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00:05On the night before my mating ceremony, my twin sister climbed into the bed of my beastmate, Finn.
00:11Now she can marry that monster in my place.
00:16As long as you're safe, my queen.
00:18I didn't know their swapping plan.
00:20In a world where spiritual beasts are gods, I am the lowest thing breathing.
00:25It's simple, really. Beastmen are drawn to beauty.
00:28But I was born with a black birthmark on my left cheek.
00:31I thought by the time I turned 18, my body will explode for not finding a mate.
00:37But then Finn, the phoenix, rarest creature alive, chose me.
00:42I actually believed I was special to him.
00:46I wasn't.
00:47I only knew that until my sister Sienna's bonded dragon went rogue and lost control.
00:53Finn shoved me to bind with that monster without blinking.
00:56Okay. Here's the thing.
00:59Sienna and I are identical twins.
01:02Identical. Except for the mark on my face.
01:05I wasn't chosen.
01:06I was kept as a spare.
01:08In the spiritual beast world, every human must complete a bond before their 18th birthday.
01:13Or their body tears itself apart from the inside.
01:16Sienna and I came into this world together.
01:19I was born with the mark.
01:20She was born a masterpiece.
01:22Every beastman in the territory fought Devonka.
01:25And she chose the most dangerous one alive.
01:29Alaric, the dragon.
01:30The most powerful being in our realm.
01:33Beastmen carry a sickness called the Feral Curse.
01:36When it takes hold, they hunt their bonded by memory alone.
01:40Drag them into a shared nightmare and torture them to death.
01:43I always knew Sienna would pick Alaric.
01:46Power calls to power.
01:48What I never saw coming was Finn choosing me.
01:51The day he announced our bond in front of the whole territory, I felt like I was drowning in honey.
01:57The air tasted sweet.
01:59Even the people who had spent years spitting on me, blurred into background noise.
02:05I stopped hearing the insults.
02:07I forgot every ruse they'd left.
02:09I thought everything I'd survived was just the universe clearing the path to him.
02:15Except, he never touched me.
02:17He never showed me his true form.
02:19When a beastman reveals their animal form to their bonded, it means love, trust, everything.
02:26Finn never once shifted in my presence.
02:29I couldn't find a single feather in the entire house.
02:32I told myself it was just his nature.
02:35That he was private.
02:36Then one night, I stayed up until 3am collecting morning dew, his favorite.
02:41And carried it to his room like an idiot with a smile on my face.
02:46And I saw the flash of Scarlet.
02:48His true form.
02:49He was showing someone his true form.
02:52I stumbled through the door.
02:54That someone was my sister.
02:58The moment he saw me, Finn pulled his form back in, like a fist closing around a secret.
03:04Sienna smiled.
03:05Soft.
03:06Unbothered.
03:07Like a cat who knows she owns the room.
03:10Samara, you know Finn and I grew up together.
03:12Revealing his true form animal side to me, it's not a big deal.
03:16My chest felt like concrete poured inside it.
03:19I kept my face very, very still.
03:22Right, I just came to...
03:24The dew I'd carried all night had already tipped and soaked the floor.
03:28I stood there, hands empty, useless.
03:31Finn looked at me once, cold, brief.
03:34Nothing urgent?
03:35Then go.
03:36I walked out with my head down.
03:39Sienna's voice followed me down the hall like smoke.
03:43Finn and I grew up together.
03:44But I met him first.
03:46I met him first, and nobody cares.
03:49That winter, I found Finn half dead in the forest while I was out cutting wood.
03:55Red light pulsed off every inch of him.
03:58The feral cursed.
03:59He was losing control.
04:01Every survival instinct I had screamed at me to run.
04:05His eyes stopped me.
04:06There was something in them I recognized.
04:08The desperate, clawing will to live.
04:11I had been looking at that same thing in mirrors for 17 years.
04:15I brought him home.
04:16I didn't sleep for weeks.
04:18I watched over him, learned his fever patterns, held him down through the worst nights.
04:23His body healed.
04:24The curse didn't lift.
04:26Then one day, Sienna visited.
04:27She told me to leave him to die.
04:29That accursed beast wasn't worth the risk.
04:32I refused.
04:33Sienna left.
04:34The moment she walked out the door, Finn's curse vanished.
04:38Just like that.
04:39Like smoke in wind.
04:40He came back to himself.
04:42Powerful.
04:43Radiant.
04:44Healed.
04:44After that, he started showing up.
04:46At my place.
04:47At Sienna's.
04:48I thought he was paying a debt.
04:50He was.
04:51Just not to me.
04:52Ugh.
04:53I was so absorbed in the past memory that I forgot to see the front.
04:57When I looked up, I met the deathly gaze of Alaric.
05:02You do look exactly the same as your sister.
05:05Except.
05:08His fingers slowly traced my face.
05:11And he lowered closer to my face.
05:13Sorry.
05:14Overcome with fear, I ran fast past him.
05:17Without realizing he stood there and watched my back for a long time.
05:22Finn got busier by the day.
05:24Busier arranging Sienna's bond ceremony with Alaric.
05:27I knew I should be grateful.
05:29I knew a bond at all was more than I deserved by this world's standards.
05:33But hearing about Sienna's ceremony?
05:35The flowers?
05:37The guests?
05:38The spectacle?
05:39Something pathetic inside me started imagining my own.
05:42I thought, fine.
05:44I'll plan it myself.
05:45I spent everything I had.
05:47Literally everything.
05:48I bought a young firebird nest tree.
05:50The rarest thing Finn could want as a bond token.
05:54And gathered armfuls of his favorite blooms.
05:57I showed up on the appointed day.
05:59I stood at the bond altar from sunrise.
06:01He never came.
06:02The crowd that gathered grew larger the longer I waited.
06:06Not to support me, but to watch.
06:08The flowers in my arms had died.
06:10I kept my chin down and my eyes on the ground.
06:14How could the phoenix ever want someone that ugly?
06:17He was obviously playing her.
06:19She's the only one who didn't know.
06:21Any other day, I would have put my fist through the face of whoever said that.
06:25Today, I just pushed through the crowd.
06:27Silent.
06:28Trying not to drown.
06:29Someone shoved me from behind.
06:31I hit the ground hard, but I caught the nest tree sapling before it could break.
06:35Cradled it like it mattered.
06:37Then someone stomped on the pot.
06:39The clay exploded.
06:40The sapling went gray and dead in seconds.
06:44Shattered, I walked home.
06:46And heard Sienna's voice floating out of Finn's room.
06:49Bright.
06:50Delighted.
06:51Finn, this dress is beautiful.
06:53You actually made this with your own hands?
06:56Sienna, as long as you like it.
06:58Finn's voice was as flat as always.
07:00But the upward curl at the end?
07:02That small, involuntary warmth?
07:05Exposed him completely.
07:07The door swung open, and Sienna walked out in a red dress.
07:11Red feathers lined the hem.
07:13Finn's tail feathers.
07:14The feathers a phoenix only plucks for someone they love.
07:19So that was why he'd rushed me out of the house last week.
07:22He didn't want me seeing him make her a dress.
07:25He'd pulled his own feathers.
07:27The most sacred part of a phoenix's body.
07:31Just to get the color right for her.
07:33He didn't come to my ceremony because of Sienna.
07:35All those years, every glance Finn ever threw across a room always landed on her.
07:43Even agreeing to bond with me.
07:44I finally understood that too.
07:46He was just a reflex.
07:48A moment of wounded pride after she chose the dragon instead of him.
07:53Samara, they were right.
07:55Every bit of this was you lying to yourself.
07:57I made up my mind.
07:59I would dissolve the bond before it was complete.
08:01I wasn't going to wait around to be discarded with an audience.
08:05I started looking for an available beast man.
08:07Anyone willing to bond with me before my birthday.
08:10I finally tracked down Riven.
08:12A low rank lizard in the outer territory.
08:15And he agreed.
08:16I ran home.
08:17Told Finn.
08:18He didn't look relieved.
08:19He looked furious.
08:22Samara.
08:24You're serious?
08:26You'd bond with that low rank lizard instead of me?
08:31I didn't show up that day, but I had a reason.
08:34You saw her.
08:34I stopped listening.
08:35I already knew the reason.
08:37Sienna's ceremony was approaching.
08:39He was busy.
08:40Too busy for me.
08:41Never too busy for her.
08:43Because of my face.
08:44Because I was the ugly one.
08:46Because apparently being born with a birthmark means I deserved to be stood up, mocked in public, and made to
08:53feel grateful for scraps.
08:55I closed my eyes.
08:57Yes, Finn.
08:59I'm bonding with Riven.
09:02Fine, Samara.
09:03Don't come crawling back.
09:05He said it like I was the one abandoning him.
09:08I genuinely could not locate his logic.
09:11I had no time to figure it out.
09:13My birthday was three days away.
09:15The next morning, I went to find Riven.
09:17Somehow, he'd changed his mind overnight.
09:20Apparently, someone had introduced him to a girl last night, and they'd already scheduled their ceremony for that afternoon.
09:26You think I would take someone else's reject?
09:31Then closed his door in my face.
09:33I stood there, lifted my hand to knock again, let it fall.
09:36People like me aren't meant to survive in a world like this.
09:39If I had maybe three days left alive, fine.
09:43I was going to spend them eating well.
09:45I walked to Mayfair Garden Cafe, the expensive coffee house I'd never dared enter before, and ordered everything that looked
09:51good.
09:52I was halfway through a plate of honey cake when I caught the conversation behind me.
09:56I heard the phoenix is giving Sienna the thousand-year heartwood, the one with healing properties.
10:01Healing?
10:02If it can heal, why didn't Finn use it years ago on Samara's face?
10:06Oh, wait.
10:07Obviously, because Sienna matters.
10:10Samara never did.
10:11He had a cure.
10:12He had a cure for my birthmark.
10:15He watched me get beaten, ridiculed, spat on my entire life.
10:20And he had the antidote in his pocket.
10:22He chose to give it to Sienna as a backup plan, instead of giving it to me.
10:27Tears ran down my face, and I bit my lip until it bled, to keep from making a sound.
10:33Tomorrow was my birthday.
10:34I was going to die.
10:36They would laugh at the way my body destroyed itself, so I would not cry.
10:40Not tonight.
10:40Not where anyone could see.
10:42I went home.
10:44Nowhere else to go in this world.
10:45The house was blazing with light.
10:47The crowd had packed the main hall, shouting over each other.
10:50Alaric, Sienna's dragon.
10:54The feral curse had taken home.
10:56Without a completed bond to tether him, Alaric wouldn't just hurt Sienna.
11:00He'd tear through the entire city.
11:03Dragons and rogue state always did.
11:05Everyone was screaming at Sienna to go through with the bond immediately.
11:09Only Finn was standing in her way, locking her, keeping her back.
11:12But Finn couldn't hold the crowd forever.
11:15I looked at him one last time.
11:17But Sienna sheltered behind his back like she was made of glass, and walked to my room.
11:22His footsteps came fast.
11:23He threw open my door.
11:24Why was he here?
11:25His priority was right down the hall.
11:28Samara, you're the only one who can save her.
11:30Me?
11:31The dragon bonded with Sienna, not me.
11:34You and Sienna are identical, except for the mark.
11:36No one will know the difference.
11:38I opened my mouth to ask how I was supposed to remove a birthmark on three seconds notice.
11:43And then I remembered the conversation at Mayfair Garden.
11:46He already knew.
11:47Finn raised his hand.
11:49His expression showed something I might have called regret.
11:52But his arm was completely steady as it swung toward my throat.
11:56Samara, I'm sorry.
11:59But Sienna once saved my life.
12:02I can't let her...
12:03Those were the last words I heard before the darkness took me.
12:07Finn, even now, not one word about me.
12:10I came back to consciousness in a moving carriage, dressed in red.
12:14Finn's dress.
12:15The one he made for Sienna.
12:20I almost laughed.
12:21He worked so hard on it.
12:24And it ended up on the wrong twin after all.
12:26Outside, drums and horns.
12:29The city celebrating.
12:30They weren't celebrating the bonds anymore.
12:33They were celebrating trading my life for their safety.
12:36The altar was already in sight.
12:38I didn't struggle.
12:39I walked up the steps.
12:41Heard the crowd's murmur shift.
12:43A single, sharp inhale of surprise.
12:46The kind of sound people make when they see something unexpected.
12:49How funny.
12:50I'd heard people gasp at my face my whole life.
12:53Always in revulsion.
12:55The one time they gasped in something else.
12:57I was walking toward my own death.
13:00My gaze found Finn at the base of the steps.
13:02He stood very still, staring up at me with an expression I couldn't read.
13:07This is what you wanted, Finn, isn't it?
13:09I looked away.
13:10Alaric stood at the center of the altar, radiating red light, barely controlled.
13:15His muscles looked like they were about to rip his clothes off.
13:18His eyes were burning.
13:19All animal.
13:20No human.
13:22But as soon as our eyes locked, a flicker of blue light flashed in his eyes.
13:26He got closer to me and cupped my face.
13:29You are different.
13:30The ceremony will now begin.
13:36We exchanged the bond tokens.
13:38Blood on both sides.
13:39The bond snapped into place.
13:41The nightmare dimension opened instantly.
13:44It swallowed us both.
13:45I closed my eyes and waited to die.
13:48When I opened my eyes again, I was overtaken by the beauty.
13:53Not darkness.
13:55Not pain.
13:56Trees.
13:57Dense.
13:58Ancient.
13:59Green.
13:59A stream so clear I could count the stones at the bottom.
14:03A spotted deer drinking at the bank.
14:06This wasn't what the nightmare dimension was supposed to look like.
14:09And Alaric was gone.
14:11I turned in a slow circle.
14:14No dragon.
14:15No hulking rogue state predator.
14:18Something cool brushed my ankle.
14:20I looked down.
14:22A tiny white snake.
14:24Transparent scales.
14:26Two small delicate horns catching the light.
14:30Everyone who'd ever studied beast man biology could recognize those horns.
14:35Alaric.
14:36Reduced to his infant form.
14:38Small enough to fit in my palm.
14:40As long as there was breath, there was a way out.
14:42I carried baby Alaric through the valley.
14:47Trying every technique I knew.
14:50Healing herbs.
14:52Binding chance.
14:53Energy redirection.
14:54Nothing worked.
14:55He stayed small.
14:56His red light pulsed faintly, but never faded.
14:59I gave up for the night and went foraging instead.
15:04In the morning, I woke up with something heavy on my chest.
15:08Baby Alaric had coiled himself on top of me at some point in the night
15:12and was fast asleep, rising and falling with my breathing.
15:16I picked him up by the scruff.
15:20I don't know what you heard about mate binding,
15:23but sleeping on top of people is generally considered a personal boundary violation.
15:28He stared at me, completely unapologetic.
15:31His tail, however, slowly turned red.
15:41His tiny horns flushed darker as I kept holding them.
15:45I raised an eyebrow.
15:46I spent the next ten minutes poking his horns until he'd turned fully pink.
15:50Only then did I put him down.
15:52Satisfied.
15:54I went back to trying to fix him.
15:56Nothing worked.
15:56I pulled some leaves off a low branch and shredded them while I thought.
16:00One leaf caught my skin.
16:02Blood welled from a clean slice across my fingertip.
16:05Before I could move, Alaric flicked his tongue and licked the wound.
16:09The bleeding stopped.
16:10The cut started closing.
16:12Then he convulsed.
16:13I scrambled for medicine.
16:16Useless.
16:17Because he was already growing.
16:21The feral curse, gone.
16:24He was healed.
16:26We could go home.
16:27But he was also the most famous, coldest, most untouchable alpha in the territory.
16:34And I had spent the last two days poking him and calling him a personal boundary violator.
16:41I didn't get to figure out.
16:42He'd already shifted back to human form and landed in front of me.
16:47He was exactly as described.
16:49Sharp jaw.
16:49Cold eyes.
16:51The kind of face that made people get out of his way before they knew why.
16:56Samara.
16:57Are you familiar with a prophecy passed down through dragon bloodlines?
17:02Can't say I am.
17:03Only the goddess can break the curse.
17:07That he knew my real name or what he was calling me.
17:10I've examined the surrounding space.
17:12This isn't the nightmare dimension.
17:14It's a separate realm.
17:15One that appears to belong to you.
17:18I had a private dimension.
17:21I, Samara, the uglier twin, the spare, the girl who couldn't get a lizard beast man to bond with her,
17:27had a private dimension.
17:30You return to the city.
17:31The streets stop when they saw us.
17:35I went straight to Finn's estate.
17:38Alaric walked in beside me.
17:41I looked at my sister.
17:44Finn and Sienna were in the morning hall, performing grief in front of the assembled guests.
17:49Sienna, the name on that banner is wrong.
17:52The one who bonded with the dragon was me.
17:55Samara, not you.
17:56Prove it!
17:57How do we know you're even Samara?
17:59I smiled.
18:01I raised my hand.
18:03Sienna's birthmark, the one she'd painted on her face to impersonate me, dissolved.
18:10I already knew she wouldn't have actually damaged herself.
18:14She sent her own sister to die in her place.
18:16How is Samara's face?
18:21The heartwood.
18:22Finn had it the whole time.
18:28The feral curse.
18:29It's lifted?
18:31You can't possibly be walking around if it's not.
18:33You tear the city apart.
18:36The curse is gone, Finn.
18:39Samara cured it.
18:42The entire room pivoted to look at me like a single organism.
18:45Finn looked like he'd been hit.
18:48Alaric, you don't have to protect her.
18:50I know my sister.
18:54I'm not protecting her.
18:56Samara is the goddess our bloodline's prophecy describes.
19:00Her blood neutralizes the feral curse.
19:03Finn's hand tightened on Sienna's arm.
19:07Did you forget, Finn?
19:08Your feral curse broke the same way.
19:11Sienna who saved you that winter.
19:14It was me.
19:22I left that sentence in the middle of the room, like a lit match, and walked out with Alaric.
19:27The best revelations are the ones you don't finish.
19:30Life in Alaric's estate was the best 17 days of my entire existence.
19:35Food brought to me.
19:36Warm rooms.
19:37No one spitting on the ground where I walked.
19:40Then the requests started coming.
19:42Word had spread.
19:43A rogue beast man, a firefox, had been brought to the gates.
19:47People wanted proof.
19:48Alaric and I looked at each other.
19:50Perfect timing.
19:51The crowd outside was enormous.
19:53I walked to the firefox without hurrying, ignoring the way his curse form snarled at me,
19:58and drew a clean line across my palm.
20:01A few drops of blood.
20:02His throat.
20:03He screamed and convulsed.
20:05The crowd turned on me instantly.
20:07She's a monster.
20:08That birthmark was a sign all along.
20:11She's poisoning him.
20:12I don't answer.
20:13I don't negotiate with panic.
20:15Alaric stepped in front of me.
20:17One look.
20:18That was all he did.
20:19One look at the crowd.
20:20And every voice stopped.
20:21I watched his back.
20:23The width of his shoulders.
20:24The steadiness of his stance.
20:26And something warm cracked open in my chest.
20:29Seventeen years.
20:30First time someone stepped in front of me.
20:32The firefox stopped convulsing.
20:34The red light faded.
20:36He blinked.
20:36Calm.
20:37Recognizably himself.
20:38The person who'd been loudest about poisoning him now looked like they might faint.
20:42Goddess!
20:43Started moving through the crowd like a wave.
20:45Within a week, my name was on every street in the city.
20:48Sienna, I heard, hadn't left Finn's estate in days.
20:52The neighborhood children had discovered she made an excellent moving target.
20:56I was not sorry.
20:58A servant announced a visitor one evening.
21:00I already knew who it was before I reached the hall.
21:03Sienna, on her knees.
21:04Samara, tell them you went willingly.
21:06Please, just issue a statement.
21:08She was pale, shaking, still managing to make it sound like a command.
21:13My voice came out very quiet.
21:15Give me one reason.
21:16You watched them torment me for 18 years and said nothing.
21:20You knew I was the one who healed Finn, and you let him fawn over you anyway.
21:24And then you sent me to die in your place.
21:28Her mouth moved.
21:29No sound came out.
21:30She grabbed the hem of my sleeve and pulled like a child.
21:33Alaric had her escorted out.
21:35The moment he appeared in the doorway, something in me simply gave up.
21:39The tears came without warning.
21:41I couldn't stop them.
21:42Didn't try.
21:43Alaric pulled me in without a word.
21:45I cried so hard I couldn't breathe.
21:4718 years of it, finally out.
21:50I woke up in bed.
21:51Alaric was beside me, asleep.
21:53I remembered, distantly, grabbing his sleeve and refusing to let go as I passed out.
21:58My face was on fire.
22:00I had approximately 5 seconds to be mortified before a servant announced another visitor.
22:05Finn!
22:06He stood in the receiving room, looking wrecked, like he hadn't slept.
22:09His eyes found my face and stayed there, unblinking, full of something painful.
22:14Samara, I'm so glad you're alive.
22:16You have interesting timing, Finn.
22:18I'm only alive because you swapped me for Sienna.
22:21So technically, I have you to thank?
22:23Samara, every word you say right now is a blade.
22:27Good.
22:27I turned to leave.
22:28He caught my wrist.
22:29Mara.
22:30My old name, the short version.
22:32The one he'd used before he stopped seeing me.
22:34I hadn't heard it in years.
22:35Finn, you didn't lose me.
22:37You put me down a long time ago.
22:39I'm the one who finally stopped waiting for you to pick me back up.
22:42Finn and Sienna stayed away after that.
22:44What they didn't stay away from was a scheme.
22:48Rumors spread.
22:49A second goddess had appeared.
22:51One more generous than me.
22:53No conditions.
22:55No questions about character.
22:57And apparently effective.
22:59I sat in Alaric's garden eating candied plums.
23:02And genuinely could not find it in me to care.
23:06But I noticed something.
23:09Dead animals kept appearing outside the city walls.
23:12Strange variety.
23:14Wrong season.
23:16Sienna, if you actually had this ability, you would have used it before tonight.
23:21Alaric's people quietly investigated.
23:23The count of dead animals matched the count of beastmen Sienna claimed to have healed.
23:28Exactly.
23:30She'd been extracting beastman essence.
23:33Killing animals to fake a cure.
23:36She was arrested within the week.
23:38I went to see her before sentencing.
23:41She was barely recognizable.
23:44Dirty.
23:45Small.
23:46The careful performance of herself.
23:49Completely gone.
23:51This is your fault, Samara.
23:53You sent Alaric after me.
23:55I didn't.
23:57But go on.
23:58You, you and your goddess title, you ruined everything.
24:02And Finn is throwing me out.
24:05Dissolving the bond.
24:08He's leaving me to die.
24:10I went still.
24:11Sienna, what you did to me, that only hurt me.
24:15What you did to those beastmen, to this city, that was bigger than both of us.
24:19The reason you're here isn't me.
24:21It's every choice you made when you thought nobody was watching.
24:25She was still screaming when I left.
24:27She died three days later.
24:29I had her remains collected.
24:32Whatever she was to me at the end, she was still the person I grew up beside.
24:36Then Finn appeared at the gate, and every inch of him was glowing.
24:41The feral curse, taking hold.
24:44He didn't ask for my blood.
24:53Before I lose myself completely, let this feather find the person it belongs to.
24:58I recognized it immediately.
25:00Finn, do you know what the last thing Sienna ever said to me to me was?
25:05The lizard who rejected me?
25:07You arranged that.
25:08You sent someone to him the night before.
25:11You made sure I had no options left so I'd have to stay within reach.
25:15That night, Alaric came to my room and set a dragon scale on my desk without a word.
25:20I pushed it back three times.
25:23His face went darker with each refusal.
25:27I took the scale.
25:30Alaric's estate was enormous.
25:32I spent two weeks learning the layout and still opened the wrong door half the time.
25:36One wrong door led me to a room full of dried flowers.
25:39Thousands of them, every variety, pressed, labeled, arranged in careful rows.
25:44After my mother died, I'd go out before dawn and pick whatever was blooming, then spend the hot part of
25:50the day hawking them in the market.
25:52Until one morning, a house steward appeared and said his employer was very pleased with my work and wanted ten
25:58full baskets delivered daily.
25:59I had never seen the employer's face.
26:02It was Alaric.
26:04I summoned him to the main hall that evening.
26:06He stood in the center of them, unsure what to do with his hands.
26:10I didn't realize dragons had so many quirks.
26:13Sleeping on people's chests.
26:15Collecting flowers.
26:17Truly a complex inner life.
26:19Alaric, when we were little, you used to follow me around and call me Big Sis.
26:23Big Sis, I know I told you to stop once we were grown.
26:26I lied.
26:27I liked it.
26:30I looked at him.
26:32Waiting.
26:33He didn't move for a long, agonizing moment.
26:39Big Sis.
26:40We'd met before Finn.
26:41Before any of this.
26:42Him for being born without dragon horns.
26:44Me for the mark on my face.
26:45Left in the mountains to survive or die.
26:47He arrived after me, so obviously I adopted him in the middle of me.
26:51We lived like that for years.
26:53Looking out for each other.
26:54Then his horns grew in.
26:56His family came to collect him.
26:58He didn't want to go.
26:59They tied him up.
27:00They told him if he fought it, they'd come back and kill me.
27:04He left to protect me.
27:06He found me again years later in the market.
27:10He was too afraid to approach.
27:12Afraid his presence would put me in danger.
27:16So he bought all my flowers instead.
27:19Every single day.
27:21At triple the market rate.
27:23He agreed to bond with Sienna.
27:25Because he knew what Finn was planning.
27:27He'd seen Finn watching Sienna.
27:28He knew the swap was coming.
27:30He let himself be exposed to the feral curse intentionally.
27:33To give me a way out.
27:34His own family found out and took it from him.
27:36An investment in keeping the dragon estate's power centralized in the younger zone.
27:40And nearly died.
27:42So did I.
27:43And we both came out the other side.
27:46I turned the dragon scale over in my hands.
27:49A reverse scale I'd found out.
27:51The most sensitive point on a dragon's body.
27:53The thing they guard most carefully.
27:55He'd given it to me in a panic.
27:57Terrified, I'd changed my mind.
27:59I pressed up on my toes and kissed his horn.
28:03You absolute idiot.
28:05I said smiling.
28:07Why didn't you just tell me?
28:09He picked me up without any further discussion.
28:12And carried me inside.
28:14I learned that night.
28:16Thoroughly and at length.
28:17That dragon horns are not, in fact, for casual affectionate kissing.
28:24Life after that was sweet.
28:26Genuinely, embarrassingly sweet.
28:29Except for the bird.
28:31The phoenix had started appearing in the tree outside my window.
28:34Wherever I went.
28:35It followed.
28:36Said nothing.
28:37Just watched.
28:40Finn had disappeared.
28:41Some said dead.
28:42Some said he'd left the territory entirely.
28:45Today was my bond ceremony with Alaric.
28:47Some stories end with a bang.
28:50Mine ended with a bird being firmly escorted off the property.
28:55Works for me.
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