Page 110 of The Breeding Cave
“You’re not going to get yourself killed too,” he growled.
“I’m going to kill them.”
“They’ll kill you!”
“I don’t care anymore! I have nothing else to live for. Move the fuck out of my way.”
Gideon shoved me back again, this time with so much force that I hit a tree, and suddenly, all the adrenaline that I had been running on for the past few hours evaporated. And a wall of weakness hit me all at once.
“You don’t have nothing to live for,” Gideon said. “Yeosin isn’t gone. Neither is your baby. They’re phoenixes, the strongest creatures in this land. They can be tortured, imprisoned, enslaved, but they can never truly die.”
CHAPTER
SIXTY-THREE
YEOSIN
Blinding white light jolted me awake. I sat up from my prone position and shielded my face with my forearm, slowly blinking my eyes open. Where am I? Dead? Is this the afterlife? Do I even believe in an afterlife?
When my vision adjusted to the bright light, I fully opened my eyes and stared at the world around me. My body lay to the left of me. Nobody was around, but there were footprints showing me that someone had been here recently.
And everything … was quiet. Too quiet.
I walked to the body and crouched down next to it, my heart pounding inside my chest.
I am in the afterlife. How could I see myself otherwise?
Tears pricked the corners of my eyes, and I reached to brush my fingers against my belly bump in my physical body. As my fingers touched my burned corpse, something kicked inside my stomach. My ghostly stomach.
How … how is this possible?
My baby kicked inside my belly, over and over, more active than she had ever been. I placed a hand on my own stomach, the tears stinging my eyes. I wished that my baby had survived so Luciano had someone.
Once I turned back to my body, I cupped my face in my own hands. My tears fell onto the burned and scarred corpse. As my metaphorical tears collided with my real body, an explosion of emotions erupted within me.
I could hear smells, see tastes, smell sounds. The dead world around me exploded into colors, sensations, vibrations. Creatures that hadn’t been here before were now walking around me, their bodies so … real.
“What is this place?” I whispered to myself.
The baby did somersaults inside my belly, and I could almost hear her giggling, could almost see her smile right in front of my face, her cheeks chubby, and all that thick hair that she had gotten from Luciano.
A sob escaped my mouth. This world was so cruel for torturing me like this.
I could’ve had this all if I had lived …
“Lived?” someone asked, taking my hand and pulling me to my feet. “You are alive.”
“No. No, no, no, no, no, no,” I whispered. “I’m dead.”
It was certain. It had to be certain. I had burned alive. I remembered it. I’d felt it.
“My dear,” she said, lifting my face in her hands. Her eyes were burning the brightest shade of orange, her veins visible through her skin, glowing as brightly as her eyes. “You’re alive. I promise you that you’re alive.”
“I can’t be. I felt it.”
“Your body might have perished, but your mind is free. Your soul is free. You are a phoenix. You will be reborn and granted another life, one full of power and freedom.” She pushed hair out of my face. “But as one of the only phoenixes not enslaved, you have duties.”
I shook my head. “No, I … I can’t. I can’t help anyone.”
