CHAPTER 489: CHAPTER 489: JUST—BREATHE LESS LOUDLY

Osiris lay sprawled across the glowing grass like a man who had just been used as a chew toy by fate itself.

His chest heaved.

His hair was a mess.

His cheek was smeared with blood.

His pride was dead.

He stared up in a dazed blur at the misty canopy above him, blinking one eye at a time like each eyelid had to be manually rebooted.

Isabella stood three feet away, hands on hips, toes curled into the moss in pure rage, looking like a goddess in the middle of a divine meltdown.

She didn’t speak at first.

She simply inhaled sharply.

Slowly.

Deeply.

Then leaned down so close to his face that their noses almost touched—

—and whispered through violently clenched teeth:

"YOU. STUPID. MOTHERF—"

Glimora pressed her tiny hand over Isabella’s mouth.

Isabella pried the hand off slowly, her jaw trembling. She whispered, quieter:

"—you dumb, tall, USELESS, brain-damaged IDIOT!!"

Osiris blinked at her groggily. "...You’re... welcome."

Isabella’s entire soul stopped.

"WELCOME?" she hiss-whispered, voice ripping through her throat like contained lightning. "WELCOME?! You come inside, DISOBEY me, almost get TURNED INTO PHOENIX SUSHI, and you say WELCOME?!"

Osiris coughed weakly, rolling onto one elbow. "I mean... I did survive."

She kicked him.

Not softly.

RIGHT in his shin.

Osiris choked. "OW—ISABELLA—!!"

Isabella’s smile was terrifying. "Oh, look at you. Still alive. Still speaking. SUCH A MIRACLE."

She leaned closer.

"So tell me," she hissed, "why—WHY—did you come inside when I told you explicitly, loudly, DIVINELY not to?"

Osiris blinked, eyelashes fluttering slowly like he was trying to flirt but also losing consciousness. "Because... I didn’t want to be alone."

Isabella’s mouth hung open.

She whispered, lethal: "Are you a CHILD?"

"No," he mumbled, wiping a smear of blood from his lip, "just... emotionally fragile."

"YOU?? EMOTIONALLY FRAG—" Isabella clutched her chest dramatically, almost toppling over. "NO. NO. WE ARE NOT DOING THIS RIGHT NOW. Not you. NOT YOU."

He blinked again. His vision wobbled. "I heard something move in the forest."

"The WIND moved in the forest."

"No... I think it had teeth."

Isabella’s face went blank.

Then slowly—slowly—she leaned down until they were eye-to-eye. Her voice was a whisper sharpened with violence:

"If the WIND scares you, STAY OUTSIDE EVEN MORE."

Osiris frowned. "But outside was dark..."

"IT IS DARK IN HERE TOO."

"But here, at least you’re—"

"No," she snapped. "DO NOT FINISH THAT SENTENCE."

Osiris tilted his head. "You didn’t let me finish—"

"I DON’T NEED TO. I KNOW THE EXACT LEVEL OF STUPIDITY THAT WAS ABOUT TO ESCAPE YOUR MOUTH."

He blinked innocently. "I wasn’t going to say anything stupid."

"Everything you say is stupid!"

"I’m very wise, actually—"

"OH MY GOD."

Isabella stood up straight, pressing both palms to her temples like she was massaging out the urge to scream.

The Lunareen lagoon behind them had gone dead silent. Only faint ripples glowed across the water surface. The mist was quiet and heavy, holding sound like a secret. And Isabella—Isabella was whispering her fury because if the serpent women heard her yell, they might return.

And if they returned?

Osiris would NOT make it out twice.

She bent down again, whisper-yelling so hard her voice cracked:

"Do you have ANY idea—ANY—how close you were to dying? Huh? DO YOU KNOW what they could have done to you? Ripped you in half. SNAPPED you like a twig. Used you as a toothpick. Then flossed you OUT."

Osiris blinked up at her. "That seems... excessive."

"OH, EXCESSIVE??" She pointed violently at the lagoon. "THEY SAID THEY WANTED YOUR LEG. YOUR LEG, OSIRIS."

He lifted his left leg slowly, looking at it with deep betrayal. "My... my leg...?"

"Yes. That one. The useful one. They wanted it like a snack!"

Osiris rubbed his thigh. "Well, that’s flattering."

Isabella’s jaw dropped open in slow horror. "FLATTERING? FLATTERING?! THEY WANTED TO EAT YOU."

Osiris rolled to his side, groaning. "They didn’t, though. Because of you."

Isabella froze.

Her mouth twitched.

Her hand twitched.

Her entire brain twitched.

"Shut up," she whispered.

"You saved me," he continued, voice too soft, too genuine for her emotional stability. "You said I was the father—"

She stomped on his calf before he could finish.

"WE DO NOT TALK ABOUT THAT," she hissed, face turning so red even Glimora covered her eyes.

Osiris gasped. "OW—WHY—why are you violent—"

"I SAID SHUT UP."

"You kicked me!"

"I WILL DO IT AGAIN."

She kicked him again.

Glimora turned away like: mother, please calm down.

Osiris groaned louder, flopping back on the glowing grass. "I almost died and you’re kicking the patient..."

"You aren’t a patient," Isabella snapped. "You’re a PROBLEM."

"I feel faint..."

"GOOD. MAYBE YOU’LL SHUT UP FOR SIX SECONDS."

He lifted a weak finger. "Isabella..."

She leaned down slowly. "...What."

"You called me the father of your—"

"OH MY GOD—STOP TALKING."

"—children."

She slapped her palm over his mouth so fast he choked on air.

"LISTEN TO ME," she whispered violently. "You almost died. I saved you. I LIED to a whole clan of man-eating snake women because of you. Do you know how stressful that was? DO YOU?"

Osiris attempted to talk through the hand on his mouth.

She pressed harder. "DO. YOU?"

He nodded vigorously.

"Good," she said. "Now listen carefully. I need you to lie here. Quietly. SILENTLY. WITHOUT AIR. WITHOUT PROBLEMS."

He blinked in offense.

"I mean without too much air," she corrected.

He blinked again.

"Just—breathe less loudly," she whispered.

Then she released his mouth.

He exhaled like he’d been underwater for twelve minutes. "You’re... terrifying."

"You’re... annoying."

"And yet," he said, smirking at her through a split lip, "you saved me."

She kicked his hip.

"OW—ISABELLA—PLEASE—"

"You’re lucky I don’t throw you back into the lagoon and tell them you taste like dessert."

He grinned lazily. "You think I taste sweet?"

She nearly strangled him HERSELF.

Glimora pressed her little hands together in prayer: mother, please don’t commit murder.

Isabella stood up so fast the grass beneath her rustled in fear.

Then she stomped away—hard—each step slamming the ground like thunder.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Stomp.

Straight toward the luminous tree at the edge of the lagoon—the one with glowing fruits shaped like pearls dangling from its branches, shimmering in soft blues and greens.

She marched underneath it, spinning on her heel, glaring at Osiris like she was deciding which part of him to punch first.

Osiris, still sprawled in a pathetic heap, raised his hand weakly.

"Isabella..." he croaked.

She didn’t answer.

She didn’t move.

She just stood there, under the tree with the glowing fruit haloing her head like an angry goddess portrait—

—and glared at him with every ounce of fury she possessed.