Surviving Zombies Was Easier Than Raising Beast Cubs

Chapter 49: Chapter 49: What are you?

”This is my brother.”

His voice cracked on the last word.

Not loudly.

Not dramatically.

Just enough.

Just enough for Swanly’s anger to stumble.

She looked at Veyr again and saw the silver eye under the rot, the ruined face under the infection, the way Soren’s hands were holding him down but not crushing him.

For one brief, painful moment, she understood.

A loved one was still a loved one even when rot was wearing their skin.

It was never easy to end them.

She swallowed.

”How?”

Soren did not answer.

Veyr did.

His living eye rolled toward Swanly and his mouth trembled as if each word had to crawl past the infection.

”He locked me here,” Veyr whispered.

Soren’s body went rigid.

Veyr’s claws scraped the mud.

”Months. Moons. Dark water. Roots. Seed dust. Pain.”

Swanly’s throat tightened despite herself.

Veyr’s white eye twitched toward the cub again, and hunger flashed across his face.

Soren forced his head back.

Veyr wailed.

Not like an animal.

Like a man who remembered being one.

”I wanted to die.”

The whole Rot Nest seemed to listen.

Even the water stopped rippling for half a breath.

Swanly held the cub tighter.

”I am sorry,” she said, even though she did not know who she was saying it to. ”I really am, but can we speed this up before this place decides to grow teeth under my feet?”

Kael did not scold her.

His face was hard, but his hand rubbed once over her back because he knew fear when he felt it shaking through her.

Soren bent closer to his brother.

”Veyr.”

The infected male’s head jerked.

”Veyr,” Soren said again, softer this time. ”Look at me.”

For a moment, Veyr did not seem to hear him.

His mouth worked.

Black water dripped from his lips.

His white eye stayed fixed on the cub.

Soren’s hands tightened on his shoulders.

”Little brother.”

The words were almost too quiet.

Veyr’s living eye moved.

Slowly.

Painfully.

It found Soren.

Something inside it cleared.

Only a little.

Only enough to hurt.

”Soren,” Veyr breathed.

Swanly felt her chest squeeze.

Soren’s face changed.

All the ice on it cracked, and underneath was a kind of grief so old it looked tired instead of loud.

”I will get the Seed,” he said. ”There is still hope.”

Veyr stared at him.

For one second, Swanly thought he believed him.

Then Veyr smiled.

It broke across his face like something fragile tearing apart.

”You still lie badly.”

Soren’s throat moved.

”I will bring you back.”

Veyr lifted one shaking hand.

His claws were black at the tips, and rot veins crawled over his wrist. Soren did not move when those claws touched his face.

Veyr wiped one tear from his brother’s cheek.

Swanly stopped breathing.

Soren was crying.

The White Snake, the cold bastard who crushed Kael and forced his scale on her, had tears sliding down his face while he held his infected brother in the mud.

Veyr’s voice came out thin and ruined.

”I am tired, brother.”

Soren’s jaw trembled once.

Veyr’s hand slid lower.

”I am so tired.”

The words turned into a broken wail, and his body twisted as the rot inside him fought the small clear part that had returned.

Soren caught him before his teeth could snap again.

Veyr sobbed and snarled in the same breath.

”End it. Please. Please.”

Soren’s eyes closed.

His forehead lowered until it touched Veyr’s.

For a moment, he held him like that.

Not as ruler.

Not as monster.

Only as an older brother with no good choice left.

Swanly turned her face away before it happened.

Kael pulled her into his chest at once and covered the cub’s head with his large hand.

The second cub hid against Swanly and whimpered.

Soren’s claws grew.

One clean movement.

A wet sound.

Veyr’s body jerked once.

Then stopped.

The Rot Nest went silent.

Swanly kept her face pressed against Kael’s chest. His heartbeat was hard under her ear, and his arm wrapped around her like he could keep the whole world away if he held tightly enough.

He could not.

But he tried.

That made her eyes burn.

Behind them, Thalara made a small sound.

”Oh.”

Swanly glanced over.

The Aelari had one hand pressed to her chest as if she expected a heart to be there and did not know why it hurt.

Her purple eye looked wet with something that was not tears.

Soren rose from the mud.

His face had gone empty again, but now it was not the same coldness as before. It was the emptiness of someone who had cut out the last soft thing and did not yet know where to put his hands.

Black blood stained his claws.

He did not look at Swanly.

He looked at Thalara.

”What are you?”

Thalara lowered her head.

”One of what came before your tribes learned names.”

Soren stared at her.

For a long moment, no one moved.

Then Soren turned toward the deeper roots.

”We move.”

Swanly lifted her head from Kael’s chest.

”With her?”

Soren did not look back.

”We move.”

That was not an answer.

It was apparently the only one they were getting.

Thalara stepped lightly over the mud as if the Rot Nest did not want to dirty her feet.

Swanly watched every movement.

The Aelari’s long white hair dragged through black water, but the rot did not cling to it for long. It slid away from her skin as if confused by her. Her dark branch-horns curved from the sides of her face, and the purple flowers on them trembled even though there was no wind. (I want to put of photo of her😭check the Author’s thought at the end of this Chapter)

Thalara looked back at Swanly.

”I promise I will not harm you.”

Her voice was slow.

Soft.

Each word sounded like it had traveled a long distance before reaching her mouth.

Kael bared his teeth.

”Keep your distance, creator or whatever you are.”

Thalara looked at him with mild interest.

”Panthers are still rude.”

Kael’s growl deepened.

Swanly would have laughed in another life.

In this one, she clutched the cub and kept walking.

They followed Thalara through a narrow path of raised roots.

The black water stayed lower there.

Not gone.

Never gone.

Only waiting below, licking at the edges of the roots with small patient sounds.

The second cub did not speak for a long time.

He kept one hand twisted in Swanly’s clothes and the other pressed to his own mouth as if he had learned that fear could escape if he was not careful.

Swanly kissed the top of his head.

He looked up at her with wet eyes.

”Mama no die?”

Her heart folded over itself.

”No.”

”Papa no die?”

Kael moved closer.

”No.”

The cub’s eyes flicked toward Soren.

He hesitated.

Then whispered, ”Snake sad.”

Swanly’s throat tightened.

Soren heard it.

Of course he heard it.

His tail slowed for half a breath, then kept moving.

Swanly did not know what to say.

Yes, the snake was sad.

Yes, the snake had been cruel.

Yes, the snake had just killed his own brother because mercy had finally become sharper than hope.

Life had become disgusting again.

Kael reached for Swanly’s hand.

She took it.

His palm was warm, callused and steady.

For a few breaths, she let herself lean toward that warmth.

Soren looked back once.

His eyes fell on their joined hands.

Then on the cub pressed to Swanly’s chest.

His face did not change, but something dark moved through his silver gaze.

Jealousy was ugly on him.

Quiet.

Cold.

Like a knife hidden under water.

Then his body faltered.

It happened so fast Swanly almost missed it.

His tail dragged wrongly across the root.

His hand went to his chest.

He coughed once.

Black blood spilled from his mouth and splattered across the pale root in front of him.

Swanly stopped.

Kael pulled her back immediately.

Raku stepped forward with alarm in his eyes.

”Soren.”