JASMINE’S POV
We watched in amusement as the garish cut that had been inflicted by Pearl’s trident slowly vanished.
Sucking up the open wound and gently closing it up.
In a matter of seconds, it had disappeared.
His arm was as good as new.
The only thing was that he still had the dark blood that had come pouring from his body, but it remained on his body.
"It’s as good as new," Otto remarked after he rubbed his arm to be certain the cut was truly gone.
It was!
"What did you do?" Otto asked with curious eyes. "Magic?"
Pearl rolled her eyes and ignored him.
I looked up at Pearl. "Thank you so much. You’ve saved his life."
"If you had given me the chance, I wouldn’t have," Peale remarked dryly.
I swallowed hard, and then I looked up at her.
"I came here. I have been here every night for the past few weeks." I explained to her. "But you never came out. Why?"
"Wait, you know her?" Otto asked with a hint of surprise in his voice.
"Yes, I do," I said calmly.
He looked from me to Pearl and then back to me. "Wait, is this why you were asking about..."
And then he paused and looked back at Pearl.
He sighed heavily, his eyes blinking in disbelief.
"Sweet Goddess. I have never seen a siren." He admitted. "I mean, I knew they existed, but from the existing ban and terrible diplomatic relations between them and us. I just.... Well... I just assumed that they weren’t real. Just stories."
"We are real," Pearl said harshly. "Realer than you could ever be."
I noticed that Pearl had been offended by Otto’s words, so I hastily apologized.
"We didn’t mean to be rude," I said and gave Otto a sharp glance that warned him to shut his mouth.
"I’ve been looking for you," I told her.
"I told you." She emphasized. "We are not supposed to meet. Even right now, if they find out that I let you live, talk less of saving his life."
She pointed at Otto.
"I used my powers to resuscitate him." She said and shook her head. "You two need to leave if they find you here. They can sense when we use our powers on foreigners."
I swallowed and looked down at Otto, who tried to stand up.
But he fell back down in a matter of seconds.
I assisted him from having a terrible fall.
"Careful," I said, and then looked all over him. "Are you okay?"
He nudged his arm a bit. "I should be okay. I don’t understand why I feel weak."
Pearl rolled her eyes and sighed in exhaustion.
"It’s my powers. It saved his life, but because he is a mad wolf, it weakened him. He won’t be able to use his legs well for about fifteen minutes. By then, he would have renewed strength more than he has ever gotten."
"Fuck." Otto swore.
"Please, can we wait?" I pleaded. "Just till he gets better. Please."
Pearl didn’t look pleased.
And I, quite frankly, didn’t like the fact that I was putting her in trouble.
She sighed and then shrugged. "Fine. I won’t be missed for about 20 minutes. So you can stay."
I sighed in relief. "Thank you so much, Pearl."
"How do you even know her?" Otto asked me as he looked at Pearl. "You just came to the royal pack barely a month ago. No one has been in contact with a siren since the princess went missing."
I sat down beside Otto weakly.
I had been getting more and more exhausted.
I couldn’t tell why.
I shrugged off the feeling of tiredness that had overcome me and said. "I came from a stroll and had no idea this place wasn’t allowed. It was when I met her that I knew. She is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen."
I said with all honesty, not in an attempt to appease her.
She had blue skin and a slender figure, with her beautiful white hair plaited into a single braid.
There was none like her.
She seemed to blush as I noticed her face had become pale.
And it was as gone as quickly as it had come.
"I have to agree too," Otto said, which was shocking, coming from him.
Pearl said nothing.
She looked at me with a frown, as if noticing me for the first time since we had met, and said. "Why do you like this way?"
I looked down at myself and realized I was still dressed in Hildegard’s clothes.
All of a sudden, the events of the previous hours came flooding back to me.
I remembered all that Otto had told me.
How I was sentenced and would have been killed if he hadn’t set me free, and how now I was on the run.
Nothing but a fugitive who had nowhere to go.
"It’s a long story." I sighed.
"On the run?" She asked me.
I nodded.
"It’s written all over your face." She said, waving her hand.
"Betrayed by the people I thought cared about me," I said through gritted teeth.
"Common with your kind." She remarked dryly. "Where will you go?"
And my shoulders went weak.
Otto himself hadn’t told me where we were going.
I turned to look at him.
"Where are we going, Otto?" I asked him, my heart breaking into pieces.
I had nowhere to run.
I wasn’t going to go back to the Crescent pack, and I had no intentions of going back to the royal pack.
Especially after what they had done to me.
"That’s what I wanted to tell you." He said as he adjusted in this seat. "Jasmine, I think your uncle is alive."
I blinked at him.
"What?" I asked, my heart racing.
"Yes, Jasmine." He nodded. "Your uncle was last heard in the distant lands. And the map, it’s almost finished, and was created in the distant lands. We might find your mother’s family, Jasmine."