Chapter 660: RUNNING BY THE SEA

Otto didn’t stop riding until the castle lights disappeared behind the thick wall of trees.

Fog curled low around the forest floor, swallowing their path with cold, ghostly fingers. Branches snapped beneath the horses’ hooves, each sound too loud, too sharp, too dangerous.

Jasmine clung to the reins, her bare feet tucked tightly beneath her, toes numb from the freezing wind.

She kept looking back over her shoulder.

Even though she had followed this path so many times to see the Siren, she still felt scared and isolated.

She had never been here this late.

Even though she knew Hildegard was gone.

Even though she knew she couldn’t return.

Even though her heart hurt so much she could barely breathe.

“Jasmine,” Otto said finally, his voice tight. “Stop looking back.”

“I can’t help it,” she whispered. “She’s in there. Alone. Because of me.”

Otto’s jaw clenched.

He felt sick too.

He felt like vomiting from guilt.

But he forced himself to stay focused.

He had to.

If they fell apart out here, there would be no saving anyone.

“We’re almost at the clearing,” he muttered. “Just hold on.”

Jasmine nodded weakly, though she was shivering so badly her teeth clicked.

The cold wasn’t the worst part.

It was the silence.

The fear.

About thirty minutes later, the forest eventually spat them out onto a long stretch of moonlit sand, the sea roaring beside them like an angry beast.

The night wind sliced straight through Jasmine’s bones.

Otto kept glancing sideways at her as they rode, guilt flickering across his features over and over like a flame in a storm.

He hated this.

He hated that she was freezing.

He hated that she was barefoot.

He hated that she kept wiping tears away with trembling hands.

He hated that Hildegard was sitting in a cell waiting to die.

Now he wondered what she was going through.

Had they finally caught her?

He hated that Jasmine kept looking at him like she wanted answers and he didn’t know how to give her all of them.

After a long stretch of silence, Jasmine whispered,

“Otto… now can you tell me what’s going on?” She asked him.

He flinched.

He tightened his grip on the reins and spoke carefully.

“You were set up,” he began, voice thick. “Someone planted the necklace. Someone told a maid to lie. And from what we’ve seen it was definitely Auburn. We think Cherry helped her.”

Jasmine swallowed hard, staring at the dark horizon.

“The Queen…” Otto continued quietly, “was manipulated from all sides. It got out of hand.”

Jasmine’s breath hitched.

Jasmine’s shoulders weakened.

She waited for him to go on.

He didn’t.

Because everything else he knew would crush her.

He didn’t tell her the one thing that she needed to.

That she was pregnant.

Hildegard telling him at the last moment still felt like a burned in his shoulders.

He said only what she could handle.

“Jasmine…” he whispered.

But Jasmine only stared ahead, the wind blowing through her dark curls, her expression tightening with something Otto couldn’t read.

“Otto,” she whispered, her voice barely a breath. “You’re not telling me something I can feel it.”

His throat closed.

Before he could speak, Jasmine’s voice cracked

And then she broke.

Not weakly.

Not like someone collapsing.

But like someone whose world had been ripped apart one too many times.

Her tears weren’t soft.

They were violent.

Raw.

Years of pain, betrayal, near-death, abandonment, and loss pouring out at once.

She sobbed until her body shook, clutching the horse’s mane to stay upright.

Otto reached out instinctively, steadying her arm.

“Jasmine-

“No!” she snapped through her tears. “Don’t touch me. Don’t… please don’t.”

Her voice was small.

Shattered.

She wiped her face hard with her hands, her breath shaking.

“I trusted them,” Jasmine whispered, staring at the waves with burning eyes. “I trusted Rose. I trusted that pack. I trusted everyone.”

Her voice gained strength.

“And for what? To get thrown in a cell? To be framed? To be accused like I’m nothing? Like I’m dirt?”

Otto stayed silent.

She wasn’t done.

“My wolf is useless,” she cried. “I can’t even shift. I can’t hear her. I can’t feel her. I’m tired of being helpless. I’m tired of being hunted. I’m tired of being pushed aside like I don’t belong anywhere!”

Her hands shook violently.

Her breath turned sharp.

“Take it easy Jasmine.” Otto tried to pacify her as he hand his hands on her shoulder.

“If you know that it was all a set up then why can’t we tell the Queen?” She asked. “I mean if you and Hildegard understand then why can’t you just take me back and explain everything.”

Otto rubbed his temples and tried to massage his throbbing headache.

He sighed heavily. “Jasmine is not as easy as you think. Jasmine you were going to be sentenced.”

Jasmine’s face became pale.

Her small face shown under the moonlight.

“Wh…. What?” Jasmine blinked.

He sighed heavily.

Their horses were no longer moving.

All that they could hear was the sweep sound of the riverside and cool breeze.

“They were going to have you sentenced. Have your eyes plucked and your hands cut before sanding you to the worst prison for criminals. The entire package. You won’t have made a day alive in there.”

Her lips were quivering in fright.

“And so we had to act. If we hadn’t, then you would have received your sentence today.” He told her.

Jasmine remained seated.

“The Queen… sh… sh…. I mean… uh… I understand the King doesn’t like me. B… but at least she would believe me.” Jasmine stuttered.

He shook his head. “She does know something is wrong. But wolf politics is a bastard.”

Jasmine went mute and was quiet.

So quiet he was worried she had gone dead and dumb.

“And I trusted her.” Jasmine shook her head as she covered her face. “She told me to trust her. Told me she saw me like her own grand daughter. She used me.”

Otto sighed.

“Where are we going to go now?”

Before he responded, he heard a splash in the sea.