Page 67 of The Breeding Cave

CHAPTER SIXTY-SEVEN

YEOSIN

Dawn light flooded around the trees, creating patterns on the forest floor around me. I stared ahead at the path we’d take—one that we would forge —to step into a new life. Soon, the Dragon Clan would be gone. Forever.

Warriors shouted behind me, pumping each other up for the fight. I placed a hand on my belly bump and closed my eyes, hoping to connect to the phoenixes. That woman had said that we had a shared consciousness. But I had been trying and failing to activate it all night.

My baby kicked the inside of my stomach over and over, as if she was somersaulting inside of me, as if she was ready, excited even. One of these days, we would have to give her a name. That was, if we made it out alive.

The wind blew heavily around us, blowing the feathers of my wings back. I inhaled the sound of Luciano’s footsteps—it was still weird, being able to experience sounds as smells or sight as touch—and moved into the forest.

“It’s time to go,” I said over my shoulder.

Once the warriors gathered all their weapons, they followed through the woods. I clenched my fists, talons digging into the skin on my palms. We would win. We had to win. For the pack. For all the families lost. For all the families to come.

“Are you okay?” Luciano asked, capturing my hand.

I released my fist and softly gazed up at him. “Fine.”

“That doesn’t sound fine.”

“I’m nervous,” I whispered. “What if we’re leading all these people to death?”

Luciano nodded. “We might be.”

I smacked him on the shoulder. “That doesn’t help!”

“It’s the truth,” he said honestly. “You haven’t been in war before, so you don’t know. To be a soldier, you have to be willing to lose everything, even your life. All the warriors behind us know that and accept that. They’re fighting for freedom.”

“Freedom,” I repeated, a sudden pain through my head.

The trees spun around, and I grabbed on to Luciano to steady myself.

“Freedom,” I said again.

Another pain split through my brain, and then I had a vision of the phoenixes in that vile prison, those girls that Alvin had locked up, all whispering, “Freedom,” alongside me. Their bodies might’ve been caged, but their minds were free.

In this shared consciousness, they could be and do anything. They were limitless.

“Freedom.” The woman from before entered my view. “Freedom.” She extended her arm, offering me a soft smile. “Freedom.” The word left her mouth, and suddenly, I was back with the group, inside the cages with them.

“Free our bodies,” one said, her skin as red as her hair. “We’ve been waiting.”

“Waiting for you ,” another said. “We’re waiting for you to free us.”

“Please, come,” a male phoenix said. “We will help defeat the dragons together.”

I stared around at the phoenixes in cages, my body suddenly on fire, like it used to be inside my dreams, when Gideon was the one igniting my body. But this time … it couldn’t be him. There was no reason for him to burn me anymore now that I was a phoenix.

No, my body was doing this on its own.

“They can’t stop all of us,” the woman said. “But you have to light the match.”

Then a dungeon door hidden underneath vines flashed through my mind.

As quickly as I had entered the shared consciousness, or maybe it was a dream, I woke up and stared around. Luciano was carrying me in his arms, the warriors around him. I fluttered my eyelids open.

“What happened?” I asked.

“You passed out,” he said, brows furrowed. “You’re not going to fight today.”

“Yes, I am,” I said, scrambling out of his hold and looking around to take in my surroundings. We were more than halfway to the cliff. We were so close that I could smell the dragon’s fire. “I’m fighting with you. I have to.”

“You just passed out and were set on fire within your dream,” he said, showing me his arms that were covered in burns, his skin charred. “I can’t let anything happen to you or the baby. Do you hear me, Yeosin?”

“I didn’t pass out, and it wasn’t like my other dreams.”

Molly shared a look with Luciano. “I think you should sit this one out too.”

“No,” I exclaimed. “I was talking with the phoenixes. They’re going to help us.”

“You were hallucinating,” Luciano said. “You can’t hallucinate during war.”

“She’s telling the truth,” Gideon said. “I saw it too.”

“You didn’t pass out,” Luciano growled at him.

Looks like they are back to hating each other …

“I was just a viewer,” Gideon said. “I didn’t interact with the others. It would’ve taken a toll on my body, like it did Yeosin’s. She’s telling the truth. The other phoenixes will help us. We just have to release them from their cages.”

The others marched on, but there was a sudden sensation, a sudden urge for me to stop. Luciano paused, and then the other members followed. I glanced around, something feeling so eerily familiar.

We were going in the correct direction—I was sure of it—but …

I followed the urge further toward the left, like an invisible string was pulling me.

“Yeosin, where are you going?” Brent asked. “The Dragon Clan is this way.”

“She is resting,” Luciano said. “We will pause here. Molly?—”

“I’m not resting,” I said, hurrying as the sensation became stronger.

“Yeosin,” Luciano growled, following me. “Come back!”

My legs moved quicker and quicker and quicker. Then, suddenly, I found myself stopping in front of a huge tree. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know for what. But I dropped to my knees and pushed some vines out of the way.

A dungeon entrance glimmered in the dawn light.

“We go through here,” I said. “To free the phoenixes.”