Page 113 of The Breeding Cave
Throat tight with emotion, I pressed my lips together and held back my tears, walking through the path of beasts that parted for me. Beasts called for doctors and healers to the front, each bringing magic or devices that could heal my mate.
Nobody here, except Molly and Ella, had met Yeosin, but everyone seemed to know that she meant something to me. I placed Yeosin on a table carved out of rock in the center of the meeting room and collapsed by her side, tears sliding down my cheeks.
“Please, someone, help her,” I pleaded. “Please, save her and my child.”
Ella appeared before the doctors, her eyes wide and on Yeosin. Her brows quivered, and she looked up at me with tears in her eyes. The last time I had seen her, she had wanted Yeosin dead so she could take Yeosin’s place.
“What happened?” she whispered.
“She fell from the Dragon Clan’s den in the sky,” I said. “Burning alive.”
“Luciano …” Ella said, shaking her head as she approached Yeosin. “There’s nothing …”
“There has to be something you can do!” I exclaimed. “Don’t fuck with me, Ella.”
Ella opened and closed her mouth a handful of times, gaze dropping to Yeosin’s belly, where our baby had burned alive too. Ella slapped a hand over her mouth and let out a sob that mirrored one of mine. “Oh my Goddess …”
“Gideon said she is a phoenix. He wants to burn her body. I want you to heal her.”
“I can’t,” Ella said. “Nobody here can. She’s too far gone.”
“No,” I whispered, stepping closer. “There has to be a way. Tell me what to do.”
“I can’t do anything,” she said. “If she is truly a phoenix, then Gideon is right. You must continue to burn her body, and there is a chance that she will return. It’s a phoenix’s nature. They must be consumed by the fire to be reborn.”
“B-but what if she isn’t … what if I lose her for good? I can’t do that.”
“If there’s any chance of bringing her back, you have to trust in the phoenix’s power.”
Molly stepped forward and placed a hand on my shoulder. “It’s the only way.”
“The only way?” I asked myself, staring down at my mate’s corpse.
Is this really the only way? Do I have to lose her for her to be reborn? Was Gideon right?
“Okay,” I whispered. “Okay, if it’s the only way, then let’s burn her. I need my mate back.”
CHAPTER
SIXTY-FIVE
YEOSIN
My corpse lay upon a slab of stone within the mountain, covered in flames. I stood beside my mate and clutched him tightly, wishing that he could see and hear me. But nobody in the mountain could, not since I had burned alive and died.
“Don’t cry,” I whispered into his ear, wrapping my arms around him. “I’m here with you.”
To my surprise, Luciano relaxed his body slightly, as if he could feel my touch, hear my words. I knew that it was impossible because he hadn’t been able to see me during the entire trek to the mountain. Why would he start now?
I cuddled up next to him from behind, laying my ear against his large, muscular back, and closed my eyes. I hoped that once my body finished burning, I would return in one piece. But just like Luciano, I feared I’d be gone from this world forever.
“It’s okay,” I murmured. “You’re so strong for doing this. So, so strong.”
His shoulders jerked forward, and he released a low sob that only I could hear, one that I could see after my senses had heightened. It was like a dark mist, filled with lightning and heartbreak and desperation.
My body crackled, the flames eating the last of my skin and organs.
While Luciano’s hand was engulfed in flames, he hadn’t stopped holding my hand, squeezing the bones, as if … if he did, then I wouldn’t completely melt away from him. His body was trembling uncontrollably in front of everyone, except he wasn’t making a sound.
