Chapter 249: The Weight of Unspoken Things

Chapter 248: The Weight of Unspoken Things

Orion didn’t flinch beneath Marta’s question. He simply met her eyes, expression steady, voice even.

"Don’t you think that’s a question you should ask Sophia?"

Marta blinked, turning immediately toward the bed where Sophia lay motionless beneath the blankets. Her eyes softened, and she nodded slowly. "That... actually makes sense. I’ll just ask her when she wakes up, but for now..." Marta patted his hands reassuringly, "don’t worry and don’t be too sad, I’m not going to tell anyone too. I’ll make sure this doesn’t spread around."

Again, Orion didn’t understand how Marta didn’t even register the fact that she was talking with Sophia’s mate. Had Marta always been this dense? He couldn’t believe it.

But he wasn’t going to correct her. There was no need to, because after all, it helped to keep the relationship a secret.

Orion gave Marta a nod. "Can I go see Brynhild and the baby?"

"Yes, sure. She’s awake now, after all," Marta said, waving him off.

Orion gave her a nod and slipped out of the room.

The hallway outside the room was warm from the medical facility’s heating stones, but Orion’s skin still carried the remnants of the cold storm they’d both run through. He scrubbed a palm across his face, exhaling slowly.

He walked down the corridor to where Brynhild was. One of the healers who had been in the medical facility gave him a nod as he walked away with a bowl.

Orion knocked on the door, and a tired voice answered him immediately.

"You don’t need to knock, Orion," Brynhild told him. 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Orion pushed the door open and stepped inside.

Brynhild lay propped slightly upright on the bed, silver eyes unfocused yet sharp beneath heavy lids. Her hair—usually braided and bound back—fell loose across her shoulders. The pallor of pain still clung to her expression, but she was breathing. She was alive.

And beside her, Lysander sat rigidly on a stool, hunched forward, elbows on his knees. His face was drawn, haunted. His eyes were red-rimmed, which signified that he’d been crying.

Exactly as Marta had said.

Orion’s chest tightened.

"Hey," he said softly. "How do you feel?" he asked Brynhild.

Brynhild exhaled, sounding like someone who had fought through three lifetimes in one night. "I feel like hell."

"Well," Orion murmured with a small smile, "you look like it."

Lysander snorted quietly under his breath.

Orion turned to him. "And how about you?" Orion asked him.

"How do I look?" Lysander asked him.

"Like hell. Apart from your skin colour and maybe the hair, you and Brynhild look like you belong with each other," Orion told him.

Lysander and Brynhild chuckled.

"I’m more beautiful, please. Do you see my eyes?" she asked him.

Orion moved closer and made a show of checking her eyes, and then turned to Lysander. "Her eyes have some beauty to them, brother. It’s actually more striking than yours."

"I know," Brynhild said with a laugh.

"Where is Sophia?" Lysander asked him with a frown.

"Suffering from a fever," Orion said dryly.

"She did run under the storm to get here," Lysander said.

Orion nodded.

"Lysander told me what happened," Brynhild said to Orion. "I’m sure she’s the reason I’m alive now."

Orion smiled and moved towards the small cot positioned near Brynhild’s bedside. Orion’s smile widened when he saw her.

A tiny bundle swaddled in soft cloth, chest rising and falling in a delicate rhythm. Wisps of dark hair. Small fingers curled near her cheek. The faintest expression of serenity as she slept.

"She’s cute," he breathed.

"I’m cute," Brynhild told him.

Orion looked at Brynhild then back at the baby. "Um... no, you are not."

"That’s true," Lysander added with a laugh.

"Orion," Brynhild called out to him.

"What is it?"

"I’m glad Sophia helped us, but I have to ask—how did she know? Lysander told me she was the one who told them that I wouldn’t be able to give birth naturally. And if not for that information... I... I’m not sure I would have made it," Brynhild told him as Lysander held her hands.

"I froze up," Lysander told Orion. "My mind worked with thoughts of..." He shook his head like he couldn’t get the words out.

Orion sighed. "To be honest, I don’t know how she knew. I don’t know how she did it."

Lysander stared at him in shock. "But you told me to listen to her. Surely you must have known something, right?"

"I had a dream... at least that’s what I’m calling it. I’m not sure it was a dream, but I heard Sophia crying out for Brynhild. It wasn’t just a simple calling... it was a heart-wrenching sob," he told them.

"I don’t understand," Lysander said to him.

"That makes two of us," Orion told him with a nod. "I haven’t told anyone about this, but I trust both of you, and I also know you guys would keep this a secret."

"The same way you are keeping your relationship with Sophia a secret?" Brynhild asked him.

Lysander turned in shock. "What?"

Orion chuckled. "Your senses never disappoint," he told her.

"How... are you certain?" Lysander asked her.

Brynhild chuckled. "Come on, love, he just admitted it."

"But how..."

"He smells like her. He’s not even masking it. Everything about him reminds me of Sophia. How did you not notice?" Brynhild asked him.

"My sense of smell isn’t as good as yours," Lysander told her.

"Neither are your observation skills, it seems," Brynhild told him.

"Sophia was wearing nothing more than a tunic when she came in here drenched from head to toe, and I followed not long after... that didn’t strike you as odd?" Orion asked him.

"I... I just chalked it up to you guys being neighbours. I didn’t pay any mind to it," Lysander told him.

"And how would I have seen her running out of her house under the heavy storm if I was in my house?" Orion asked him, his lips twitching.

Lysander groaned. "I can’t believe I missed all the signs."