I Became the Villainess, But My Beast Husbands Can Hear My Mind?!

Chapter 281: I Came Back to You

"Cyrus..." Roxanna called his name in a soft, trembling voice. She wanted to run to him right away, but he was still focused on burning the eagle beastmen, making her hesitate.

But to her surprise, Cyrus suddenly turned toward her. The fierce glow in his amber eyes slowly faded, like raging flames being calmed by gentle rain.

The fire surrounding his body gradually disappeared as well, yet the flames burning the eagle beastmen continued to rage without weakening at all.

"I thought..." Roxanna’s voice broke from crying, leaving her unable to finish her sentence.

"I came back to you," Cyrus said with a small smile. "Just like I promised."

That only made Roxanna want to cry even harder. Still, she forced herself to step closer to him. The smell of smoke and ash filled the air, but the moment she threw herself into his arms, Cyrus’ scent became the only thing she could focus on.

His body was still warm, almost too warm, but it didn’t hurt her. Instead, it felt comforting, like being wrapped inside a thick blanket on a cold night.

"Don’t cry anymore," Cyrus whispered as he gently rubbed her back. "I will never break my promise to you."

Roxanna couldn’t even answer him because she was too busy sobbing against his chest. Honestly, anyone would cry after being forced to shoot their own husband.

"Did it hurt?" Roxanna asked between her sobs. She lifted her head and looked into his softened amber eyes. "When my arrow pierced your heart... did it hurt?"

Cyrus looked at her quietly for a moment. "It did," he admitted softly. "But even through the pain, I could feel how much you loved me. That warmth made the pain feel less unbearable."

Sometimes Roxanna truly believed Cyrus could become a best-selling romance author if he had been born in her world.

[His words are always way too sweet! Every single sentence hits perfectly!] Roxanna thought. [What a dangerous sweet talker!]

"That wasn’t just sweet talk," Cyrus suddenly said. "I truly meant every word."

Roxanna immediately pressed her lips together when she realized he had read her thoughts again. Embarrassed, she quickly shouted, "But you still got hurt!"

Honestly, she felt a little frustrated because Cyrus looked far too calm. Instead of someone who had just died, he looked more like someone who had simply gone out for a short trip before coming back home for dinner.

"Look! You even have a scar on your chest!" she shouted again.

Roxanna placed her hand against his chest, right above the reddish mark. But when she looked closer, she realized it didn’t look like a stab wound at all.

Instead, it looked more like a tattoo shaped like a small phoenix.

Wait... didn’t Calen also suddenly gain a mark on his body after learning about his past and accepting the wolf within him?

Roxanna’s eyes widened slightly as she stared at the mark on Cyrus’ chest.

The small phoenix looked almost alive. Its wings spread across his skin in a deep reddish-gold color, and faint heat still lingered around it.

"What... is this?" she asked softly.

Cyrus lowered his gaze toward the mark as well. But he didn’t look surprise at all.

"That’s a symbol of beast awakening," Cyrus explained softly. "A mark like this can appear when a beast brings out their greatest potential... or when they finally break free from something that has been sealing their true power for a very long time."

The moment he said those last words, Roxanna felt her chest tighten painfully. There was something heavy in his voice. Something sad. And from the look in his eyes, she could already tell that Cyrus belonged to the second category.

"What happened to you?" Roxanna asked gently.

She slowly lifted her hands and cupped his face, gently brushing her thumbs across his cheeks as if trying to soothe away the pain hidden inside him. Little by little, the tension in Cyrus’ expression began to fade beneath her touch.

For a moment, Cyrus didn’t answer her.

The battlefield around them was still filled with the smell of smoke and burning ash, yet the silence between them somehow felt even heavier than the chaos from earlier.

Roxanna patiently waited, her hands still holding his face gently. She could feel the warmth of his skin beneath her fingers, but now it no longer felt dangerous. It only felt lonely.

Finally, Cyrus lowered his gaze.

"I don’t remember everything clearly," he admitted in a quiet voice. "But ever since I was young... I always felt like something inside me was locked away."

Roxanna frowned slightly. "Locked away?"

Cyrus nodded. "The Sky Tribe people used to call me cursed." A bitter smile appeared on his lips. "They said my blood felt too hot, and sometimes fire would appear around me whenever I lost control of my emotions."

His expression darkened slightly before he continued, "But even while they insulted me and treated me like a monster... somehow, their leader still benefited from taking my blood."

At first, it had actually been nothing more than an accident.

While Falcoln was whipping Cyrus, a few drops of blood accidentally splashed into his mouth. But to his surprise, the blood tasted strangely sweet and warm.

That was the moment Falcoln realized that Cyrus’ blood held far more value than he had expected. Unfortunately for him, he only discovered it after he had already sold Cyrus away.

"Maybe that’s why they kept watching me," Cyrus said quietly. "I honestly don’t remember much, but I know there’s a strange power sleeping inside my body..." He paused briefly before adding, "And I also know that I’m not my parents’ biological son."

Roxanna’s eyes widened slightly. "Because you also feel like you once died and lived again after that?"

Cyrus slowly nodded. "I think..." His voice became softer. "I may have accidentally been reborn as a child once before, and..."

Cyrus lowered his gaze, as if he was trying to piece together broken memories that refused to fully return to him.

"And when I opened my eyes again, I was already inside the red-sparrow tribe," he continued. "I was smaller... younger. At first, I thought it was just a dream."

Roxanna listened carefully without interrupting him.

"But some things never felt normal," Cyrus said. "There were moments when I would suddenly remember places I had never visited before. Sometimes I even knew things that a child shouldn’t know."

A faint frown appeared on his face. "And every time I looked at fire, I felt strangely connected to it."

And somehow, that feeling became even stronger the moment he saw the flames burning across the settlement, lit by Falcoln and the eagle beastmen. At that moment, a powerful urge rose inside him, forcing him to die first.

"I’m sorry for making you go through something like that," Cyrus said softly. "I know I must have frightened you badly."

Roxanna immediately smacked his chest lightly. "Of course I was scared! Don’t ever do something like that to me again!"

Cyrus let out a quiet laugh and gently patted her head. He looked like he wanted to say something else, but before he could, Luan suddenly walked over to them.

"I know you two probably need more time together," Luan said calmly, "but unfortunately... there are still a lot of things we need to handle right now."

The moment Roxanna heard those words, reality finally hit her again.

The settlement was destroyed.

The fire that had swallowed the village earlier had already been absorbed by Cyrus, but it didn’t change the fact that most of their homes had already turned into ashes. Burned wood, broken walls, and smoke surrounded them from every direction.

Roxanna’s expression slowly fell.

"What are we supposed to do now?" she whispered helplessly. "We already placed the black crystals around the settlement to stop demon beasts from entering, but in the end..."

Her voice slowly faded.

In the end, the danger had still reached them anyway.

"We can always rebuild the settlement from the ground up," Luan suddenly said. "We can cut down more wood and rebuild everything piece by piece again. But Roxanna, as long as none of our people die, then that alone is already enough."

The moment Luan finished speaking, Roxanna saw Calen returning with the women and children.

The children immediately started crying when they saw the condition of the settlement. Their homes had been reduced to ashes, and the place they once called safe now looked completely ruined. Meanwhile, the elders tried their best to stay calm, even though sadness was clear in their eyes. After all, they didn’t want the children to become even more frightened.

On the other side, Azul and several warriors were already carrying buckets of water from the river because the water inside the well had been contaminated by ash and smoke.

As Roxanna watched everyone moving around the destroyed settlement, something inside her slowly calmed down.

The fear, the exhaustion, and the crushing worry in her chest.

LAll of it slowly faded away and at the end of the day, a person’s life could never be brought back—unless they were a phoenix—so their safety would always be the top priority.

A small smile slowly appeared on her face, but it didn’t last long when she suddenly remembered something.

"Zeir!" she shouted. "We still don’t know if Zeir is alright!"