sion made my voice fade out.
"Yes," he said, his tone clipped. "Your little stunt with the rock. You know that you nearly
gave me a heart attack? Not the easiest thing to do, that."
His furious glower made it hard to answer.
"I wanted to help . . . Seth was hurt. . . ."
"Seth was only feigning that he was hurt, Bella. It was a trick. And then you . . . !" He shook
his head, unable to finish. "Seth couldn't see what you were doing, so I had to step in. Seth's
a bit disgruntled that he can't claim a single-handed defeat now."
"Seth was . . . faking?"
Edward nodded sternly.
"Oh."
We both looked at Seth, who was studiously ignoring us, watching the flames. Smugness
radiated from every hair in his fur.
"Well, I didn't know that," I said, on the offense now. "And it's not easy being the only
helpless person around. Just you wait till I'm a vampire! I'm not going to be sitting on the
sidelines next time."
A dozen emotions flitted across his face before he settled on being amused. "Next time? Did
you anticipate another war soon?"
"With my luck? Who knows?"
He rolled his eyes, but I could see that he was flying - the relief was making us both
lightheaded. It was over.
Or . . . was it?
"Hold on. Didn't you say something before - ?" I flinched, remembering whatexactly it had
been before - what was I going to say to Jacob? My splintered heart throbbed out a painful,
aching beat. It was hard to believe, almost impossible, but the hardest part of this day wasnot
behind me - and then I soldiered on. "About a complication? And Alice, needing to nail down
the schedule for Sam. You said it was going to be close. What was going to be close?"
Edward's eyes flickered back to Seth, and they exchanged a loaded glance.
"Well?" I asked.
"It's nothing, really," Edward said quickly. "But we do need to be on our way. . . ."
He started to pull me into place on his back, but I stiffened and drew away.
"Define nothing."
Edward took my face between his palms. "We only have a minute, so don't panic, all right? I
told you that you had no reason to be afraid. Trust me on that, please?"
I nodded, trying to hide the sudden terror - how much more could I handle before I
collapsed? "No reason to be afraid. Got it."
He pursed his lips for a second, deciding what to say. And then he glanced abruptly at Seth,
as if the wolf had called him.
"What's she doing?" Edward asked.
Seth whined; it was an anxious, uneasy sound. It made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
Everything was dead silent for one endless second.
And then Edward gasped, "No!" and one of his hands flew out as if to grab something that I
couldn't see. "Don't -!"
A spasm rocked through Seth's body, and a howl, blistering with agony, ripped from his
lungs.
Edward fell to his knees at the exact same moment, gripping the sides of his head with two
hands, his face furrowed in pain.
I screamed once in bewildered terror, and dropped to my knees beside him. Stupidly, I tried
to pull his hands from his face; my palms, clammy with sweat, slid off his marble skin.
"Edward! Edward!"
His eyes focused on me; with obvious effort, he pulled his clenched teeth apart.
"It's okay. We're going to be fine. It's -" He broke off, and winced again.
"What's happening?" I cried out while Seth howled in anguish.
"We're fine. We're going to be okay," Edward gasped. "Sam - help him -"
And I realized in that instant, when he said Sam's name, that he was not speaking of himself
and Seth. No unseen force was attacking them. This time, the crisis was not here.
He was using the pack plural.
I'd burned through all my adrenaline. My body had nothing left. I sagged, and Edward caught
me before I could hit the rocks. He sprang to his feet, me in his arms.
"Seth!" Edward shouted.
Seth was crouched, still tensed in agony, looking as if he meant to launch himself into the
forest.
"No!" Edward ordered. "You gostraight home. Now. As fast as you can!"
Seth whimpered, shaking his great head from side to side.
"Seth. Trust me."
The huge wolf stared into Edward's agonized eyes for one long second, and then he
straightened up and flew into the trees, disappearing like a ghost.
Edward cradled me tightly against his chest, and then we were also hurtling through the
shadowy forest, taking a different path than the wolf.
"Edward." I fought to force the words through my constricted throat. "What happened,
Edward? What happened to Sam? Where are we going? What's happening?"
"We have to go back to the clearing," he told me in a low voice. "We knew there was a good
probability of this happening. Earlier this morning, Alice saw it and passed it through Sam to
Seth. The Volturi decided it was time to intercede."
The Volturi.
Too much. My mind refused to make sense of the words, pretended it couldn't understand.
The trees jolted past us. He was running downhill so fast that it felt as if we were
plummeting, falling out of control.
"Don't panic. They aren't coming for us. It's just the normal contingent of the guard that
usually cleans up this kind of mess. Nothing momentous, they're merely doing their job. Of
course, they seem to have timed their arrival very carefully. Which leads me to believe that
no one in Italy would mourn if these newbornshad reduced the size of the Cullen family."
The words came through his teeth, hard and bleak. "I'll know for sure what they were
thinking when they get to the clearing."
"Is that why we're going back?" I whispered. Could I handle this? Images of flowing black
robes crept into my unwilling mind, and I flinched away from them. I was close to a breaking
point.
"It's part of the reason. Mostly, it will be safer for us to present a united front at this point.
They have no reason to harass us, but . . . Jane's with them. If she thought we were alone
somewhere away from the others, it might tempt her. Like Victoria, Jane will probably guess
that I'm with you. Demetri, of course, is with her. He could find me, if Jane asked him to."
I didn't want to think that name. I didn't want to see that blindingly exquisite, childlike face
in my head. A strange sound came out of my throat.
"Shh, Bella, shh. It's all going to be fine. Alice can see that."
Alice could see? But . . . then where were the wolves? Where was the pack?
"The pack?"
"They had to leave quickly. The Volturi do not honor truces with werewolves."
I could hear my breathing get faster, but I couldn't control it. I started to gasp.
"I swear they will be fine," Edward promised me. "The Volturi won't recognize the scent -
they won't realize the wolves are here; this isn't a species they are familiar with. The pack
will be fine."
I couldn't process his explanation. My concentration was ripped to shreds by my fears.We're
going to be fine, he had said before . . . and Seth, howling in agony . . . Edward had avoided
my first question, distracted me with the Volturi. . . .
I was very close to the edge - just clinging by my fingertips.
The trees were a racing blur that flowed around him like jade waters.
"What happened?" I whispered again. "Before. When Seth was howling? When you were
hurt?"
Edward hesitated.
"Edward! Tell me!"
"It was all over," he whispered. I could barely hear him over the wind his speed created. "The
wolves didn't count their half . . . they thought they had them all. Of course, Alice couldn't
see. . . ."
"What happened?!"
"One of the newborns was hiding. . . . Leah found him - she was being stupid, cocky, trying
to prove something. She engaged him alone. . . ."
"Leah," I repeated, and I was too weak to feel shame for the relief that flooded through me.
"Is she going to be okay?"
"Leah wasn't hurt," Edward mumbled.
I stared at him for a long second.
Sam - help him -Edward had gasped. Him, not her.
"We're almost there," Edward said, and he stared at a fixed point in the sky.
Automatically, my eyes followed his. There was a dark purple cloud hanging low over the
trees. A cloud? But it was so abnormally sunny. . . . No, not a cloud - I recognized the thick
column of smoke, just like the one at our campsite.
"Edward," I said, my voice nearly inaudible. "Edward, someone got hurt."
I'd heard Seth's agony, seen the torture in Edward's face.
"Yes," he whispered.
"Who?" I asked, though, of course, I already knew the answer.
Of course I did. Of course.
The trees were slowing around us as we came to our destination.
It took him a long moment to answer me.
"Jacob," he said.
I was able to nod once.
"Of course," I whispered.
And then I slipped off the edge I was clinging to inside my head.
Everything went black.
I was first aware of the cool hands touching me. More than one pair of hands. Arms holding
me, a palm curved to fit my cheek, fingers stroking my forehead, and more fingers pressed
lightly into my wrist.
Then I was aware of the voices. They were just a humming at first, and then they grew in
volume and clarity like someone was turning up a radio.
"Carlisle - it's been five minutes." Edward's voice, anxious.
"She'll come around when she's ready, Edward." Carlisle's voice, always calm and sure.
"She's had too much to deal with today. Let her mind protect itself."
But my mind was not protected. It was trapped in the knowledge that had not left me, even
in unconsciousness - the pain that was part of the blackness.
I felt totally disconnected from my body. Like I was caged in some small corner of my head,
no longer at the controls. But I couldn't do anything about it. I couldn't think. The agony was
too strong for that. There was no escape from it.
Jacob.
Jacob.
No, no, no, no, no . . .
"Alice, how long do we have?" Edward demanded, his voice still tense; Carlisle's soothing
words had not helped.
From farther away, Alice's voice. It was brightly chipper. "Another five minutes. And Bella
will open her eyes in thirty-seven seconds. I wouldn't doubt that she can hear us now."
"Bella, honey?" This was Es