Viola didn’t stop until the last bullet was out and then she sat back and said with a voice that was growing noticeably weaker, "Look him over and tell me if he will be all right now." Her back was bleeding profoundly and she was losing more blood than she should have been.

Miss Lara examined the wounds carefully and was genuinely stunned to find that not one of the removals had caused any further tissue damage. Now they only needed to wait for his body to register the bullets were gone and begin healing itself the way it was meant to.

When Viola heard that, a small and exhausted smile came to her lips and she looked down at her own hands for a quiet moment. "I didn’t know I could do that. I have heard there are special kinds of werewolves with abilities..."

Miss Lara looked troubled in a way that went deeper than concern. "Keep that entirely to yourself, girl. You must not let any werewolf know you carry that ability or you will find yourself in a situation you will never be able to get out of." She warned in barely more than a whisper as she turned to begin applying healing herbs to the open wounds now that the bullets had been removed.

A frown settled slowly between Viola’s brows as she looked at Miss Lara. "Is that what happened to my sister? Did she do something extraordinary and that was why you got rid of her and lied about her ever existing?" 𝕗𝕣𝐞𝐞𝘄𝐞𝚋𝚗𝗼𝘃𝗲𝗹.𝚌𝕠𝚖

Miss Lara’s expression didn’t shift even slightly as she replied, "How many more times must I repeat myself? You do not have a sister here. It was only ever you, and nothing you say or do will produce a sister who never existed in this place. I am advising you to keep that power hidden from every werewolf you ever meet, that is all."

"Why?" Viola demanded, but then Sebastian let out a long slow breath that sounded like something releasing, like a body finally beginning to unknot itself from the inside, and she turned quickly to look at him.

The color of his skin had already begun to shift, the deathly pallor pulling back slightly, and she felt a weight she hadn’t realized she had been carrying since she found him in the forest lift just enough from her chest that she could breathe properly again. She reached out and touched her hand gently to his hair and then looked back at Miss Lara, waiting for her answer.

"Why?" Viola repeated impatiently.

"Why what?" Miss Lara pretended ignorance of her question. "I have told you what is concerning, because I have lived longer than you have. A power like that will get you into trouble once greedy werewolves, seeking more power, find out about it. It has nothing to do with your imaginary sister. I am only looking out for a girl I once raised."

Though what Miss Lara said wasn’t far from the truth. If the girl wasn’t careful enough and allowed herself to use that water ability and got caught by a werewolf, a smart one who had lived long enough to know the history of the water creatures, they would recognize what she was. And she would either be used as a meal or have her heart ripped out before she even knew what was coming her way.

Even though Miss Lara found it strangely confusing that she was using water powers while there was also a werewolf pheromone aura on the twins, she didn’t think she should let it out to anyone in this world.

Viola stared at the woman in resentment, even as she clenched her fingers as if to hide her powers, and said,

"You can say and make up whatever story you want to, but I know you have done something to my sister and I will never forgive it until you tell me the truth or bring her back to me. I won’t stop until I find out what you did, and once I do...I will make you regret every lie you have told me since I walked through that door..."

Viola couldn’t finish the threat as the pain in her back returned with a force that felt like someone had driven a fist into the wound, and she groaned and pressed her hand to the floor to steady herself.

"Save that energy, girl. You are badly hurt and losing blood. Go and rest and I will look after him for you." Miss Lara said with a tired sigh, noticing the blood pooling profoundly around where the girl was sitting, but the girl fixed her with a glare that had no give in it whatsoever and said firmly,

"I am staying. I am not leaving him with a liar like you. Who knows, I might wake up to hear I don’t have a husband, and whatever happened here was my imagination. Isn’t that what you are now good at, Miss Lara?"

It was in that moment that it truly dawned on Miss Lara, hitting her slowly and then all at once like something she should have seen coming from the very beginning.

Her hand trembled slightly as the full realization settled on her. No matter how many years had passed, she knew that stubbornness. She had seen it up close for seven years and there was no mistaking it. This young woman was none other than Serena, and in doing what she had done she had made the gravest mistake of her life by erasing the wrong twin entirely.

Miss Lara swallowed hard against the dread rising in her throat and turned to find those blue eyes already watching her, tracking her every small movement with the quiet and sharp distrust of someone who had no intention of leaving her husband alone in this room with a woman she didn’t fully believe.

°°°

Viola didn’t leave Sebastian’s side even as his body shut down into a deep healing process, slipping into unconsciousness while his wounds worked slowly to repair themselves. After they had transferred him onto the bed to make him more comfortable, she settled herself beside him and stayed there.

Miss Lara had cleaned her back and applied herbal medicine to the wound, but no matter what the woman said to her Viola wouldn’t agree to go to the children’s room to sleep and let Julia take over his care.

Viola wasn’t stupid. She had seen the way Julia looked at Sebastian, the kind of look that had nothing to do with nursing and everything to do with opportunity.

The moment word reached Julia that there was a real chance of him waking up, the girl had disappeared, come back freshly showered and changed into her best dress, and presented herself at the door ready to take over the night watch so Viola could rest. Viola had looked at her and told her flatly that she was perfectly capable of caring for her own husband.

Julia’s intentions were not hard to read. She was hoping to be the face he woke up to, hoping a man of Sebastian’s obvious wealth and standing might be her way out of Nightshade entirely.

Viola already had more on her plate than she could manage without adding delusional women to the list, especially ones she deeply didn’t trust now that she was certain the people in this orphanage were lying to her about her twin.