Chapter 510: Have to go

"If we bury her here on land, then she’s gone for good, with no hope left at all. But if we bring her to the sea," Viola turned to look at the gathered werewolves, "there’s a chance, someday, that she could come back, along with the dead mermaids."

It took a while to convince them, especially Matt, explaining the ways of the sea to people who’d never trusted it. Mermaids didn’t reproduce the way land dwellers did, and their numbers depended entirely on the Child of the Sea to sustain them, to stop death from thinning them out completely. Every mermaid who had died without her here to intervene still had a chance of returning, as long as their body was preserved, and there was still hope that another Child of the Sea might one day be reborn.

"We have nothing to lose by taking this chance, Matt. I want Zoe to... to have a grave with her name on the stone, but... I want her somewhere there’s still hope." She said, her voice trembling by the end of it.

Matt looked out past the water, wishing, somewhere deep down, that he’d been the one to die in her place instead. "What if they never get their Child of the Sea?" He asked quietly. "She’ll rot down there..."

Viola felt torn, unsure which way was right. She felt stuck in the middle of the decision, but something in her leaned toward the courage of the sea, since the body would stay preserved forever there, unless it eventually lost that preservation from the lack of energy, which was very unlikely to happen unless the grave was disrupted.

She moved closer to her aunt and asked,

"Is there any chance another Child of the Sea could be reborn into the sea?"

"We don’t know for certain, but from what we understand... there’s no real chance of that happening, since Azmira never had a daughter of her own. The power came to you because you were bound to her by destiny, in a way."

Viola looked down at the mermaid still floating in the water. "If I was destined to carry her legacy, why did I have werewolf blood in me at all? Shouldn’t I have been born fully mermaid, the way she was?" Viola asked, unsettled by the thought that the hope she was clinging to might be misplaced, that placing Zoe there could all be for nothing.

Natasha looked thoughtful for a long moment before she said, "There’s something everyone in the sea believes, something I haven’t told you yet, Serena. It might help you understand Azmira’s connection to you, and perhaps even a way to carry both powers, if such a thing is possible."

"What is it?" Viola asked quietly.

"There are words passed down from her time, all the way to our generation. The merfolk of old used to speak of Azmira’s greatest desire in life, the one that led to her death at Vaelor’s hands. It’s all rather confusing, the way it’s told, but if you could uncover what that desire truly was, and why he killed her for it... perhaps we could find a way to make all of this work." She told Viola gently, aware of the grief still sitting heavy on her.

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As much as Viola wanted to unravel whatever it was that connected her to Azmira, especially now, remembering what Elder Ysara had once said, that Azmira had wanted something so badly she’d lingered even past her own death, Viola knew she didn’t have the strength for it right now. Every second, the reality that Zoe was truly gone kept settling deeper into her, and she felt like screaming, like crying out every bit of the hurt lodged in her chest.

"I’ll try my best to figure it out..." She whispered, wiping at her eyes. "But for now, can we take her down, before the... decomposing sets in, and the preserving becomes useless?" She asked in a small voice.

"About that, actually," her aunt said, an apologetic look crossing her face. "The merfolk might not agree to having a werewolf, especially one tied to Silver, resting in our grounds. Our feud with werewolves began with their bloodline, and they’re among the most hated in Aquaville, and—"

"Then we don’t have to tell them," Came Ivy’s voice, as she dragged herself back across the sand toward the water. "I’ll take her to the grave with Yasmin. They never have to know."

Their aunt frowned at that. "But anything concerning the sea, I have to discuss with the merfolk before I decide anything, and—"

"Please," came Viola’s voice. "Can’t you do this for us? Please..."

Seeing her niece on the verge of tears, Natasha swallowed back whatever else she’d meant to say and nodded, reluctant. "Then you’ll need to hurry. Growing a root strong enough to hold her takes time, since she isn’t a mermaid herself."

Viola thanked her aunt, then walked back to the body, kneeling before it, looking down at Zoe’s face, serene, almost peaceful, like someone merely sleeping, if not for the pallor that gave away the truth.

Viola raised her hand and slowly pressed trembling fingers to Zoe’s cheek, her throat tightening. "So this is where we say goodbye..." She whispered, choking back a sob. "I thought you’d stay with us so much longer, Zoe..."

No matter how tightly she held on to hope for some future miracle, some eventual return through the Child of the Sea, Viola knew this could very well be the last time she ever saw this she-wolf’s face, because nothing about that hope was guaranteed, and by the time, if ever, another Child of the Sea came to be, they might all have grown old, the world around them changed beyond recognition.

Viola wished, absurdly, that she had a flower to leave with her, something small and gentle to mark this. Instead, she pressed a kiss to Zoe’s forehead, her tears falling freely onto the still body beneath her.

"I still remember the first day you spoke to me, back when no one else in Silver would even look my way. You never once let me feel alone after that, you are one of the best things that ever happened to me...Thank you." Viola’s voice broke completely, and she pressed her palm flat over Zoe’s heart, as though she might still feel some faint beat beneath it. "Rest in... peace. You... w-will never be forgotten, and... I-I will miss you so much..."

Viola cried until there was nothing left to cry, until she finally forced herself to step back, since there was no more time left to give. Laila stepped forward next to offer her own farewell, though it came out as nothing but a heart-wrenching sob, no real words managing to form, only apologies, again and again, for every moment she felt she’d failed the she-wolf while she was still alive and the times she had made Zoe’s life hell because she didn’t like her for Sebastian.

Gilbert and Matt didn’t step forward to say their own goodbyes. They remained exactly where they stood, as though neither of them knew how to take another step toward the water.

Matt kept his eyes fixed somewhere beyond the bridge, refusing to look down, his jaw clenched so tightly it ached.

His throat worked painfully as he swallowed again and again, but the lump there wouldn’t go away. He couldn’t breathe properly. Couldn’t think. It felt as though the entire world had suddenly gone silent around him, even though life continued as if nothing had happened.

Matt looked up at the bridge.

People were waking to the morning. Cars moved along the road. He could see strangers running, laughing, talking, going about their ordinary lives, completely unaware that his entire world had just been shattered beneath them.

Life moved on, but he wondered how he could wake up tomorrow knowing that she was dead.

He closed his eyes and remained like that, remembering the living Zoe and not the dead one.

"Matt..." Viola called him, but he shook his head.

"I can’t..." he whispered, his voice choked, and Viola understood and let him be before she began to look around.

Viola had seen Sebastian following them earlier in the car, and now she glanced around for him, since it hardly felt fair to bury his sister without him there. But there was no sign of her husband anywhere, and when she reached for him through their mind link, she found it locked shut against her.

"We have to go, now," Natasha announced, glancing up toward the bridge above, where cars were beginning to pass and people were starting to move about.