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  • 4 hours ago
She Stole My Curse
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00:00My sister poisoned all ten of my children.
00:02Then she pushed me into a deep rift current terror.
00:04I died in the dark water below.
00:06And I woke up on the morning of the tide bond raid,
00:08staring at the same sky, breathing the same cold water.
00:11I lay still for a month. Let it settle.
00:13We'd arrived on the abyssal realm together,
00:15my sister Sela and I.
00:16Two women dropped into a world that ran on tide power and blood wake.
00:20The clan chief had lined up every unmated male in the core.
00:23We were supposed to choose.
00:24In Last Life, Sela told me to take a lionfish before.
00:27Lionfish lay soft eggs, easier than giving birth.
00:31She smiled like she was doing me a favor.
00:33She took the great white shark, the only A-rank male.
00:36What she didn't tell me was that she already knew lionfish eggs hatched in large clutches.
00:41I chose Cole.
00:43I got pregnant fast.
00:45One clutch, ten hatchlings. All A-rank.
00:47In a coral clan that had seen maybe five A-ranks in a hundred years,
00:51that was enough to make Cole the next clan chief
00:53and turn me into something the coral elders called Abyss Chosen.
00:57Sela got one B-rank from the great white shark,
01:00then another, then three more, nothing better.
01:02She couldn't accept it.
01:03She crept into Cole's reef den.
01:06He threw her out in front of the whole coral clan.
01:08The great white shark ended their bond
01:10and drove her and her children into the dead current.
01:12In less than a month, all five of her offspring starved.
01:15I was the one who took her back in.
01:17I gave her food.
01:18I gave her warmth.
01:19She killed my ten hatchlings one by one,
01:21and then she pushed me into a deep-riffed current tear.
01:23I still remember weightlessness.
01:26So this time, I was not choosing Cole.
01:29The tide bond right was already moving.
01:31The clan chief stood at the front, arms folded,
01:33watching the males line up.
01:35Sela was beside me, her shoulder just barely touching mine.
01:38I felt the exact moment she decided to move.
01:40A small shift in her weight.
01:42A breath she didn't finish.
01:43She crossed the water toward Cole like she'd rehearsed it.
01:46Pressed herself against his arm.
01:47Tipped her face up to the clan chief.
01:49She looked back at me.
01:50Clan chief.
01:51That smile.
01:52I choose Cole.
01:54I looked at Cole.
01:55Cold current blood.
01:56No warmth in the dry tide.
01:58Three months of tide sleep every year.
02:00Leaving whatever female he'd chosen to manage the reef den
02:03alone in the collapsing food chain.
02:05No hunting skills.
02:06Without the coral clan around him, he couldn't even feed himself.
02:08She thought she'd taken the prize.
02:10She didn't know what she would pay.
02:12I turned and looked at what was left.
02:13A B-rank whale merfolk.
02:15Two C-rank sea turtle merfolk.
02:17Near the back, a manta ray merfolk who had been watching me since I swam in.
02:21Brow creased.
02:22Expression difficult to read.
02:23I started toward him.
02:24The crowd shifted.
02:25I thought about my ten hatchlings.
02:27Quiet.
02:28Good.
02:28Never any trouble.
02:29A-rank every one of them.
02:30And felt something cold and settled move through the grief.
02:33Not this time.
02:34I was about to open my mouth.
02:36A palm hit my face so hard I bit my cheek.
02:40It's you!
02:41The female in front of me was bonded to the coral clan's tiger shark merfolk.
02:44She was shaking.
02:45In her hand was a white jellyfish tentacle filament that she said she'd found in her mate's
02:49reef den.
02:50Her tide ship did form was a white jellyfish.
02:53The crowd turned around.
02:55One voice at the back.
02:56Then three more.
02:57I looked past her shoulder and found Selah near the middle of the crowd.
03:00She'd practiced that expression.
03:02I was certain of it.
03:02Last life, she hadn't needed it.
03:04Last life, I hadn't stood in her way.
03:06Oh, Lyra.
03:07I didn't want to say anything.
03:09But I did see you swimming with Leo that night.
03:12One sentence.
03:13Every door in the room closed at once.
03:15The manta ray merfolk stepped back.
03:16The clan chief's eyes were already on me.
03:18I tied shifted on the spot.
03:19White jellyfish.
03:20Clean tentacles.
03:21Full circle.
03:22Every angle.
03:23Nothing hidden.
03:24The crowd went quiet.
03:25I shifted back.
03:27No damaged tentacles.
03:29That filament isn't mine.
03:30A damaged tentacle root scar on my inner thigh.
03:32Small.
03:33Deliberate.
03:33Someone in the crowd saw it.
03:35That was enough.
03:35I had spent this entire second life thinking I understood what Selah was capable of.
03:39I had underestimated her.
03:41Out!
03:42I looked at Selah one last time.
03:44She was holding back a smile.
03:45I turned and swam.
03:46No argument.
03:47No appeal.
03:47No tears.
03:48I swam through it with my back straight and I didn't stop until I was outside.
03:53Selah came to see me off.
03:55Like a female who had already won.
03:56Don't worry Lyra.
03:57There are powerful males out there.
03:59Maybe you'll find the right one.
04:01Thanks for the encouragement.
04:02Cole has a lot of stamina.
04:04Lionfish nature is what it is.
04:06Once or twice a day is just recreation for him.
04:08I watched the warmth leave her face.
04:09You should build up your strength.
04:11Wouldn't want to disappoint him.
04:12I turned and swam.
04:13Didn't look back.
04:14The coral clan's current line was a boundary of cold and warm currents meeting in the water.
04:19I crossed it without slowing.
04:20The dead current ahead was dark and unmapped and the water was cold.
04:23She thought she'd won.
04:24She hadn't thought about the dry tide.
04:26Cole would enter tide sleep.
04:27Three months.
04:28Maybe more.
04:29She'd be alone in the reef den.
04:31No warmth.
04:31No provider.
04:32No idea how to feed herself when the food chain collapsed.
04:34She'd spent her whole life letting other people manage the hard parts.
04:37She had no idea what she'd actually chosen.
04:39I had swum this path.
04:40Last life I swam it in grief.
04:42With nothing to my name except a tide healer's knowledge I'd spent years building.
04:46This life I knew where it ended.
04:48At the far end of it there was a rift.
04:49Something inside that the coral clan had never seen and wouldn't know how to measure.
04:53Something that had been alone so long it had forgotten to trust him like.
04:56He'd been close to dead when I found him.
04:58I was the one who pulled him back.
05:01I didn't make it far before I heard it behind me.
05:03Heavy strokes.
05:04Low and deliberate.
05:05Closing fast.
05:06A tide shifted without thinking.
05:08Dropped into jellyfish form and fled.
05:09The water rushed past and the dead current blurred at the edges of my engine.
05:13Behind me the blue shark merfolk wasn't bothering to be quiet.
05:16He knew what a lone female outside clan borders meant.
05:19He knew how it ended.
05:20I fled until I saw the rock face.
05:22A narrow opening in the coral.
05:24Dark inside.
05:24Barely wide enough to turn sideways and fit through.
05:27I went in.
05:27Behind me the blue shark merfolk stopped.
05:30He circled the entrance twice.
05:31His strokes slowed.
05:33Then stopped entirely.
05:34He cursed once.
05:35Low and ugly.
05:36And I heard him leave.
05:37I didn't understand why.
05:38I shifted back and stood still.
05:40Breathing hard.
05:41The rift went deeper than I'd expected.
05:42The water inside was stale and cold.
05:45And underneath that.
05:46Something else.
05:47Rot.
05:48And infection.
05:49And the dense animal scent of something very large.
05:51I took one more step into the dark.
05:53Something in the black moved.
05:55I stopped.
05:55My heart was loud in my ears.
05:57The smell hit me harder now.
05:59Animal.
05:59Enormous.
06:00Close.
06:01Whatever was in here, the blue shark merfolk had known.
06:04Whatever was in here had made a predator who hunted lone females turn around without a
06:08sound and swim away.
06:09I stood in the dark and didn't move.
06:11I already knew what was in there.
06:12Last life, it was the same rift.
06:15The same darkness.
06:16The same smell.
06:17I took one more step forward.
06:19The sound that came out of the dark was not a roar.
06:23It was bigger than that.
06:24It hit me in the chest before it reached my ears.
06:26A pressure through the water.
06:28Through my ribs.
06:29And for one full second, my body simply stopped.
06:32Every instinct told me to turn around.
06:34My feet didn't move.
06:35The dark shifted.
06:36And then I saw it.
06:37Light.
06:38Enormous.
06:38His fin crest caught the faint bioluminescent light from the rift entrance and held it.
06:43His mouth was open wide enough to swallow my head whole.
06:46The sound still rolling out of him bounced off every wall and came back from all directions
06:50at once.
06:51He hadn't moved.
06:53I stood where I was and looked at him.
06:55The roar faded.
06:56The rift went silent.
06:57He still hadn't moved.
06:58I had heard roars before the great white shark merfolk in the coral clan.
07:02The whale males during mating season.
07:04Those roars said, I am here.
07:06I am dangerous.
07:07Come closer and find out.
07:08This was different.
07:09This roar said, go away.
07:11I looked at his tail fin.
07:12Even in the dark I could see it.
07:13The flesh was wrong.
07:14Swollen and dark.
07:16Pale patches crawling through the wounds.
07:17The torn fin crest was infected at its root.
07:20He had been lying here a long time.
07:21Too long to hunt.
07:22Too long to do much of anything except wait.
07:24He opened his mouth and he said he hit me again.
07:27I took one step toward him.
07:29The roaring stopped.
07:30Gold eyes in the dark.
07:31Very still.
07:32Watching me cross the distance between us one step at a time.
07:35I didn't stop swimming.
07:37I turned and fled again.
07:39I made it two strokes before I noticed something strange.
07:42The sea dragon was roaring.
07:44But he wasn't moving.
07:46He hadn't even shifted.
07:47It felt like he was just trying to scare me off.
07:50Then I smelled it.
07:51Rot and infection.
07:53I looked closer and saw the flesh of his tail fin.
07:56The wounds were deep and crawling with white.
07:58The fin crest was torn at the root.
08:00I stopped.
08:01I turned around.
08:02Hey, you're hurt.
08:04I know deep sea medicine.
08:05Will you let me stay?
08:07The sea dragon looked at me for a moment.
08:09Then he slowly unfolded his injured tail fin toward me.
08:12The wounds were bad.
08:14I gagged and got to work anyway.
08:16Opened my pack and found the wound powder.
08:18Before I'd arrived here, I'd studied tide healing and coral toxins.
08:22Once I was in the coral clan, that knowledge had made me the settlement's tide healer.
08:26I'd treated half the coral clan at one point or another.
08:29Not one of them had spoken up for me today.
08:31The bitterness sat heavy in my chest as I worked.
08:33When I finished, the sea dragon's aggression faded.
08:35He nudged his head against my sleeve.
08:37A thank you.
08:38Then his stomach growled.
08:39Twice.
08:40He'd been injured too long to hunt.
08:41He was starving.
08:43I'll go find food.
08:44Wait here.
08:45I turned to go.
08:48His tail curled around my ankle and pulled me back.
08:51Then he exhaled a low-temperature, deep current that enveloped me entirely.
08:55The dragon current mark.
08:57His power on my skin would keep most predators back instinctively.
09:00I thought of the blue shark merfolk from earlier.
09:02This sea dragon's rank had to be extraordinary.
09:04That was the only explanation for that kind of deterrent effect.
09:07I didn't go far.
09:08I stayed close to the rift and gathered what I could find.
09:10Small crustaceans.
09:12Some edible reef plants.
09:13By the time I got back, the bioluminescence had dimmed to night cycle.
09:16No fire needed.
09:17The sea dragon's body put out a constant gentle warmth that filled the rift.
09:21I stayed.
09:22During the day, I changed his bandages.
09:23Foraged for water and food.
09:25At night, he curled around me in dragon form.
09:27His body warmth wrapping me like a second skin.
09:29And we slept together.
09:30Half a month passed.
09:31Then one day, I came back to the rift and stopped dead.
09:34A man lay where the sea dragon had been.
09:36You're back.
09:38White hair.
09:39Gold eyes.
09:40You're the sea dragon?
09:43My name is Vayne.
09:45With the wounds healed, Vayne could swim.
09:47He couldn't do anything strenuous yet.
09:49But the first time we went out together, he showed me what he was made of.
09:51A deep sea giant crab.
09:53Under a minute.
09:54He seared it with a short burst of breath.
09:56And it was done.
09:57That night, I ate real food for the first time in weeks.
10:00Crabshell crackling.
10:01Fat hissing and popping from the dragon breath heat.
10:04I ate until my face was greasy.
10:06And asked Vayne whether he was A rank.
10:08Are you A rank?
10:09No.
10:10I don't have a rank.
10:11I stared at him.
10:12Every male merfolk had a rank.
10:13But the tide power I'd seen from him was beyond anything the great white shark merfolk in the
10:18coral clan could manage.
10:19But your tide power...
10:21Vayne shook his head.
10:22No rank.
10:23Never had one.
10:24That was why his own clan had driven him out.
10:26They'd called him a monster.
10:28Abandoned him as a hatchling in the dead current.
10:30The memory clearly cost him something.
10:32His eyes went distant and sad.
10:34Born without a clan.
10:35Whatever had made him this strong, he'd earned it alone.
10:37The hard way.
10:38It doesn't matter.
10:40You have me now.
10:41We're friends.
10:41Vayne went red.
10:44Another month passed.
10:45Vayne healed completely.
10:46The dry tide was coming.
10:47We started going out early and coming back late to stock up.
10:50He hunted.
10:50I gathered deep sea medicines and reef plants.
10:52We came back full every time.
10:54I thought maybe it would just stay like this.
10:56Then Vayne's heat cycle hit.
10:57I woke up one morning to find his body burning.
10:59Don't leave the rift for a few days.
11:01I have to go somewhere.
11:03I have to go somewhere.
11:04Then he took two strokes and his body gave out.
11:06When he went down, I saw everything.
11:08I understood immediately.
11:09Every merfolk had a regular heat cycle.
11:11When it hit, instinct won over reason.
11:12He'd already pushed himself past his limit.
11:14Don't be scared.
11:15I won't touch you.
11:16I'll handle it myself.
11:18He was fighting his own body.
11:19His neck was corded with strain.
11:21The sounds coming from his throat were low and desperate.
11:23I watched him.
11:24My chest ached.
11:25Vayne, do you not want me?
11:27How could you even ask that?
11:32When his hands came up to hold me, I was scared.
11:35What coal had put me through had left its marks.
11:37He was always rough.
11:38There was no pleasure in it.
11:39Only something close to endurance.
11:41Vayne was stronger than coal by a wide margin.
11:43I braced myself.
11:44But there was no pain.
11:45Vayne was gentle in a way I hadn't known was possible.
11:47Like his fin pressed against still water.
11:50Light enough that I felt like I was floating.
11:52I lost track of time.
11:52When I finally noticed the world again,
11:55the dry tide currents had shifted outside the rift.
11:57That dry tide, I was warm.
11:58Vayne kept the rift heated with his body warmth.
12:01When the cold currents pressed in, he curled tighter.
12:03At night, he wrapped me in his warmth.
12:05His dragon form pulled around me like a second skin.
12:07After that first time, he became a little enthusiastic.
12:10Eye contact.
12:11Next thing I knew, I was against the rift wall.
12:13Not that I minded.
12:14He was good at it.
12:15I never once wanted to pull away.
12:17With that kind of frequency and no precautions,
12:19it wasn't long before I noticed something different about my body.
12:22I pressed two fingers to my wrist and checked my pulse.
12:24Pregnant.
12:26When I told Vayne, he went still.
12:29Really?
12:30You're really carrying my hatchling?
12:33He lifted me straight off the seabed.
12:34We were both laughing.
12:36After that, he treated me like I was made of sea glass.
12:38He was at my side constantly.
12:40He insisted on doing everything himself.
12:41Lying in the warmth of his arms,
12:43I thought again about last time.
12:45Coal was a cold current, bloodtight refug.
12:47In the dry tide, he gave off no heat at all.
12:49And he entered tides in.
12:50While other males made sure their females were fed through the season,
12:53I was out in the dead current alone,
12:55trying to find something edible.
12:56My tide healing skills kept me fed, barely.
12:59The merfolk I treated gave me scraps.
13:00But after the ten lionfish hatchlings were born,
13:03scraps weren't enough.
13:04Coal entered tidesleep.
13:05He could survive on stored energy.
13:07The hatchlings were too young.
13:08They needed real food, constantly.
13:10I foraged alone.
13:11A white jellyfish, small,
13:13and not built for hunting in the dry tide,
13:15who didn't dare go far.
13:16I brought back small crustaceans.
13:18I brought back dried reef algae.
13:19The hatchlings were good.
13:20All ten of them.
13:21A rank.
13:22And not one of them ever picked a fight or made trouble.
13:24They helped with the reef den work.
13:25Thinking about them, my throat closed.
13:27I'd failed them.
13:28I hadn't kept them safe.
13:31Lyra, what's wrong?
13:32I wiped the corner of my eye.
13:33Just homesick.
13:35He went quiet.
13:35Is being with me not enough?
13:37No, that's not it.
13:39Being with you is the best thing there is.
13:41I changed the subject.
13:41I'd assumed I'd never see my sister again.
13:44She showed up at our rift that same night.
13:46Vayne heard the sounds.
13:47He went to check.
13:48I heard a familiar shriek.
13:49Wait, don't kill me!
13:49Sea dragon, please!
13:50I came out to find my sister in the water outside the rift entrance.
13:53I looked at her in the dark and almost laughed.
13:55Why are you here?
13:57You know her?
13:57Never seen her before.
13:58Vayne's intent sharpened immediately.
14:00Lyra!
14:01My sister screamed.
14:02Don't let him kill me!
14:03I came all this way to save you!
14:05Sis!
14:06That word, sis, it stopped Vayne cold.
14:10He pulled back.
14:11Is there a misunderstanding, Lyra?
14:13I sighed.
14:14I swam over to my sister.
14:16What do you want?
14:17She put on her most conciliatory face.
14:19I talked to the clan chief.
14:21He said you can come back.
14:23I didn't move.
14:24She pushed harder.
14:25And Lyra, the Coral clan is in trouble.
14:27Two settlements are about to go to war in a current war.
14:30This whole area is going to become a battlefield.
14:32You two aren't aligned with either side.
14:34You'll get caught in the middle.
14:35Hearing my sister's warning, I remembered.
14:37There had been a current war.
14:39Last time.
14:39But last time, the war had ended because of my ten lionfish hatchlings hatching.
14:44Ten A-rank merfolk born at once.
14:46The opposing clan, the Lyra, had taken one look and surrendered on the spot.
14:51He was the one who declared me Abyss Chosen.
14:53Said I carried a rare destiny.
14:55That I had been sent to the Coral clan as a gift from the Abyss God.
14:58But I had no interest in my sister's advice.
15:01Vayne and I had built something real out here.
15:03There was no reason to go back.
15:04I told her no.
15:05No.
15:07She looked straight at my stomach.
15:10Lyra, you're pregnant, aren't you?
15:12Even if you don't care about yourself, think about the child.
15:15You two can live free out here for now.
15:17But what about later?
15:18What about your hatchling?
15:20Do you really want to raise a child with no clan behind them?
15:23That landed.
15:24This world was brutal.
15:25Vayne, as strong as he was, had nearly died alone and ripped.
15:28What would happen when our child was born?
15:30While in the dead current was full of things that wanted to eat them, I looked at Vayne.
15:34He seemed to read what I was thinking.
15:35He came over and took my hand.
15:38Lyra, let's go back.
15:39After I told my sister yes, she let out a long breath.
15:42Then...
15:43Is there anything to eat?
15:45She ate like she hadn't seen food in weeks.
15:46Her stomach was enormous, but her arms and fins were thin as coral sticks.
15:51She'd had it rough.
15:52Not hard to guess why.
15:53Coral had almost certainly entered tide sleep by now.
15:56My sister had never worked hard a day in her life.
15:58Nothing short of starvation would have pushed her out here.
16:01After the meal, she lay down in the outer part of the rift to rest.
16:04Vayne folded me into his arms as usual.
16:06My sister glanced over from across the rift.
16:09The look on her face was pure envy.
16:12In the middle of the night, I got up.
16:14Unbelievable.
16:15This life, and she still gets to eat like that?
16:18Bonded to some rankless creature, and she still got nerve to look pleased with herself.
16:22She rubbed her belly.
16:23Come on, little ones.
16:24Come out fast.
16:26I stood in the dark and let it wash over me.
16:28Even now, I couldn't fully understand where her hatred came from.
16:31We were twins.
16:32Before we'd ended up here, our parents died in an accident.
16:36Left the two of us to figure out the world together.
16:38I remembered what they'd always said, you're the older one, take care of your sister.
16:42So I did.
16:43I gave way.
16:44Every time, on everything.
16:46Whatever was best, I let her have it.
16:48Somewhere along the line, she'd decided that was simply how things should be.
16:52I was supposed to give her everything good.
16:53I was supposed to be beneath her.
16:55I wasn't allowed to have things she didn't have.
16:57By the third day back in the Coral Clan, I understood exactly why she'd worked so hard
17:01to bring me home.
17:02Her due date was close.
17:03She was terrified of dying on the birthing ground.
17:06She needed me there.
17:06I'd gotten her through all three.
17:08There was a second reason, too.
17:09She wanted me to watch.
17:11She wanted me standing there when she produced 20 A-rank lionfish merfolk and climbed to the
17:16top of the Coral Clan.
17:17She wanted to see my face.
17:20Life back in the Coral Clan wasn't easy.
17:22Even with Vayne beside me, plenty of females still looked at me with hostility.
17:25They didn't want me near their mates, so I stayed close to the reef den.
17:28I was shut out.
17:29My sister, meanwhile, used her memories from last time to play profit.
17:32She predicted a few major clan events and a stretch of bad current accurately enough that
17:36the Coral Clan elevated her status considerably.
17:39She told everyone she was the Abyss Chosen, sent by the Abyss God, carrying 20 A-rank merfolk.
17:44The Coral Clan believed her completely.
17:46Then the current war began.
17:47Vayne was sent to the front.
17:48Within days, every fighter in the Coral Clan had noticed that his dragon tide power exceeded
17:53that of the A-rank great white shark merfolk by a significant margin.
17:57His raw strength was in a different category altogether.
17:59This world ran on tide power.
18:01Strength was everything.
18:02And yet, because Vayne came out unranked, the great white shark merfolk grew jealous.
18:07He gathered the other males and turned on Vayne.
18:09They sent him alone into a aura ambush.
18:11When the others had what they needed from the distraction, they swam, left him there.
18:15I didn't find out until Vayne came back with serious wounds.
18:18I went straight.
18:19It's fine, Lyra.
18:20Vayne caught my arm.
18:21Even with all of that, they still couldn't touch me.
18:23I came back in one piece, didn't I?
18:25I looked at the cuts across his body.
18:27Vayne, I'm sorry.
18:29I shouldn't have brought you back here.
18:31This place isn't right for you.
18:33Let's go home.
18:34Back to the rift.
18:35No.
18:35He was suddenly urgent.
18:37If we go back, you'll be homesick again.
18:39We stay here.
18:41As long as you and the hatchling are safe, I don't care what they do to me.
18:44Something cracked open in my chest.
18:45I remembered what I'd said in the rift.
18:47That I was homesick.
18:48He'd been carrying that the entire time.
18:51You're in my home.
18:52He thought I meant the Coral Clan.
18:53Let's go.
18:54Just the two of us.
18:56I'd almost convinced him.
18:58Lyra, get to your sister's reef den.
19:00She's going into labor.
19:02I heard the screaming before I reached the entrance.
19:05I swam inside.
19:05Blood in the water.
19:06The same scene as the first time.
19:08Last life.
19:08When she'd had her first bad labor.
19:10Back then, it was the great white shark Murfolk's fault.
19:12His build was large.
19:13The offspring inherited the size.
19:15The head got stuck.
19:15But lionfish eggs were soft and small.
19:17They should have come out easily.
19:18I got my answer fast.
19:20I helped her deliver ten eggs.
19:21Then I felt more inside.
19:22I was reaching for the next one when my sister's body seized.
19:27She's convassing!
19:28Nobody here knew that word.
19:29I shouted instructions.
19:31They found a smooth piece of coral and pressed it between her teeth so she couldn't bite through
19:34her tongue.
19:34I used the moment to pull the rest of the eggs out.
19:36I counted.
19:37Twenty in total.
19:38She passed out when it was done.
19:39I mixed a tonic and got it down her throat.
19:41If she makes it through tonight, she'll live.
19:43If she doesn't, there's nothing more I can do.
19:45I turned to leave.
19:46Cole grabbed my wrist.
19:48She's your sister.
19:49You should stay and take care of her.
19:51Even now.
19:51Even with his female unconscious in the water from a dangerous labor.
19:54He didn't want to sit with her through one night.
19:57She's your mate, not mine.
19:59I'm not responsible for her.
20:03I've already done far more than she deserves.
20:07I swam out of the reef den into open water and felt the exhaustion hit me all at once.
20:11Thane was waiting outside.
20:13My heart twisted.
20:14What are you doing here?
20:15With wounds that bad, you should be resting in the-
20:19He pulled me into his arms before I could finish.
20:22His voice was rough.
20:24Lyra, we're not leaving.
20:25I started to ask why.
20:27Then I felt it.
20:28Something warm and wet soaking into my shoulder.
20:30I brought him back to our reef den.
20:32Pushed him until he talked.
20:33He cried harder.
20:34Bane had been waiting outside my sister's reef den the entire time.
20:37He'd heard everything.
20:38He hadn't known that was what birth looked like.
20:41He hadn't known it could be like that.
20:42He was terrified.
20:43If I went into labor out in the dead current and something went wrong, there would be no
20:47one to help me.
20:48I felt tears on my own face before I realized.
20:50Bane, not everyone has a labor like hers.
20:53Maybe mine will be easy.
20:55Then we're still not leaving.
20:56His voice didn't waver.
20:57Even if the chance is one in a hundred, I won't let you suffer.
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