Chapter 413 A new world

The mermaid’s expression changed at Viola’s question.

“Ivy was taken by the sea witch. She believed Ivy was you and took her by mistake. But it was discovered later that she wasn’t you, and she was thrown into a dungeon at the bottom of the sea.”

Viola’s breath caught. The sea witch again? What did she want from her?

The mermaid continued speaking, seemingly unaware of Viola’s reaction, or perhaps simply unwilling to stop.

“But my mama secretly let her out. She’s your mother’s younger sister, and she couldn’t just let her niece die like that.”

“My mother is the mermaid?” Viola found herself asking in surprise, even though she wasn’t entirely convinced everything the mermaid was telling her was true yet. She had wondered more than once which of her parents was the werewolf and which was the mermaid, and it turned out the mother who had heartlessly given her children away was the mermaid. The realization only gave her more reasons not to accept that part of herself.

“Yes, your mother was a mermaid.”

“Was?” Viola arched a brow, and the mermaid’s eyes turned hateful for a moment as she replied,

“She was heartlessly killed by the werewolves. Your mother is dead.”

Viola didn’t know what to feel about that information. She held no attachment to the woman who had given birth to her and had no loving memories of what it felt like to have a mother’s love. She could see that the mermaid expected her to have a strong reaction to the revelation that her mother had been killed by werewolves, but when Viola’s expression remained almost completely blank, the mermaid narrowed her eyes.

“You don’t care, do you?” she asked, bewildered.

“Am I supposed to? I don’t know her. What happened to my sister?” Viola asked, getting straight to the most important question because Ivy was her only blood relative now.

“Ivy has been living with us ever since she was freed from the bottom of the sea. We’ve kept her existence a secret from every other mermaid, though, to protect her.”

Viola’s fingers tightened around the edges of Sebastian’s oversized coat, and she could suddenly feel the fabric beneath her palms with startling clarity.

Her sister was alive? That too in the sea?

“You…” Viola swallowed, her voice barely audible. “You said she’s been living with you?”

The mermaid nodded.

“Yes. She is always worried about you. She wanted so badly to see you, but she knew she couldn’t just come to land, so she borrowed Mama’s powers to visit you in your dreams sometimes.”

Viola’s chest tightened. Those vivid dreams she’d had of Ivy had been real… was that why she sometimes woke up drenched in water?

Her sister had been alive this entire time.

Viola’s eyes burned, but she refused to let the tears fall. She wasn’t ready to cry. She wasn’t even sure she was ready to believe any of this.

“You’re lying,” she whispered. “I can’t breathe underwater, how could she?” Not to mention the fact that Doctor Gilbert had confirmed she had a wolf, so how could Ivy, who was her twin live underwater?

The mermaid’s expression softened. “I’m not lying, and Ivy can breathe underwater. She has a tail too. I can prove it to you.”

“Then prove it.”

The words came out sharper than Viola intended, but she didn’t care. Her heart was pounding so hard it hurt.

The mermaid stepped closer to the glass.

“Come closer, and I can show you. I can show you what happened to Ivy, and how I ended up here.”

Viola stared at her. For a moment, she didn’t move.

She didn’t completely trust the creature, but some desperate part of her wanted to believe everything she had been told, especially the part about Ivy being safe.

And after everything she had endured, Viola couldn’t allow herself to accept something this enormous based on words alone.

Slowly, she stepped closer to the tank, still clutching Sebastian’s coat around herself as though she were seeking comfort from the familiar scent and the support it gave her.

“Show me,” she whispered.

“Put your hand against mine.” The mermaid said, holding her gaze, and after a few moments of hesitation, Viola raised her hand and pressed it against the cold glass. “Close your eyes. Trust me,” the mermaid added, when Viola hesitated once more.

Viola closed her eyes, and at first, she saw nothing but darkness until flashes of light suddenly invaded her mind, bursting brightly behind her eyelids. The flashes became so bright that her eyes snapped open to escape them, only to discover that when she opened them, she was no longer standing in the lab-like room.

She was beneath the sea.

Water bubbled and gurgled all around her, and Viola immediately began to panic as her phobia took hold. Her breathing quickened as she instinctively tried to look for a way out, but there was nothing around her except the endless expanse of water.

Then she heard the mermaid’s voice, calm and reassuring despite Viola’s growing terror.

“It’s not real. You’re inside my memories, Serena. Relax and just experience it. You aren’t actually inside the water.”

Hearing that, Viola relaxed and began taking in her surroundings more carefully, finding herself breathing underwater in a place that could only be the mermaid world. It wasn’t nearly as dark as she’d always imagined the bottom of the oceans and seas would be in a mermaid world. In fact, it was bright, with every corner filled with small, glowing, fish-like creatures drifting through the water. Some swam past her, greeting her as they went.

“Princess Yasmin.”

Princess Yasmin? Viola wondered, until she realized she was experiencing the mermaid’s memories through her body. So she was a princess? she thought, admiring the floating, glowing fish.

Before Viola could take in everything around her, someone bumped into her while giggling. She turned to find a little mermaid with pinkish hair and blue eyes, much like the mermaid trapped in the tank.

“Mama! Hide me, I don’t want aunt Ivy to find me, we’re playing hide and seek!” The little girl laughed, grabbing her hand.

Viola belatedly realized the mermaid in the tank had a daughter, and she found her own hand grabbing the girl’s, her lips parting without her permission as words from the mermaid’s memory spilled out of her mouth instead.

“Careful, Pearl. You play too much,” she scolded. “Have you finished your studies?”

“Yeah, yeah, I finished it all. I have studied the book of the Sea Goddess and the elements of water. Hide me, hide me! She’s coming!” Pearl sang, swimming in circles around her and swishing her tail playfully.

“Fine, come here.” She took the girl’s hand and tucked her inside a large shell, saying, “Don’t make a sound, or your aunt will find you.”

“I love you, Mama.”

The little girl waved at her mother to come closer. Her mother leaned in and kissed her affectionately before swimming backward as she closed the shell. Then she whispered into the shadows,

“I figured out your plans, Ivy. Pearl won’t come out until we’re gone.”

Right at that moment, another mermaid swam clumsily out of the shadows and into the glow of the fish-lights. “Thank you, Yasmin,” she said, her voice thick with emotion. And Viola’s eyes remained fixed on her sister, who looked entirely identical to her, save for the tail.

So she was indeed alive…

“If we don’t hurry, Ivy, Pearl will want to come with us. You can see your sister quickly, and we’ll be back here before my mate returns and before Mama notices we’re gone. Sea Goddess, I can’t believe I’m about to sneak you onto land. I don’t even know which part of the surface will lead us to where your sister is!”