After rejecting a powerful phoenix destined to rule the heavens, a fearless heroine finds herself bound to a dangerous dragon feared across the realms. As ancient rivalries, forbidden love, and supernatural battles threaten the balance of power, she must choose between destiny and desire. Rejecting the Phoenix, Taming the Dragon delivers epic fantasy romance, dragon mythology, emotional betrayal, magical kingdoms, and breathtaking twists in one addictive adventure. Watch the full movie now and enter a world where love can change the fate of empires.
#RejectingThePhoenixTamingTheDragon #DragonFantasy #FantasyRomance #PhoenixDrama #EpicFantasy #FullMovie #MiniDrama #SupernaturalRomance #MagicalAdventure
#RejectingThePhoenixTamingTheDragon #DragonFantasy #FantasyRomance #PhoenixDrama #EpicFantasy #FullMovie #MiniDrama #SupernaturalRomance #MagicalAdventure
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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.
00:41I 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 beastman in the territory fought to bond with her.
01:19And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:22Alaric.
01:23The 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.
01:33Drag them into a shared nightmare.
01:36And 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.
01:50The 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.
02:12When 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.
02:33His 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.
02:57Sienna smiled.
02:58Soft.
02:59Unbothered.
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.
04:02I 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.
04:30Like smoke in wind.
04:31He came back to himself, powerful, radiant, healed.
04:35After that, he started showing up.
04:37At my place, at Sienna's, I thought he was paying a debt.
04:41He was.
04:41Just 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.
04:57Except...
04:58His fingers slowly traced my face.
05:01Then he lowered closer to my face.
05:04Sorry.
05:04Overcome with fear, I ran fast past him, without realizing he 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.
05:18I 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.
05:32I 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.
06:08She'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.
06:17Silent.
06:17Trying 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.
06:24Cradled 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 and heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:38Bright.
06:39Delighted.
06:40Finn, 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.
07:01Finn'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, 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.
07:31Even agreeing to bond with me, I finally understood that too.
07:35It was just a reflex.
07:36A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:41Samara, they were right.
07:43Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:46I 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.
07:55Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
07:58I finally tracked down Riven, a low-ranked lizard in the Outer Territory.
08:03And he agreed.
08:04I ran home.
08:05Told 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.
08:27He 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
08:36means I deserve to be stood up,
08:39mocked in public,
08:40and made to feel grateful for scraps.
08:43I 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,
09:34the 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,
09:49why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
09:53Oh, 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,
10:03ridiculed,
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.
10:28I 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 I'm full of mine.
10:40The feral curse had taken home.
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 in 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 farther.
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?
11:17The 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.
11:23I 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,
11:37but his arm was completely steady
11:39as it swung toward my throat.
11:41Samara,
11:41I'm sorry,
11:44but Sienna once saved my life.
11:47I can't let her-
11:48Those were the last words I heard
11:50before the darkness took me.
11:52Finn,
11:52even 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.
12:10Outside,
12:12drums and horns.
12:13The city celebrating.
12:15They weren't celebrating
12:16an honest ceremony.
12:17They were celebrating
12:18trading 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,
12:28sharp 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.
12:38The one time they gasped
12:40in something else,
12:41I was walking toward my own death.
12:44My gaze found Finn
12:45at the base of the steps.
12:46He stood very still,
12:48staring up at me
12:48with an expression
12:49I couldn't read.
12:50This is what you wanted, Finn,
12:52isn't it?
12:52I looked away.
12:53Alaric stood
12:54at the center of the altar,
12:55radiating red light,
12:57barely controlled.
12:58His muscles looked like
12:59they were about to rip
13:00his clothes off.
13:02His eyes were burning.
13:03All animal,
13:04no 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
13:16will now begin.
13:19We exchanged the bond tokens,
13:21blood on both sides.
13:22The bond snapped into place.
13:24The nightmare dimension
13:25opened 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.
13:37Not darkness.
13:38Not pain.
13:39Trees.
13:40Dense.
13:41Ancient.
13:42Green.
13:43A stream so clear
13:44I could count the stones
13:45at the bottom.
13:46A spotted deer
13:48drinking at the bank.
13:49This wasn't what
13:50the nightmare dimension
13:51was supposed to look like.
13:52And Alaric was gone.
13:54I turned in a slow circle.
13:57No dragon.
13:58No hulking rogue state predator.
14:01Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:03I looked down.
14:05A tiny white snake.
14:07Transparent scales.
14:09Two small delicate horns
14:11catching the light.
14:12Everyone who'd ever studied
14:14Beastman 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
14:26through the valley.
14:29Trying every technique I knew.
14:32Healing herbs.
14:34Binding chance.
14:35Energy redirection.
14:37Nothing worked.
14:37He stayed small.
14:39His red light pulsed faintly
14:40but never faded.
14:41I gave up for the night
14:43I gave up for the night
14:43and went foraging instead.
14:46In the morning,
14:47I woke up with something heavy
14:49on my chest.
14:50Baby Alaric had coiled himself
14:52on top of me at some point
14:53in the night
14:54and was fast asleep,
14:55rising and falling
14:56with my breathing.
14:58I picked him up by the scruff.
15:02I don't know what you heard
15:04about 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
15:25as 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
15:39off a low branch
15:40and shredded them
15:41while I thought.
15:41One leaf caught my skin.
15:43Blood welled from a clean slice
15:45across my fingertip.
15:46Before I could move,
15:47Alaric flicked his tongue
15:49and licked the wound.
15:50The bleeding stopped.
15:51The cut started closing.
15:53Then he convulsed.
15:55I scrambled for medicine.
15:57Useless.
15:59Because he was already growing.
16:02The feral curse,
16:04gone.
16:05He was healed.
16:07We could go home.
16:08But he was also
16:10the most famous,
16:11coldest,
16:12most untouchable
16:13alpha in the territory.
16:15And I had spent
16:16the 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
16:25to 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
16:33get out of his way
16:33before they knew why.
16:37Samara,
16:38are you familiar
16:39with a prophecy
16:39passed down
16:40through dragon bloodlines?
16:42Can't say I am.
16:44Only the goddess
16:44can break the curse.
16:47That he knew my real name
16:49or what he was calling me.
16:50I've examined
16:51the surrounding space.
16:52This isn't
16:53the nightmare dimension.
16:54It's a separate realm.
16:56One that appears
16:57to belong to you.
16:59I had a private dimension.
17:01I,
17:02Samara,
17:02the uglier twin,
17:04the spare,
17:04the girl who couldn't
17:06get a lizard beast man
17:06to bond with her,
17:07had a private dimension.
17:10We returned to the city.
17:12The streets stopped
17:13when they saw us.
17:15I went straight
17:16to Finn's estate.
17:18Alaric walked in
17:19beside me.
17:21I looked at my sister.
17:24Finn and Sienna
17:25were in the morning hall,
17:26performing grief
17:27in front of the
17:28assembled guests.
17:29Sienna,
17:30the name on that banner
17:31is wrong.
17:32The one who bonded
17:33with the dragon
17:34was me,
17:35Samara,
17:35not you.
17:36Prove it!
17:37How do we know
17:38you're even Samara?
17:39I smiled.
17:40I raised my hand.
17:43Sienna's birthmark,
17:44the one she'd painted
17:46on her face
17:47to impersonate me,
17:48dissolved.
17:49I already knew
17:51she wouldn't have
17:51actually damaged herself.
17:53She sent her own
17:54sister to die
17:55in her place.
17:56How is Samara's face?
18:00The heartwood.
18:02Finn had it
18:02the whole time.
18:07The feral curse,
18:09it's lifted?
18:10You can't possibly
18:11be walking around
18:11if it's not.
18:12You'd tear this city apart.
18:16The curse is gone,
18:17Finn.
18:18Samara cured it.
18:21The entire room
18:22pivoted to look at me
18:23like a single organism.
18:25Finn looked like
18:25he'd been hit.
18:27Alaric,
18:28you don't have to
18:28protect her.
18:29I know my sister.
18:33I'm not protecting her.
18:35Samara is the goddess
18:37our bloodline's
18:38prophecy describes.
18:39Her blood neutralizes
18:40the feral curse!
18:42Finn's hand tightened on
18:43Sienna's arm.
18:45Did you forget,
18:47Finn?
18:47Your feral curse
18:48broke the same way
18:49that Sienna
18:50who saved you
18:51that winter.
18:53It was me.
19:00I left that sentence
19:02in the middle of the room
19:03like a lit match
19:04and walked out
19:05with Alaric.
19:06The best revelations
19:07are the ones
19:08you don't finish.
19:09Life in Alaric's estate
19:10was the best
19:1117 days
19:12of my entire existence.
19:14Food brought to me.
19:15Warm rooms.
19:16No one spitting
19:17on the ground
19:17where I walked.
19:18Then the requests
19:19started coming.
19:20Word had spread.
19:21A rogue beast man,
19:23a fire fox,
19:24had been brought
19:24to the gates.
19:25People wanted proof.
19:27Alaric and I
19:27looked at each other.
19:28Perfect timing.
19:29The crowd outside
19:30was enormous.
19:31I walked to the fire fox
19:33without hurrying,
19:34ignoring the way
19:34his curse form
19:36snarled at me
19:36and drew a clean line
19:38across my palm.
19:39A few drops of blood,
19:40his throat.
19:41He screamed and convulsed.
19:43The crowd turned
19:44on me instantly.
19:45She's a monster!
19:47That birthmark
19:48was a sign all along.
19:49She's poisoning him!
19:50I don't answer.
19:51I don't negotiate
19:52with panic.
19:53Alaric stepped
19:54in front of me.
19:55One look.
19:56That was all he did.
19:57One look at the crowd
19:58and every voice stopped.
19:59I watched his back,
20:01the width of his shoulders,
20:02the steadiness
20:03of his stance
20:03and something warm
20:05cracked open
20:06in my chest.
20:07Seventeen years.
20:08First time
20:08someone stepped
20:09in front of me.
20:10The fire fox
20:11stopped convulsing.
20:12The red light faded.
20:13He blinked,
20:14calm,
20:15recognizably himself.
20:16The person who'd been
20:17loudest about poisoning him
20:18now looked like
20:19they might faint.
20:20Goodness!
20:20started moving
20:21through the crowd
20:22like a wave.
20:23Within a week,
20:24my name was on
20:24every street in the city.
20:26Sienna,
20:27I heard,
20:27hadn't left Finn's
20:28estate in days.
20:29The neighborhood children
20:30had discovered
20:31she made an excellent
20:32moving target.
20:33I was not sorry.
20:35A servant announced
20:36a visitor one evening.
20:37I already knew
20:38who it was
20:39before I reached the hall.
20:40Sienna,
20:41on her knees.
20:42Samara,
20:42tell them you went
20:43willingly.
20:44Please,
20:44just issue a statement.
20:46She was pale,
20:47shaking,
20:47still managing
20:48to make it sound
20:49like a command.
20:50My voice came out
20:51very quiet.
20:52Give me one reason.
20:53You watched them
20:54torment me
20:55for eighteen years
20:56and said nothing.
20:57You knew I was
20:58the one who healed Finn
20:59and you let him
21:00fawn over you anyway.
21:02And then you sent me
21:03to die in your place.
21:05Her mouth moved.
21:06No sound came out.
21:07She grabbed the hem
21:08of my sleeve
21:09and pulled like a child.
21:10Alaric had her
21:11escorted out.
21:12The moment he appeared
21:13in the doorway,
21:14something in me
21:15simply gave...
21:16The tears came
21:17without warning.
21:18I couldn't stop them.
21:19Didn't try.
21:20Alaric pulled me in
21:21without a word.
21:22I cried so hard
21:23I couldn't breathe.
21:24Eighteen years of it
21:25finally out.
21:26I woke up in bed.
21:28Alaric was beside me,
21:29asleep.
21:29I remembered,
21:30distantly,
21:31grabbing his sleeve
21:32and refusing to let go
21:34as I passed out.
21:35My face was on fire.
21:36I had approximately
21:37five seconds
21:38to be mortified
21:39before a servant
21:40announced another visitor.
21:42Finn!
21:42He stood in the receiving room
21:44looking wrecked,
21:45like he hadn't slept.
21:46His eyes found my face
21:47and stayed there,
21:49unblinking,
21:49full of something painful.
21:51Samara,
21:52I'm so glad you're alive.
21:53You have interesting timing,
21:55Finn.
21:55I'm only alive
21:56because you swapped me
21:57for Sienna.
21:58So technically,
21:58I have you to thank?
22:00Samara,
22:00every word you say
22:01right now is a blade.
22:03Good.
22:03I turned to leave.
22:04He caught my wrist.
22:05Mara.
22:06My old name,
22:07the short version,
22:08the one he'd used
22:09before he stopped seeing me.
22:10I hadn't heard it in years.
22:12Finn,
22:12you didn't lose me.
22:13You put me down
22:14a long time ago.
22:15I'm the one
22:16who finally stopped waiting
22:17for you to pick me back up.
22:18Finn and Sienna
22:19stayed away after that.
22:20What they didn't stay away from
22:22was a scheme.
22:24Rumors spread.
22:25A second goddess
22:27had appeared.
22:28One more generous than me.
22:29No conditions,
22:31no questions about character,
22:33and apparently effective.
22:34I sat in Alaric's garden
22:37eating candied plums
22:38and genuinely
22:40could not find it in me
22:41to care.
22:42But I noticed something.
22:44Dead animals
22:45kept appearing
22:46outside the city walls.
22:48Strange variety.
22:50Wrong season.
22:51Sienna,
22:52if you actually had this ability,
22:54you would have used it
22:55before tonight.
22:56Alaric's people
22:57quietly investigated.
22:59The count of dead animals
23:00matched the count of beastmen
23:02Sienna claimed to have healed.
23:04Exactly.
23:05She'd been extracting
23:07beastman essence.
23:08Killing animals
23:10to fake a cure.
23:11She was arrested
23:13within the week.
23:14I went to see her
23:15before sentencing.
23:17She was barely recognizable.
23:19Dirty.
23:20Small.
23:21The careful performance
23:23of herself
23:24completely gone.
23:26This is your fault, Samara.
23:29You sent Alaric after me.
23:31I didn't.
23:32But go on.
23:33You.
23:34You and your goddess title.
23:36You ruined everything.
23:38And Finn is throwing me out.
23:41Dissolving the bond.
23:43He's leaving me to die.
23:45I went still.
23:47Sienna,
23:47what you did to me,
23:49that only hurt me.
23:50What you did to those beastmen,
23:52to this city,
23:53that was bigger than both of us.
23:54The reason you're here
23:55isn't me.
23:56It's every choice you made
23:58when you thought
23:58nobody was watching.
24:00She was still screaming
24:01when I left.
24:02She died three days later.
24:04I had her remains collected.
24:06Whatever she was to me
24:08at the end,
24:09she was still the person
24:10I grew up beside.
24:11Then Finn appeared at the gate,
24:13and every inch of him
24:15was glowing.
24:15The feral curse
24:17taking hold.
24:18He didn't ask for my blood.
24:28Before I lose myself completely,
24:30let this feather find the person
24:31it belongs to.
24:32I recognized it immediately.
24:35Finn,
24:36do you know what the last thing
24:37Sienna ever said to me to me was?
24:39The lizard who rejected me?
24:41You arranged that.
24:43You sent someone to him
24:44the night before.
24:45You made sure I had no options left
24:48so I'd have to stay within reach.
24:50That night,
24:50Alaric came to my room
24:52and set a dragon scale
24:53on my desk without a word.
24:55I pushed it back three times.
24:57His face went darker
24:59with each refusal.
25:01I took the scale.
25:05Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:06I spent two weeks
25:07learning the layout
25:08and still opened the wrong door
25:09half the time.
25:10One wrong door
25:11led me to a room
25:12full of dried flowers.
25:14Thousands of them,
25:15every variety,
25:16pressed,
25:16labeled,
25:17arranged in careful rows.
25:19After my mother died,
25:20I'd go out before dawn
25:21and pick whatever was blooming,
25:23then spend the hot part of the day
25:24hawking them in the market.
25:26Until one morning,
25:27a house steward appeared
25:28and said his employer
25:29was very pleased with my work
25:31and wanted ten full baskets
25:32delivered daily.
25:33I had never seen
25:34the employer's face.
25:35It was Alaric.
25:37I summoned him
25:38to the main hall
25:39that evening.
25:40He stood in the center of them,
25:42unsure what to do
25:43with his hands.
25:43I didn't realize dragons
25:45had so many quirks.
25:47Sleeping on people's chests,
25:49collecting flowers,
25:50truly a complex inner life.
25:53Alaric,
25:53when we were little,
25:54you used to follow me around
25:55and call me Big Sis.
25:57I know I told you to stop
25:58once we were grown.
25:59I lied.
26:01I liked it.
26:03I looked at him,
26:05waiting.
26:07He didn't move
26:08for a long,
26:09agonizing moment.
26:12Big Sis.
26:13We'd met before Finn.
26:15Before any of this.
26:16Him for being born
26:16without dragon horns.
26:17Me for the mark on my face.
26:19Left in the mountains
26:19to survive or die.
26:20He arrived after me,
26:21so obviously,
26:22I adopted him immediately.
26:24We lived like that for years,
26:26looking out for each other.
26:27Then his horns grew in.
26:30His family came to collect him.
26:31He didn't want to go.
26:33They tied him up.
26:33They told him if he fought it,
26:35they'd come back and kill me.
26:37He left to protect him.
26:39He found me again years later
26:41in the market.
26:43He was too afraid to approach.
26:45Afraid his presence
26:47would put me in danger.
26:49So he bought all my flowers instead.
26:52Every single day.
26:53At triple the market rate.
26:55He agreed to bond with Sienna
26:57because he knew what Finn was planning.
26:59He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
27:01He knew the swap was coming.
27:03He let himself be exposed
27:05to the feral curse of my family
27:06to give me a way out.
27:07His own family found out
27:08and took it from him.
27:09An investment in keeping
27:10the dragon estate's power
27:11centralized in the younger side.
27:13And here we died.
27:14So did I.
27:16And we both came out the other side.
27:18I turned the dragon scale over
27:20in my hands.
27:21A reverse scale,
27:22I'd found out.
27:23The most sensitive point
27:24on a dragon's body.
27:26The thing they guard most carefully.
27:28He'd given it to me
27:28in a panic.
27:30Terrified,
27:30I'd changed my mind.
27:32I pressed up on my toes
27:33and kissed his horn.
27:36You absolute idiot,
27:37I said smiling.
27:39Why didn't you just tell me?
27:41He picked me up
27:42without any further discussion
27:44and carried me inside.
27:46I learned that night,
27:48thoroughly and at length,
27:49that dragon horns are not,
27:51in fact,
27:52for casual affectionate kissing.
27:56Life after that was sweet.
27:58Genuinely,
27:59embarrassingly sweet.
28:02Except for the bird.
28:03The phoenix had started appearing
28:04in the tree outside my window.
28:06Wherever I went,
28:07it followed.
28:08Said nothing.
28:09Just watched.
28:11Finn had disappeared.
28:13Some said dead.
28:14Some said he'd left
28:15the territory entirely.
28:16Today was my bond ceremony
28:18with Alaric.
28:19Some stories end with a bang.
28:21Mine ended with a bird
28:23being firmly escorted
28:24off the property.
28:27Works for me.
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