Chapter 571: The Dying Grave
"Is something wrong?" Sebastian asked Ivy noticing the tense look on her face.
"There has been another death in Aquaville and the merfolk are coming this way." Ivy announced this to Sebastian. "They won’t like to have you here, Alpha Sebastian, nor you, Viola. If you don’t want to be held prisoner, I suggest we leave right now. The merfolk are filled with more resentment lately."
Ivy explained as she closed off the leaves over Zoe, pulled Alex back, and began to guide them away, but she stopped at the sound of voices, looking scared because her aunt had told her that if she got caught with the werewolves, there was nothing she could do to help them.
"It’s too late, they’re here. Go back, hide behind the graves. Hurry." She urged them, shoving Alex to go with Viola, who pulled her husband behind one of the graves instinctively, and then hid behind another herself, as the boulder of a single grave couldn’t hide them both.
Just as they all hid, a few mermaids swam into the graveyard, and Viola peeked out to watch them perform the ritual of burial. Unlike werewolves, mermaids don’t have a sharp sense of smell to pick out the werewolves hiding in the darkness of the unlit graves.
They were burying a merman who looked sunken and dried up, and Viola picked up on the mermaids’ conversation as they performed it.
"How many more do we have to lose to the sea fever?"
"Until we have all perished. We have lost our protectors to the hands of evil land creatures. The Sea Goddess bestowed upon us two protectors, one who stops our death and another who heals us of all illness, but we are left with nothing now, for one has died and the other has turned evil herself." Came the angry words of one of the mermaids, who had a dull green tail that matched the hair on her head.
"May all the werewolves get what they deserve for what they have done to us." Said another one with an orange tail. "May Silver suffer double the loss we have suffered."
"Why should we have to curse them with our mouths when we could fight back and take back who is ours? She shouldn’t have to be given a choice, who does she think she is?" Said a merman. "She was born to protect us, we should force her back home and damn the werewolves!"
Viola didn’t have to hear a name to know they were talking about her, and the fingers resting on the grave she was hiding behind turned clammy and her throat went dry. She didn’t want a fight, and she had never thought that by choosing the werewolves, the merfolk would be this upset and might do something like attack her home to force her back. They wouldn’t go that far, would they?
"I agree, we need her to come back or we will lose our graves very soon."
Viola listened to their conversation without knowing what to think, and her eyes turned to her husband, who was watching her with his brows furrowed tightly together, as if he didn’t like what he was hearing about forcing her back either.
’If any of them touch you or try anything funny, I will kill them.’ Came his words through their mind link. ’You belong with me and no one else.’
Viola heard his firm, possessive words and felt even more torn. Despite feeling more at home with him than anywhere else, a part of her was being drawn toward the cries of the mermaids, stirring a deep sense of responsibility within her that she could only attribute to her being the Child of the Sea of this era.
’I belong with you.’ she told him, turning away to look at the mermaids.
"We need to speak with Natasha about this. Our graves are dying along with our people, and she needs to finally do something about that niece of hers."
The mermaids finished and left, still talking about the dying graves, which made her wonder what they meant. It was after they left the sea and surfaced that she asked her sister.
"What do they mean by the graves dying?" Viola asked curiously.
"The Life Root Tree has been dying for months now. Don’t you wonder what preserves the bodies in those graves?" Ivy asked. "The leaves are connected to the Life Root Tree, and if it dies, so will the leaves preserving the bodies. They’ll lose the last bit of hope they have, because everyone buried down there will eventually turn to dust."
She paused, remaining in the water while Viola and the others had already climbed out and were trying to warm themselves.
"The Life Root Tree gave birth to the twins and bestowed its powers upon the graves," she explained.
"Aquaville has been restless ever since they realized they’re losing hope. There’s no telling what they might do to bring back a Child of the Sea. You have to be careful, Serena."
Viola couldn’t help feeling her stomach twist with unease. As much as she wanted to save everyone down there, she didn’t owe them her life, and she feared they might do something desperate to force her to return to them.
She turned toward Sebastian, who was coming back from their car, before looking at her sister again.
"Where is the Life Root Tree in Aquaville? Can I go there? I need to see if Azmira left anything behind that could help. There are still so many things about her life that don’t make sense to me."
Maybe there would be some answers there, and she could find another memory of Azmira and learn what had happened in the past to bring about her death and why she had wanted to give up her tail.
Sebastian came around her and placed a heated blanket around her body, saying, "I don’t think you should take another trip into the water right now. Is there anything of Azmira’s left there?" He asked this of his sister-in-law, who he had noticed had been trying to avoid him ever since she struck him.
Ivy looked at him from inside the waters. "I haven’t been down there myself, so I don’t know if she left anything of hers there." She then looked at Viola and said,
"It’s not a place you can swim to without a tail, and not in your condition. You guys go ahead, I have something to do back in Aquaville, I need to know what the mermaids are planning, I will meet you tomorrow." Ivy told her sister, and then she turned to Sebastian. "Take care of her."
She didn’t wait for their reply before she dove back down.
"Do you think the mermaids could force me back?" She asked Sebastian, looking down into the water, which was frozen at the side, where the snow was falling harder and the water would soon freeze over.