As they turned into another corridor, Shelia and Ophelia appeared from the opposite side.
Shelia had been speaking to Ophelia about sothing, her expression calr than usual, while Ophelia walked beside her with her hands tucked into her warm fur wrap. The mont they saw Kian moving like that, both won stopped.
Shelia’s eyes sharpened imdiately. "Brother?"
Kian walked past her.
He did not even stop.
That alone made her face change.
Kian loved his sister. He might act cold to the whole world, but Shelia knew him better than most. If he walked past her without even answering, then sothing was truly wrong.
"Brother?" she called again, but softer this ti.
He still did not stop.
And because he looked like one wrong word might make him tear the corridor apart, Shelia did not grab him. She knew better than to force him when his eyes looked like that.
Ophelia’s round face filled with worry at once. "What happened?"
Osiris ca right behind Kian.
The mont he saw the two won, his whole body stiffened.
He rembered Cyrus’s warning.
Do not frighten the palace.
Do not scream nonsense.
Do not let panic lead the way.
He also rembered that if he said the wrong thing, Cyrus might punch him into the wall.
So Osiris walked past them while trying very hard not to look at them.
This, naturally, made him look even more suspicious.
Shelia’s eyes narrowed. "Osiris."
Osiris kept walking.
Ophelia blinked. "Why is he walking like that?"
"He knows sothing," Shelia said at once.
Then Luca arrived.
Unfortunately for the secret, Luca was not as disciplined as Osiris was trying to be.
Shelia turned to him imdiately. "What is happening?"
Luca stopped for half a breath.
He looked toward Kian, then Osiris, then back at Shelia.
He probably should have stayed quiet.
He did not.
"Isabella may be giving birth soon."
Ophelia gasped so loudly that the sound bounced off the stone walls.
Shelia’s eyes widened, and the color drained from her face for one second before she imdiately gathered herself. "What?"
Luca looked a little guilty now. "That is what Osiris told Kian."
Osiris, farther ahead, heard his na and shouted back, "Oh please stop spreading the news!"
Kian finally turned his head slightly. "Move faster."
Everyone moved faster.
Now the corridor had beco a very strange little procession of panic.
Kian in front, moving like a storm wearing a king’s body.
Osiris behind him, repeating under his breath that he had whispered and therefore could not be blad.
Luca following because he was worried and nosy in equal asure.
Asael behind him because duty had chained him to this ss.
Shelia and Ophelia following because there was no way they would hear Isabella might give birth and then quietly return to whatever they had been doing.
By the ti they reached Isabella’s room, Kian was the first to enter the room.
The mont he stepped inside, Cyrus looked up from where he was beside Isabella, and his face did not show any surprise. In fact, a part of him felt relieved because Osiris had actually found Kian and had not sohow returned with a basket of at, a random guard, or so completely useless answer.
For soone like Osiris, this was already a small miracle.
Still, Cyrus’s eyes moved past Kian almost imdiately.
He was looking for the won.
The elderly won.
The experienced won.
The calm won who had seen births before and would not panic just because Isabella breathed too hard.
But before he could ask, Osiris also stepped in behind Kian, looking guilty in a way that made Cyrus’s heart sink at once.
Cyrus slowly narrowed his eyes.
"Where are the won?" he was about to ask.
Then he heard more footsteps outside.
For one brief mont, Cyrus relaxed.
Good.
Maybe Osiris had brought them after all.
Maybe the footsteps behind him belonged to the won Isabella had asked for, and maybe, just maybe, the phoenix had not ruined the first simple task given to him during an important mont.
Then Luca entered.
After him ca Asael.
Then Shelia.
Then Ophelia.
Cyrus stared.
The room beca very quiet.
Even Isabella, who had been lying against the furs with one hand on her stomach, slowly looked from one face to another, then finally looked at Osiris.
Osiris imdiately avoided her eyes.
That alone answered everything.
Cyrus took in a slow breath.
A very slow breath.
His hand tightened once around the edge of the fur, and his pink eyes moved to Osiris with the kind of calm that was actually not calm at all.
Because he had given Osiris one task.
One.
Find Kian and tell him to bring experienced won.
Not bring Kian, Luca, Asael, Shelia, Ophelia, and the whole worried friend group like this was a village eting.
Osiris seed to feel the danger in the air, because he shifted slightly behind Kian and said in a weak voice, "I found Kian."
Cyrus closed his eyes for one second.
He had to.
If he kept them open, he might truly lash out.
Then Cyrus opened his eyes and looked at Osiris for a long mont, and the whole room could feel that his patience was hanging by a very thin thread.
Isabella noticed it imdiately.
The way Cyrus’s pink eyes sharpened was too obvious. His red hair fell over his shoulder as he stayed beside her bed, and even though he still looked gentle on the surface, Isabella could feel that he was only one wrong word away from changing his lower body into that huge red python tail and lashing Osiris into the nearest wall. Osiris seed to feel it too because the fiery-haired phoenix male slowly moved half a step behind Kian again as if Kian could protect him from the snake he had annoyed.
Isabella almost wanted to laugh, but she really could not let Cyrus lose his temper right now.
She reached out and caught Cyrus’s wrist.
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