Page 64 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER SIXTY-FOUR

LUCIANO

“We need to finish burning her body,” Gideon said.

I stood in front of my mate and stared at my brother, the anger boiling inside me. How can I allow such a thing? How can he suggest such a thing?

Yeosin had just burned alive. If she was really a phoenix, she would’ve been reborn now, wouldn’t she?

Gideon tried to sidestep me to get to my mate, but I shoved him back.

“No.”

“Yes. It’s the only way to bring her back,” Gideon said, as calm as ever. “If the dragons hadn’t attacked, you would’ve found my body wasn’t in the grave you’d buried me in. Someone dug me up and burned my body until there was nothing but bones left.”

“Who?” I snarled, shoving him back again. “Who did that?”

“I don’t know,” Gideon said.

“Bull-fucking-shit you don’t know. You know.”

Gideon held his arms up. “I don’t. Now, do you want to save her or not?”

My tongue glided across my lengthened canines, and then I crouched down to Yeosin’s corpse. I couldn’t accept it. There had to be another way. We couldn’t burn the only person to ever matter to me to ashes.

What if she wasn’t a phoenix? Then I wouldn’t have any part of her left.

I brushed my fingers against her exposed rib cage, then further down to her stomach. Tears stung my eyes. Inside her stomach, nestled around her charred organs, was the smallest corpse that I had ever seen, her bones so frail.

My fingers shook. My throat closed up. I pulled our baby out of Yeosin’s stomach, and a sob that I hadn’t known I was capable of escaped my throat.

“Our baby,” I cried, holding it to my chest. “I’m sorry. I’m sorry. I should’ve protected you and your mother.”

This is my fault. This is all my fucking fault. And I need to fix it.

“I know it’s hard,” Gideon started, “but this is the only way.”

“How can you ask me to do this?” I cried.

“Her death has given us a chance to bring her back,” Gideon said. “Let me do it.”

“There has to be another way,” I whispered, placing our baby back into her stomach and picking up what was left of her. I stood to my feet and scanned the forest, finding a path that led to the mountain where my pack was hiding out. “There has to be a healer who can help us.”

I didn’t trust Gideon. I wanted to, but I didn’t.

“I’m so sorry, my love,” I murmured against her forehead, walking through the woods.

“Where are you going?” Gideon asked, following quickly behind me. “We need to burn?—”

“Let me try to find another way,” I pleaded, feeling the grief in my bones.

When Gideon suddenly stopped, I turned my head to look back at him. I expected him to continue forward with me, continue pestering me about this, continue demanding that we burn her body right here and right now. But he didn’t.

Instead, he nodded. “Okay, I will be here when you’re ready.”

I nodded and turned back toward the mountain, ready to make the journey to bring my mate back to life. I didn’t care how long it took, but I knew I needed to get there soon. I knew I needed to bring her back to life as soon as magically possible.

Yeosin’s corpse was cold in my arms, yet my body felt warm, like something was holding or hugging me from behind. I wanted so desperately to believe that it was Yeosin, but she was dead. Dead and not alive. Not in any timeline.

The forest around me was eerily silent, the only sound the rustle of leaves beneath my feet and the occasional cry that escaped my lips. With every step, my legs became heavier and heavier. So many memories lost. So much time … lost. So much love … lost.

Time passed so agonizingly slowly, but I finally found my way to the mountain. My pack—some people who I hadn’t seen in years—was crowded at the entrance, as if they had sensed my presence.

“What happened?” one of the elders asked.

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.”