Once Otto had run off with the baby in his arms, Eleanor turned to the howling wolves who had already arrived.

"Come and feel my wrath."

She demanded in fury.

She waved her hands up together by the sides and tree vines emerged from the ground before enveloping Jasmine’s dead body.

She wasn’t going to let them take or harm her body.

Soon Jasmine’s body had completely vanished.

When there was no trace of Jasmine or her scent anywhere, she turned to finally focus the attackers.

She didn’t need to see them with her eyes to know they were over forty of them.

All Aiden’s loyalists, she knew.

She was going to finish them off.

At least until Otto was safe far away.

She waved a hand off and the forest answered her.

The ground trembled first.

Then it split.

Roots tore through the earth like something ancient waking from a long sleep, thick and twisted, rising with a violent force that sent two wolves flying backward before they could even land their strike.

They came anyway.

They always did.

Forty of them, maybe more. Eyes glowing. Teeth bared. Hungry for blood. Loyal to a man who had forgotten what it meant to be one.

Eleanor didn’t move.

Not at first.

She let them come close enough to believe they had a chance.

Then she lifted her hand.

And everything stopped.

Not them.

The air.

It thickened, heavy, suffocating. Like the forest itself had decided to hold its breath.

The first wolf lunged.

He never reached her.

A root shot up through his chest, lifting him clean off the ground before slamming him back down. The others howled, rage replacing hesitation as they charged from all sides.

"Come," Eleanor said softly. "Let me show you what you’ve chosen to follow."

The vines answered.

They whipped, coiled, crushed. Wrapping around limbs, snapping bones, dragging bodies of wolves already pouncing to attack into the soil.

Wolves shifted mid attack as their claws flared ready to attack.

This wasn’t a fight.

This was a warning.

Their blood soaked into the roots.

Screams tore through the trees.

Eleanor stepped forward slowly, her eyes glowing faintly now, something deeper than anger sitting beneath her skin.

She was going to make an example of all of them.

One of them managed to reach her.

He shifted mid-air, claws aiming straight for her throat.

"For my master!" He snapped. "I will take your-

She caught him.

Just like that.

Her hand closed around his neck before he finish his sentence or even touch her.

He froze.

His eyes widened.

"Tell your master," she said quietly, almost gently, "that he has crossed a line he can’t uncross."

Then she snapped her fingers.

The vines dragged him away screaming.

Silence fell.

Heavy.

Final.

Bodies lay scattered across the forest floor. Some still. Some their bodies intact, while some were in pieces

After almost thirty minutes of fighting. They all had one thing in common.

They were all most definitely dead.

Eleanor lowered her hand slowly.

The glow faded from her eyes.

The forest began to settle, as if nothing had happened at all.

But she knew better.

He would come.

He would find a way.

Especially now that the boy had been born.

Not with wolves next time.

With something worse.

She would have to study and find a way to prevent it at least until the final day of reckoning.

She turned her back on the carnage, her gaze drifting to the direction Otto had run.

She also knew that Adrien was going to send more. That they were going to look for the child.

Truth be told, she had known the legend for as long as she had come to their world.

As her sister Marie had known.

But she had hoped to divert, change the line of fate.

She should have known.

Fate was not to be played it.

Perhaps it could be delayed for a very long time but it always had to come to pass.

"Otto." Eleanor whispered from her tattered lips. "May the goddess send you and the child to safety before I find you."

Once she had settled her business.

She was going to find them and protect the child herself.

❧

OTTO’S POV

Otto had been on the run for almost a month now.

He had been scavenging near by places.

Hiding and barely staying in the same location for over a day.

The little baby had been difficult and to be honest, Otto didn’t blame the little boy.

His mother had died after his birth, her father was now after him, there were people in the royal family who would want his head too.

Everywhere they turned was someone waiting to slaughter.

Otto was worried the child would die because he wasn’t getting enough nutrients.

Fruits juices and goat milk from the occasional unfortunate mother goat he would catch wasn’t enough.

He needed a wet nurse.

And what made it so terrible was the fact that he couldn’t find one who would be willing to travel with them.

Baby Apollo cooed as he fiddled with the emerald necklace in his mouth.

"Careful little guy." Otto frowned as he retraced the emerald from his mouth. "One wrong move and the whole world would go into shambles if anything happens to it."

The baby grumbled but stayed still.

Otto made a silent thanks to the gods that the baby had blonde hair and not red.

How the devil would he explain dying a baby’s hair to hide his identity.

Otto sighed and adjusted Apollo’s body that was securely wrapped in a clothing around his chest as they walked off to the nearest village.

It was a small but reasonably busy village.

He adjusted his hat to prevent people from remembering his face. 𝑓𝑟ℯ𝘦𝓌𝘦𝘣𝑛𝑜𝓋𝑒𝓁.𝑐ℴ𝓂

The baby giggled and for a split second Otto thought he was in a good mood.

Until he perceived a rotten stench and Otto gasped.

"You little bastard. You passed gas."

The baby giggled again and Otto used his hand to close his nose as they went through stalls.

He was getting low on money.

He made another silent prayer that Eleanor had survived and found him soon enough.

He tossed a coin to the market trader and picked up an apple.

As his teeth went into the fruit, he almost bumped into a smallish woman with short dark hair that framed her small face.

Otto could have sworn he had met her before.