🐲 Dragon and Phoenix (Path of Light and Fire Book #2) (Completed) 🐲

Chapter 10.1

Yulan remembered Yusabin punching a hole through his chest. He looked down and saw his missing flesh and the jagged remains of the phoenix tattoo on his chest. And the blood. All the blood. People died from that sort of injury.

Yet when he looked down now, his chest was whole. The Phoenix was intact as well, without scarring or discoloration.

How do I still live? Yusabin killed me.

He pushed himself to a sitting position and his arms shook from the effort. His skin on his arms sagged, thin and frail where they had once been thick and powerful. He was still going to die this day, only it would be slower and much more painful.

To survive this was beyond the Blood of Yua. Yet he didn't have the energy to stand. This was a last ditch effort by his body to save a dying shell. The voices began in earnest as they always did.

"Kill yourself, Yulan."

"Do it."

"Save yourself the pain."

"No one will miss you."

Even Ira chose his little brother over him. Yusabin was probably in the Heart of Yua, Sweoti, laughing it up with mother and father in ways he never had.

Often, he'd fought the voices' urges, but they were right this time.

"It will only hurt for a little while."

Maybe it was Yulan's time to be reborn. His ancestors would weigh him and find him lacking, but maybe in his next life as a peasant he could make them proud again. Maybe he could find peace in the next life.

He reached inside the colors of his ni-jolo, searching for the handle of his knife and was delighted to find it was still there. When he raised the knife to his throat, a sense of dread filled his heart. Suicide was the coward's way out and unacceptable for one of his station.

Yet who would know?

The voices echoed in his mind, urging him on.

"End it!"

"Now!"

"Enough!" Yulan chucked the knife away, yet it landed only a couple feet away. The tool was still close, but the temptation was gone. He would brave the pain and die as a man should.

He felt a deep sadness for Yua and its people. He was ashamed that he could not save them. He deserved to die a painful and miserable death for his failure.

The one good thing that would come from his death is that Berius would be free. No longer would the man be bound by Yulan's fate. He knew it was selfish of him, but Berius was all he had.

Berius is in trouble.

"Sire! There you are!"

Berius's face was drawn in grief. He shoved a piece of dried meat into Yulan's mouth and lifted him in his thick arms. "Eat sire. I will find you something soon. You cannot die. Yua needs you."

Berius's scream filled his ears.

"Thank you, my Wing. I owe you my life."

I owe him more than my life.

"Nonsense," Berius said, flashing him that roguish grin of his. "You would do the same."

I will do the same.