Page 57 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN

GIDEON

I trudged through the dense forest with Luciano a few feet behind me, his glare burning into the back of my head. The dark canopy cast shadows across the overgrown ground. The scent of pine drifted through my nostrils, reminding me of a time long, long ago.

When Luciano and I had run through this forest, first as a playful game of tag, then while we were training to become warriors, then during the night that the dragons attacked us, when he told me to run and never look back.

That night, he couldn’t save me.

That night, I died.

That night, I had burned alive.

I peered over my shoulder, and Luciano scowled at me.

“Turn around and keep moving.”

After turning back on the path, I let my gaze fall to the ground. Luciano didn’t trust me, and I didn’t blame him. I wouldn’t have trusted me either. There were things that I couldn’t explain, secrets burned into me.

“Luciano, I?—”

His foot collided with the center of my back, and I hit the ground, belly-first. Still holding his wound closed, he stumbled over to me and kicked me as hard as he could in the ribs.

“I said to keep fucking moving.”

“You’re acting irrational,” I said, taking another swift kick.

He placed his foot against the side of my head, pinning me to the ground. “Where have you been for the past decades? I buried your body. I fucking buried you. And now you’re back? Now you’re alive?!”

“I can explain.”

“I gave you enough fucking time to explain, and you couldn’t. I’m not following you to my death,” Luciano said. “I’m not going to let you fucking kill me too. I’m going to find Yeosin myself, and then we’re leaving.”

“Leaving for where?” I asked. “The dragons will never allow that.”

“I don’t give a fuck,” Luciano spit, shoving me away and walking in the opposite direction. He had no fucking idea where the dragons’ den was, and he would never find it. Not as a beast. “Leave me and my mate alone.”

Once he was far enough away to where I knew he wouldn’t kick me again, I stood up on shaky legs. “She’s my mate too,” I called to him.

He tightened his fist, his entire body tensing as he stopped in the middle of the forest.

“How long have you been watching her?” he asked. “ Stalking her.”

“Longer than you.”

Luciano whipped back around and glared at me, blood seeping between his fingers. If he didn’t get help quickly, then he would pass out, and I’d have to drag his ass all the way to the mountain so the rest of our pack could heal him.

“I don’t fucking believe you,” he growled.

“Then why’d you ask?”

After a couple more silent moments, Luciano drew his tongue across his teeth. “What’s the orb? The orange one that Mom always knew about. Tell me what it is, and I’ll think about trusting you.”

I leaned on the closest tree and held my side, biting back a grunt. Luciano might’ve been wounded, but he was and would always be stronger than me in hand-to-hand combat. I had never met anyone as strong as him, not even the dragons.

“You’re not going to believe me,” I said honestly.

“Try me.”

“Please,” I pleaded. “Let me get you help first.”

“Fucking useless,” Luciano growled, turning around and walking through the woods.

The wind picked up, and I cursed to myself and hurried after him. “The orb is an egg.”

Luciano stopped. “A what?”

“An egg.”

“Bullshit.”

“I told you that you wouldn’t believe me.”

“What kind of fucking egg is this?” he asked, pulling the orb out of his pocket.

With an orange glow, the sphere rolled around in Luciano’s palm. My eyes widened at the sight of it because Mom had told me so much yet so little about it before she died. It was more than just an egg. It was a symbol.

A symbol of the firebird. The phoenix. My father.

“It’s …” I started trying to figure out how to explain this all. I’d had decades to figure it out, and I still couldn’t. I still had questions that had been left unexplained, questions that I might never find the answers to without Yeosin. “It’s a phoenix egg.”

His lip curled in disgust. “Liar.”

“I swear, Luciano,” I said, holding up my arms. “I don’t know much. I’ve been trying to figure it all out for years now, but none of it makes sense. Mom told me that it was a phoenix egg. It’s from my father.”

“Your father was my father,” Luciano growled. “Quit making shit up.”

“No, he wasn’t. Mom … Mom had an affair.”

“She wouldn’t have done that,” he said. “Dad and she were mates.”

“You don’t get it. Mom was mated to more than one person, just like Yeosin.”