A/N: So I got excited and quickly worked on the next chapter. A lot of things happen in this chapter, which is why it's kinda long. Cliffhanger warning, though!

xx

"Am I following?" I asked with my bow and arrows in my hands. I was all geared up and even bathed Fenrisúlfr thoroughly for the invasion. Well, the only problem was my dress though.

Edward stared at me with a look of disbelief and then shook his head. "No way."

"What?" I widened my eyes. "Oh come on!"

"I can't risk you dying. I won't let you come with us."

"Why?" I cried. "I have a bow and arrows!"

"But the question is, do you know how to shoot?" He cocked an eyebrow as he fully faced me, his arms crossed. "If you can shoot, I'll let you come. Deal?"

I had never shot with bow and arrows before, so when I heard what he said, my face changed. "Okay, fine! I don't know how to shoot!" I admitted.

"Then you can at least stay here and watch out for any intruders— since we have you, I can have my total amount of men following me." Edward replied. Someone knocked repeatedly on our door and shouted out some words in Russian that I didn't understand. Edward sighed. "It's time for breakfast."

He went out first and I stayed in for a while as I removed my bow and arrows and laid them aside. Another time, I thought.

"Where's the Princess?" I heard Emmett ask Edward right outside the door. "Where did she sleep?"

"Go away," Edward said, exasperated.

"I know that look." Emmett's light tone became teasing and I could imagine the wide grin on his face which he wore throughout last night. "Did she sleep with you last night?"

"No."

"Liar!"

Edward sighed. "We slept in the same bed but nothing happened. There wasn't an empty house that she could use."

"And so you decided to give her some hospitality? How was it?" Emmett laughed.

That was when I decided to come out of the house. Their eyes were on me as I smiled politely, as if I wasn't going to say something crude.

"His hammer was small. Frankly didn't pleasure me as much as I thought it would. Very disappointing." I said.

Emmett's jaw dropped in shock and Edward's eyes widened as he realized what I'd said. They clearly wasn't expecting me to say that, but I continued smiling and walked away.

"You both will miss breakfast." I told them. "Wouldn't want to get hungry in the middle of a fight, would you?"

By the time everyone was finished with breakfast, they were ready to take off to their intended destination. I gave one of my runestones that I had found in my bag a few days ago to Edward.

He stared down at it in his palm. "What is it?"

"It's a sign for good luck, so that when you're in danger, there'll be something that turns your bad luck around." I told him, smiling. I could read the runestones since it was in Norse and in this life my brain was hard wired to Norse language.

"This is perfect," he replied, smiling back. "Thank you."

"The only way you can thank me is by proving that this rune works. I want you back safe. If you aren't back by tomorrow morning, I'm coming after you." I told him, closing his palm around the rune stone. I continued to hold his hand as I sighed. "Be safe."

He kissed my forehead. "I will." He wrapped his arms around me and I leaned my head against his chest, listening to his heartbeat. I remembered a time when that heartbeat was faltering as he died in my arms back in 1918. My breath hitched as that whole scene played in my mind and I just kissed Edward on the cheek and stepped back from him.

"Go." I hid my pain with a forced smile. "But make sure you come back."

"I'll see you soon," he said back and turned away to get on his gray-spotted horse. As I watched him go with his men, I felt like the wife of a fisherman— never knowing when Edward was coming back, never knowing if he's going to get hurt, and never knowing if that was the last time that I was ever going to see him in this life.

I waited and my heart grew tighter.

I had nothing much to do and there wasn't an outsider who came into the village, since it was basically located in the middle of nowhere. All I did was pluck edible fruits and vegetables for my meals and played songs that I could remember in my head, but nothing could drown my worries even for a second.

I slept in an empty bed for the night on Edward's side and I tossed and turned, failing to fall asleep even when Edward's scent was still there. I stared up at the roof and suddenly, I felt my heart stop for a moment. Something was definitely wrong.

It didn't take me even a minute to grab a dagger that was lying around, placing it in my bag with a shirt of Edward's. I got on board Fenrisúlfr. I had heard that horses could follow trails if there are scents of what they're searching for, so I had to let Fenrisúlfr sniffle on Edward's shirt a little.

He nudged it and I combed his mane with my fingers. "Yes, good boy." I cooed, before putting back the shirt inside the bag. He started nuzzling the ground for Edward's scent and moved forward as he started to get used to the smell.

Soon, he was galloping fast as he took in the trail Edward had left behind and after an hour, we stopped in front of a scene that looked like it came out of a movie full of gore. Bodies covered in blood were strewn all over the place and some even had their body parts torn off from their bodies in the clearing. My eyes widened as I took in the place and feared that Edward was among one of those men killed here.

"Edvard?" I shouted. Fenrisúlfr started sniffing around for Edward and so far, he didn't find anything until I heard groans and murmurs from inside the other side of the clearing. I caught a glimpse of bronze hair and shouted his name again.

"Bella?" Edward rubbed the back of his neck with his arm. The other arm was bloody. "What are you doing here? How did you find us?"

I glanced at the men who were sitting around, leaning against the trees as they rested. Some of them were injured, but my primary attention was on Edward. "I was worried, and Fenrisúlfr managed to track down your scent." I replied. "What happened?"

"Someone pierced an arrow into my arm," he winced.

I got off my horse immediately and ran to him, holding the affected arm gingerly. I examined it a little before tearing away a long piece of his shirt and wrapping the cloth around his arm tightly. "That'll do for now. I need to wash it and then the cloth has to be changed." I told him. "Can you still ride your horse?"

He nodded. "Yeah, going back sounds like a good idea. Come on." He stood up by himself and walked over to where my black stallion and his white and gray horse was grazing at. Jasper helped Edward with the mounting on his horse, but other than that, he was fine.

Once we reached the abandoned village we've been staying at, I helped Edward get off his horse and we got into the house. I had a tub of water and a towel so that I could wash his wounds. We sat near the fireplace since it as the only source of warmth for the cold night. I dipped the towel into the tub and removed the bloodied cloth around Edward's arm. He winced and I bit my lip.

"Hopefully, this one's nothing serious." I told him. I wiped the wound with the wet towel and sighed in relief. "You're lucky this arrow didn't go through your arm. If it did, it would have left a nasty wound to clean."

"Bella, can you do me a favor?" He asked.

"Well, that depends." I told him.

"You don't mind washing my body, do you?"

I raised my eyebrows. "What?"

He shook his head, taking a deep breath. "Never mind."

"Edvard, that's okay." I smiled and washed the towel again before asking Edward to remove his shirt. As he did, I could see all the smooth sculpted planes highlighted on his chest. I moved the towel from his shoulder to his chest to his abs and I could feel them clench under my touch. I dipped the towel into the tub of water again and washed his smooth back from the back of his neck down to the middle of his back.

I stood up and threw the towel into the tub, picking it up. "I think we're done here." I finally said, smiling and walked out the house.

I steadied my short breaths and closed my eyes for a while as I emptied the tub. Just looking at him and cleaning his wounds was probably the most intimate thing we've done for these past few days, and I was ready to grab him by the sides of his face, kiss him senseless and... probably do things that I wasn't supposed to do in this era before I was married.

I was starting to get a headache and I headed back inside. I decided that I was definitely going to sleep in a different room than Edward that night. He was still sitting in front of the fireplace, his eyes glazed over as he thought about something. I just stood there for a moment, not sure what I should say. I was pretty sure he'd be happy that he wouldn't need to share the bed for once.

I cleared my throat. "Edvard, I'm—"

"Bella," his head snapped up and he stood, looking at me as he was caught off guard.

"I...," I took a deep breath. "I just wanted to say something."

"Me too." Edward pursed his lips as he frowned. "Why don't you start first?"

"Uhm, okay. Well I'm gonna go sleep here near the fireplace for tonight. And maybe for the rest of the nights here."

He looked bemused for a moment. "What? Why?"

"I just... Never mind." I gave up on talking. "What did you want to say again?"

"It's regarding next week, when I'm going back to Russia..." He trailed off.

"And?" I prompted.

"I want you to come with me."

It was my turn to be confused. Why the hell did he want me to come with him? Unless—

"Marry me, Bella."

I widened my eyes. "What?" I gasped in shock.

"I like you, and I want to marry you."

My eyes grew larger. "What the hell is wrong with you? Nobody gets married to someone they've just met two days ago! Are you... cuckoo in the head?" I rambled.

"Am I supposed to take that as a no?" Edward asked slowly.

"Ugh!" I groaned, digging my fingers into my hair. "I don't know! I just... Nobody just asks a stranger whether they want to marry them. Probably in this era it's normal but, as you can see I'm not... exactly normal so I don't know... Ask me a few days later."

"I don't think I can wait for a few days, no." He shook his head, then came closer to me. I stood rooted to the ground, not sure how to react. "You need to give me an answer. Now, please."

I took a deep breath and only said one of the few Russian words I had learned. "Da."

In a swift move, he grabbed the sides of my face and kissed me unexpectedly. I stood there, shell-shocked. I couldn't register everything since it happened so fast. The way he kissed me was gentle and soft, and I could see that he was trying to hold back in so many emotions. I wasn't an empath, but the way he felt almost knocked me off my feet. His thumbs was stroking the outlines of my cheekbones as his fingers threaded with my hair.

When I started to faintly register that he was kissing me, my past experiences of kissing Edward played before me as I closed my eyes— my first kiss with Edward in 1918, my last kiss to him when he was lifeless in my arms in the same era, my first time kissing Present-Day Edward at the doorstep of Heidi & Jane's house and that time in the airport when I was heading back to Forks. I realized that I was never going to stop having first kisses with him, as long as I time-traveled. He'd always be there, wherever I go.

I pressed my palms against his sculpted chest, kissing him back. He pulled away and I laughed.

"So... what was that for?" I questioned.

"That was for saying yes... and probably saying a word in Russian in front of me for the first time." He replied. "Once we're in Russia, we'll hold the wedding in this big chapel that every member of my family has gotten married in."

"How long would we being sailing until Russia?" I asked.

"If the winds are in our favor, it can be as short as three days. Five days, maximum." He told me. "I don't think—"

Violent, urgent knocks on the door made us jump a little. It was still probably four in the morning, and I didn't expect other people to be awake.

Edward frowned at the door. "Bella, can you please go to the bedroom first?"

I hesitated, but complied. Edward opened the door slightly and I assumed it was just one of his men who needed to tell something as soon as possible. They both talked in Russian and I slowed down my pace towards the bedroom to at least catch a gist of what was happening, even if I could speak Russian. I was picking up on some words over the past few days surrounded by these friendly, vodka-enjoying Russians.

When I saw Edward closing the door, I quickly made my way to the bed and pretended to fall asleep. He came through the door and tucked my hair behind my ear. "Bella, I know you're awake. There's something I need to tell you."

"What is it?" I opened my eyes and stared into his green orbs.

"There's an army of soldiers outside, and they're looking for you."