Chapter 509: Cure her

Viola, on the other hand, held on to a firm resolve in her heart, even though she’d just watched Zoe die right there in the car. She still believed, deep down, that it wasn’t over, that she still had a mermaid sister who might be able to do something. While the others had already given up, and Matt’s anguished crying carried on somewhere in the background, she dropped down out of the car and walked straight into the water, where the waves crashed against the shore.

Once she stood knee-deep in the water, Viola cupped her hands around her mouth and called for Ivy as loud as she could, since she no longer had any connection to the water to summon them any other way.

It took more than ten minutes of calling before the surface of the early morning water, lit gold by the rising sun, finally broke, and three heads emerged from beneath it, her sister at the front, a deep frown already set across her face.

"Ivy, I need your help, urgently, come see, I need you to bring my friend back, she’s... she’s in a very bad state." Viola grabbed her sister’s hand as she swam up toward the shore where she stood.

Ivy, who’d heard Viola calling from far below in the sea and had already been anticipating seeing her sister, hadn’t expected to surface and find her looking so devastated, or the rest of them standing back, all looking at her with something desperate that could only be called hope.

Ivy’s eyes fell on the blood-covered she-wolf still cradled in Gilbert’s arms, and she swam the rest of the way onto the sand, where Gilbert laid Zoe down gently before her. Aunt Natasha and Yasmin came up beside her too, looking down at the body, the damage to her stomach plainly visible.

Ivy pressed her hand beneath Zoe’s nose, examining her, while the other werewolves crowded closer around them, watching.

"She’s dead..." Ivy announced, looking up at her sister, who was biting down so hard on her fingers they’d begun to bleed, though she seemed not to notice or care.

"I know, she... she died in the car, but surely you can heal her, bring her back, right?" Viola asked, hope still clinging to her voice as she knelt beside them, holding Zoe’s cold hand as accepting her death was almost unimaginable to Viola, who had been there in her last moment and also knew all the dreams of life this shewolf wanted to live.

Ivy’s eyes turned sorrowful at the loss of the she-wolf as she answered, "That’s not within my power, Serena. If it were, I would have brought back countless people by now. I can only heal wounds and injuries, you brought her to me too late. I’m sorry, there’s nothing I can do."

It was then that the full weight of it finally hit Viola, straight to the gut, and she collapsed onto the sand, pulling her knees to her chest, sobbing. "W-we sped all the way here... I-I thought we could save her, I thought..." She broke down completely, unable to hold herself together any longer, unable to even look at Zoe’s body.

Ivy dragged herself across the sand until she could pull her sister into her arms to comfort her. "Shh, you tried everything you could, Serena. I’m so sorry for your loss."

Everyone remained there, grieving in their own way, though Sebastian had already slipped away from the scene. Matt had cried himself into silence, staring blankly out at the waves. Gilbert sat in the sand, staring down at the blood covering his own body, his fingers trembling. Laila stood leaning against the car, arms wrapped around herself, her eyes glossy and fixed on the body that would now forever become a nightmare to her and everyone.

The two mermaids remained in the water, and the other woman stayed wrapped in her sister’s arms, having stopped crying now, staring blankly off into nothing.

"Nick killed her," Viola said, a bitter, ironic smile pulling at her lips. "She loved him more than almost anyone, stood up for him, and he killed her anyway. Heartlessly. Just like he killed our mother. He’s a monster...a monster." She whispered, her fingers curling into fists against the sand.

Her words carried to Natasha, still in the water. "You found your mother’s killer?" She questioned, and Viola turned to her, nodding.

"Nickolas Kade. That’s his name. And today he’s done even more. I will kill him in the worst way anyone could possibly die." Viola vowed, wiping the tears from her face, watching as pure hatred settled into her aunt’s eyes now that her sister’s killer finally had a name.

"We will find him for you, Serena, wherever he’s hiding," her aunt promised, and Viola nodded, knowing full well Nick wouldn’t dare stay in that pack after what he’d done, and that he’d already gone into hiding.

Her eyes went to Zoe, and Viola felt like her heart would rip out of her chest. Tears choked her throat and burned the backs of her eyes. She looked away.

"We can’t stay here much longer. People will start passing along the bridge soon, and someone might see us." Said Yasmin, since the sky had already brightened fully into morning, and none of the werewolves looked ready yet to leave or bury the girl they’d lost.

Ivy turned to their aunt and said, "Maybe I should stay behind with her. You two can go ahead. I’ll use the abilities you taught me to shift my tail into legs and go back with them."

Viola didn’t look well, even though she’d stopped crying outright, pain and hatred both lived plainly in her eyes now, and she was clearly going to need support, especially since this loss wasn’t only hers to carry, but her husband’s as well. Ivy couldn’t help but worry, with two people grieving at once, there’d be no one left steady enough to look after either of them, and her sister was still pregnant, something that needed remembering even now.

But before their aunt could respond, Viola reached out and grabbed her hand. "I need you to do something for me first, before you come with us."

Ivy frowned. "What?"

Viola’s eyes finally settled on Zoe’s body, and she felt her heart tear apart at the sight of it all over again. She crawled toward her, pulling off the coat Sebastian had wrapped around her the night before, and began draping it gently over the body, already gone pale and cold.

As she buttoned the front closed, covering the wound that had killed her, she said to Ivy, "I need you to take her back to the sea, and place her in the mermaid graves, to preserve her body." She said, but Matt, overhearing, was quick to object.

"She’s a werewolf. She belongs on land, and she deserves a proper burial with her family around." His voice was quiet, but the possessiveness in it was unmistakable.