Chapter 566: What’s that?
(Music Recommendation: Now or Never by Audiomachine.)
Sebastian didn’t like being kept away from his wife and stubbornly tried to take her into his own arms, when Ivy shoved him away, using her mermaid ability to strike his chest, causing him to cough out blood and fall back, gripping his chest at the pain that stabbed him.
"Get away from my sister!" She said, holding Viola protectively, but as though Ivy’s shove and the sound of Sebastian coughing had snapped Viola back to her senses, she moved away from Ivy and went to her husband.
"Seb, are you all right?" She asked, helping him sit back while his eyes glared over her head at Ivy. His lips were smeared with dark blood, which made him look almost exactly like he had in the memories, and Viola had to fight mentally not to run backwards, reminding herself that this was Sebastian and not the twisted Vaelor.
Viola turned to her sister, who looked like she hadn’t meant to use her powers and felt guilty for it.
"I...I am sorry, I didn’t mean it. It was an accident." Ivy said, looking down at her palm and wondering what the hell she had done to her brother-in-law. It was almost like she had been overtaken by some instinct to protect her sister from him when Viola looked scared, but she hadn’t meant it.
Sebastian’s darkened eyes narrowed suspiciously at his sister-in-law before he turned to his wife, looking at her worriedly even though he was the one who had coughed blood and was in pain.
"Are you alright, love? What was that for?" He cupped her cheeks, caressing them with his thumb, worried and not liking how she had reacted to him a moment ago.
"Did I do something to make you suddenly scared? Did you have nightmares or something?" He questioned, his voice filled with worry even though his chest was hurting like hell and the urge to cough was so strong he had to fight it, just to find out what had happened to his wife.
"I am sorry, I wasn’t myself for a moment." Viola told him guiltily as she took his handkerchief out of his pocket and began to use it to wipe at his jaw and lips, cleaning the blood from his face. "I was looking at the contents of the box one moment, and the next thing I knew I was being thrown into memories..." She turned to the little bottle now lying empty on the floor, and Sebastian and Ivy followed her line of sight to it.
Ivy picked it up, examining it, as she heard Viola ask, "Do you know what that is? It touched my hand and then pulled me into experiencing some of the things that happened to Azmira...it was an awful experience."
Sebastian turned to his wife at that, and he immediately understood what had happened. She must have experienced the stabbing by Vaelor, the one he saw almost every day as a nightmare that wouldn’t ease away from his heart and haunted him restlessly.
This was why he was afraid of digging into that past. He turned to Ivy, in whose blue eyes he had glimpsed a fierce look that had flashed as though she would murder him, and he wondered what that was about until he pushed the thought aside for now to focus on the bottle.
Ivy brought the bottle to her nose and sniffed it before she grimaced. "It’s a Ker liquid." She muttered, frowning.
"What’s that?" Viola asked, and Ivy looked up at her. "It’s a rare liquid mermaids used to change their form. Not everyone can make it, but I heard our mother was good at making it. It could also be used to reveal one’s true hidden form. If a mermaid used it to have legs, it can be used to reveal the hidden tail and identity."
No wonder it revealed scales on her hand, Viola thought, feeling suddenly wary of the liquid that had made her see what she would rather not have seen. She understood that her mother might have kept it safe in that locket before she gave it to their father, forgetting it was there.
"Where did you find it?" Ivy asked.
Viola pointed to the box. "In father’s belongings..."
"You opened it?" Sebastian asked her, and she turned to him, nodding and looking guiltily at him. He looked pale from the blow of her sister’s power, and she couldn’t help but ask, "Are you okay? Do you feel pain?" She rubbed at his chest with her hand, but he grabbed her wrist as her rubbing made it worst.
"I am fine." He smiled at her despite the discomfort pricking at him, and at that, Viola thought he looked so different from the monster who had stabbed her in that memory. She moved closer and hugged him, tightening her arms around him and resting her head against his chest, where his heart beat was strangely slow.
"I am sorry..." She whispered, and he put his arms around her, still holding back a cough in his throat and wondering what the mermaid had used to attack his chest. He glared at her over his wife’s head.
Ivy, who was studying the liquid, watched him, her eyes narrowing on Sebastian’s arms around her sister, and she suddenly began to imagine many ways he could hurt her. She met his glare, finding herself glaring back heatedly, until she realized what she was doing and looked away.
She pushed the feeling away before it made her do something stupid, because it was unnecessary and so unlike herself. Before she could act on hurting him, she left the couple after telling them that they would leave for the sea before the sunset.
Ivy stepped out of the penthouse to find Alex waiting in the corridor, and the moment he saw her, he walked up to her.
"How is she?" He asked, looking over at the door, where he hadn’t entered to avoid the awkwardness between him and his brother.
He almost assumed something terrible had happened, because the mermaid looked pale and lost, and even as she answered him, the expression stayed on her face.
"She’s fine. She will be fine."
"Then why do you look...scared?" He asked, looking down at her questioningly, and Ivy blinked.
"I am fine, I think I need to rest before we go to the waters again. I don’t feel too well." She said, already walking away, and Alex started to follow her worriedly.
"Do you need a healer or—"
"No, I just want to be alone. If you’ll excuse me, please." She hurried past him, almost running back to her room, and when she got there, Ivy shut the door and leaned against it, trembling as she looked down at her hands, still wondering what kind of ability she had just used on her sister’s husband.
𝘧𝙧𝘦𝖊𝕨𝐞𝘣𝖓𝘰𝕧𝚎𝖑.𝚌𝐨𝚖
She stared at her hand and noticed the flashing of black scales, and her insides clenched as tears filled her eyes. "No, no, no, this can’t be what I believe. I don’t want it." Ivy whispered, her body trembling in fear and her fingers shaking at the fact that she had just wielded a black ability a moment ago, when she’d always had a pure royal mermaid blue powers.