00:00My sister chose the Lionfish Fae. She left the Whale Shifter, the one nobody wanted for me.
00:06It was fate. A drift born for a beast. Instead, I saved a Shark Lord by accident. He took me
00:14as
00:15his queen. After the bonding, I bore five heirs for the Shark Bloodline, a clan that had gone
00:21generations without children. I became a legend across the deep realm. My sister, bonded to the
00:27Lionfish Fae, was cast out for barrenness. I came home with my youngest. My sister poisoned my bowl,
00:34me and my child, both. And I woke. It was the day of the right again. Everyone present is a
00:41worthy son
00:41of their bloodline. Choose freely. The hall filled with glances, with offered flowers, with quiet
00:48negotiations between bodies and bloodlines. I didn't want any of it. In my last life, childbirth had
00:55nearly killed me. I wasn't doing it again. I stood alone. Then the doors blew open. He arrived in a
01:03surge of volcanic current. A Shark Lord in his full power. And he had his arm around my sister's waist.
01:10Thessaly saved my life. From this day forward, she is my true mate. A Shark Lord choosing one of ours.
01:17Choosing her as first and only. It hadn't happened in living memory. I knew then. She'd been reborn too.
01:25Now I looked at her. Draped against the Shark Lord. Already victorious. She thought she'd won.
01:31She hadn't thought through what it would cost her. Shark Lords are of the volcanic current element.
01:37Their mates sleep in volcanic current. Bathe in volcanic current. Eat volcanic current food.
01:43For a bloodline like ours. Deep current by nature. That's not a marriage. It's a slow execution.
01:50Last time I had no choice but to pretend to like it. Every day. I smiled through the sacred thermal
01:55vent
01:55walks. Through the scalding baths. Through the meals that felt like swallowing coals. By the time I was
02:01pregnant, my core was already cracked. The children drew what was left. Thessaly was deep current too.
02:08She just didn't know what she'd agreed to yet. The whole keep celebrated. Every unmated girl in the
02:15order delayed her own bonding to help prepare Thessaly's. The gift list ran ten feet long.
02:21The High Warden nearly emptied the sanctuary's vaults. I was the only unmated woman left.
02:27That made me the obvious choice for handmaid. Thessaly stood over me and smiled.
02:33Before you were the elder, I deferred to you. How does this feel, sister?
02:37I said nothing. She stepped forward and struck my face. The High Warden has already agreed.
02:42You belong to me now. I'll hit you when I want. Praise you when I want. You have no say.
02:48Start
02:48learning. A courier arrived from the Shark Lord. A volcanic silk mantle. Vita's seafoam. Heat resistant.
02:56Enchanted for speed. Thessaly touched it with both hands. I knew that mantle. For volcanic current
03:03bloodlines, it was a treasure. For deep current bloodlines, it was a punishment. I'd worn it
03:09every day of my first marriage. It had carved away at my core for years. Thessaly would find that
03:15out eventually. Then a girl came swimming fast. Volcanic current damage on the Sacred Reef. What an awful
03:21omen. Today of all days. I didn't wait. I swam. The Sacred Reef was burning hard when I arrived. Black
03:31clouds of
03:31silt screaming from inside the coral line. The Covenant Warden stood at the edge and wouldn't know.
03:37That volcanic current belongs to a Shark Lord. We interfere. We offend him. One of them said,
03:42Your sister's bonding is today. Don't make trouble. They're only low-rank Falilius. I looked at him for
03:48a long moment. Then I went in. The silt blinded me fast. The thermal current scorched my scales. But I
03:56was deep current. Wherever I moved, cold spread behind me. It slowed the thermal currents enough to matter.
04:02I remembered what my foster mother taught me. Clear a line. Deny the thermal current somewhere to go.
04:08I tide shifted to full form and called out. Shark. Manta ray. Swordfish. Sea turp they came.
04:15They carried cold hardened vessels in their jaws. A whale used its mouth. Sea urchins and mantis shrimp
04:21worked the thermal breaks. We were losing. Then we worked. Then the reef shook. The seabed split open.
04:29A sea serpent came out of that black. Ancient. Large enough to block the light from above. He opened his
04:36mouth and cold water poured. The thermal current died. The sea serpent's voice didn't come from one direction.
04:43This reef is mine. Who damaged it? The Covenant Wardens said nothing. A thousand tidal cycles in this valley. And
04:53nobody had thought to check whether something older already lived here. Then Thessaly pointed at me.
04:58Look at her. Ash everywhere. Burned scales. It had to be her.
05:03Every eye turned. I was standing there with my hands at my sides. Charred. Bleeding in two places. The same
05:09hands that had just spent an hour fighting the thermal current. I was certain someone would say it. Any of
05:15them. They'd all seen me swim in.
05:17What? The Covenant Warden looked at me for a long time. Then he bowed.
05:22The sea rank and sovereign. Our wayward daughter did this. She is yours to punish. We offer her freely.
05:28I stood still. Not one of them spoke for me. I had bent myself in half for these people in
05:34my last life. I had scalded from volcanic current. From the inside out. Carrying children for a clan that wasn't
05:43mine. For a man who never once made me warm.
05:46I'd done it for them. Kept them safe. Kept them proud. And now. They were handing me to a sea
05:54serpent. Just to buy themselves quiet. I looked at the Covenant Warden.
05:58The volcanic current was shark made. Everyone here knows that. I'm deep current. How would I produce sacred thermal current?
06:06Thessaly cut in immediately. You're my handmaid. You had access to my husband's tide brands. Easy enough to steal a
06:13spark. Sea serpent sovereign. The evidence speaks for itself. She damaged your sacred wreath.
06:18I held up my hands. The skin had peeled back in places. If I started it, why did I try
06:25to stop it? To look innocent.
06:30I laughed. It came out wrong. Too much feeling in it. What do I have to gain? Any of it.
06:38What exactly do you think I wanted?
06:40The Covenant Warden stood. Sylvain. Just admit it. That was my name. Sylvain. I looked at him for a long
06:49moment. I'm done with this Covenant. All of it. Every debt between us is settled.
06:55The sea serpent spoke again. Quieter this time. Enough. The girl comes with me. Whatever she is to you, she
07:03isn't anymore.
07:04The darkness rolled toward me. I closed my eyes. When I opened them, I was somewhere else. Bioluminescent light. Stone.
07:12A ceiling so high, I couldn't see the end of it.
07:16He was in surface form. Black robes edged in silver. He sat like someone who had never once needed anything
07:22from anyone.
07:23He was watching me with something almost like amusement.
07:28Go ahead. He said. Say what you want to say. I straightened. You knew. You knew the whole time what
07:35happened. Why play along with them?
07:38Because you needed a reason to leave. He tilted his head.
07:42And the abysmal palace considerably more comfortable than a tide pool. I thought you might prefer it.
07:48I thought about what he'd said. In my last life, he had sent me a tear pearl during my labor.
07:55He hadn't explained why then, either. Only later did I understand.
07:58The wreath was his. I had defended it. He remembered. I knelt.
08:04Thank you, my lord. I'll serve faithfully.
08:08Don't do it again.
08:09Do what?
08:11Throw yourself at people who aren't worth it.
08:13He stood.
08:14Get dressed. We're going to watch the bonding ceremony.
08:17He handed me a gown. Black. Covered with shimmering scales. I put it on and stood beside him. And we
08:25looked like we matched. I felt my face go warm without meaning to.
08:31Download Bite Short. Watch more.
08:33Broward.
08:34Broward.
08:34You see the
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