Her hand slid from his grasp, trembling, "You don't understand, Lian… I'm not...." She broke off, pressing a palm to her forehead as a sharp pulse of pain seared behind her eyes. Two souls, and two memories colliding with each other.
She wanted to confess, but realized her mate bond was acting up; she realized he probably won't believe her.
He caught her shoulders worriedly, "Shuang'er...."
She met his gaze then, and for the first time, he saw it: the flicker of something alien in her eyes, colder, sharper less bound by affection.
"I have to go to the Crimson Howl," she said suddenly, her tone steadier than her shaking frame. "That's where the moonbeast is. The one creature that can break your curse completely. And for the baby too!"
Lian's expression hardened instantly, "The Crimson Howl is a forbidden territory. Even the King's men don't venture near. It devours those who approach it. Please Shuang'er, listen to me..."
Suddenly, Yueshuang's eyes immediately turned cold, sharp, and cruel....
Her lips curved into a faint, humorless smile. In this, she had decided, and she had to go. "Good. Then it will devour the ones who deserve it."
Something in her voice made his chest tighten painfully, the ghost of vengeance, something wholly un-Yueshuang.
He reached for her again, his fingers brushing her wrist intimately, "Shuang'er, listen to me...."
"You know it's already decided," she whispered, her voice steady but laced with quiet sorrow. "I can't change my mind now. This isn't just for you, it's for our child. Remember, he is suffering the consequences of our selfishness. We can't keep watching him suffer through every red moon, feeling that same agony again and again. Something has to change, Lian… and this is the only way." She could only use moral reasons to make him understand.
She wasn't defiant this time, not the way she used to be. There was no sharpness in her tone, only a weary certainty, as if fate had already set her on this path, and all she could do now was follow it. She didn't seem to have any options but if she did, that meant dying and waiting to reincarnate again!
But when would that happen again? After how many years of slumber before she is Reborn again? How long would it take her to wake up again? She would wake up in a body, what if it would be worse than Yueshuang's? What if her fate becomes even more tragic?
She couldn't reverse who she was now; she could only follow this path the original Yueshuang had created. Probably, she might be able to change things in the future.
Lian's breath suddenly hitched. The sound of her voice, so familiar, yet touched with something foreign, made his chest twist painfully. The faint tremor in her tone was not fear but resolve, the kind that came only when someone had already accepted the cost of their choice.
He stared at her for a long moment, searching her face, the scent of her pheromones faint and trembling beneath the rain-heavy air, "You're not well enough to travel, Shuang'er..." he said quietly, as though reasoning could tether her to safety, "what if the existence of the moonbeast is just a myth? What if it truly doesn't exist? What if it's something you can't tame?"
On the day of her death, she had sacrificed her life for the moonbeast's rebirth. If it had not yet returned to this world, then she would find a way to awaken it herself.
The moonbeast was not a creature to her, it was blood, lineage, and kin, bound to her very soul. There would be no need for taming or conquest. The moment their paths crossed again, it would recognize her, the soul it had once been bound to, the one who had given her life to ensure its survival.
She pushed herself up weakly from the bed, the effort making her sway weakly, but before she could take a full step, Lian was already there.
In one swift motion, he rose and caught her, pulling her back against his chest. His arms tightened around her trembling frame as if sheer strength could anchor her to him.
How he wished he could stop her from venturing into the Crimson Howl clan.
"I wonder if you have fallen for that man! Do you hate me? Do you think I the slave an unworthy of you? Tell me Shuang'er... Do I really lack a redeemable feature?" He was at his wits' end....
His words fell heavy in the quiet room, raw and unguarded, echoing off the lamplight-streaked walls. Yueyao froze, the air catching in her throat. She could feel his anguish in every trembling breath that brushed the back of her neck, a pain born not of anger, but of fear.