Chapter 773: Chapter 774: She really gave birth during a battle
His red eyes widened.
For one second, his face softened in a way nobody would have expected from him. Then another enemy scream from the lower hall snapped him back, and he turned his head sharply, shadows gathering again.
Ophelia, who had been waiting farther down the passage with Valen, started crying properly this time.
"They have another one," she said through tears. "Another baby."
Valen held her closer, but his own face had softened. "Yes."
Shelia pressed both hands to her mouth. She looked relieved, but she did not smile fully because Isabella was still inside and there had been no word that it was over.
Luca was fighting near the inner stairs now, keeping two attackers from getting any closer to the birth room. He heard the baby cries through the noise and looked over his shoulder for half a breath. That half breath almost cost him. An enemy lunged at him, but he twisted aside and drove his blade into the man’s side.
"Two," he muttered, then kicked the body away. "She really gave birth during a battle."
Even he did not know if he was impressed or horrified.
At the outer line, Kian heard the second cry faintly through the wind.
His huge lion body froze for one breath.
A second baby.
Relief almost made his legs give way.
Then another black stone blade cut across his shoulder, and pain snapped him back into battle.
He roared and killed the attacker, but the wound burned with the same cold poison as the first. His vision darkened for one dangerous moment. Asael shouted something, but Kian could barely hear it over the blood rushing in his ears.
He was getting weaker.
Too weak.
The enemies noticed.
They began pressing harder toward him because even wounded, Kian was still the biggest barrier standing between them and the palace. If he fell, the front line would stagger. If the front line staggered, the inner path would open.
Asael moved closer to cover him. "My king, fall back for one breath."
Kian’s answer was a growl that meant absolutely not.
But his paws dragged slightly through the snow.
Blood dripped from his stomach and shoulder.
Each breath came heavier.
In the shadows beyond the broken side passage, Zara watched.
She had managed to slip through the inner stone path while everyone was focused on battle. Her cloak covered her face, and the noise around her hid the sound of her steps. She saw Kian in his white lion form, huge and powerful, but bleeding too much. She saw the way his body swayed for half a breath before he forced himself to stand again.
Her eyes brightened.
There.
That was the opening.
He was weakened.
His mind would be unstable. His body was hurt. His heart was tied to the woman screaming in the palace. This was the exact kind of moment Zara had needed. If she could reach him now, if she could use the right words or the right thing she had kept hidden, perhaps she could still turn everything back in her favor.
This was her last chance.
She would not waste it.
Behind the side wall, the mountain ridge beast broke free.
The sound was terrible.
Wood shattered. Stone cracked. Chains snapped with a ringing sound that cut through the battle noise. The huge beast burst out of its enclosure, its ridged back covered in snow and splinters, its giant horns lowering as its calm eyes turned wild with stress and fear.
The guards near it scattered.
"Move!" one of them shouted.
The beast did not chase the guards. It charged toward the palace.
Anything in its path became an enemy.
Two attackers who had broken through the side gate turned too late. The mountain ridge beast slammed into them with its huge head, and both bodies flew through the air before crashing into the snow. Another enemy tried to stab its side, but the blade barely entered its thick hide. The beast swung its head and crushed him against a stone post.
This beast did not kill by nature.
It was gentle.
It ate moss, root bark, and the strange thick grass that grew near mountain stone. It had allowed Isabella to touch its wounded head once when no one else dared to come close. It had lowered itself before her like a grateful old giant.
But tonight the world smelled of blood.
Tonight Isabella was screaming.
Tonight the place it trusted had become unsafe.
So it moved toward the one person it believed could make the world calm again.
It moved toward Isabella.
Inside the birth room, Isabella did not know about Zara watching Kian. She did not know the mountain beast had broken free. She did not know enemies were already fighting in the palace halls. She only knew that her body had given birth to two boys and somehow still refused to be done.
The older woman pressed a hand to Isabella’s stomach.
Then her face changed again.
"There is one more."
Isabella’s eyes opened slowly.
For a moment, she truly thought she had misheard.
"One more?" she whispered.
The younger woman nodded carefully. "We think so."
Isabella stared at the ceiling.
She did not speak for several breaths.
Then she turned her head weakly toward Cyrus. "Next time, you are giving birth."
Cyrus’s eyes were red at the edges now, and his face was full of fear, love, and guilt. Still, when he heard that, he almost smiled through the pain in his chest. "If I could, I would."
"No. You will. I am done. I resign."
The older woman wiped Isabella’s face again. "Lady Isabella, just one more."
Isabella almost laughed, but it came out like a sob. "You people keep saying just one more as if one more is small."
The younger woman spoke gently. "One more baby. One more push when it comes."
"One more boy and I’m fighting everyone," Isabella muttered.
Cyrus bent closer. "Do not fight anyone."
"I have suffered enough for boys today. This one better be a girl."
The older woman looked at her stomach again. "The next pain is coming."
Isabella closed her eyes.
Outside, the battle roared.
Inside, the two newborn boys cried in their warm wraps.
Glimora stood beside the bed with her fur glowing faintly and her worried eyes fixed on Isabella.
Cyrus held Isabella from behind, his blood on her lips, his arms around her body, and his heart beating so hard it felt like it might break.
Isabella took a shaking breath and prayed with what little strength she had left.
This better be a girl this time around.
Because the boys had been hell.
