The Wolf Crown (The Wolf Kings #2) (MLM)

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE.

                "What prophecy?" Tiberius looked between them. "Violet got a prophecy, too?"

Jack winced. He'd forgotten that no one else had known about that, and cursed himself for mentioning it.

"Shit, I'm sorry, Violet."

"No need, Jack," she dismissed. "I shouldn't have hidden something so important."

"So you did know," Tiberius said at his side, and Jack shook his head.

"No no no," he said quickly, "I swear, I didn't want to hide it from you, Tiberius, I just . . . I . . ."

"I asked him to keep it a secret," Violet told him, setting the last of her books back on their shelf. "It's not his fault, Tiberius."

"I don't understand," Everett frowned, looking from Jack to Tiberius to Violet and back again. "You got a prophecy?"

"Forget it," Jack said at once. "I'm sorry, sometimes I just say things when they come to me without thinking, you don't have to talk about this."

A faint smile tugged at her lips and she grabbed the few undamaged glass bottles off her apothecary, studying their labels. "It's all right, my friend. I made peace with my prophecy the day I received it. Before then, even."

"Violet," Tiberius stepped forward, "it's true? The Seer told you that you were going to die?"

"She told me I was going to die," Violet confirmed, not pausing her work for a moment, "before the next full moon."

A lump lodged in Jack's throat. "Before the end of the year?"

"I'm sorry, my friend," she smiled apologetically. "It seems I might miss your wedding."

The room fell silent, no one knowing what to say or how to say it, with Violet's potion bottles clanking together on her table seemingly the only sound for miles.

Everett looked to Jack rather helplessly as if to ask, What now?

Good fucking question. Violet seemed so unbothered by the prophecy that Jack found himself even more upset.

"Is that it?" he asked. "Seer says you're going to die to that fucking thing, and you don't even care?"

Everett emitted a low groan somewhere behind him, either because he disapproved of Jack cursing in front of a lady, or because he'd cursed in front of the leader of the witches. Or both.

"Is that why Lavender was so upset?" Tiberius said quietly. "Because you won't fight?"

Violet didn't answer, pulling a small cauldron out from behind her desk, she started to pour a few of the contents inside. Her smile was gone, but there was no distress on her face. No secret fear, no pain, no suffering, no agony.

"Violet," Jack's voice softened, "talk to us."

She uncorked her bottle and paused. As she met Tiberius's eyes, she didn't look afraid. She looked sorry.

"I want to see Moebius again," was all she said before she resumed her work.

Tiberius tensed at Jack's side, and Jack instinctively slipped his hand into his. Tiberius squeezed hard enough to break, but all Jack could think of was the look on Violet's face. She wanted to die.

"She doesn't care about anyone but herself."

"Violet . . ."

The sound of her own name seemed to drain something in her, and she rested her palms on the table and heaved a sigh.

"You have no idea," she croaked. "No idea what it's like. They say only werewolves suffer for their mates, but . . . two decades, and just waking up is still such a chore." She shook her head, as if shaking herself of the grief plaguing her, and poured out another bottle. "I'm tired. I'm so tired."