Viola had seen the slap coming and knew the she-wolf was going to hit her for the way she had addressed her by name. She had already prepared herself to stop it before it landed, and she caught the she-wolf’s wrist so effortlessly that it stunned Ember.

"You don’t think I’ll let you hit me again after what happened the last time," Viola said, tightening her grip around Ember’s wrist. "I want you and Leni out of this building right now, or you might not like what I do next."

She threw out the threat even though she herself knew there was very little she could actually do if the two she-wolves decided to gang up on her. Still, she was the Luna as the crown hadn’t been taken from her, and technically she still had the authority to send them out of anywhere in Silver if she chose to.

Ember parted her lips to respond and pulled at her wrist, expecting the effortless resistance of someone wolfless, but something was wrong.

She couldn’t pull free and a cold sensation had begun spreading from her wrist up into her stomach, moving fast, and before she could make sense of it the cold turned to a sharp, consuming pain through her entire body. Viola had no idea that her water ability was quietly pulling the liquid from Ember’s body and turning her blood against her.

Ember’s knees buckled beneath her.

Viola released her wrist the moment she saw the she-wolf gasping on the floor, stepping back without understanding what she had just done. Ember looked up at her with unfocused, stunned eyes as Leni rushed to her side.

"Are you all right?" Leni asked, grabbing her friend’s arm. "What’s wrong?"

"I don’t know. Let’s leave, I suddenly don’t feel well..." Ember muttered, letting Leni pull her up. But before they went, Leni looked back at Zoe and said, "You had better design her dress or we will be back for it." She had no way of knowing that this was the last time either of them would ever set foot in this building, because one of them was already bound never to see the light of another day.

Viola watched the two she-wolves and their entourage leave, Sofia trailing silently behind them, buried beneath the shopping bags she carried for the future Luna, and Viola kept her eyes fixed on the entrance long after they were gone.

Zoe came to stand beside her and lowered her voice. "What did you do to her, Vee?"

Viola had felt something move through her body the moment she held Ember’s wrist, something she couldn’t name or trace back to anything she understood about herself, and so she said the only honest thing she could.

"I don’t know...I just held her wrist, that’s all."

"Well, I think holding her wrist really shut her up. I’m glad they’re gone." Zoe let out a sigh of relief before she heard Laila moan behind them and they both turned to find blood pooling at the she-wolf’s side, a piece of glass from the broken shelves lodged into her stomach where she had fallen.

Viola stared at the she-wolf who had once competed with her for her husband and at the blood spreading around her. How did she get stabbed? she thought. Seeing as she was losing blood so quickly, like a broken pipe pouring water everywhere, maybe the bully had always had it in abundance, and karma was finally making her lose it with such intensity. She even contemplated letting her bleed out. Maybe if enough blood left her body, it would take some of her rotten personality with it.

"Oh, Moon, she’s losing so much blood on my floor. Don’t you think we should help? I don’t want her passing out here," Zoe said with a worried frown on her face.

As much as Viola wanted nothing to do with Laila, she didn’t think it was ideal to stand there and let her bleed out on Zoe’s floor. It wasn’t common for werewolves to die from blood loss, but it wasn’t impossible either.

"Get a first aid kit, Zoe." Viola said, already moving forward and going down on her knees beside Laila. "Can you move to the side so I can remove the glass?"

Laila’s eyes narrowed down at her with open disgust. "Don’t you fucking touch me or I will rip your head off. I don’t need your help." She gritted, wanting nothing less than this woman’s hands anywhere near her.

Viola let out a quiet sigh. "As much as I would like to stand back and watch you bleed to your senses, Miss Serrano, you are in my sister-in-law’s fashion house and your death would tarnish her reputation."

"How dumb are you, I can’t die from a glass stab to my side." Laila glared, thinking that on top of being wolfless the bitch clearly knew nothing about their kind, until she watched Viola gesture pointedly at her chest. Laila looked down and felt the blood drain from her face. A second piece of glass, larger than the first, was embedded directly into her chest dangerously close to her heart, and if left untreated it would do exactly what the wolfless bitch had implied.

"Fuck. G-get a doctor, there’s glass in my heart." She choked, coughing up blood as the pain bloomed sharp and immediate through her chest, as if seeing it only make her aware of the pain.

"I can pull it out and you will heal on your own without needing a doctor, just stay still." Viola said calmly.

Laila was already panicking and cursing Ember and Leni with everything she had. "I will fucking kill those two!" She gritted, her eyes cutting back to Viola with deep wariness, not entirely convinced this bitch wouldn’t drive the glass deeper rather than pull it out, it wasn’t as though they were friends, and Laila had made no secret of how she felt about her. She made a mental note to deal with her properly once the glass was out. Maybe she could stab the bitch in the heart with it once she was out of danger.

She never got the chance to act on it. The pain won before the glass was even removed and she slipped unconscious.

When Zoe arrived with the first aid kit, Viola worked carefully to remove the glass and slow the bleeding enough for Laila’s healing ability to take hold, and she couldn’t help the thought that drifted through her mind as she worked; that she was kneeling on the floor tending to one of the women who had made her feel the most insecure about her place in Sebastian’s life, back when she hadn’t yet understood that her place was already secured.

"I hope you will get off his back when he returns." Viola thought quietly to herself. "I would hate to help you today and then have you chasing my husband tomorrow."

Meanwhile in another part of Silver, Ember had been forced to cut her shopping day short entirely. Her body was turning against her in ways she couldn’t explain, a dizziness so consuming that standing on her own had become a task, her skin looking parched and cracked no matter how much water she swallowed. She felt dehydrated from the inside out, like something had reached into her body and wrung it dry.

"Are you sure you will be fine?" Leni asked, watching with growing unease as Ember gulped down bottle after bottle of water desperately as though nothing could touch the thirst.