- 6 hours ago
Her Demon Husband - HOT
Category
đ„
Short filmTranscript
00:01I was born a cursed princess.
00:04Only my sister cared for me.
00:05On her 18th birthday, she was sent to be the northern warlord's bride,
00:09yet returned a handicapped corpse.
00:11My father, instead of being angry,
00:13hastily convened the parliament out of fear of the warlord.
00:16I wiped my tears, tearing down her bloody gown and dress it myself.
00:20Looking at those cowardly ministers who were as frantic as ants on a hot pot.
00:24Father, send me north. Send me as the next bride.
00:26The night I was born, my shadow tore itself off my body.
00:30In front of my father, it swallowed every other shadow in the throne room.
00:34The servants ran, screaming.
00:36But shadows are faster than feet.
00:38One by one, every shadow got more.
00:40Melted into a single black puddle of my mother.
00:43The high auger came rushing in.
00:45He flicked his silver sensor at me.
00:47And just like that, the shadow snapped back to normal.
00:49Everyone called me a curse.
00:51Even my own parents drew their swords.
00:53Then, she came.
00:54My elder sister, Lysen.
00:56The point of my father's sword pressed right against her chest.
00:59She didn't move.
01:00She's not a curse.
01:01She's my sister.
01:02She scooped me up like I was a flame about to go out.
01:04She knelt and swore on her life that she'd raise me into the kindest princess this kingdom had ever seen.
01:10My parents put their swords away, but they wouldn't even look at me.
01:13So Lysen carried me back to her own chambers.
01:15I grew up under cold stairs.
01:17Even the maids pulled their skirts aside when I walked past, like my shadow was filthy.
01:21Only Lysen kept kneeling down to gather me into her arms.
01:24She was the only thing keeping the cold off me.
01:27I hated those two-faced courtiers.
01:29I dreamed of skinning them alive and flying their hides as kites.
01:33But for her sake, I played sweet.
01:34I thought it would be the two of us forever.
01:36Then, I turned fifteen.
01:38The northern war bands were getting bold.
01:40They were raiding our borders.
01:41To leash their warlord, my father signed a marriage decree.
01:44Lysen would ride north as a peace bride.
01:47The morning the decree came down, she sat me in front of her mirror and combed my hair one last
01:52time.
01:52She combed slowly, gently, like she was braiding her whole heart into that final coil.
01:57Sister, don't go.
01:58Let's hide.
01:59No one will find us, sweet Erin.
02:02I'm not going just to stop the raids.
02:04I want to one of them bring our writing to sin, our medicine, our songs north.
02:08I want to build a road between us, so no sword ever crosses it again.
02:12Her eyes were rock steady.
02:13That afternoon, I watched her put on the white bridal gown and climb into the carriage.
02:17Sister!
02:18Take me with you, I'll be kidding!
02:20I'll be a shadow, just don't leave me alone!
02:23A slipper fell off.
02:24Sister, be happy.
02:26Come back and see me one day.
02:29I didn't see her again for a year.
02:30A messenger from the north arrived with a small black box.
02:33My sister was inside that box.
02:35That was the day I learned a person, after death, can be made to fit inside something the size of
02:39a jewelry chest.
02:40Her arms were gone.
02:41Her legs were gone.
02:42What was left of her had been packed into a coffin, no bigger than a vanity case.
02:46She left home.
02:46Eyes burning.
02:47Voice study.
02:48Ready to build a road between two peoples.
02:50How had she come home so small?
02:52Smaller than me?
02:56Sister, hold me.
02:57I shook her gently, hoping she'd lift her arm and pull me close, like she always had.
03:05What I touched was wet, soft, like a sweet pastry left out in the heat.
03:09The motion turned her face toward me.
03:11Her beautiful face was a wreck of long, deep claw marks.
03:15My mother's jade cup smashed on the floor.
03:20The princess was delicate.
03:21The northern winds were cruel.
03:23She fell ill.
03:23To stop the sickness from reaching her heart, we had to remove the limbs.
03:26Sadly, she was already too weak.
03:28Our warlord grieves deeply.
03:29But I could see it.
03:30Those weren't surgeon's cuts on her stumps.
03:32Those were teeth.
03:33The marks on her face weren't pox.
03:35They were claws.
03:36What sickness.
03:37My sister had been fed to something.
03:39The barbarians had done this to a princess, sent to them in peace.
03:42I didn't scream.
03:42I didn't cry.
03:43My fingernails dug into the wood of the coffin until splinters drove under the beds.
03:46Then I yanked the long pin out of my hair.
03:48I was going to peel that envoy's skin off in strips.
03:51But you don't kill envoys during a truce.
03:53My mother saw my eyes and dragged me sobbing into a side chamber.
03:56She could only hold me for so long.
03:57That night, I stole my father's sword.
04:01I walked toward the envoy's quarters.
04:03My sister had died without limbs.
04:04I'd take theirs.
04:05I'd lay them at her feet so she could sleep whole again.
04:08I reached the door.
04:09Inside, the envoys were drinking, laughing.
04:11Those soft southern fools actually swallowed that little fairy tale about the sickness.
04:15Did you see?
04:16When that pretty princess was locked in the iron cage,
04:18our warlord's favorite consort walked her white wolf right up to the bars.
04:21She'd starve that thing for three days.
04:23All night, the cage rattled.
04:24Bones cracking.
04:26Sweater than any bite.
04:28The sword shook in my hand.
04:30Iron cage.
04:31Warlord.
04:31Consort.
04:32White wolf.
04:33Four nails.
04:34Driven into me.
04:35Pinning me where I stood.
04:36I didn't push the door open.
04:37I turned and ran for the throne room.
04:39My father was meeting with his ministers.
04:40They'd had enough of the northern envoy's arrogance.
04:43They were ready to march.
04:45Father.
04:46Send me north.
04:48Send me as the next bride.
04:50Every head turned.
04:51Shocked.
04:52I lowered the sword behind my skirts and made my face into a princess's face.
04:56Their warbands are at the height of their strength.
04:58War means rivers of blood.
05:01Better another bride than another decade of widows.
05:04The hall went still.
05:05My father stared at me like he was seeing me for the first time.
05:09The cursed daughter.
05:10The shadow thing.
05:11Talking like a queen.
05:12Only I knew what was running underneath those words.
05:15The ministers conferred.
05:17The decision came down.
05:18No war.
05:19The bride would ride.
05:20My father set his hand on my head and called me a worthy princess of the realm.
05:25The court historian wet his brush.
05:27And just like that, I was written into the chronicles exactly the way Lysen had wished.
05:33The gentlest, most merciful princess of our line.
05:36Days later, I put on the red gown and rode the road my sister had ridden.
05:40The carriage stopped before the black iron hall of the warlord.
05:44Inside, he sprawled across a throne of furs.
05:47A woman draped herself across his lap.
05:49His favorite consort, Anara.
05:51At her feet, sprawled her white wolf.
05:53Anara's laugh cut the air.
05:55Oh.
05:56Another little southern doll come trotting up to the warlord's hall?
05:59Did the last one's screams not travel far enough south?
06:03You southerners are such cowards.
06:05Not even a fight.
06:07Just another meal for my wolf.
06:09She trailed her fingers through the wolf's ruff and clicked her tongue.
06:13The wolf rose.
06:15Yellow teeth.
06:16Green eyes.
06:17I felt no fear.
06:18Only a clean, quiet hunger.
06:20For the chance to send this animal after my sister.
06:23It lined up.
06:24I had the pin out of my hair before its paws left the carpet.
06:28I drove the point into the soft hollow of its throat.
06:32Hot blood.
06:33A choked howl.
06:35Four legs jerking.
06:36Done.
06:37You southern bitch!
06:39You killed the wolf my father gave me!
06:42She tore a fang knife from her belt and started toward me.
06:46Anara.
06:46Enough.
06:47The wolf was killed.
06:49That means the wolf was weak.
06:52You forget.
06:53The strong eat the weak.
06:55That's the only law of the North.
06:56He stood up.
06:57His name was Ragnar Hethrek, the Iron Conqueror.
07:00They called him the Bloodbringer of the North.
07:02The war god the northern tribes worshipped on their knees.
07:05The wolf pelt across his shoulders had once worn another man's blood.
07:09His amber eyes settled on me.
07:11Not cold now.
07:12Curious.
07:12Amused.
07:13A monster's interest in another monster.
07:15Predictable.
07:16Your name.
07:17Wolf blood ran in slow lines down my cheek.
07:19I didn't wipe it.
07:20Irin Vale.
07:23His mouth curled.
07:24Irin.
07:25More entertaining than your sister.
07:27Tonight you stay in my hall.
07:29Torchlight leapt across the great black wolf inked over his chest.
07:33Anara was let out.
07:34As she passed, she stared at the blood on my face and spat.
07:38Monster!
07:39You monster!
07:40Yes, I am.
07:40So when the servants moved to drag the wolf away, I raised my hand.
07:44I knelt by the body with the bloody pin still in my fist.
07:47The warlord watched.
07:49Head tilted.
07:49Fascinated.
07:50I worked the point under the hide.
07:52I'd never skinned an animal in my life.
07:54My hands moved like an old butcher's.
07:57Because in my dreams, I'd done this a thousand times.
08:00What had been done to my sister, I would return a thousandfold.
08:06I lifted the white felt clean off the ribs and dropped it at a maid's feet.
08:11Bring this to her.
08:13With my regards.
08:14The girl trembled and carried the still warm hide out toward Anara's chambers.
08:19Ragnar's interest sharpened.
08:21He hooked a finger under my chin.
08:22His other hand closed around my waist.
08:25He lifted me onto the furs of his bed.
08:27I'd spent a lifetime learning to play the lamb for my sister.
08:31I knelt prettily on the pelts.
08:33I laid my hands on his broad shoulders.
08:35I tilted my face up.
08:37He bent.
08:37He took my mouth.
08:38A kiss that tasted of iron and smoke.
08:41He didn't notice the bloody pin still in my hand.
08:45He didn't feel the cold tip slide up against the back of his neck.
08:49I tightened my grip just as I was to plunge it in.
08:53A hand closed over mine.
08:55He turned the pin in my fingers as easily as turning a page.
08:58Why are you keeping this filthy thing?
09:00He flicked the pin away.
09:01Dirty things don't suit you.
09:02Tomorrow I'll get you a better one.
09:04His eyes lingered on the dark stain at the tip.
09:06No anger.
09:07No surprise.
09:08Just a man noting weather.
09:10The lamps were snuffed.
09:11His breath came down hot.
09:13Wine and wormwood and something colder.
09:16Like a snowstorm closing in.
09:18My fingers shook against the inked wolf on his chest.
09:21In the dark there were only two heartbeats.
09:24Two trapped beasts under wet skin.
09:26Slamming the cages of our ribs.
09:28By dawn his women had stripped me of southern silk.
09:31And fitted me into the heavy furs and felt skirts of the North.
09:34He gave me no time to ask.
09:36He lifted me onto a horse and rode.
09:39He said he wanted to show me the most splendid place in the North.
09:42The wind that met us carried rust, sweat, and the thick perfume of blood.
09:48A scent meant to make ordinary stomachs turn.
09:51Mind safe.
09:52When the horse stopped, I saw the cage.
09:54A vast iron cage welded out of crude bars.
09:57The dirt inside was red-brown, soaked years deep.
10:01Inside, a man already half broken.
10:03And a starving brown bear with foam at its jaws.
10:07I'd heard of this place in the South.
10:09Water traders all whispered it.
10:11Bloodbringer's favorite amusement was watching men and beasts kill each other in this pit.
10:17A roar!
10:18The man and the bear lunged at each other again.
10:20Bone snapped.
10:21The bear chewed.
10:23Ragnar reined in.
10:24His arms slid around my waist.
10:27Airvern, after last night, what do you think of the morning's entertainment?
10:32He'd asked my sister the same question.
10:35She wasn't me.
10:36She couldn't bear it.
10:37She'd gone white.
10:38She'd begged him on her knees to stop.
10:41That was the moment he started to despise her.
10:43The Northern men worship the strong.
10:46They despise pity.
10:47They despise tears.
10:48What Lysen carried, that gentleness, had no place in his hunting ground.
10:53So he cast her off.
10:54So Anara was given license to play.
10:56I leaned back into him.
10:58I let my mouth curve.
10:59It's marvelous.
11:00I lifted my hand and pointed at the man.
11:02The one clawing in the dirt with both the left of his arms, trying to rise.
11:06Look, my warlord.
11:09He's still moving.
11:11What strong bones he must have to break so beautifully.
11:14Ragnar laughed.
11:16Real laughter.
11:17Little Southern princess, you're not afraid?
11:20I tilted my head.
11:22Afraid?
11:23Why should I be afraid?
11:24It's far better than the soft puppet plays back at the palace.
11:29Better when the actors are beasts.
11:31I wasn't only flattering him.
11:33There's always been something black at the bottom of my blood.
11:37The pit cage cracked something open in me.
11:39And what came out was dirty.
11:41He liked me even more of it.
11:43His grip on my waist tightened.
11:44His breath was hot against my ear.
11:47A few years ago, a clan tried to overthrow me.
11:50I didn't slaughter them.
11:51I put them here.
11:53Generation after generation.
11:55Their children are born inside this cage.
11:57They live their whole lives as actors in this pit.
11:59Iren.
12:01That's what betrayal earns for me.
12:03He was telling me something.
12:04On these lands, you're either the audience outside the cage or the beast inside it.
12:09He didn't yet know I was a beast outside the cage too.
12:12Beneath my softness lay teeth he hadn't imagined.
12:15She should never have come to this place.
12:18I should have come.
12:19If the cursed twin had ridden first, maybe the Iron Conqueror and I would have made a perfectly matched pair
12:24of monsters.
12:25But she did come.
12:27And she's gone.
12:28Traitors deserve nothing else, my Warflord.
12:30Their blood enriches your soil.
12:33They should be honored.
12:34I leaned into him.
12:36Where he couldn't see, my eyes went cold.
12:39In my ears, the screaming of the man in the cage.
12:42Behind my eyes, my sister.
12:44Locked in a cage just like this one.
12:47Dragged.
12:48Torn.
12:49Devoured.
12:49While Inara laughed.
12:51That day, Braggnop showed me the north.
12:54Frozen river.
12:55Heather hills.
12:56A purple wash of small flowers.
12:58The sun sank red into the western range.
13:01The grasses bent on the wind.
13:02And in my mind, I saw only how I'd use this man.
13:07This perfect blade.
13:09To carve Inara apart.
13:12A flower watered with a pretty woman's blood.
13:15Bloom's brightest.
13:16He kept me in his hall for days.
13:18Inara came clawing at the entrance again and again.
13:22His guards turned her away every time.
13:24Word reached her elder sister.
13:26Her name was Yushara.
13:27Chieftain of the next clan over.
13:29She rode through the night to reach us.
13:30A woman, yes.
13:32But bolder than any man in the north.
13:34Her arrows split a hawk's eye in flight.
13:37She'd cut the heart from a bear with her own knife.
13:39Even the wolf riders moved aside when she rode through.
13:42All the women in the warlord's lands.
13:44Ragnar respected her most.
13:46When she arrived, courtesy demanded he meet her in Inara's chambers.
13:50I was just sitting up in the furs when I heard.
13:52The thought of an elder sister storming in to defend a younger one, curdled in sight.
13:57My fingers found the hem of my robe and twisted, twisted, twisted until the knuckles went white.
14:04So you have a sister too, Inara.
14:06One who comes when you cry.
14:07How fortunate.
14:08My sister was like that once.
14:10She couldn't bear to see me hurt.
14:11But she's not here anymore.
14:13Tell me what I'm supposed to do with that.
14:16The tears came.
14:17I've always been slow to feel things.
14:18When the wet first slid down my cheek, even I was startled.
14:22The salt reached the corner of my mouth before I understood.
14:25This was for Lysene.
14:27I missed her so badly, I thought it would crack the bone.
14:30These tears were late and too hot.
14:32I scrubbed my sleeve across my face for a long time.
14:35I didn't braid my hair.
14:36I didn't change my robe.
14:38I walked out barefoot, hair loose, dragging the hem of my skirt through the dust.
14:42I ignored the stairs.
14:43I had servants haul out a fire pit and a roasting frame.
14:47A guest from far away.
14:48One must show hospitality.
14:50When the wood was stacked, I had them drag out the flayed carcass of Inara's white wolf.
14:55She'd come to Ragnar's hall again and again.
14:58Not just for his bed.
15:00She'd come, mostly, to beg back the body of the wolf she'd grown up with.
15:04The cold-hearted woman, it turned out, had a heart for one creature.
15:08She wanted to bury it in honor.
15:10I wasn't going to give her that.
15:12I lashed the wolf to the spit.
15:14It had been dead some days.
15:16The meat was past fresh.
15:17But the cold of the north had spared it the worst.
15:20Good enough for Inara and her sister.
15:22I lit the fire myself.
15:23I'd never cooked in my life.
15:25My hands moved like an old creature's.
15:27Outside Inara's chambers, I built my smoking, fat-spitting roast.
15:31The acrid smell of singed fur rolled into the walls.
15:34A maid came out, looked at me, and ducked back inside.
15:38A moment later, Inara stalked out, pinching her nose.
15:42Filthy southern slut!
15:44What sickness is this?
15:45Stop burning your foul mutton at my door!
15:48You reek up the whole compound!
15:49Get away!
15:50The pelt was charred enough that she hadn't yet recognized her wolf.
15:54I set down the carving knife and walked to her with the gentlest, most considerate smile.
15:59Sister Inara, I heard your sister had arrived.
16:02I prepared a roast in her honor.
16:04Won't you taste it?
16:05It smells wonderful.
16:06I cut a tender slice and offered it on the blade.
16:09She moved to slap my hand away.
16:11I made my eyes round and pitiful.
16:13I let my voice tremble.
16:14You stayed at your side for so many years.
16:17Won't you eat just one bite of him?
16:19You only get one chance like this in a life.
16:22Slow as she was, she heard me then.
16:24She understood whose meat was sitting on her tongue's edge.
16:28Her hands flew to her head.
16:29She lurched at the spit.
16:31Her wail tore the air.
16:33This is my wolf!
16:34Inara and her maid scrabbled at the embers, beat at the flames, salvaged the pitiful blackened carcass of the wolf.
16:41You bitch!
16:42Are there no sane women left in the south?
16:44They sent us a mad dog as a peace bride.
16:47You came to wed, did you?
16:48Or to play this filthy game?
16:50She screamed until her voice broke.
16:52The noise drew the people inside.
16:54What is this commotion?
16:56Ragnar pushed open the door.
16:57Inara flung herself at him, weeping.
16:59My warlord!
17:01She killed my wolf!
17:03She killed him and now she's roasted him on a spit, calling it a dish!
17:07She clung to his sleeve.
17:09The tears poured.
17:10He hated tears.
17:11He'd always hated tears.
17:13Tears meant helplessness.
17:14Tears meant uselessness.
17:16I watched him look down at the woman, sobbing into his coat.
17:19There was no tenderness in his face, only open distaste.
17:22He didn't push her off, only because Yashara had arrived.
17:25I knew his mind already.
17:26I covered my mouth and tittered.
17:28I spoke the words for him.
17:30Poor Inara, crying so very hard and so very ugly.
17:35Don't you know the men of the North despise a woman who weeps?
17:39Sister, have you truly let one little southern girl break you so easily?
17:46This isn't the Inara I raised.
17:48A woman in dark leather stepped up, Yashara.
17:51Her hair was bound up in one high tail.
17:54No braid, no chimes, no ribbons.
17:57Clean, cut for a fight.
17:59I beamed at her and lifted the slice of meat Inara had refused.
18:03Sister Yashara, I roasted this wolf for you.
18:06A welcome feast.
18:07Inara lost what was left of her mind.
18:09That was father's gift to me, his dying gift, and she's roasted him for the guests.
18:14Sister, I beg you, kill her.
18:16Kill her by inches.
18:18Yashara's face hardened.
18:19All things have spirit.
18:21Your kind has no respect for life.
18:23You insult our North with your very breath.
18:25A woman like you should be thrown into the cage and torn apart by bees.
18:30I laughed.
Comments