Chapter 430 Before it’s too late

Viola felt her throat go dry under the way he regarded her, and then her gaze shifted to the still pool, where the mermaid had used the water as a pathway back home. Her palms grew sweaty as she struggled to find the right words to say to him. She knew how hard he had worked to capture the mermaid, believing her heart was the key to curing his brother and breaking the curse that had kept him from marking Viola.

The silence between them became suffocating.

When she could barely breathe through it anymore, Viola took a hesitant step toward him.

“Seb, I did—”

But he stepped back.

His eyes were red-rimmed around the silver, his expression that of a man defeated, betrayed by the very person he least expected to hurt him. He turned his back on her and walked away without saying a single word.

His footsteps echoed through the silence as he disappeared into the shadowed corridor, leaving Viola standing there alone.

For the first time, the full weight of what she’d done hit her.

She had saved Yasmin. She had done what she believed was right.

But she had also taken away the one thing Sebastian had spent half his life trying to obtain. And now, she had no idea what that would mean for either of them.

“You shouldn’t have done that, Supreme Luna,” Matt’s voice came from the side.

Viola turned toward him, belatedly realizing he’d been there the whole time too.

“He spent half his life searching for a way out of that curse. You took that possibility away from him in a single day, right after he’d finally put everything he had into it.”

“But killing a living being for something like that was going too far. I only did what I believed was right,” Viola said, defensively, though a thread of uncertainty had already begun creeping into her heart now.

She’d thought everything through before acting. She’d known Sebastian would be furious. She’d known freeing Yasmin might cost her his trust, his forgiveness, and most of all, the mark she’d wanted so badly, and she had told herself she would live with that, would find a way to make it right by curing his brother some other way.

But she hadn’t expected him to look at her the way he just had. Still, she couldn’t bring herself to regret saving a living being from a sacrifice that would bring such enormous consequences.

If she had to choose again, she would do the same thing. But that didn’t mean she wasn’t afraid of what came next between her and her husband, especially with the way he had looked defeated and hurt.

“The Alpha sees the world in black and white, Luna,” Matt continued. “His morals aren’t like yours or mine. To him, things are either bad or wrong, there’s very little middle ground. And when he decides something is bad, he doesn’t hesitate to act.”

He paused, watching the direction Sebastian had disappeared into.

“He’s been like that since we were children. He’s lived his entire life by rules and consequences. And when it comes to mermaids…” Matt’s expression turned defeated too. “They’re not living beings to him. They’re tied to the worst thing that’s ever happened to him. His curse runs deeper than most people know, and from the look of things, you haven’t seen the full extent of it yet, Luna. So when it comes to their kind, his hatred overrides almost everything else. He doesn’t see killing one of them the way you do.”

Viola swallowed. “You mean there’s more to his curse than just it killing his mates?” She asked, and watched Matt nod solemnly.

“More so that it could be the undoing of his entire pack, if it isn’t handled properly.” Matt continued, his voice quieter now.

“What you did wasn’t just stopping a sacrifice, Luna. You took away what he believed was his final escape. He spent years preparing for this. He’d convinced himself that once it was over, he would finally be free. He could live normally. He could finally mark you without wondering whether it would cost you your life.”

Viola’s chest tightened, but still, she couldn’t see any way that sacrificing a mermaid was truly the only outcome left.

“Is there another way he could achieve the same outcome, without sacrificing a mermaid?” She asked quietly, knowing that if there were another way, she would do everything she could to help him find it, and as for what the curse had actually done to him, she resolved she would have to sit him down and hear everything from him directly. But what Matt said next made her stomach turn.

“The only way out now is either he lets three of his mates die under his mark, in order to reach the fourth, or he finds his prophesied mate, the one who could cure him of the curse, and his entire bloodline along with it. That’s the only way out left now, Luna.”

She stared at him, understanding immediately that neither outcome involved her staying in his life. If it came down to sacrificing three mates, and she now knew Natalie hadn’t been among them, she would be the very first sacrifice. And if it came down to the prophesied mate instead, she wouldn’t be in the picture there either, since the moment he followed that path, everything in his life would resolve itself, and whatever affection he held for her now would simply die along with it.

“Are you sure there’s no other way?” She asked.

Matt sighed. “I don’t know of any other way, Luna. Maybe he’ll find one. Maybe Gilbert will discover something else, who knows. But I know Sebastian. When he loses something he’s spent his entire life fighting for, he takes it personally. Especially when the person who took it from him is someone he loves. I just hope he doesn’t shut you out of his life.”

Viola’s heart sank.

“But killing Yasmin would have affected more than just her,” she whispered. “Her mate could come after us. Her people could retaliate.” Her voice faltered. “I let her go because I didn’t want any of that trouble falling on him either.”

“I know,” Matt said. “And I’m not telling you that you were wrong to save her. I’m telling you to understand exactly what you just took from Sebastian, before you try to make him understand why you did it.”

Viola lowered her gaze. That was the part she hadn’t considered.

She had been thinking about Yasmin’s life, and Ivy’s, the danger to Silver, the consequences of killing a royal mermaid.

But what about Sebastian?

What would happen to him now?

And what exactly had she just condemned him to, by saving Yasmin?

She had believed she was choosing between a life and a mark. But it seemed bigger than that now, far bigger, because she hadn’t been told the extent of his curse in the first place.

She was only beginning to realize her choice might carry consequences neither of them had been prepared for.

“Thank you, Matt. I need to see him now, and face this, before it’s too late.”