Chapter 523: Giving time

Laila laughed, walking into the kitchen with the rest of the women as she said, "Not in this lifetime, girl. This body is not going to carry any baby, not after I’ve seen the way yours kicked you yesterday. Tess, did you know I actually saw the foot against her skin? It was creepy as hell." Laila shuddered in horror at the memory, and Viola bit back a smile.

No matter how blunt Laila was and how she always spoke her words unfiltered, the shewolf had stood by her during all the times she missed Zoe’s absence and was a moment away from falling into despair all the time as she couldn’t figure things out, alongside Ivy. And in the past two months, Viola knew the shewolf well enough that she would no longer take offense at her words.

"Do you know women like you end up being the ones carrying a pregnancy every year?" Tess mused. "And I know of someone like you back home, and when she had her children, she spoiled them rotten and smiled at their bratty ways."

"That’s not going to be me. Ivy, do you perhaps foresee the future with your powers? I need to know if I’ll end up like that," Laila asked Viola’s sister, who was a woman of few words and always smiling at their words rather than contributing to the discussion.

"I am not a seer. You should go to Elder Ysara for that, but you won’t be able to see her with the pack filled with so many people today. Are you just waking up, Viola?" Ivy asked her sister, having grown accustomed by now to using the name everyone else called her by, rather than the one she’d known her whole life.

"I slept in even though I set the alarm," Viola said with a sigh, having a feeling Sebastian had turned off the alarm she’d set for 6:00 a.m., and she had ended up waking up at 8 instead. "You all are dressed up," she pointed out.

"We woke up earlier, but no big deal. You can take your time. You’re the Luna, and people are bound to wait on you," Laila said with a smile, going to sit down on the couch in the living room along with Tess to give the sisters some time alone.

"The guests are already arriving," Ivy pointed out.

"I know, I saw them. Don’t worry, it won’t take me long to freshen up and get dressed," Viola said, tucking the note into the pocket of her pajama sweater, the way she kept nearly every note he wrote her with each meal he made.

If he didn’t take such careful care of her meals and health, Viola might have started believing he no longer loved her at all or that she meant nothing to him, since lately she barely felt anything from him emotionally, as though he’d gone numb entirely, or simply gotten very good at hiding their shared emotions.

As she hurried toward the stairs to get ready, Ivy stopped her.

"How’s his healing progressing? Any signs of the corruption returning?"

Viola paused, turning back to her sister, whom she’d brought weeks ago to sing her healing song over Sebastian while he showered, though neither of them had been able to confirm whether it had actually worked. Viola had promised to keep watching him closely instead.

"He hasn’t coughed again since then, and outwardly he seems fine. The only way I’ll know for certain if he’s fully cured is if he shifts in front of me, but he hasn’t, not once, since." She said, and Ivy nodded, understanding.

"How much longer do you plan on giving him?" Ivy asked, stepping closer to her sister, who met her with a smile, though Ivy could see plainly enough what lived behind it: a woman desperately wanting everything to just be fine already.

"As long as it takes, I suppose. Maybe until he’s ready to talk about it, to actually open up. Right now he’s too consumed with finding Nick’s body, dead or alive, and—"

"Which has been going on for two months now. Not even the mermaids can find him. Just like I told you, Aunt Natasha says it’s as though he vanished the second he hit the water. It’s strange, something like that happening at all," Ivy remarked, taking her sister’s hand. "Once the baby comes, I’m planning to go back to the sea. I hope you’re not still taking Alex’s advice, giving your husband endless time when you have so much of your own weighing on you already. Have you told him about the dream yet? The one you keep having, every night?"

Viola shook her head. "I don’t want to burden him with anything more. He is already going through a lot emotionally—"

Ivy pulled her sister into a hug. "I don’t think he’d see it as a burden, silly. You two are partners. You’re supposed to lean on each other. You keep dreaming of his sister, telling you she’s waiting for you, and you need his help untangling this whole puzzle with Azmira and Vaelor. Go get ready, we’ll talk more after the memorial." Ivy stepped back, giving her sister a gentle push toward the stairs.

Viola wouldn’t have known how to cope if she didn’t have her sister here and her friends, and that was the problem. She had people lifting her spirits, but her husband had nobody besides him, not after Matt had—

"Stop looking at me like that, as if you are about to cry. Go get ready and don’t keep them waiting. You’re going to meet your husband’s grandmother today and his aunties," Ivy reminded her, and Viola’s eyes widened as she hurried away, knowing she was supposed to play the role of a good host to his other relatives she hadn’t met.

As Ivy watched her twin climb the stairs, her stomach heavy and rounded now, she couldn’t help but wish there were some way to actually help her sister through all of this, whatever destiny tying her to Azmira ultimately demanded of her.

She didn’t need to be told that Viola was growing desperate now, desperate to find some way to awaken that other part of herself without losing who she already was in the process, to give life to the lost ones, but embracing the Child of the Sea would mean giving this life up.

Their aunt had advised her, more than once, not to push herself too hard while pregnant, trying to figure out ways, and that perhaps once the baby came, they could dig into the history together properly.

But that was far easier said than done, especially with how much speculation already surrounded her sister’s marriage, since Sebastian had gone back to ruling his pack with an iron fist. All the softness that used to live in him now seemed reserved only for his mate, and everyone else was walking on the edge of a sword around him. Even his own brother was treading on that fragile line it seemed, Ivy thought, going to join the other she-wolves in the living room.