Page 63 of The Breeding Cave

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.”

I hadn’t been able to help anyone in my previous life. I had to get those girls to help me because I wasn’t capable of escaping by myself. I had gotten so many people killed, put so many people in danger.

This was all … because of me.

“Follow me,” the woman murmured, wings extending from her back.

She took my hand and leaped off the ground, beginning to float in the air. And suddenly, I was too. My eyes widened from how easy this was, and I looked behind me to see a set of large orange wings had extended from my back too.

What the hell is ? —

“They’re your wings.” She giggled. “You’ll get used to them. Trust me.”

“Trust you?” I exclaimed. “There are wings in my back!”

She continued to fly upward and toward the dragons’ den, where I had just escaped from. “Your baby has them too. She’s a phoenix. The first phoenix to be born and reborn at the same time.” She placed her hand on my belly and smiled. “I’m so happy for you, Yeosin. You’ve grown so much.”

“You know my name?” I asked, brows furrowed. “How?”

After pausing for a brief moment, she ignored my question and redirected her attention to the cliff I had leaped off of. We touched down on the edge and walked into the empty room.

“It was brave of you to burn yourself. Most phoenixes don’t believe in their abilities to be reborn and wait until death.”

“Brave?” I mumbled, walking to the stairs and glancing around for the kids who had helped me escape.

The castle, den, whatever it was, it was eerily silent in terms of sounds I was used to. I took a step down the stairs, following a sensation that pulled me downward.

A sensation that ached for me to find it.

The woman moved closely behind, not speaking a word.

I wandered through the den, searching each and every room but finding no physical bodies. The sounds that I could hear, that I could experience , were loud yet dull at the same time. Coming from everywhere yet nowhere at once.

“What are these … feelings?” I asked, finding myself at a thick dungeon door.

“A shared consciousness,” she said. “All phoenixes gain access when they’re reborn.”

My baby twirled inside me, as if she could hear and see and feel everything too.

I placed a hand over my bump and the other hand on the thick door.

Electricity—or more like a jolt of all the pain that’d ever happened within these walls—zipped through my entire body.

I yanked my hand back and stared in horror at the door.

“What’s beyond here?” I asked. “Surely, you know.”

The woman pushed the door open with ease, revealing hundreds, if not thousands, of phoenixes trapped in a dungeon, being tortured by the dragons. My eyes widened further, and I stepped backward.

This was the place Alvin had mentioned …

“You need to save them, Yeosin,” the woman said to me. “The fate of the phoenixes depends on you and your child. Help free us from the chains the Dragon Clan has trapped us in. Free your family.”

My gaze slowly drifted from the room to her again. “Who are you?”

“One day,” she murmured, tucking some hair behind my ear, “I hope to tell you.”

And with that, I was suddenly back in the forest, sitting over my body. Alone.