37unsure what to do
25:39with his hands.
25:39I didn't realize dragons
25:41had so many quirks.
25:42Sleeping on people's chests,
25:45collecting flowers,
25:46truly a complex inner life.
25:48Alaric,
25:49when we were little,
25:50you used to follow me around
25:51and call me Big Sis.
25:53I know I told you to stop
25:54once we were grown.
25:55I lied.
25:57I liked it.
25:59I looked at him,
26:01waiting.
26:03He didn't move
26:04for a long,
26:05agonizing moment.
26:08Big Sis.
26:09We'd met before Finn,
26:10before any of this.
26:11Him for being born
26:12without dragon horns,
26:13me for the mark on my face,
26:15left in the mountains
26:15to survive or die.
26:16He arrived after me,
26:17so obviously,
26:18I adopted him immediately.
26:20We lived like that,
26:21for 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,
26:31they'd come back and kill me.
26:33He left to protect me.
26:35He found me again years later
26:36in the market.
26:39He was too afraid to approach,
26:41afraid his presence
26:42would 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
27:00to the feral curse of my family
27:02to give me a way out.
27:03His own family found out
27:04and took it further.
27:05An investment in keeping
27:06the dragon estate's power
27:07centralized in the younger side.
27:09He 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
27:29and kissed his horn.
27:31You absolute idiot,
27:33I said smiling.
27:35Why didn't you just tell me?
27:37He picked me up
27:38without any further discussion
27:39and carried me inside.
27:41I learned that night,
27:43thoroughly and at length,
27:45that dragon horns are not,
27:46in fact,
27:47for casual affectionate kissing.
27:52Life after that was sweet.
27:54Genuinely,
27:54embarrassingly sweet.
27:57Except for the bird.
27:58The phoenix had started appearing
28:00in the tree outside my window.
28:01Wherever I went,
28:02it followed.
28:03Said nothing.
28:04Just watched.
28:07Finn had disappeared.
28:08Some said dead.
28:09Some said he'd left
28:10the territory entirely.
28:12Today was my bond ceremony
28:13with Alaric.
28:15Some stories end with a bang.
28:17Mine ended with a bird
28:19being friendly escorted
28:20off the property.
28:22Works for me.
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