Jasmine’s POV
For a moment, all I could do was stare at Otto.
Dream walking?
As if I needed anything else in my life to be complicated.
I folded my arms. "Dream walking?Otto, I’m not..... whatever that is. I had a dream. That’s it."
He gave me a hard look. "Only extremely rare bloodlines can dream walk."
I snorted. "Well, then it’s not me. I’m a regular miserable unshifted woman ."
Otto waved the golden leaf between us. "This proves it is you."
I looked at the leaf in his hand, glowing faintly under the candlelight. My stomach twisted.
I swallowed slowly.
"It was just a dream," I insisted weakly.
His eyes narrowed. "Tell me exactly what you saw."
I shrugged, trying to ignore the panic stirring under my ribs. "Nothing special. I was in a tree. Climbing it. The leaves were gold, same color as that one." I pointed at the leaf. "It felt real but... also like a memory I didn’t have. Felt like me but it wasn’t me. It was like a particular part of me and yet not me. J can’t explain it. And then I woke up holding that."
Otto stared at me like he was trying to solve me like another puzzle.
"Jasmine," he said carefully, "the Drasil tree grows at the farthest edge of the wolf world. No one just ’dreams’ of it. Your dream walked there."
I blinked. "Meaning what?"
He took a deep breath. "From what people have gathered over the length years, Dream walking is a doorway. A passage. For the past, the present, and the future to bleed into each other. It’s extremely rare. Only powerful wolves very powerful ones can do it. Even witches don’t have the strength to."
I let out a short laugh. "Did you hit your head on something? I’m unshifted, Otto. I’m the least powerful person in any room."
He raised a brow and pointed at my hair.
"Your hair turned back to red on its own after being dyed black. Does that sound normal to you?"
I froze.
I opened my mouth. Closed it.
Nanny Nia had helped me dye my hair black with strong dye. Permanent dye. And yet...
Otto lifted the leaf again. "Your dream caused this leaf to appear in your hand in reality."
I felt the room tilt. "So you’re saying... things that happen in dreams can happen outside?"
"Yes," he said without hesitation.
My voice cracked a little. "So... if I get hurt in my dream... can I get hurt in reality?"
Otto didn’t answer immediately.
My heart dropped.
When he finally spoke, his voice was low. Serious.
"I have no intentions of scaring you Jasmine. But If you brought a leaf back from a dream you saw. Saw it in your hand when you woke up, then yes. You can get hurt."
"I.... I can really get hurt," I whispered, barely breathing. "Inside a dream."
"Inside another realm," he corrected. "Dream walkers don’t just dream, Jasmine. They step into someplace real."
The fear hit me like ice.
My hands started to shake.
Otto saw it and raised both palms toward me, panic on his face. "But it’s okay! I can help. I can give you something so you don’t slip into that realm again... not until we find out why this is happening."
It was hard to believe that annoyed, grumbling Otto wanted to even help me.
I had seen myself as too insignificant to him and yet here he was offering a solution.
I swallowed. Hard. "A potion?"
"Yes," he nodded quickly. "Something to block the dream doorway. It’s temporary, but it’ll keep you safe for now."
I nodded, grateful and terrified. "Thank you."
He rushed to one of his shelves, tossing scrolls and herbs aside until he found a tiny glass vial filled with a shimmering blue liquid.
"Take this before bed," he said, placing it gently in my palm. "It will keep whatever dream or realm you went to from pulling you in."
I stared at it. It felt too light for something meant to hold back danger.
"Will this really work?" I asked softly.
Otto chewed his lip. "It should. At least until I find something stronger. Something permanent. Or better still we know why this is happening to you."
I nodded again, clutching the vial tighter.
I was so numb I barely had anything to say.
"Has this happened to you before Jasmine?" He asked me.
I shook my head. "No never. In fact from the moment I stepped into this place strange things have been happening to me."
I sighed frustrated.
Being burned by the walls, my necklace burning me, my hair turning back to red, seeing a siren tell me I had died.
Now this!
Now I could possibly die?
It was all too much for me to take in.
"What things?" He asked me with a cocked brow.
I considered telling him but I didn’t want to put him in trouble.
Or think I was crazy.
He already had enough on his plate of being called the crazy wolf who had gone rabid.
I shook my head.
He didn’t know.
"Nothing I’m just overwhelmed." I said.
Before he could ask any further questions, I changed the topic
"Thank you," I whispered. "For everything."
He looked exhausted, worried, but relieved that I believed him.
He ran a hand through his messy hair. "Just... be careful, Jasmine. Dream walking is no joke. And if someone or something is calling you into those dreams..."
His voice faded.
I didn’t ask what he meant.
I didn’t want to know.
I turned away, tucking the leaf and the potion into my journal.
As I reached the doorway, Otto called out again.
"And Jasmine?"
I paused, looking back.
His face was deadly serious.
"Don’t fall asleep without drinking that potion."
That warning followed me all the way out the door and into the night air.
And even then...
I wasn’t sure it would save me.