Chapter 668: GOOD NIGHT REST
The forest swallowed us whole.
Moonlight dripped through the branches in trembling silver streams, barely enough to see where the horses were stepping.
The air was damp and cold, thick with the scent of moss and night.
Otto rode slightly ahead of me, silent, alert… every muscle of his body firm like a spring.
The events of the last few hours still pounding in my head.
The screams of the sirens and the moment they could have attacked us.
How terrifying it had been still haunted me.
And now i tried my very best to stay awake.
I tried.
But exhaustion weighed on my eyelids like heavy stones.
My body felt bruised inside and out.
My mind kept replaying everything at once, Pearl disappearing into the black water, the sirens racing after us, being thrown into the cell, the Queen sentencing me, Hildegard’s sacrifice.
It was too much and my body was overwhelmed by what it had faced.
My eyes closed without my permission.
Just one second.
Just one blink.
The next moment, darkness enveloped me and I slowly dozed off
My horse lurched right.
My body swayed sharply as the air became faster
I felt myself slipping and then hand clamped around the reins.
“Jasmine!” Otto’s voice cracked, sharp with panic.
I jerked awake as he pulled my horse to a rough stop.
My heart hammered violently.
I blinked at him, dazed and ashamed.
“I Otto, I’m so sorry,” I whispered. “It won’t happen again, I promise, I….
“Woah woah woah. You’re exhausted,” he cut in, stern but gentle. “You nearly fell off. We’re stopping.”
“No, no, we can’t.” I rubbed my eyes. “What if the sirens have let the royal wolves through and are about to find us? What if they search and then they-
“They won’t come here, not tonight,” Otto said firmly. “The royal wolves have to go around the siren boundaries because I know a fact they won’t let them. I’m sure the King of sirens won’t be pleased at having enemies at his territory. That’ll take days. The sirens won’t cross the forest either. And we’re far from the castle.”
His voice softened a little.
“For now… it’s safe.”
A strange, fragile relief washed over me, and I found myself nodding weakly.
He hopped off his horse, tied both reins to a thick low branch, then began gathering sticks like he had done it a thousand times. Soon, orange flames crackled between us, chasing the cold away.
I curled my legs under me, hugging my cloak tightly. My blonde hair, still so strange, fell over my face.
Otto rummaged through his bag until he produced bush rabbit wrapped in cloth.
“I’ll cook,” he said.
“I can do it.” I offered rising to my feet.
“No,” he said simply. “Sit.”
Something about his tone made my throat tighten. I sat quietly as he built the small spit over the fire while I watched him prepare the meal.
He seasoned it with herbs I didn’t know he even carried.
He was quiet.
Focused as it were on e of his many projects.
When the food was ready, he handed me a wooden plate.
I murmured a thank you and ate slowly. Warm food felt unreal after the night we had.
And to be honest the food was actually better than I imagined.
I noticed him flipping through his notebook as he ate, his brow furrowed.
Then suddenly, he looked up at me and then he froze.
His head snapped up so fast I thought he’d strained something. His eyes widened, staring at me like I had sprouted wings.
“Jasmine,” he breathed, “your hair…”
I blinked. “Hmm?”
“Your hair is blonde!” he said louder, almost offended. “When did…. how did….
what the hell?”
A small laugh escaped me. “Otto, you’re only noticing now?”
The first laugh I had let out in a while.
“If you recall, I was trying to save our lives,” he grumbled. “So excuse me if I was too busy doing that.”
I lifted my wrist, showing him the tiny coral bracelet Pearl had formed with magic.
“When Pearl put this on me,” I explained, “my hair changed.”
He leaned forward, squinting at the bracelet. “That’s… powerful magic.”
“She said we were dying my hair the wrong way,” I said with a soft shrug. “She said the best is that my hair color would shift from the parents whose I collected to the other I didn’t.”
Otto frowned.
“I’ve seen Bale’s pictures,” he said. “He wasn’t blonde.”
I swallowed.
“No,” I whispered. “He wasn’t.”
I stared into the fire, feeling an old pain open in my chest.
“When I was in the Moonlight Pack,” I said slowly, “Bale attacked me once… he said things that didn’t make sense. He was losing his mind. But right before Xaden killed him… Bale said he wasn’t my father.
Otto’s expression softened.
“I didn’t believe him,” I whispered. “I thought he was… rambling. Or trying to hurt me. But now…”
I looked at my blonde hair.
“…now I know he was telling the truth.”
A cold breeze swept between us.
Otto reached and placed a warm hand on my back.
“Maybe you’ll get answers in the distant lands,” he said gently. “Maybe the map leads to the truth. Maybe your mother’s family knows everything.”
“I loved Bale,” I whispered, voice cracking, surprising myself. “I wanted him to love me. I wanted us to be a family even if it was broken. But after everything he did… I resented him.”
I shook my head, firelight flickering across my face.
“And he wasn’t even my father.”
Otto didn’t try to correct me.
Didn’t tell me to stop.
He simply said:
“You’re allowed to feel whatever you feel.”
I closed my eyes.
For the first time in hours… I felt the edges of sleep tug at me.
“Otto,” I whispered, “I think… I think I want to sleep now.”
He nodded immediately.
“Give me your plate,” he said, holding out his hand. “I’ll clean up. You rest. I’m taking the first watch.”
“Thank you,” I murmured, my chest warm and heavy.
I laid down beside the fire, curled into my cloak, and listened to the soft sounds of Otto packing things away.
The forest hummed quietly around us.
The fire crackled softly.
And with my blonde hair fanned across the grass…
I drifted into sleep.