Offered to The Tripled Alphas

Pixiequeen 90

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Transcript

00:00:00This world has three realms. The heavens, ruled by the pure moon goddess. The mortal realm, 12 wolf packs ruled

00:00:10by the alpha king. And below it all lies hell. The infernal pack, ruled by three demon lords, triplet werewolf

00:00:20demons. The wolves of hell are merciless.

00:00:26To keep the peace, the mortal realm began three years ago, offering a royal bride every year. Every year, no

00:00:37bride has come back alive. Instead, she is found hanged outside her own palace.

00:00:46No one knows how she was tortured. Three brides. Three princesses of alpha blood. Not one lived past a year.

00:00:56This year, the alpha king chose my pack. I was blindfolded and delivered to the bed of the demon triplets.

00:01:07Kisses and hands roamed over my body. I had no choice. I was arranged like a doll for them. Other

00:01:16hands moved up along my thighs, every inch, searching inward.

00:01:22I tried to close my legs. I couldn't.

00:01:26Why the princess?

00:01:28A mouth pressed against my chest, burning, full of hunger.

00:01:34I felt warm and wet.

00:01:37But I am not an alpha princess.

00:01:41I am the forgotten omega of the royal house.

00:01:47My name is Xanthea.

00:01:49Today is the anniversary of my mother's death.

00:01:52It is also my 23rd birthday.

00:01:56She died not long after giving birth to me.

00:02:00My father is Alpha Valdemir Virgo.

00:02:04I am the proof of his affair.

00:02:06A bastard daughter.

00:02:10He brought me to the palace and raised me.

00:02:14The Luna and my step-siblings bullied me, treated me as a maid.

00:02:19Filthy bastard!

00:02:21Kneel!

00:02:22Useless trash.

00:02:24You only deserve to sleep in the storage closet.

00:02:31If you don't finish scrubbing the palace floors today,

00:02:35you don't eat.

00:02:38She broke a plate.

00:02:40Drag her down, lock her up for three days.

00:02:45They never let me own anything.

00:02:48But one thing was mine.

00:02:50My mother's house.

00:02:53And her diaries.

00:02:55Her flowers.

00:02:56Her dreams.

00:02:58She was a gardener.

00:02:59A healer.

00:03:01She knew herbs that had no names, even in books.

00:03:04I studied every word she ever wrote.

00:03:07Tomorrow, I take the international medical entrance exam.

00:03:11If I pass, I can leave this pack forever.

00:03:16It's the only dream I have left.

00:03:18I just need to survive today.

00:03:24A gray car pulled up beside me.

00:03:26It was my half-brother, Nikolai.

00:03:28The Crown Prince.

00:03:30Get in.

00:03:31My stepsister, Nathalia, laughed from the window.

00:03:34Look at that ugly face.

00:03:36Someone should run her over.

00:03:38There's a drift race tonight.

00:03:39This road belongs to them.

00:03:41Nikolai grabbed my arm and dragged me into the passenger seat.

00:03:44Be a good little doll.

00:03:46You know what happens if you disobey me.

00:03:49The car sped off.

00:03:51He drifted it through the pack of racers.

00:03:54I heard you signed up for the Royal Medical Academy exam.

00:03:58Stop the car and let me out.

00:04:02Refusing to answer?

00:04:04You just want out?

00:04:06Then let me help you.

00:04:09He unbuckled my seatbelt and shoved me out of the speeding car.

00:04:13The ground tore my skin open.

00:04:15My arm broke.

00:04:16Nikolai reversed the car to the end of the road.

00:04:19A bastard worthy of the Royal Academy?

00:04:21He fixed the headlights on my eyes.

00:04:23Let's play a game, little sister.

00:04:25Let's see how good my brakes are.

00:04:28He hit the gas.

00:04:30The car surged toward me.

00:04:33At the very last second,

00:04:35three unknown cars cut sideways between me and Nikolai.

00:04:43I didn't die.

00:04:46I don't know who they were.

00:04:49I took the chance and ran.

00:04:54The exam was the next afternoon.

00:04:58I got through it on painkillers, writing with a broken hand.

00:05:04One hour left.

00:05:06The proctor leaned down toward me.

00:05:12You have to leave.

00:05:13You're no longer eligible for this exam.

00:05:15I froze.

00:05:16The door opened.

00:05:18Nikolai walked in, smiling.

00:05:23Trying to run again, sister?

00:05:25He grabbed my broken hand and dragged me out.

00:05:31Mother wants you home tonight.

00:05:33We have very important guests.

00:05:37If you dare tell father about your hand...

00:05:39Be warned.

00:05:41I'll break the rest of you, too.

00:05:43Back at the palace, the maids removed the cast from my hand.

00:05:47They wrapped it in bandages so it wouldn't show.

00:05:51They dressed me in a long white gown.

00:05:54A wedding dress.

00:05:58I stared at myself in the mirror.

00:06:00A pretty bride doll.

00:06:02The only thing I've ever been allowed to be.

00:06:05But no one told me why.

00:06:08My father came to my room.

00:06:11In 23 years, this was only our third time face to face.

00:06:15He was never cruel to me.

00:06:17Nor was he ever warm.

00:06:18We were strangers who shared blood.

00:06:21You're being married off tonight.

00:06:23To the demon triplet alphas of the infernal pack.

00:06:27As their shared bride.

00:06:34My world collapsed.

00:06:35The demon lords.

00:06:37Alpha triplets.

00:06:39It was a tradition that began three years ago.

00:06:42Every year, the mortal packs offer hell a royal bride.

00:06:46In exchange for peace.

00:06:51But in three years, three brides.

00:06:54Not one came back alive.

00:06:56They died horribly.

00:07:01Their bodies were hung at the pack's gate.

00:07:06Nathalia is too young.

00:07:09The fate of our pack rests in your hands.

00:07:14As your father, I never imagined it would come to...

00:07:17You could have just sent a servant to tell me.

00:07:22That's what you always do.

00:07:25I had never spoken to him like that.

00:07:28I was terrified.

00:07:29My hand was shaking.

00:07:31My hand was shaking.

00:07:32The bandit showed.

00:07:34He saw it.

00:07:35His face changed.

00:07:39How did this happen?

00:07:44Before I could answer, Luna burst in.

00:07:48She smiled like sugar smeared on a blade.

00:07:52Sweetheart, how did you get hurt?

00:07:54I stared at the floor.

00:07:59I fell down the stairs.

00:08:02The doctor confirmed the fracture.

00:08:05My father stood up.

00:08:08She can't marry the triplets like this.

00:08:10Get Nathalia ready.

00:08:12Mother, please!

00:08:13I don't want to die!

00:08:13Nathalia started screaming.

00:08:16I had hated her my whole life.

00:08:17But fear made us the same kind of creature.

00:08:23They're here!

00:08:24Nikolai ran into the room.

00:08:25His face painted.

00:08:26Has the Alpha King come to collect her?

00:08:28No.

00:08:29Nikolai shook his head.

00:08:35And the Demon Lords didn't send anyone either.

00:08:38They came themselves.

00:08:44No one had ever seen anything like it.

00:08:46The Demon Lords coming in person to collect their bride.

00:08:50The whole palace froze.

00:08:54Nathalia sobbed in her room,

00:08:56draped in diamonds and white lace.

00:08:59Then she said something I never expected.

00:09:02It's my fault.

00:09:03I broke her hand.

00:09:05It was my idea.

00:09:07This is karma.

00:09:07The clock struck midnight.

00:09:11The air turned heavy, thick.

00:09:13Like a hand closing around the whole palace.

00:09:16They had arrived.

00:09:29Nathalia ran back to her room and locked the door.

00:09:33Nikolai kicked the door open and dragged her out.

00:09:40She had stopped screaming.

00:09:42She couldn't even cry anymore.

00:09:44And I, hidden behind the wall, watched it all.

00:09:47I thought of my mother.

00:09:48You can live with regret.

00:09:50But guilt kills you a little every day you're alive.

00:09:54I had nothing left.

00:09:56No dreams.

00:09:57No exam.

00:09:58No future.

00:09:59No one would cry over my death.

00:10:03If I died, it would be no one's loss.

00:10:06But if Nathalia died, I would carry it for the rest of my life.

00:10:10I lifted my skirts and ran on a sprained ankle down the empty corridor.

00:10:16I reached the ballroom doors.

00:10:18The entire pack was gathered inside.

00:10:26I pushed through the crowd to where my father and Nathalia stood.

00:10:30Nikolai blocked me.

00:10:31Come to watch us suffer!

00:10:32You're the only one who finds joy in other people's pain.

00:10:35I won't.

00:10:37I walked past him and stood before my father.

00:10:43I offer myself to the demon lords.

00:10:47Let Nathalia go.

00:10:49The crowd gasped as one.

00:10:52Nathalia stared at me, stunned.

00:10:55She pushed the bouquet of forget-me-nots back into my hands.

00:10:58I pulled the veil down over my face.

00:11:02I placed my hand in the crook of my father's arm.

00:11:05He didn't say a word.

00:11:06We walked down the red carpet.

00:11:09My father could only walk me this far.

00:11:12The rest of the way, I have to walk alone.

00:11:16Halfway there, my steps stopped.

00:11:20The forget-me-nots in my hands.

00:11:22Withered.

00:11:23They twisted into a bundle of red spider lilies.

00:11:26Flowers of death.

00:11:27A stain of black crept up my white gown.

00:11:30From the hem, to the bodice, to the sleeves.

00:11:34Even the veil covering my face turned black.

00:11:38I steadied myself and kept walking.

00:11:43Three figures stood above me.

00:11:49Slowly, the three of them turned together to look at me.

00:12:00Three alphas stood on the platform.

00:12:02A violent wind tore through the hall, ripping the veil from my face.

00:12:05A whisper brushed past my ear.

00:12:07It wasn't the wind.

00:12:09So sweet.

00:12:11I looked up.

00:12:12Three men.

00:12:13Tall.

00:12:14Dark.

00:12:15Impossibly handsome.

00:12:17Suits of gray and black.

00:12:18Their eyes.

00:12:19Cold.

00:12:20Black.

00:12:21Ancient.

00:12:21The first had brown eyes.

00:12:23His hair tied in a long ponytail.

00:12:25He looked at me, as if I were beneath him.

00:12:27The second had deep blue eyes.

00:12:29He wore a playful, dangerous smile.

00:12:32The third had gray eyes, his hair unkempt.

00:12:35He simply watched me, weighing me in silence.

00:12:38Their power pressed down on me, until I felt like nothing.

00:12:41A hooded sorcerer stepped forward.

00:12:44There was no priest at this wedding.

00:12:52We are gathered to witness the soul bond.

00:12:57A wedding to a demon lord is not a wedding.

00:12:59They didn't just want my body.

00:13:00They wanted to bind my soul to theirs.

00:13:02Alpha Raven Ziphyr, step forward.

00:13:05The sorcerer raised a double-edged dagger between us.

00:13:14Look into my eyes.

00:13:15I didn't want to look.

00:13:17But my body moved on its own.

00:13:19Some unseen force was controlling it.

00:13:21We each cut a finger on the blade.

00:13:23A gem drank in our blood.

00:13:25Agony tore through my chest, like a heart attack.

00:13:28Do you give your body, blood, and soul to Raven Ziphyr?

00:13:33I... I do.

00:13:35Alpha Ezra Ziphyr, step forward.

00:13:39The blue-eyed one.

00:13:40He smiled at me, as if he couldn't see my tears.

00:13:43He forced my hand onto the blade.

00:13:45Do you, Ezra, bind your soul to hers?

00:13:50I do.

00:13:53Alpha Asher Ziphyr.

00:13:55The gray-eyed one.

00:13:56He didn't force me.

00:13:58He waited.

00:13:58He let me cut my own finger.

00:14:06I do.

00:14:06He said quietly, his eyes locked on mine.

00:14:09I declare their souls bound.

00:14:11The dagger twisted in the air.

00:14:13It reshaped into a crown of thorns, set with jewels of flowing blood.

00:14:17The three of them placed it on my head together.

00:14:19The thorns pierced my scalp.

00:14:21Blood ran down my face.

00:14:23The crown grew heavier.

00:14:25My soul felt like it was being torn in two.

00:14:27The whole room began to spin.

00:14:30My knees gave out.

00:14:32Raven caught my arm.

00:14:34Ezra steadied my shoulder.

00:14:35Asher wrapped his arm around my waist.

00:14:37My back against his chest.

00:14:39Ezra leaned close to my ear.

00:14:41You can't afford to be weak, our wife.

00:14:46Tonight, you have three husbands to attend to.

00:14:53As our wife, the wedding night is your first trial.

00:14:57Let's begin.

00:14:59Fingers trailed suggestively down my neck.

00:15:01I woke on a bed that wasn't mine.

00:15:03I could feel it.

00:15:04Too soft.

00:15:04Too comfortable.

00:15:05Silk beneath my hands.

00:15:07A cloth over my eyes.

00:15:08I couldn't see.

00:15:09They wouldn't let me see.

00:15:11Three cents filled the room.

00:15:12From now on, I would never mistake them again.

00:15:15They were here.

00:15:15All three.

00:15:16My whole body was on fire.

00:15:18Like a heat cycle.

00:15:19But ten times stronger than any I'd known.

00:15:21My broken hand no longer hurt.

00:15:23The soul bond had healed it.

00:15:25But it had also woken something else inside me.

00:15:27Something I didn't understand.

00:15:29A hand slid down my neck and I flinched.

00:15:31Fuck.

00:15:32That makes me want her even more.

00:15:34That was Ezra.

00:15:35Playful.

00:15:35Open your legs, little toy.

00:15:37You heard him.

00:15:38Raven.

00:15:39Cold.

00:15:40As if I disgusted him.

00:15:41I hugged my knees and shook my head.

00:15:43Please.

00:15:44Don't tell me you're a virgin.

00:15:46But I was.

00:15:48Back off, Ezra.

00:15:49Not now.

00:15:50That was Asher.

00:15:51Somehow, his voice slowed my racing heart.

00:15:54Omega.

00:15:55Let's play a game.

00:15:57We'll each touch you one at a time, without a sound.

00:16:01You'll stay blindfold.

00:16:03You'll have to tell me which brother it was, each time.

00:16:07Guess right and we'll be gentle.

00:16:08Guess wrong, and we'll punish you.

00:16:11I couldn't see.

00:16:12I could only feel.

00:16:13The game began.

00:16:14The first was careful, his tongue tracing down my neck, making me feel truly seen.

00:16:21The second gave me only pain, sharp and deliberate, before finally burying his face between my legs.

00:16:29The third made me touch my own skin with my own hands, from my chest downward, as if forcing me

00:16:34to admit what I felt.

00:16:36By the end, I was exhausted, my body slick.

00:16:39When the blindfold came off, the three of them sat in chairs by the bed, watching, waiting.

00:16:45I looked at their handsome, cold faces.

00:16:48The first was Asher.

00:16:50He showed no surprise.

00:16:51Then Raven.

00:16:53His jaw clenched.

00:16:54The last was Ezra.

00:16:56Ezra grinned.

00:16:58You win, little toy.

00:17:00So we'll let you choose.

00:17:02Tell us how you want to be treated.

00:17:04I thought of my whole life.

00:17:05Never held.

00:17:06Never wanted.

00:17:08Never.

00:17:08Not once.

00:17:10Love.

00:17:10I should have asked for something safe, but the truth fell out of my mouth instead.

00:17:15Love me, I whispered.

00:17:16Please treat me like someone you would never hurt.

00:17:20Love me.

00:17:22Please love me.

00:17:24The moment I said love, the whole room turned cold.

00:17:27I had said the wrong thing.

00:17:29Completely wrong.

00:17:30I didn't understand how that word could enrage them, but I could feel it.

00:17:33It had.

00:17:34All three of them.

00:17:36Ezra let out a low laugh, without a trace of warmth.

00:17:39Love.

00:17:40Like he was chewing on a filthy word.

00:17:42A lie mortals tell themselves.

00:17:44So they don't feel so alone.

00:17:47I buried my face in my knees.

00:17:49I didn't even know why I was here.

00:17:51They began speaking in lowered voices, thinking I couldn't hear.

00:17:55I caught a few words.

00:17:57This was Asher's choice.

00:18:00We're running out of time.

00:18:01I didn't understand what they meant.

00:18:03But I remembered them.

00:18:05In that wolf palace, the first thing I ever learned was to remember every word no one wanted me to

00:18:09hear.

00:18:10I came back to myself, still on their bed.

00:18:13Raven's eyes were full of hatred.

00:18:16All she needs to do is give us an air.

00:18:19All of this is a waste.

00:18:21He gripped my throat.

00:18:22He couldn't breathe.

00:18:23Asher rose and stepped between us.

00:18:26Asher's hand locked around his wrist.

00:18:28His gray eyes flashed red.

00:18:30Enough.

00:18:31The room cracked under the force between them.

00:18:33She's not a toy.

00:18:35She's not a pet.

00:18:37She is our bride.

00:18:39Raven stepped back, seething.

00:18:41I had never seen them turn on each other.

00:18:43I could feel it.

00:18:44This was rare.

00:18:45For them, this was wrong.

00:18:47Ezra walked to the bed and leaned down.

00:18:49I could smell his breath as he came close.

00:18:52Listen carefully, little toy.

00:18:54The three of us never fight over a bride.

00:18:57We share.

00:18:58We use.

00:19:00Then we grow bored and discard.

00:19:02For all these years, that rule has never broken.

00:19:06If you ruin what we have.

00:19:08If you turn my brothers against each other.

00:19:11Then I will end you myself.

00:19:13Then he leaned down and kissed my mouth.

00:19:16Not gently.

00:19:18His fangs pierced my lip.

00:19:20Blood slid down to my chest.

00:19:22Raven.

00:19:23Over me.

00:19:24Licked away the drop of blood.

00:19:26Asher's head was between my legs.

00:19:29Leaving more marks.

00:19:30Messier still.

00:19:32They meant to have me together.

00:19:33While I could see all of them.

00:19:35I finally understood.

00:19:37In this castle, the most dangerous one wasn't Raven.

00:19:40Who hated me.

00:19:41It was Ezra.

00:19:43Ezra.

00:19:44Who always smiled.

00:19:47This has never happened before.

00:19:49I warned you, Xanthea.

00:19:51Stir trouble between us again.

00:19:54And I'll kill you.

00:19:56Black flame erupted from his body.

00:19:58What stepped out of the fire was not a man.

00:20:00A demon.

00:20:01A wolf.

00:20:02Both at once.

00:20:03Blacker than the void.

00:20:05Crimson markings pulsed across his skin.

00:20:07His eyes flashed a murderous red.

00:20:09Fangs large enough to crush stone.

00:20:11I couldn't move.

00:20:12I couldn't breathe.

00:20:14My body knew it was prey.

00:20:15You have four minutes to explain that foolish word.

00:20:18Love.

00:20:19I fell to my knees.

00:20:20I was wrong.

00:20:22Tears soaked into the sheets.

00:20:24Love is a foolish thing.

00:20:27Enough.

00:20:28Asher cut him off.

00:20:30Ezra's beast form melted back into a man.

00:20:33He smiled as if nothing had happened.

00:20:36I lay there.

00:20:37Shaking.

00:20:38Alive.

00:20:39Three husbands.

00:20:40Three monsters.

00:20:42One who wanted to kill me.

00:20:44One who had just saved me.

00:20:46And one who hated me.

00:20:47I understood none of them.

00:20:49I slept badly later.

00:20:52I dreamed of three black wolves.

00:20:57Then morning came.

00:20:59In a place with no sun, only clocks told me the time.

00:21:03A maid named Mavka helped me dress.

00:21:06You're the weakest, most fearful thing I've ever seen.

00:21:09Don't look around.

00:21:11Speak only when spoken to.

00:21:13You may be the demon lord's wife.

00:21:16But if their family doesn't accept you.

00:21:19Your life will become another nightmare.

00:21:22The three brothers led me through the castle.

00:21:24Gold veins ran through black marble.

00:21:27Arched corridors swallowed the sound of my footsteps.

00:21:30Servants stopped to stare at me.

00:21:32Mavka leaned close.

00:21:34We're headed to the dining hall to meet the high lady.

00:21:37Their mother.

00:21:38Keep your eyes on the floor.

00:21:39Whatever you see.

00:21:41Don't react.

00:21:44The great door is opened.

00:21:45And I forgot every word she said.

00:21:49A woman sat in a wheelchair at the head of the table.

00:21:53The high lady.

00:21:54Mother of the triplets.

00:21:56Lady Demetria.

00:21:57She wore a flowing white gown.

00:21:59A white blindfold covered her eyes.

00:22:02Her hair was white as snow.

00:22:04And her face.

00:22:05Young.

00:22:06Beautiful.

00:22:07Untouched by time.

00:22:09But her hands.

00:22:10Were withered to the bone.

00:22:12Ancient.

00:22:13Drained down to nothing but bone.

00:22:15As if time had devoured her body and left only her face.

00:22:20I had never seen anything like it.

00:22:23And every instinct my mother had given me as a healer woke up at once.

00:22:28This wasn't aging.

00:22:29This was a disease.

00:22:31A disease slowly killing her from the inside.

00:22:34I kept my eyes on the floor as Mavka had told me.

00:22:38But I couldn't stop myself from cataloging it.

00:22:40Detail by detail.

00:22:42The pallor.

00:22:43The wasting.

00:22:44The catching breath.

00:22:45The family gathered around her.

00:22:47A few aunts.

00:22:49A cousin.

00:22:49A woman named Nezrin.

00:22:52They spoke of her illness in careful, desperate voices.

00:22:55They had tried everything.

00:22:57Not a single healer in hell could name what she had.

00:23:00This is withering sickness.

00:23:02The words recited themselves in my mind.

00:23:04A mortal plague of immortals.

00:23:06In which the brain or heart loses its immortal function.

00:23:10Causing the body to age abnormally.

00:23:13Its cause lies in an uneven distribution of the body's immortality factor.

00:23:17Then one of the aunts turned her unseeing attention toward me.

00:23:21Since when?

00:23:22She asked.

00:23:24Do mortals study mortal diseases?

00:23:27The whole table fell silent.

00:23:29I should have said nothing.

00:23:30I was an omega.

00:23:31A bride.

00:23:33A thing to be used.

00:23:34But this was the one place where I wasn't nothing.

00:23:37Alchemy.

00:23:38Everyone turned.

00:23:40Long ago.

00:23:41The work of many mortal alchemists laid the foundations of medicine.

00:23:45My mother was a healer.

00:23:47I've read everything she left behind.

00:23:49Raven's eyes narrowed across the table.

00:23:52Cold.

00:23:53Suspicious.

00:23:54But Nezrin leaned forward.

00:23:55Intrigued.

00:23:56And the high lady.

00:23:58Blindfolded.

00:23:59Dying.

00:24:00Turned her face toward my voice.

00:24:02Child.

00:24:03Come here.

00:24:05She said softly.

00:24:06I stood.

00:24:08Every eye in the room followed the omega who had dared to speak.

00:24:12I stopped beside her wheelchair.

00:24:15I took her withered hand.

00:24:17And then.

00:24:17I felt it.

00:24:19The thing killing her.

00:24:21I had read about it.

00:24:22In my mother's diary.

00:24:26Holding the high lady's hand.

00:24:28I was certain.

00:24:29My mother had written about this.

00:24:31A withering that struck the immortal.

00:24:34The body ages while the soul freezes the face in time.

00:24:38In everything I'd read.

00:24:39There was no cure.

00:24:40But there was a way to slow it.

00:24:42To buy her time.

00:24:44I should have stayed quiet.

00:24:45A failed omega would be blamed.

00:24:48A successful one would be feared.

00:24:50But she was dying.

00:24:51And I had never.

00:24:52In my whole life.

00:24:53Been able to walk away from someone in pain.

00:24:56I think I can help.

00:24:57Not a cure.

00:24:59Just a way to slow it.

00:25:01I need a garden.

00:25:02And a kitchen.

00:25:02You expect us to let a mortal omega near our mother.

00:25:07But the high lady tightened her grip on my hand.

00:25:10Let her try.

00:25:11They gave me the castle's herb garden.

00:25:14For the first time since arriving.

00:25:16I could breathe.

00:25:17These plants were older than alchemy itself.

00:25:20Some I had only ever seen in my mother's sketches.

00:25:24I worked through an entire.

00:25:26What passed for.

00:25:27Night here.

00:25:29I ground.

00:25:30I steeped.

00:25:31I tested it on my own skin first.

00:25:34By dawn.

00:25:35I had a tincture.

00:25:36My hand shook as I brought it to her lips.

00:25:39If I was wrong.

00:25:40I would pay with my life.

00:25:42She drank it.

00:25:44We waited.

00:25:45Her breathing slowed.

00:25:47The grayness receded from her face.

00:25:50Her withered hand gripped mine with a strength it hadn't had an hour before.

00:25:54Clever child.

00:25:55She whispered.

00:25:57The aunts gasped.

00:25:59Others let out relieved laughter.

00:26:01In that moment.

00:26:02The omega from the slums became the most important person in the room.

00:26:06I had done it.

00:26:08Me.

00:26:09The high lady kept me by her side.

00:26:11I realized with a strange ache.

00:26:13For the first time in my life.

00:26:15Someone wanted me there.

00:26:16But not everyone wanted me there.

00:26:18I could feel Raven's gaze pinned on my back from across the room.

00:26:23Cold.

00:26:24Assessing.

00:26:25I knew that looked too well.

00:26:27Like someone growing more irritated the longer he stared at a puzzle he couldn't solve.

00:26:31That night, he stopped me in the hallway.

00:26:33What did you use to bewitch my family?

00:26:36I know every dark art in this world.

00:26:39But I can't find a single spell on you.

00:26:42I didn't use magic.

00:26:44That was alchemical knowledge.

00:26:46I've just read my mother's books.

00:26:49He didn't believe me.

00:26:51I could see it clearly in his eyes.

00:26:53He was convinced no mortal could have saved his mother by mere luck.

00:26:57He was convinced I was hiding something.

00:27:00He believed I had some hidden agenda.

00:27:02He turned into the darkness, leaving one last line.

00:27:05I'll find out what it is.

00:27:11Nezrin took me out of the castle.

00:27:13Ever since I'd helped the High Lady, she had grown kind toward me.

00:27:17She had a history with this place that I didn't yet understand.

00:27:20But she was the first person here who treated me like a human being.

00:27:24We drove through a forest that swallowed the road.

00:27:27There's a lake in these woods, wrapping the whole castle.

00:27:31Never go in alone, promise me.

00:27:34I promise.

00:27:35For the first time, I saw this hell in daylight.

00:27:39If it could be called daylight.

00:27:41The sun never rose above the horizon here.

00:27:44But its light spread upward, staining the sky.

00:27:48Red and black clouds swirled, like ink dropped in water.

00:27:52The red ones glowed.

00:27:54It was the most terrifying and most beautiful thing I had ever seen.

00:28:06At Nezrin's house, I pressed my face to the window like a child.

00:28:10I could name every plant.

00:28:12My mother's sketches come alive.

00:28:44Then I saw it.

00:29:13A tall man stood there.

00:29:15Beneath my feet.

00:29:16I wanted to run.

00:29:17Too late.

00:29:18Vines burst from the soil, thick as a man's arm.

00:29:21They whipped through the air like the limbs of something buried alive.

00:29:24They knocked me to the ground.

00:29:26They coiled around my ankles.

00:29:28My wrists, my throat, cold, damp, strong.

00:29:32They began dragging me down.

00:29:34Not across the ground, into it.

00:29:37I was sinking.

00:29:38The grass rose over my knees, my waist.

00:29:41I crawled at the dirt.

00:29:42It crumbled in my hands.

00:29:44I screamed.

00:29:45No one came.

00:29:46I thought, this is how the Omega Bride dies.

00:29:49Not at the hands of a demon lord, but in the garden.

00:29:53The vines dragged me down until only my shoulders shook.

00:29:56Dirt filled my mouth.

00:29:57In the last second before the world went black, a hand seized my arm.

00:30:02Hold her back.

00:30:03Strong as I am, it pulled me out of the earth.

00:30:06The vines snapped, screamed, and retreated underground.

00:30:09I coughed, shaking, covered in mud.

00:30:12It was Asher.

00:30:13His gray eyes were burning.

00:30:15He didn't say a word.

00:30:16He just held me against his chest until I stopped shaking.

00:30:19I could hear his heartbeat, racing.

00:30:22He had been afraid.

00:30:23For me, a demon lord.

00:30:25Afraid for an Omega.

00:30:27I looked down at the marks on my wrists.

00:30:29The marks the vines left were too precise.

00:30:32I was a healer.

00:30:33I knew plants.

00:30:34Wild vines don't coil like that.

00:30:37Don't find the throat.

00:30:38The wrists.

00:30:39The ankles with such precision.

00:30:41I picked up a broken piece caught in my hem.

00:30:43At the break, a faint trace of sulfur.

00:30:46This hadn't grown in the forest.

00:30:48It had been summoned.

00:30:49Someone in this castle wanted me dead.

00:30:52And had disguised it as an accident in the woods.

00:30:55I tightened my grip on the vine and looked up at Asher.

00:30:58He followed my gaze and saw the break too.

00:31:01His jaw tightened.

00:31:02What I read in his eyes wasn't only anger.

00:31:04It was a cold possessiveness.

00:31:07It was a cold possessiveness.

00:31:07As if to say, if anyone was going to end me, it wouldn't be some coward hiding in the shadows.

00:31:13Neither of us spoke.

00:31:14But we both understood the same thing.

00:31:17Whoever wanted me dead wasn't in the forest.

00:31:20They were in this castle.

00:31:23That night, the brothers came to my room.

00:31:26I thought they'd come to ask about the vines.

00:31:28They hadn't.

00:31:29It's the weekend, little Omega.

00:31:32Ezra said, loosening his collar.

00:31:37We still have a bride to break in.

00:31:40I had already learned the rhythm of this place.

00:31:42On weekdays, they left me alone.

00:31:45Weekends belonged to them.

00:31:47Tonight was Raven's.

00:31:49Being touched by Raven was like standing in fire.

00:31:52Everything he did seemed meant to remind me what I was.

00:31:55An Omega beneath him.

00:31:58Nothing.

00:31:59He didn't hide his hatred.

00:32:01I kept my eyes closed.

00:32:02I let it happen.

00:32:04The way I had let everything happen my whole life.

00:32:07But something was different now.

00:32:09The bond.

00:32:11I could feel all three of them through it.

00:32:13Like three threads tied to my chest.

00:32:15And the one leading to Raven.

00:32:17Even as cruel as he was.

00:32:19Was pulling.

00:32:21I hated that it pulled.

00:32:23He felt it too.

00:32:24I knew he did.

00:32:25It made him cruel.

00:32:28Tell me you deserve respect.

00:32:30I didn't answer.

00:32:31He waited for me to break.

00:32:33I didn't.

00:32:34In my life, I had been broken by people far more powerful than him.

00:32:38Too many times.

00:32:40I had long ago learned how to hide somewhere they couldn't reach.

00:32:43When it was over, he stared at me like a puzzle he couldn't solve.

00:32:48Why don't you cry?

00:32:49I opened my eyes.

00:32:52Because you want me to?

00:32:53For a second, the hatred flickered on his face.

00:32:56His jaw clenched.

00:32:57But no more cruel words came.

00:33:00When he finally spent himself deep inside me, he released.

00:33:04Then he left.

00:33:06In the morning, I was summoned.

00:33:08Not by the brothers.

00:33:10By the High Lady.

00:33:11She took my hand and pressed something into it.

00:33:14A key.

00:33:16My sons think I don't know something is hunting inside my own house.

00:33:21I'm blind, child.

00:33:23Not a fool.

00:33:24The brides died for a reason.

00:33:27A reason they won't tell you.

00:33:30Asha chose you for a reason, too.

00:33:33She leaned closer.

00:33:36Find the truth before it finds you.

00:33:40Then her steward rushed in, out of breath.

00:33:43Hi, lady.

00:33:44The alphas are going to the earthly realm.

00:33:46They're taking the bride with them.

00:33:49The triplets pulled me into their car.

00:33:52Raven's car tore a hole through the air.

00:33:54A flash of light.

00:33:55A vortex.

00:33:56My stomach turned over.

00:33:58When the light cleared, we were in the earthly realm.

00:34:01My realm.

00:34:02The Virgo pack.

00:34:04They had brought me home.

00:34:05I didn't understand why.

00:34:07Until Asher told me quietly.

00:34:10You need to get some things from your house.

00:34:14You may never see this place again.

00:34:17The alley near my mother's house was too narrow for a car.

00:34:20So the three demon lords walked through the slums on foot.

00:34:23Ezra covered his nose with a handkerchief.

00:34:26How can a place like this be called home?

00:34:30Aren't you supposed to be a princess?

00:34:32I didn't answer.

00:34:34I watched them see, for the first time, exactly where I came from.

00:34:39Patched up roofs.

00:34:41Pitted ground.

00:34:42The smell of poverty.

00:34:44Asher held my hand so I wouldn't trip in these ridiculous heels.

00:34:47I wanted to hold his hand back.

00:34:50I stopped myself.

00:34:51We reached my front door.

00:34:53I lifted the dying potted plant to get the spare key.

00:34:57But the door was already open.

00:34:59I had locked it.

00:35:00I remembered locking it clearly.

00:35:02I pushed the door open.

00:35:03The smell hit me first.

00:35:05Char.

00:35:06Ash.

00:35:07Smoke.

00:35:08Black footprints covered my floor.

00:35:10I rushed into my room.

00:35:12My study.

00:35:13My mother's bookshelf.

00:35:14Then I stopped breathing.

00:35:17Every book had been burned.

00:35:18Every diary.

00:35:20Every sketch.

00:35:21Every word she had left me.

00:35:24Ash.

00:35:27Mother.

00:35:28Mother, no.

00:35:29My fingers slid from one charred spine to the next.

00:35:33They crumbled to ash under my fingertips.

00:35:35This was no accident.

00:35:36Someone had come into my home and burned everything I had left of her.

00:35:40Her dreams.

00:35:41Her medicine.

00:35:42The remedy that had saved the High Lady.

00:35:45All of it.

00:35:45Gone.

00:35:46I sank down into the ashes.

00:35:48Then quietly.

00:35:49Behind me.

00:35:50I heard Ezra ask.

00:35:52Who burned her books?

00:35:54His voice had changed.

00:35:56The smiling mask was gone.

00:35:58I turned around.

00:35:59His blue eyes were glowing.

00:36:00Tell me who did this.

00:36:03And I'll burn them right back.

00:36:05My old neighbor.

00:36:06Mrs. Millers.

00:36:07Appeared at the door.

00:36:08She had known my mother.

00:36:10She carried tea with a trembling hand.

00:36:12And a name she was too afraid to say.

00:36:15But before she could speak.

00:36:17The window shattered.

00:36:19Someone outside had just made their move.

00:36:23Glass scattered across the floor like rain.

00:36:26I threw myself in front of Mrs. Millers.

00:36:28Whoever burned my mother's books had come back to finish me too.

00:36:31The attack was fast and cowardly.

00:36:33From the dark.

00:36:34From behind.

00:36:35I felt a sting in my arm.

00:36:37A dart.

00:36:38Wet.

00:36:38Cold.

00:36:39Spreading.

00:36:40I looked down.

00:36:41A green stain bloomed under my skin.

00:36:43Crawling up my veins like ivy.

00:36:48Even he unusually alarmed.

00:36:51Carrera.

00:36:51Poison.

00:36:52Made specifically to kill mortals.

00:36:54On Immortal Omega.

00:36:55It reaches the heart in minutes.

00:36:57The room tilted.

00:36:59My legs gave out.

00:37:00Asher caught me before I hit the floor.

00:37:03Stay with me, Xantia.

00:37:04Look at me.

00:37:05I tried.

00:37:06His gray eyes swam in front of me.

00:37:08Through the haze.

00:37:09I saw Ezra straighten up.

00:37:11He set the teacup down.

00:37:13Very, very gently.

00:37:15They came into our territory.

00:37:17They burned her mother's things.

00:37:19They poisoned my wife in front of me.

00:37:22Raven moved toward him.

00:37:23Ezra!

00:37:24No!

00:37:25This is personal.

00:37:27His body began to flicker.

00:37:29Invisibility wrapped around him like smoke.

00:37:32He vanished.

00:37:34I drifted between waking and unconsciousness.

00:37:37Raven's hands pressed against my arm.

00:37:39Forcing out the poison.

00:37:40Cursing the entire time.

00:37:42Asher held my head in his lap.

00:37:43Refusing to look away for even a second.

00:37:46Outside.

00:37:47The sky began to rub me.

00:37:48Not the light of clouds.

00:37:50Fire.

00:37:51The wealthy district of the Burgos.

00:37:53The people who had watched me suffer for 23 years and done nothing.

00:37:58Was burned.

00:37:59Every corner.

00:38:01Ezra reappeared in the firelight.

00:38:05He pulled me into his arms from behind.

00:38:08He whispered in my ear.

00:38:09Look.

00:38:10Watch them burn.

00:38:11The ones who never cared whether you lived or died.

00:38:17Tell me this doesn't feel good.

00:38:19I should have felt afraid.

00:38:21I did feel afraid.

00:38:22But somewhere deep inside.

00:38:24A place I would never admit to.

00:38:26Some part of me had waited my whole life for this day.

00:38:29The Carvera reached my heart.

00:38:31The fire.

00:38:32The ash.

00:38:33Ezra's voice.

00:38:34All turned to white.

00:38:35Then black.

00:38:36I thought there would be nothing after the dark.

00:38:38But I was still there.

00:38:40Far away.

00:38:41I heard Asher's voice.

00:38:42Calling my name.

00:38:43I felt Raven's hand freeze against my chest.

00:38:46This is impossible.

00:38:48An Omega hit with Carvera doesn't survive even a minute.

00:38:50She has lasted ten.

00:38:52My heart was fighting the poison.

00:38:55Like something that didn't belong to an Omega was inside me, refusing to die.

00:39:00I didn't understand.

00:39:01I only knew that, in the dark, a song was playing.

00:39:05Very softly.

00:39:07Not mine.

00:39:08Far older than me.

00:39:10It pulled me back from the darkness.

00:39:13I woke in a white room.

00:39:15A hospital.

00:39:16In the infernal realm.

00:39:17Three days had passed.

00:39:19I shouldn't be alive.

00:39:20Raven told me so himself.

00:39:22Almost angry about it.

00:39:24Carareva can kill an immortal.

00:39:26You're an Omega with no wolf form.

00:39:30You should have died in the first minute.

00:39:33You didn't.

00:39:34He wouldn't look at me as he said it.

00:39:37He told me he came every day only to see the High Lady.

00:39:40Not me.

00:39:41But the chart at the foot of my bed was in his handwriting.

00:39:44He came every day.

00:39:45For me.

00:39:46The poison was cured.

00:39:48My mother's books did not come back.

00:39:50I lay in that bed and for the first time, properly mourned them.

00:39:54Every word she'd written to me.

00:39:56Ash.

00:39:57But then I closed my eyes.

00:39:59And I realized.

00:40:00I remembered.

00:40:02Every page.

00:40:03Every sketch.

00:40:04Every remedy.

00:40:05I had read them ten thousand times.

00:40:08They had burned the paper.

00:40:09They couldn't burn what was in my head.

00:40:11My mother hadn't disappeared.

00:40:13She was inside me.

00:40:15She always had been.

00:40:16I sat up in that hospital bed and made a decision.

00:40:19I would no longer be a doll.

00:40:21I would no longer wait to die like the brides before me.

00:40:27I would find out why they died.

00:40:29And why Asher had chosen me.

00:40:30A nurse came in to change my chart.

00:40:33Tall.

00:40:33Confident.

00:40:34Alpha-blooded.

00:40:36Strong enough that I could feel it from across the room.

00:40:38She looked at me the way Luna used to.

00:40:40Like I was something a cat had dragged in from outside.

00:40:43So you're the Omega.

00:40:45The one who slowed the High Lady's withering.

00:40:51How cute.

00:40:52She tossed a file onto my bed.

00:40:55I'm Nysa.

00:40:57I'm Ravens.

00:40:58I'm gonna be this pack's next Luna.

00:41:02So enjoy your little tricks while you still can.

00:41:06She walked out.

00:41:08Mavka leaned in.

00:41:10Pale.

00:41:12That's Nysa.

00:41:13The top Luna candidate.

00:41:15This pack has three thrones, Xanthia.

00:41:18Every alpha female in Hell wants one.

00:41:20Guess what happens to a bride who's only borrowing hers?

00:41:25The Infernal Pack has three thrones.

00:41:27One for each brother's Luna.

00:41:29Every powerful blooded female in Hell competes for a seat.

00:41:34Nysa led the pack.

00:41:36Strong.

00:41:36Clever.

00:41:37Alpha-born.

00:41:38Everything I wasn't.

00:41:40I was an Omega with no wolf form.

00:41:42A borrowed bride.

00:41:43A placeholder before death.

00:41:45That's what they all thought.

00:41:47For a while, I thought so too.

00:41:49Not anymore.

00:41:51The High Lady summoned me.

00:41:53This time, she gave me more than a key.

00:41:55She gave me the truth.

00:41:56She handed me a file as thick as a brick.

00:41:59The immortality gene sequence.

00:42:01My son spent a year trying to understand it.

00:42:05It's what's killing me.

00:42:06And I'm not the only one it will kill.

00:42:08I opened it.

00:42:09It was magic, written as data.

00:42:11No machine could read it.

00:42:13But my eyes, my mother's eyes, began to see the pattern.

00:42:19This withering isn't a disease.

00:42:21It's a curse.

00:42:23Bound into the blood.

00:42:24The High Lady didn't move.

00:42:26Yes.

00:42:27Do you understand now, child?

00:42:30My sons don't have unlimited time.

00:42:33They're immortal.

00:42:34But the curse in my blood runs in theirs too.

00:42:38What's consuming me will crawl onto them next.

00:42:42That's why they take a bride every year.

00:42:45They're searching.

00:42:47Searching for someone whose blood can break it.

00:42:50The room tilted the way it had the day I was poisoned.

00:42:53The brides hadn't died because the demon lords were monsters.

00:42:56They had died because their blood wasn't the answer.

00:42:59And once a bride failed, she was discarded.

00:43:02Asher chose you because he believed you were different.

00:43:07The question is, Xanthiana, do you want to prove him right?

00:43:13Or do you want to run?

00:43:15I had survived the Solbond.

00:43:18I had survived the Carvera.

00:43:19I had slowed a mortal's curse overnight, using herbs grown in the slums.

00:43:24No Omega had ever done these things.

00:43:27Raven thought I was hiding magic.

00:43:29But standing there, for the first time, a colder thought seized me.

00:43:34Maybe even I didn't know what I was.

00:43:37I could still recall the song in the darkness.

00:43:40The ancient song that wasn't mine.

00:43:42And the thing in their blood was closing in.

00:43:45In the quietest moments, I could almost feel it too.

00:43:49The countdown that never stopped.

00:43:52I stood at the window of the highest tower.

00:43:54Below, the red clouds glowed.

00:43:56In my hands was the gene file.

00:43:59My mother's eyes.

00:44:00Reading my husband's death sentences.

00:44:02I thought of everything they had taken from me.

00:44:05My exam.

00:44:07My freedom.

00:44:08My mother's books.

00:44:10My mother's books.

00:44:35I didn't know whether to love me or kill me.

00:44:37Behind me, the door opened.

00:44:40The three of them walked in together.

00:44:42Raven.

00:44:44Cold.

00:44:44Ezra.

00:44:45Smiling.

00:44:47Asher.

00:44:47Watching.

00:44:50We need to talk about what you really are.

00:44:53I closed the file.

00:44:54I turned to face my three husbands.

00:44:56For the first time, I didn't lower my eyes.

00:45:00No.

00:45:01First, we talk about who wants me dead.

00:45:03And why one of you already knows.

00:45:05One of you already knows.

00:45:07My words hung in the air.

00:45:08Raven moved first.

00:45:09Are you accusing me?

00:45:10The vines.

00:45:12The poison.

00:45:13The burnt books.

00:45:14They all point inward.

00:45:16Towards someone in this castle.

00:45:19Ezra's smile disappeared.

00:45:21Asher said nothing.

00:45:22But something burned in his gray eyes.

00:45:24I'll find out.

00:45:26All the way to the bottom.

00:45:28In that moment, I understood something.

00:45:30None of the three of them had ordered my death.

00:45:33But at least one of them knew who was behind it.

00:45:35And hadn't said.

00:45:36The trust in that room was thin as paper.

00:45:39However, that afternoon, Nisa struck in front of everyone.

00:45:43In a hall full of healers and candidates.

00:45:46She carried a tray of tonics toward me.

00:45:48She said with a smile.

00:45:50I hear you're a healer.

00:45:52So how about a contest?

00:45:54In front of everyone.

00:45:55If you win, I'll admit you belong here.

00:45:58If you lose, you go back to your slum.

00:46:01The whole hall fell silent.

00:46:03Waiting to watch the Omega humiliated.

00:46:05I looked at the tray of tonics.

00:46:07I looked at the certainty in Nisa's eyes.

00:46:09I thought of my mother's diary.

00:46:11Unfolding page by page in my mind.

00:46:14Fine.

00:46:15Nisa raised an eyebrow.

00:46:16Caught off guard.

00:46:17Tomorrow.

00:46:18The healer barger.

00:46:19All the candidates will be there.

00:46:20She turned to leave.

00:46:21Then tossed back one more line.

00:46:24Oh right.

00:46:25I heard someone in the castle nearly dragged you into the ground.

00:46:28She smiled.

00:46:29This place isn't very kind to borrowed brides.

00:46:35As Nisa left, she glanced back at Raven.

00:46:38That look said, you'll be on my side.

00:46:40She believed her claim of I'm Raven's still held.

00:46:44But Raven said nothing.

00:46:45He wasn't looking at her.

00:46:47He was looking at me.

00:46:48I raised my eyes and didn't flinch.

00:46:50In that instant, deep in his cold gaze, I saw something else.

00:46:55Something he himself was resisting.

00:46:57It was tipping toward me, against all his better judgment.

00:47:01I kept that to myself.

00:47:02But something else sent a chair down my spine.

00:47:06Nisa's earlier line.

00:47:07Someone nearly dragged you into the ground.

00:47:10I had never told anyone the details of the vine attack.

00:47:14I had never said the words, dragged into the ground.

00:47:17How did she know?

00:47:18She knew far too much about that accident in the woods.

00:47:22That night, I didn't go to my husband's.

00:47:25I went to the herb garden.

00:47:27I needed to prepare for the contest.

00:47:30But the door was open.

00:47:31Everything I had prepared and left on the shelves, had been tampered with, swapped out.

00:47:37Someone wanted me to poison myself in front of everyone tomorrow.

00:47:41I told no one that the herbs had been tampered with.

00:47:44Telling them would only make the Omega look like she was making excuses.

00:47:48I remade everything myself.

00:47:50All night.

00:47:51Before dawn, I went to see the High Lady.

00:47:54She was painting, blindfolded, by memory alone.

00:47:58Painting a garden she could no longer see.

00:48:01She said.

00:48:02I didn't expect you'd still come to see me.

00:48:06Why wouldn't I, High Lady?

00:48:08Because of what happened yesterday with Nyasha.

00:48:11Her brush stilled.

00:48:12I said nothing.

00:48:13I understood what she meant.

00:48:14She was apologizing for her silence.

00:48:16But in this castle, silence was often the only safe thing.

00:48:20I understood that.

00:48:21She said suddenly.

00:48:22You can call me Mother if you want to.

00:48:25My hand froze.

00:48:26She said softly.

00:48:28Not everyone deserves to be called Mother.

00:48:30And I know how much yours meant to you.

00:48:34So if you don't want to, that's completely fine.

00:48:37Something caught in my throat.

00:48:39I had never in my whole life said that word to anyone.

00:48:42My mother died the day she gave birth to me.

00:48:45I had never had a mother to love.

00:48:47Only one living in a diary.

00:48:49I said, avoiding the word.

00:48:52You're a wonderful mother.

00:48:53You love your children so much.

00:48:56She smiled.

00:48:57But there was sorrow in it.

00:48:59My sons carry a weight far heavier than you imagine.

00:49:02They were cursed from birth.

00:49:03Three sharing one cursed soul.

00:49:05They learned not to love anything.

00:49:08Because everything they loved died before they could keep it.

00:49:12I thought of Ezra's mask.

00:49:13Raven's hatred.

00:49:14Asher's silence.

00:49:15For the first time, I didn't see them as cruelty.

00:49:18I saw them as wounds.

00:49:20As I put her painting away, she caught my wrist.

00:49:23She said quietly.

00:49:25That gene file.

00:49:27How much of it have you absorbed?

00:49:30Most of it.

00:49:31I remember every line.

00:49:33She was silent for a long time.

00:49:34She finally said.

00:49:38Child.

00:49:40Someone in this castle who can hold the entire curse in their head is extremely dangerous.

00:49:46To someone who wants to break it, you're priceless.

00:49:49To someone who wants it to last forever.

00:49:54She didn't finish.

00:49:55She didn't need to.

00:49:56Outside, footsteps sounded.

00:49:58Not Mavka's.

00:49:59Someone had been standing outside the door, listening.

00:50:02The footsteps outside retreated.

00:50:04I rushed out.

00:50:05An empty hallway.

00:50:06No one there.

00:50:07But a trace of scent lingered in the air.

00:50:10Cold.

00:50:10Metallic.

00:50:11Raven.

00:50:12He had heard.

00:50:13He'd heard that I could hold the entire curse in my head.

00:50:16That afternoon, he called me into his study.

00:50:18The gene file lay spread across the desk.

00:50:20Recite it to me.

00:50:21Starting from line 312.

00:50:23I recited it.

00:50:25I recited it.

00:50:25Word for word.

00:50:26He turned to another page, pointing at random.

00:50:28I recited it.

00:50:29Here.

00:50:30He turned again.

00:50:31Pointed again.

00:50:32I didn't miss a single mark.

00:50:35Raven leaned back in his chair.

00:50:37Staring at me as if seeing me for the first time.

00:50:41Eidotic memory.

00:50:45After the poisoning, I kept waiting.

00:50:47Waiting for some power to manifest in you.

00:50:49It was there all along.

00:50:51You didn't decipher this curse with magic.

00:50:53He murmured, almost to himself.

00:50:55You carried the entire book into your head.

00:50:57You're the only person in the world who can hold the entire curse in your mind at once.

00:51:01In that moment, I watched something shift in his eyes.

00:51:04Not love.

00:51:06Not yet.

00:51:07Something else.

00:51:08I had become his only hope for breaking the curse.

00:51:11For saving his mother.

00:51:12For saving himself.

00:51:13I had gone from something disposable to the one thing that couldn't be lost.

00:51:18Tomorrow's contest, Nysa tampered with my herbs.

00:51:21I expected him to call me a liar.

00:51:23He didn't.

00:51:25He stood and took a sealed set of vials from his own cabinet.

00:51:28I froze.

00:51:31Use mine.

00:51:32No one dares touch anything of Raven's.

00:51:35Why are you helping me?

00:51:37His jaw tightened.

00:51:38Because if you die, the curse dies with you in the grave.

00:51:41But he wouldn't meet my eyes.

00:51:43We both knew that wasn't the whole reason.

00:51:46That night, Raven called his brothers together.

00:51:49Through the door, I heard him say something that would shake the whole castle.

00:51:52I want her enrolled at Helston.

00:51:55Let the Omega become a proper healer.

00:52:02Let her enroll?

00:52:03Yes.

00:52:05Let an Omega become a healer?

00:52:07What's next?

00:52:08Find her a fairy tale prince, too.

00:52:10Her mind can hold the entire curse.

00:52:13Helston has the only archive in this world dedicated to mortal diseases.

00:52:17What took us a year to fail at understanding.

00:52:19What she needs are tools.

00:52:21She needs that university.

00:52:23Stopped smiling.

00:52:24You forget why she's here.

00:52:26She's a bride.

00:52:27One who will fail.

00:52:28And be discarded.

00:52:30Like everyone before her.

00:52:31Just like...

00:52:32For an instant, something I couldn't read flickered in his blue eyes.

00:52:35Something old.

00:52:37Something painful.

00:52:38Asher hadn't spoken.

00:52:39Now he did.

00:52:41Let her go.

00:52:42She's already done what we couldn't.

00:52:43We have no right to underestimate her anymore.

00:52:46The air between the brothers went taut.

00:52:48Do what you want.

00:52:49He said, putting his smile back on.

00:52:52But it didn't reach his eyes.

00:52:54When they told me the decision, I thought I'd misheard.

00:52:57Me.

00:52:57Xanthea.

00:52:58The Omega who couldn't even finish sitting an exam.

00:53:01Going to a university.

00:53:03To study medicine.

00:53:07Die now.

00:53:08Why me?

00:53:09Asher looked at me for a long time.

00:53:12Because someone doesn't want you alive long enough to finish it.

00:53:15Sending you to Helston is the safest place I could think of.

00:53:19There, you'll always be surrounded by thousands of healers.

00:53:21Anyone who wants you dead will have to get through every one of them first.

00:53:24In that moment, I understood.

00:53:26Enrolling wasn't just an opportunity.

00:53:28It was a shield.

00:53:35The next day, the healer bara.

00:53:38The contest was about to begin.

00:53:41Nexa stood across from me, brimming with confidence.

00:53:44The whole circle of candidates had come to watch the Omega lose.

00:53:48Ready to go back to the slums?

00:53:50I looked at her.

00:53:51I'm not here to compare whose blood is stronger.

00:53:53I'm here to heal.

00:53:56The judge raised a hand.

00:53:58Begin.

00:54:00The contest's challenge was a case no one could identify.

00:54:03A dying patient.

00:54:04A knot of symptoms tangled beyond untwending.

00:54:07Nessa mixed a powerful tolic.

00:54:09The alpha healer's method, brute force suppression.

00:54:12I had no brute force.

00:54:13I only had my mother's mind, and my own.

00:54:17I closed my eyes.

00:54:19I opened the charred books in my mind, page by page.

00:54:22I recognized the knot.

00:54:24Not one illness.

00:54:25Three.

00:54:26Layered together.

00:54:27Each mosque in the others.

00:54:29I didn't suppress them.

00:54:30I unraveled them, layer by layer.

00:54:33When the patient's breathing settled, the whole hall went silent.

00:54:37The winner is the Virgo Bride.

00:54:41Nissa's face went white.

00:54:42She leaned in close.

00:54:43Her voice low enough for only me to hear.

00:54:46You got lucky this time.

00:54:47Next time I won't be the same people watching.

00:54:49She turned and left.

00:54:51But I had won.

00:54:52In front of every healer in hell, the Omega from the slums had won.

00:54:56When the elevator doors opened, an entire world of healers unfold before me.

00:55:00Students, staff, beings of every kind, flowing endlessly.

00:55:03At the entrance stood a four-horned devil statue, wearing a skull mask.

00:55:07Countless demons surround it, their wings all broken.

00:55:09They climbed over one another, desperately reaching for a book the devil held high above.

00:55:14What does that mean?

00:55:15Knowledge.

00:55:15Here.

00:55:16Knowledge is worth more than blood.

00:55:17I turned.

00:55:18A girl, her eyes bright as twin flames.

00:55:20I'm Zosia.

00:55:21You're the Omega who beat Nissa, right?

00:55:23I had never had a friend in my life.

00:55:24Zosia led me through the corridors of the healing department.

00:55:27Then she stopped in front of a door, her voice dropping.

00:55:30That's Asim, our strongest healer.

00:55:31He's not like the others.

00:55:33He can hear what no one else can.

00:55:34Inside, a man stood with his eyes closed.

00:55:36His fingers moved through the air, as if playing an invisible piano.

00:55:39He was listening to a patient, listening to their soul.

00:55:42The moment he opened his eyes, his gaze landed directly on me.

00:55:46His hand froze mid-air.

00:55:47He stared at me, his expression slowly shifting.

00:55:50You, in your soul, there are two melodies.

00:55:54Two melodies.

00:55:57Everyone in the room turned to look at me.

00:55:59Yours is singing too.

00:56:01One is yours.

00:56:03The other is older.

00:56:06Far older than you.

00:56:07My heartbeat stuttered.

00:56:09What does that mean?

00:56:10Asim shook his head, and for the first time, he looked genuinely confused.

00:56:14I don't know.

00:56:15I've practiced for centuries and never heard a sound like this.

00:56:18It's as if...

00:56:19As if someone hid the echo of another soul inside yours.

00:56:22I thought of the tearing pain that night of the soul bond.

00:56:25I thought of the carvera that hadn't killed me.

00:56:27I thought of the body's response that should never have been so intense.

00:56:30I thought of the High Lady's words, that Asher believed I was different.

00:56:34I had always thought I was just an Omega with no wolf form.

00:56:37That night, Asher came to pick me up.

00:56:40I told him what Azum had said.

00:56:42I watched his face.

00:56:43He wasn't surprised.

00:56:44You already knew.

00:56:45That's why you chose me, isn't it?

00:56:47Not because of my blood.

00:56:49Because of whatever is inside me.

00:56:52Asher was silent for a long time.

00:56:54His gray eyes were deep enough that I couldn't see the bottom.

00:56:56I chose you because I saw you at that drift race, crawling toward your mother's grave,

00:57:01covered in blood, your arm broken, still clutching that bouquet of flowers.

00:57:05That's when I felt it.

00:57:07The second melody in your soul.

00:57:10It was calling to me.

00:57:12He leaned closer and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear.

00:57:17As for what it is, I want to know too, Xantheon.

00:57:20Maybe we'll find the answer together.

00:57:23It was the first time he'd said we.

00:57:26My heart, against all its better judgment, skipped a beat.

00:57:29But right then, a deafening crash sounded from the glass palace above us.

00:57:33Glass shattering.

00:57:34Something fell from the top of the glass palace that housed all their cars.

00:57:39What fell wasn't a person.

00:57:41It was a car.

00:57:42Asher's white car shoved from the top floor of the glass palace,

00:57:45smashed just a few steps from us, bursting into a blaze.

00:57:48If we had lingered a few seconds longer,

00:57:50Asher pulled me behind him instantly.

00:57:52He looked up toward the top of the glass palace.

00:57:54A figure flickered there for a moment.

00:57:56The same one again.

00:57:57The vines.

00:57:58The poison.

00:57:59Now this.

00:58:00That night, Asher didn't take me back to my room.

00:58:04He put me in another car and drove out of the castle.

00:58:13Where are we going?

00:58:15Somewhere no one can hear us.

00:58:16And no cameras.

00:58:18He used the mind link to contact traffic control,

00:58:21rerouting every car that might have come down this road.

00:58:24My wife can freely do whatever mischief she wants to her husband.

00:58:28I wasn't going to.

00:58:31I know.

00:58:32You're too tense.

00:58:33Xanthia, someone tried to kill you today.

00:58:35The second time.

00:58:36Just for this one night, don't think about them.

00:58:43We sat on the grass.

00:58:45Overhead, the red clouds drifted slowly.

00:58:47A canary landed nearby.

00:58:49Usually it's the canary that sings.

00:58:52This time, it sounds more like a cat.

00:58:55He was teasing me.

00:58:56My voice, hoarse from nerves.

00:58:58I laughed.

00:58:59I was surprised to find myself laughing.

00:59:01No one had ever, in my whole life,

00:59:02taken me to a field just to make me laugh.

00:59:05On the way back, Asher suddenly stopped the car.

00:59:09Close your eyes.

00:59:10I did.

00:59:11I felt him lean in.

00:59:12A kiss, light as a feather, landed on my lips.

00:59:15When I opened my eyes,

00:59:16he had already turned back and started the car.

00:59:19What was that?

00:59:20A secret.

00:59:21I want things too, Xanthia.

00:59:25I just learned not to ask for them.

00:59:27As the car pulled back into the castle,

00:59:29I looked up at the highest tower.

00:59:31For some reason, I felt someone was up there,

00:59:33watching us.

00:59:34Behind a window, a blurred figure flickered past.

00:59:37It was Ezra.

00:59:38Our eyes met across that great distance.

00:59:40Then he retreated into the dark.

00:59:41I couldn't tell what was in that look.

00:59:43Not hatred, more like, pain.

00:59:45Like someone looking at something he had long sworn never to touch again.

00:59:49Asher followed my gaze and glanced at the tower too.

00:59:52He said nothing.

00:59:53But his hand tightened around mine.

00:59:57After that kiss, I didn't see Asher for several days.

01:00:00The brothers were all occupied.

01:00:02Raven was at the hospital.

01:00:03Ezra had vanished.

01:00:04Until one morning, Mavka came to my room looking strange.

01:00:08Lord Asher, he's asking you to come to his penthouse.

01:00:11I had never been to where he lived.

01:00:13It was the top floor of the glass palace.

01:00:15Three walls of glass.

01:00:16The red sky visible in full.

01:00:18I pushed the door open.

01:00:19Then I stopped.

01:00:20The entire room was filled with flowers.

01:00:23Forget me not.

01:00:24My mother's flowers.

01:00:25The kind that had been burned.

01:00:27The kind I thought I'd never see again.

01:00:29Pot after pot.

01:00:30Lined from the window all the way into the depths of the room.

01:00:33Blooming in full.

01:00:34Asher stood in the middle of the flowers.

01:00:36Watching me.

01:00:37This is...

01:00:38I found the variety written in your mother's diary.

01:00:41Grew it her way.

01:00:43You said you remembered every page.

01:00:46So you recited.

01:00:47And I planted.

01:00:49My tears fell.

01:00:50Not out of sorrow.

01:00:52But because something in this world that couldn't be burned away really existed.

01:00:55Why?

01:00:56He looked away.

01:00:57Toward the red clouds outside the window.

01:00:58Call it...

01:00:59A new hobby.

01:01:00But looking at the room full of forget me nots.

01:01:02I understood.

01:01:03Asher always knew exactly what everyone needed most.

01:01:06And he never asked for anything for himself.

01:01:08He simply gave it to you.

01:01:09Without a word.

01:01:10Later that day.

01:01:11Raven came to the penthouse to talk to Asher about the contest.

01:01:14I hid behind the flowers.

01:01:16Silent.

01:01:16Raven saw the room full of flowers.

01:01:18He recognized them.

01:01:20The flowers from my mother's burned diary.

01:01:22How does he always know what other people need most?

01:01:25Ezra leaned against the door frame.

01:01:27And for once.

01:01:28Didn't answer with a quip.

01:01:29He just stared at the flowers.

01:01:31For a long time.

01:01:32Because he never wants anything for himself.

01:01:34There was something in his voice I had never heard before.

01:01:36Quiet.

01:01:37Old.

01:01:38Not like us.

01:01:39I clenched my fists.

01:01:40So even they couldn't fully understand Asher.

01:01:42And in that moment.

01:01:43I suddenly wanted to know.

01:01:45What exactly Ezra.

01:01:47Who always smiled.

01:01:48Kept buried so deep.

01:01:49That night.

01:01:50I lay in the room full of forget me nots.

01:01:52I fell asleep.

01:01:53Holding a thought I didn't dare say aloud.

01:01:55I was beginning to feel that this place.

01:01:58This castle that devoured brides.

01:02:00These three husbands who had killed so many before me.

01:02:03Was slowly becoming a place I didn't want to leave.

01:02:07But the high lady's words echoed in the dark.

01:02:10Asher chose you for a reason.

01:02:12The brides died for a reason.

01:02:14I still hadn't found the whole truth.

01:02:16And the truth had already begun to find me.

01:02:20I was done waiting to be saved.

01:02:23I started investigating myself.

01:02:25Who summoned the vines?

01:02:26Who burned my books?

01:02:27Who pushed the car off the glass palace?

01:02:29I was a healer.

01:02:31My mind remembered every detail.

01:02:33I laid them out one by one in my mind.

01:02:36The vines?

01:02:37Sulfur at the break.

01:02:38Summoned.

01:02:39The carvera.

01:02:41A poison made to kill mortals.

01:02:43Unobtainable in the mortal realm.

01:02:44The burned books.

01:02:46Only my mothers were destroyed.

01:02:48Everyone.

01:02:49Everything else left untouched.

01:02:51These weren't three accidents.

01:02:53They were three acts by the same hand.

01:02:55And that hand could enter the herb garden.

01:02:57Enter the glass palace.

01:02:58And enter my home without breaking the door.

01:03:01It belonged to someone who could move freely through every home in this castle.

01:03:05For days, Ezra had been avoiding me.

01:03:08Every time I ran into him, he turned and walked away.

01:03:10Not even bothering to fake a smile.

01:03:12I went to find him once.

01:03:14His door was locked.

01:03:16Through the gap in the door, I glimpsed a very old diary spread open on his desk.

01:03:21Hearing me, he shoved it into a drawer, his eyes turning frighteningly cold.

01:03:26Stay away from me.

01:03:27I didn't understand.

01:03:29But I remembered this too.

01:03:31In this castle, behind everything I wasn't allowed to see, a truth was hiding.

01:03:36I went to the castle's records room.

01:03:38I wanted to check the entry logs.

01:03:40Who had visited which places at which times.

01:03:43I flipped to the roster from the day of the vine attack.

01:03:46My finger stopped on a name.

01:03:48Someone with access to everything.

01:03:50Someone who had been in this castle since the very first bride died.

01:03:54Someone we all turned our backs to, every single day.

01:03:57My blood ran cold.

01:03:59This wasn't Nisa.

01:04:02Nisa was just a pawn who had jumped too high.

01:04:05The real hand behind it all was far closer to us.

01:04:07I reached to pull the page free, but that page had already been torn out.

01:04:12Only a rough, torn edge remained.

01:04:15Just then, a hand landed on my shoulder.

01:04:18My blood froze in my veins.

01:04:21Looking for what, exactly?

01:04:27I spun around.

01:04:29It was Ezra.

01:04:30He stood under the dim light of the records room.

01:04:33Not smiling.

01:04:35You're looking for that hand.

01:04:37So are you.

01:04:39He stared at the torn edge.

01:04:40His eyes darkening.

01:04:42Stop investigating.

01:04:43The closer you get to that hang, the faster you'll die.

01:04:46Then tell me who it is.

01:04:48He didn't.

01:04:49Saying it before I'm certain will only spook them into hiding.

01:04:52And it will get you killed.

01:04:54He didn't kill me.

01:04:55He didn't threaten me either.

01:04:57He just stared at me.

01:04:58For a long time.

01:05:00Like he was looking at something he shouldn't.

01:05:02Then he turned and left.

01:05:04That night, he came to my room.

01:05:06Not with any intent to harm.

01:05:08I couldn't tell what he'd come with.

01:05:11Lord Ezra?

01:05:12I had learned by now.

01:05:13In this castle, a late night visit was never a good sign.

01:05:17He sat down at the edge of my bed.

01:05:19The room was still full of the forget-me-nots Asher had planted.

01:05:23Did you know I once knew a girl who liked to talk to things without life?

01:05:29She'd talk to flowers.

01:05:31To butterflies.

01:05:32She believed they understood her.

01:05:34I said nothing.

01:05:35Don't give living qualities to things without life.

01:05:38Because if they really came alive, you couldn't bear it.

01:05:42I looked at him for a long time.

01:05:44Then I did something no one had probably ever done to him.

01:05:47I reached out and touched the back of his hand.

01:05:51What happened to her?

01:05:53The girl who talked to flowers.

01:05:55His whole body went rigid.

01:05:57The smile he always wore couldn't hold for the first time.

01:06:00She died.

01:06:01Like they all do.

01:06:03Like you will too.

01:06:05He pulled his hand back and stood.

01:06:08Don't misunderstand, little toy.

01:06:10I don't care whether you live or die.

01:06:12I just don't like anyone taking what's mine.

01:06:14He walked to the door without looking back.

01:06:17Stay away from me.

01:06:18It's for your own good.

01:06:20I sat in the dark, holding the hand that had just touched him.

01:06:23I finally understood.

01:06:25That smile wasn't cruelty.

01:06:27It was a door welded shut for centuries.

01:06:30And I, without meaning to, had pried it open a crack.

01:06:35He pushed me away not because he didn't care.

01:06:38But because he was too afraid of losing something again.

01:06:41For Ezra, being hated was something he could bear.

01:06:44Loving again.

01:06:46He couldn't.

01:06:47I looked at the room full of forget-me-nots.

01:06:50I didn't do as he asked and stay away.

01:06:53Instead, I wanted to get closer.

01:06:57After Ezra pushed me away, a strange quiet settled over the castle.

01:07:02But strangely, something else was slowly drawing near.

01:07:06It was an ordinary morning, if this place had such a thing.

01:07:11I came downstairs to find the three brothers sitting together at the breakfast table.

01:07:15Ezra nearly spilled his coffee.

01:07:17Raven's hand shot out cleanly and steadied the tray of cups.

01:07:20Whoa, Raven.

01:07:21Have I ever told you that you should join the circus?

01:07:24You'd be as popular as your coffee.

01:07:27Asher was in the kitchen, quietly preparing something.

01:07:30I stood at the door, watching this scene.

01:07:32Three demon lords who had killed countless brides, bickering over a tray of coffee.

01:07:37And somewhere inside me, something softened.

01:07:40Two potted flowers sat at the center of the breakfast table.

01:07:43The forget-me-nots Asher had grown.

01:07:45How does he always know what other people need most?

01:07:48No one answered.

01:07:49But in that moment, there was something at that table I had never, in my life, been part of.

01:07:56A family.

01:07:57Ezra suddenly asked me.

01:07:59What were you like as a child?

01:08:01A very old memory surfaced.

01:08:04I was five.

01:08:06I had a caretaker back then.

01:08:08Her job was to make sure I never crossed paths with Luna Misa's family.

01:08:12One time, she failed.

01:08:17I was hungry, wandering the Virgo Palace, and stumbled into the dining hall.

01:08:23The table was covered in food I had never seen.

01:08:26I only wanted a bite.

01:08:28Luna grabbed my hand and flipped the entire table.

01:08:31Food, tablecloth, and all.

01:08:33On to me.

01:08:35Omegas don't belong at the table.

01:08:38That was the first time I understood I was different from them.

01:08:41When I told them this, I didn't expect anyone to react.

01:08:45But Raven set down his knife and fork.

01:08:47The smile vanished from Ezra's face.

01:08:51Asher came out of the kitchen and gently set a plate of food in front of me.

01:08:56At this table, you belong.

01:09:00I looked at the plate.

01:09:01My eyes stung.

01:09:03But just then, a commotion stirred deep in the castle.

01:09:06Mothka rushed in, her face pale.

01:09:09High Lady.

01:09:10The High Lady can't hold on.

01:09:13The curse, it's gotten worse.

01:09:19I rushed into the High Lady's room.

01:09:21Her face, the face that never aged, had gone grey for the first time.

01:09:26The tincture I'd given her had stopped working.

01:09:29The curse was accelerating.

01:09:32There's less time than we thought.

01:09:35Child, don't grieve for me.

01:09:38Go break it.

01:09:40I held her hand.

01:09:41I flipped through every line of the gene file in my mind.

01:09:44I could make the tincture to slow it.

01:09:47But to break it entirely, I needed something the castle's herb garden didn't have.

01:09:52Something only one place had.

01:09:54The Healer Bazaar.

01:09:56The Healer Bazaar, where magic and medicine meet.

01:09:59Serving healers since the dawn of time.

01:10:01I read the words carved into the arched wooden sign.

01:10:05Cobblestone streets lined with towering stacked buildings.

01:10:08The air of this place made me both thrilled and afraid.

01:10:12Zosia tugged my arm, pulling me into the crowd.

01:10:16There's nothing here you can't buy, as long as you can afford the price.

01:10:20We searched stall by stall.

01:10:22Glowing roots.

01:10:24Shadows sealed in glass.

01:10:26Seeds caged in cages.

01:10:28Singing.

01:10:29Checked off every ingredient from my mother's diary, one by one, in my mind.

01:10:34Finally, in a dim little shop deep within,

01:10:37I found it.

01:10:39The final ingredient needed to break the curse.

01:10:42A silver-white flower that only bloomed at the border between two realms.

01:10:47Moonbond.

01:10:47The last one left in the entire bazaar.

01:10:51But you're too late, girl.

01:10:54Someone claimed it half an hour ago.

01:10:57Who?

01:10:58The shopkeeper tilted his chin toward something behind me.

01:11:01I turned around.

01:11:03Nisa, leaning against the doorway, spinning a coin in her hand, smiling brightly.

01:11:07Need the moonbond?

01:11:09What a coincidence.

01:11:10So do I.

01:11:12If you want it, trade me the curse data in your head.

01:11:16I stared at her.

01:11:17In that moment, it all became clear.

01:11:19Nisa had never wanted a lunacy.

01:11:21She wanted the curse itself.

01:11:23You don't want to break it.

01:11:24You want to obtain it.

01:11:26To control it!

01:11:28Clever.

01:11:29No wonder they can't bring themselves to discard you.

01:11:31But you're forgetting one thing, little Omega.

01:11:33Someone who can hold the entire curse in their head.

01:11:37If they die, that copy in your head is the only one left.

01:11:40And a mind can be extracted.

01:11:43Behind her, two tall figures stepped out of the crowd, blocking the shop's exit.

01:11:48Zosia's hand gripped mine tightly.

01:11:51The two figures closed in on me.

01:11:54Zosia stepped in front of me, but she was only a student.

01:11:56The shop was too deep in, with no other way out.

01:11:59My mind raced.

01:12:01I had no wolf form, no alpha strength.

01:12:04But I had a mind full of remedies.

01:12:06I grabbed a handful of glowing roots from the store, crushed them, and flung them into the two men's faces.

01:12:12They screamed and stumbled back.

01:12:14A hallucinogenic agent.

01:12:16One my mother had recorded on page 70 of her diary.

01:12:20Zosia, run!

01:12:22We burst out of the shop and into the crowd of the bazaar.

01:12:26Catch her!

01:12:27Don't hurt her head!

01:12:28We ran wildly through the alleys.

01:12:30My heels had come off long ago.

01:12:33Just as a hand seized my hair, a black flame dropped from the sky and burned the arm clean off.

01:12:39Ezra.

01:12:40He landed between me and my pursuers, his blue eyes burning with murderous intent.

01:12:45I told you, I don't like anyone taking what's mine.

01:12:48He no longer hid his best form.

01:12:50The whole alley burned beneath his feet.

01:12:53Nissa's men scattered.

01:12:53But Nissa herself didn't run.

01:12:57Ezra.

01:12:58You want the curse too, don't you?

01:13:00All three of you are running out of time.

01:13:03As long as she lives, the curse stays in her head.

01:13:08Why don't we work together?

01:13:09Shut up.

01:13:10You think this is about the curse.

01:13:12Tell me who sent you.

01:13:14The one in the castle.

01:13:15The one who burned the books, poisoned her, summoned the vines.

01:13:20You already know.

01:13:23I know.

01:13:24I just wanted to hear you say his name myself.

01:13:26But Nissa never got the chance.

01:13:29A crossbow bolt shot out of the darkness, striking her straight in the throat.

01:13:34It wasn't aimed at me.

01:13:35It was aimed at her.

01:13:37Silencing her.

01:13:39As Nissa fell, her eyes were full of disbelief.

01:13:42She reached toward me, lips moving, forcing out one last word.

01:13:47The start of a name.

01:13:49Then she moved no more.

01:13:50Ezra spun around, staring toward where the bolt had come from.

01:13:54But there was only churning red cloud, and an empty rooftop.

01:13:58Whoever it was had vanished into the dark once more.

01:14:01That night, they brought me back to the castle.

01:14:04Asher held my hand the whole time, never letting go.

01:14:08Raven tended my scrapes, cursing non-stop, his hands shaking.

01:14:13Ezra stood at the window, his back to us.

01:14:16Silent.

01:14:18And in my hand, I clutched the flower Nissa had dropped as she died.

01:14:23The moon bond.

01:14:24The final ingredient to break the curse.

01:14:27Even in death, she never managed to take it.

01:14:30I looked at the silver-white flower.

01:14:32I thought of Asm's words.

01:14:34The second melody in my soul.

01:14:36I thought of the carvera that hadn't killed me.

01:14:40I thought of Asher saying the song in my soul had been calling to him.

01:14:45Maybe what would break this curse had never been only the knowledge in my head.

01:14:49Maybe it was something in my blood.

01:14:51Something even I didn't yet know.

01:14:54In the high lady's room, I finished mixing the remedy.

01:14:57The moon bond was the final ingredient.

01:15:00The line from my mother's diary, burned to ash, yet alive in my mind, was finally complete.

01:15:07I brought the remedy to her lips.

01:15:10This time it isn't just slowing it down.

01:15:12This is the start of breaking it.

01:15:15She drank it.

01:15:17We waited.

01:15:18Her bone-thin hand.

01:15:19The fingertips began to flush with color.

01:15:22Not slowing.

01:15:24Reversing.

01:15:24For the first time.

01:15:26Reversing.

01:15:28The aunts wept.

01:15:29Nezrin laughed aloud.

01:15:31The high lady, blindfolded, turned her face toward me.

01:15:35Clever child.

01:15:37You've done what even my sons could not.

01:15:40I knelt by her bed, and for the first time, let the words fall from my lips.

01:15:45You're welcome, mother.

01:15:46Her hand tightened around mine.

01:15:49But breaking a curse takes time.

01:15:51And the one who wanted it to last forever was running out of time.

01:15:54Nisa was dead.

01:15:56The moon bond was in my hands.

01:15:58Whoever hid in the dark knew they were close to being exposed.

01:16:02That night, the three husbands walked into my room together.

01:16:06Raven, cold, but his eyes had changed.

01:16:08Ezra, smiling.

01:16:10But for the first time, it was real.

01:16:13Asher, watching.

01:16:15As always.

01:16:16We found out.

01:16:17Who wants you dead?

01:16:19Who burned your mother's books?

01:16:21Who sent Nisa?

01:16:22Who silenced Nisa?

01:16:25Who is it?

01:16:26Ezra placed a file in front of me.

01:16:28I opened it.

01:16:29An entry log.

01:16:30A transfer record.

01:16:31Someone who had been in this castle with access to everything since the very first bride died.

01:16:35Someone we all turned our backs to.

01:16:38Every single day.

01:16:39When I saw the name, my blood went cold.

01:16:42It wasn't a stranger.

01:16:43It was.

01:16:44I looked up at Asher.

01:16:45There was no surprise on his face.

01:16:47In that instant, I understood everything.

01:16:50You already knew this name.

01:16:53And more.

01:16:54You didn't start looking into this today.

01:16:57Asher said nothing.

01:16:58His gray eyes bottomless.

01:16:59That second melody in my soul, Asher said, it was older than me.

01:17:03The caraveta couldn't kill me.

01:17:05The vines couldn't drag me under.

01:17:07The soul bond couldn't tear me apart.

01:17:09That was never because of the knowledge in my head, was it?

01:17:13It's something in my blood.

01:17:15That song, I recognize it.

01:17:17Someone sang it long ago.

01:17:19The brides, every year.

01:17:21They were never chosen at random, Xanthia.

01:17:22They were all broken echoes of that song.

01:17:26And you are the first in hundreds of years to sing it whole.

01:17:30My breath stopped.

01:17:32Then what am I really?

01:17:34Asher didn't answer.

01:17:35I saw, in his eyes, the last sentence he swallowed back down.

01:17:39He was still hiding something from me.

01:17:41Something even bigger than the traitor.

01:17:44And in the depths of that silence, I saw something else.

01:17:47A look he had been hiding since the day he chose me.

01:17:50It wasn't calculation.

01:17:51It was something even he hadn't expected.

01:17:54His heart moved.

01:17:56I looked at my three husbands.

01:17:58One who had frozen himself, now beginning to thaw.

01:18:01One who had buried love beneath a smile, now falling again.

01:18:05One who gave everything to others, and kept nothing for himself.

01:18:10And I, an Omega who had come here to die, now held the key to breaking their curse.

01:18:16And a secret in my blood, I hadn't even seen clearly myself.

01:18:20All right, then let's do it.

01:18:22Together.

01:18:23Break this curse.

01:18:25Drag out whoever is hiding in the dark, and then find out exactly what I am.

01:18:29Outside the window, the red cloud split open for the first time.

01:18:32A ray of true sunlight, unseen for centuries, poured in.

01:18:36Falling on the Omega everyone had once forgotten.

01:18:38Falling on the Eagle.

01:18:40Palm on the Old Lane in that meantime.

01:18:41July 20, treatments.

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