Alright, it's been WAY more than a few weeks, so you have an excuse to be mad. I just have been too busy with work and school and Christmas to have the time to give you guys a decent chapter. So, here's my Christmas present to you! A new chapter!

Also, I will be writing a Christmas special for Love Like Crazy or Soul Singer (I haven't decided which yet). Sorry to those who don't celebrate Christmas, but I do, so... yeah. Regardless of your holiday preference, please read and enjoy!


Seth's POV

I couldn't believe this. I came to Jez's house, expecting her typical hostile glare and cutting remarks that made me die inside. Instead, she welcomes me with open arms – literally.

We were standing in her front yard, holding on to one another like our lives depended on it. She pulled back, put her hands on either side of my face and stared into my eyes.

Her eyes bored into mine, and I couldn't help but feel like she was reading my soul. Hers were like giant emeralds with such depth and emotion… what have those eyes seen? They were ancient eyes that looked like she had seen everything.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry," she whispered for what seemed like the millionth time. She looked so sad, like her world had fallen apart.

"It's okay, it doesn't matter anymore," I said. "We're together now, that's all I care about."

"I know, but it's not about that. We need to talk about some things. I need to explain everything to you. It's not fair to you if I don't," she insisted.

"Okay, tell me everything you need to tell me," I said. It didn't matter what she was going to tell me. Nothing would change the way I felt about her.

She paused, and I could almost see the wheels in her mind turning as she thought about… whatever she's thinking about. I don't know her well enough to guess what she's thinking. God, that bothers me…

"Let's sit in my garden," she said finally, and from the serious look on her face, there was more to this statement than there seemed to be.

When she opened the seven-feet-high gate, I understood why.

It was like the gate opened up into the garden of heaven. There were at least a thousand different colors, different flowers and plants. It made my head spin. There was so much to take in. It was all so beautiful. Just like her.

Jez took my hand and led me to small patch of grass beside a willow tree and a small pond. The surface was so smooth, it looked like glass. She looked so peaceful here… she belonged in this kind of wonderland. She was unbelievably beautiful, it was unbelievably beautiful… she fit in perfectly here, more than she ever would in the Forks high school.

She sat down next to the pond, staring into its depths. I sat across from her, waiting for her to organize her thoughts. I kept a firm grip on her hand, though.

"Seth, it's obvious, isn't it?" she asked quietly, still not looking at me.

"What's obvious?" I asked.

She took a deep breath. "It's obvious that neither of us is human."

"Wait, what?"

"Seth, please. I knew you were a shapeshifter the first time I saw you. And do you honestly think this –" she gestured around us to the garden "– was made by a human?"

Well, that made sense. This place was a little too fantastical to be human-made.

"I guess not," I said. "But does that make you like… I don't know, a magical garden gnome or something?"

Jez threw back her head and laughed. It was like music to my ears. Soft, sweet, loud, the first real laugh I've heard from her. God, she was perfect.

"No. Goddess, no. Gnomes are about a foot tall, and rather pudgy and unattractive. I doubt you see me that way," she said with a pointed look, but she was smiling. Her grin faded, and she took another deep breath. "Seth, I'm still not human. I – I'm a witch."

I blinked. How am I supposed to even respond to that? I knew she wasn't joking. Better just be honest. "Maybe I sound stupid, but I'm not entirely sure what that means."

She laughed humorlessly. I didn't like it as much as the other laugh. "A witch. Not like Glinda the Good or the Wicked Witch of the West. Not like any fairytale witch, actually. There's magic in my blood, in my soul. I'm connected to the natural world around me. I can feel the life in the grass, the trees, the air… Wow, I'm not making any sense, am I?"

"Let me see if what I have so far is right," I suggested. She nodded for me to continue.

"Fairytales got witches wrong. They're actually good creatures connected to the world around them – to nature, right?"

"They're not innately good," she whispered. "A witch has a choice about whether she's… good or not. Vampires and werewolves and shape shifters can choose whether they're good or not, same as everything."

I gripped her hand harder. "What are you trying to tell me?"

"I'm not a good witch, Seth," she said fervently. "I was horrible, cruel… the worst kind of monster. I belong to a circle of witches who do nothing but terrible things… I left them because I was tired of the blood, of the death all around me, and I came here, and I met you, and… everything changed."

"Tell me everything – from the beginning," I suggested. She nodded her consent.

"I don't know where to start… the Shadow Circle found me when I was an infant, an orphan. They took care of me, raised me, and taught me Craft. You're supposed to wait until a witch is eighteen before you initiate them into a Circle, but my Sisters insisted that I was too powerful to remain uninitiated. I joined the Circle officially at the age of ten."

"Ten?" I gasped. "How could they expect a ten year old to make a life decision like that?"

"They didn't want me to have a decision, Seth," Jez said bitterly. "They were only solidifying their control over me. I was their favorite weapon until I had enough and finally came here for a break."

"How could they use you like that?" It was the only thing I could say.

"They're like the Volturi, Seth. They don't care."

"Wait, you know about the Volturi?" I gasped. I seem to be doing that a lot today…

"Oh, I know the Volturi," Jez laughed humorlessly. "They're the reason so many witches are in hiding."

"What did they do? Or try to do, I guess."

"Slaughter," Jez said simply. "We were their rivals for power. Aro and Caius are obsessed with absolute control over the supernatural, and fifteen hundred years ago, witches were the ruling class. So the last Witch Queen and a band of her followers fought the Volturi when they attacked, giving up their lives to give witches around the world the time needed to disappear and live in hiding."

"No way," I whispered. The first dream I had about Jez and I, she was a Celtic witch queen, preparing for a fight against the Volturi…

"What? What is it?" she asked, looking into my eyes.

"I saw it," I said. "In my dreams. You were the Queen, and I was some… traveler or something, and we fell in love, and the Volturi came, and –"

"Show me," she cut me off, staring into my eyes like they would start playing it like a movie.

"Um, I can't?" I said, confused beyond all reason.

She sighed, and put one hand on either side of my face. "Just think about what you saw, alright? I'll look into your mind and see your memory of it."

"Um, okay," I said, still not quite understanding what she was going to do.

I closed my eyes, and tried to remember the dream. What happened next was really weird, but very effective at telling the story. It was like we were physically in my dream, but we were transparent, not part of the story. We were ghosts watching a 3-D scene.

I stumbled over rocks and exposed tree roots as they dragged me to their camp. I was terrified, but insanely curious as to what they were protecting. They were in a group of five, all large men with strange blue markings on their faces and bodies. Like war paint.

The leader led us deeper into the woods. The sky above was barely visible through the thick branches and foliage, but I could see little specks of blue. Somehow that made me calmer.

In stories, they say you can see a light at the end of the tunnel when you approach the end of your journey. I didn't see light until we emerged from the forest, suddenly and without warning. I squinted my eyes, it was so bright. I could see the small huts and the pale white faces of people.

The villagers shrunk away from us as they dragged me closer to the largest hut. The straw and brick didn't look very sturdy, but who was I to judge?

The leader stopped in front of the door and knocked.

"What is it, Alistair?" a beautiful, lyrical voice answered. She was definitely female, and she didn't sound upset. Simply curious.

"We found the intruder you Saw, my Queen," the leader, or Alistair, answered her.

"Bring him in," the beautiful alto voice replied.

The men responded by tightening their already-strong grip on my upper arms and dragging me inside the hut. I stole one last glance at the blue sky before I entered, though. It might be the last time I ever see it again.

The room was dark but for a few small candles. A woman sat beside them, shrouded in darkness.

"What brings you to our land, stranger?"the mysterious woman asked politely.

"I am a traveler, Your Highness," I responded as politely as I could manage. "I grew tired of my simple, ordinary life, so I left my village in Spain to see the world. I simply wandered into your land by chance."

"By chance? There is no such thing. Everything happens for a reason, stranger. Sometimes the Goddess does not reveal the reason until she believes we are ready for the truth," the woman replied.

The woman stood and walked past us into the clearing behind us. Now in the light, it was easy to see she had a lovely figure clothed in long, flowing robes of blue and green, and long reddish-brown hair that tumbled down her back in waves.

"Stay with us a few days, Spaniard. We will discover your true reason for coming here together," she said, and turned to smile at me. She was so stunningly beautiful I almost forgot my own name. Her green eyes pierced my soul.

"That sounds wonderful," I replied.


"Come, Spaniard, you must learn to fight without your knife," Alistair said, dragging me to the practice circle. It was clear after less than an hour in the village that these were a warrior people, and their beautiful Queen Jezebel was no exception. She wielded both her magic and her body as a deadly weapon with terrifying precision.

"For the last time, Alistair, his name is Alejandro," Jezebel chided her second-in-command Alistair.

Alistair huffed and threw me a spear.

"My Queen, don't waste your breath. It is clear none of your subjects are interested in calling me anything but 'Spaniard'," I said with a smile. After all, I was an outsider. The Queen was the only one to treat me like she would any of her subjects.

"Then I will be the only one to use your name, I suppose. It's a shame, you have such a lovely name," she said with a smile.

"I don't mind that arrangement at all," I said with a smile of my own.


"You must leave," Jezebel said sadly. We stood on top of a hill, looking over the roaring ocean. The sun was setting, and the warm reds, pinks, oranges, and purples of the sky only made her look more beautiful. Goddess, I loved this woman.

"I won't leave you. I can't. I love you too much to let you face this alone," I told her fervently.

"Alejandro, I love you too, more than you will ever understand, but they don't come to make peace! They want us dead, they want every witch in this world dead! You have no ties to this place, they have no reason to harm you. Leave, and give me the peace of mind I will receive knowing you survived," she whispered.

"I can't. They have no reason to harm me, but I have every reason to stay. You are my Queen, my love, my true soul mate. I can't leave you," I replied simply.

"Then… this is our last sunset," she said, looking out over the raging waves.

"Yes. And I have no regrets," I said, taking her hand.

"None? You don't want a family, or a long life?" she whispered, still refusing to look at me.

"The only reason I would want those things would be the joy living them with you would bring. If this is your last night alive, than it's my last as well."

She suddenly threw her arms around me and held me tight. I held her just as tightly.

"I love you," she whispered into my ear.

"And I love you. Tomorrow, we face the Volturi together, no matter what might come of it."

"Tomorrow," she whispered.

Jez gasped as she dropped her hands. My head throbbed a little.

"Such detail… and… that's how we died, isn't it? The Volturi killed us both the next day, didn't they?" she whispered. It was so similar to how her previous life had spoken, I had to shake my head a little to remind myself of the year. I was in America in the 21st century, not Britain in the 4th century.

"Yeah," I replied.

"Seth… I have to tell you. The Shadow Circle… they believed men were the cause of the switch in power. They've forbidden all of their Sisters from consorting with males for any reason other than reproduction. They'll kill you," she whispered.

"Why?" I gasped. "I would never hurt you!"

"Of course you wouldn't, anymore than I would hurt you. But they think my love for you will make me weak… make me less of a witch. They'll kill you because they think it will destroy them."

"What will happen to you?" I asked slowly.

"It depends on what I do if they kill you," Jez said, not looking at me. "If I let them kill you and don't put up a fight, they'll take me back and rehabilitate me, and let me move on with my life. If I fight to protect you, they'll kill me, too."

I sighed in relief. "Good! At least you'll still be okay when they kill me."

"Seth, if you think for one minute that I won't fight with everything I have to protect you, then you have not been paying attention," Jez said sharply.

"Then… we just try to keep this secret for as long as possible?" I said.

"Basically," she replied.

"Okay… then while we wait for death, can I ask a few questions?"

"Sure," she said, looking very confused.

"What's your favorite color?"

"What?"

My imprint was going to have to share a few things about herself, whether she wanted to or not.


I know, it's not my best, but I think it was pretty good. And this is not the last past-life flashback, so be prepared for a few from 1800s Buckingham Palace and the Imperial City in China! Please check out the specials coming out, and don't forget to review! Merry Christmas, or whatever holiday you celebrate!