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For now, Lugh would wait and see what the lords and ladies of the realm thought about the legitimacy of his rule. He would plot to enhance that legitimacy, but he wouldn’t attack us, not yet.
The Seelie Queen constituted a more urgent concern. She wouldn’t stop until she found each former monster. She had created them in secret and did not want that secret to get out. As long as the monster folk were alive and free, she would come after them.
Which meant she would come after us as well.
Jasmine had saved all the monsters.
And now, the former monsters came from all over the realms, seeking Jasmine and finding her as though they each had a compass with the North replaced with her whereabouts. It did not matter if we changed our location or if we were on the road, they found her and stayed with her.
That made it increasingly difficult to hide our trace, but at least, the monster folk were as determined as we were to protect Jasmine from the Seelie Queen.
My eyes darted toward Jasmine’s tent.
“I will go and see Jasmine,” I told the others.
The sudden change of topic did not surprise any of them. They were used to my abrupt need to see her closed eyes and slowly moving chest. They had that need from time to time too, even if not as often as I did.
“Of course,” Brigid said behind me as I turned away from them. “We will try to find a solution to the food problem.”
Of course, they would. Even though they looked at me for answers from time to time, they did not need me. They kept discussing our options as I walked away from them.
Jasmine’s tent was the largest in our camp. The monster folk had set it up in the middle of the camp. Two burly men stood before the entrance to her tent. One of them was Collin, but I did not recognize the other.
They greeted me as I approached them.
No one had tasked the former monsters to protect her tent; they did it on their own accord. I appreciated their eagerness. I needed their help to protect her, since I had failed without them.
“The girl is in there with her,” Collin said, giving me a nod of acknowledgment. From the way he said it, it was obvious that he did not think she should be with Jasmine.
I agreed.
“I guessed that she would be,” I said.
Grunting, he reached to lift the tent door for me. I ducked to pass underneath.
The inside of the tent was warm; fire elementals worked day and night to keep it so. Her bed was right in the middle.
The simple blanket that Dearen had stolen from a village we passed by was replaced by feather blankets brought by some of the monster folk who had taken the time to visit their families before coming here. The commoners brought food and tools while the nobles brought trinkets and feather blankets... Even after the years spent as monsters and despite their insistence that they were not, they were still fae at heart, loyal to their stations and set in their way of life.
Collin had warned me that Cari would be here, but still, seeing her so close to Jasmine was as disturbing as it always was. Cari’s head rested on her arms while she sat on the ground next to the bed, and her long dark hair spread over Jasmine’s pale hand.
Cari stirred as I entered. She coughed as she woke up.
I ignored her.
Jasmine slept.
Her face was twisted in a painful expression, just like it had been since the day we escaped the queen’s clutch and arrived in the in-between realms.
Her purple hair was spread over the pillow, clean and combed. Her wings had retreated into her body and hadn’t come out since the day she had drifted into this endless sleep.
I hated seeing her like this, chest moving up and down calmly and body motionless while her face told me she was in pain. There was nothing I could do about that pain.
There was not much I could do to fix things these days.
“Oh,” Cari lifted her head and met my eyes over her shoulder. “It’s you.”
Her body became relaxed and only then, I realized she had been tense.
