A/N: Alright, alright. I get it, cliffhangers are mean. I'm sorry, I can't help it lol. Maybe I'll try to work on it. No promises. As always, thank you to my lovely readers, as well as the people who follow, favorite, or leave reviews. I'm so happy at how many of you there are now. We're getting down to the end of what I like to call the Pre-Bella Era here. This is the home stretch for the first section of this story. More is definitely to come, but to celebrate I thought it would be interesting to hold an all out Q&A session. I'll answer all questions at the end of this section so you still have a few chapters to get your questions out there. The only thing I refuse to answer is who Asteria will end up with because I don't want to spoil it. Although if you phrase the question just right I may be willing to drop a hint or two.

I can't believe how far I've gotten on this story, to be honest. This is by far the longest story I've ever written and I never thought I would find the drive to keep writing this far. It's been fun. I have no plans to stop, although I'm definitely nervous for the Bella Era to arrive. I have a lot of things in the works for it.

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While Asteria could see the spirit if she tried hard enough, it seemed like she couldn't really communicate with them. That was fine by her; having ghosts barge in all the damn time to shoot the breeze wasn't at the top of her bucket list. They had all the supplies for another séance, and it wasn't long before everything was up and running. She took over the living room once more, and the rest of the Cullens gave her a semblance of privacy; she was sure they could hear everything, though.

"And you're positive it's one of your family members," Alice asked her for clarification for what felt like the twenty seventh time.

"Well it's sure not a Jehovah's witness, and since it's not Girl Scout cookie season I'm willing to take a wild guess," Asteria replied. To be fair, the first twenty six times she had answered more politely. Alice left her in relative silence to do her work until the gray-white blur stepped into the séance circle and became instantly more recognizable.

"Ailis," Asteria greeted her as she looked around. "Is Brigid coming too?"

"Sorry, my child, it's only me," Ailis replied. "I came to share what little information we've found. Mother is still searching, but it doesn't look like the odds are great."

"Oh, I came up with a plan of my own," Asteria tried and failed to sound nonchalant. She was too happy with herself. She went through the basis of her plan quickly while Ailis listened intently.

"I'm not sure exactly how your fireworks will work," Ailis said in reference to the smoke bombs, "but your plan does sound promising. I would rely heavily on sage, but adding angelica, basil, and rosemary will drive the demon back from where it came. Other than that, you just need a tether for your mirror spell."

"Sorry, a what," Asteria asked.

"Your sigil will trap it in the mirror, but it will trap every soul or essence of energy that reflects in it as well," Ailis said. "You need a magical tether to keep you to the earth. Maybe a simple knot spell will do the trick. I believe your grandmother, Maureen, had an entry about them. Not for the same purpose, but I think it should suffice."

"Okay," Asteria nodded. She knew she needed something to protect her soul, but didn't know what she needed to 'tether' it with. "Any other ideas?"

"Asteria seems to think she should go in alone," Alice said as she stepped up to the séance circle. Asteria mentally cursed. It looked like she had been lurking in the shadows for her opportunity.

Ailis cast a critical look between the two of them. "Normally, I would say Asteria was right, but I think an exception needs to be made in this instance." Alice all but stuck her tongue out at Asteria.

"What do you mean 'in this instance'," Asteria asked. "What makes this different?"

"I have my reasons," Ailis said, but Asteria got the odd sense it had something to do with this particular group of vampires.

"Care to share them," Asteria asked with a hint of irritation.

"Not just yet," Ailis replied with a quirk of her lips. "The truth will have to come in its own time, I think. For now, just remember that you make a tethering spell for all of your friends. We wouldn't want their souls to be trapped either."

It seemed that sentence gained Ailis a lot of extra attention. "What do you know about our kind having souls," Edward asked as he appeared at the edge of the circle. He was so fast it almost made Asteria jump.

Ailis gave Edward a long suffering look. "Ah yes, there's that one."

"Ailis," Asteria warned.

"I do my best to tolerate your friendship with these vampires," Ailis told her evenly, "for many reasons, one of which being their different outlook on human life. That doesn't make them any less dangerous." Particularly that one. Ailis didn't say the words, but Asteria felt as if they were on the verge of slipping out.

"What is that supposed to mean," Asteria asked with a hint of annoyance. She was getting tired of the whiplash Ailis' mood towards the Cullens gave her.

"It's fine. She's entitled to her own opinion of me," Edward said to Asteria before turning to face Ailis' spirit. "Do you know if we have souls, if there's some afterlife for us?"

"I wouldn't truly be able to answer that," Ailis said. Her frosty attitude was gone though. "I'm not aware of what's become to any deceased vampire in the afterlife, or if they have a full 'soul' left. I can tell you that you have an essence of energy around you, like a soul. It's subdued though; I can't tell if it's because of what you've become altering your soul, or because time has made it less vibrant. All I know is that if you want any chance, you'll use a tethering spell to keep you from being trapped by the mirror sigil."

Edward seemed like he wasn't ready to drop the conversation, but nodded once and left the room regardless. Asteria looked between his empty spot and Ailis, wondering what the hell to say to resolve that dumpster fire of a conversation. Ailis never got over vampires brutally murdering her family, it seemed.

"There's not much time left; my spirit needs to return to the other plane so it can rest. I'll pass along to Mother everything and send her back to talk with you when the time is right, should you need more help," Ailis said. Asteria was thankful she'd have another chance to talk to Brigid before the plan got put into action, just in case she had any other problems.

"Thank you, Ailis," Asteria said. "This would be so much harder without your help."

"We are family, dear. Family helps each other," Ailis said with a smile. She looked between Asteria and Alice. "It is well past time for me to leave. Take care of each other, girls."

Ailis disappeared and it once again left Asteria feeling slightly empty. It was nice to have some link to her family, no matter how far removed she was. Sighing, Asteria started the clean up for the séance and then moved on to her work in the kitchen. Esme insisted on making something for Asteria to eat, and the two worked side by side in the kitchen for a while in peaceful silence. Alice stuck around to chop herbs while Asteria ate her pasta, which really only took the pixie vampire a few minutes.

She was mixing the ingredients for her smoke bomb, which was really the most excitable part for her, when Edward finally came back around. Asteria noticed it was just her and Edward in the kitchen; she hadn't been aware of Alice slipping out of the kitchen. Reigning in her frustration at having this conversation at that particular moment, she did her best to keep stirring the pan.

"Sorry for Ailis," Asteria said. "I think my family has some unresolved issues with vampires."

"It's not undue," Edward said darkly. His tone caused Asteria to flinch and glance up at him, which reminded him to reel back his emotions. "I've done things that I'm not proud of, which is why, among a multitude of other reasons, I'm curious about vampires having souls."

Asteria gave him a good, long look before turning the stove burner off. Edward was looking down at Asteria's herb collection, not making eye contact. "I don't know where you've been, or where you're going, but I do know where you are." Edward looked up at that. "Don't get me wrong, you get on my nerves every other damn minute, and I'm near positive the feeling is reciprocated, but it doesn't mean I think you're a bad person. You may have done some bad things, but it doesn't define you."

"You don't know that-," Edward started.

"No, you don't know that," Asteria interrupted. She surprised the both of them by taking her protective necklace off and setting it on the table. Taking a deep breath, Asteria managed to relax her eyesight until she could go out of focus enough to pick up his aura. It was faint, like Alice's, but she could see swirls of orange, deep indigo, and silver radiating off of him. Edward tensed as he took the information in, but stayed silent.

"Do you see that," Asteria asked him. "That's the energy you give off, charged by your thoughts and feelings. That comes from your soul. I don't know anything else that could create that. Forget what Ailis said, it's there."

"I see," Edward said. "That presents a whole other list of questions."

The last part was said so quietly and bitterly Asteria almost didn't hear it, but she was able to pick it up with the quiet surroundings of the Cullen household. Using her intuition, she suspected exactly what was upsetting him.

"You know, everyone expects all witches to be Wiccan," Asteria said. "Or Pagan, but they always think animal sacrifices are made to different gods and goddesses. I've definitely never sacrificed an animal, just an FYI. And I'm not really Wiccan or Pagan. Witchcraft doesn't actually have anything to do with religion; it's about personal power and using the energy around you. Look, I can already see you getting bored, please stick with me. I'm not good at heart to hearts."

Edward made full eye contact with her before nodding. He looked like he didn't want to be listening any more than Asteria really wanted to be talking, but there they were.

"Lots of people group their magic with religion, which is fine, but I don't know. I've always just kind of listened to my own intuition," Asteria said. "I'm not saying that Christianity is the correct religion, but different aspects of it feel right to me. You're open to whatever you want to believe, live your life, but it just makes sense to me personally. And I believe that whatever afterlife is waiting for us, it's there for anyone who asks for forgiveness. You're a mind reader, I'm sure you know exactly how many people fuck up on a daily basis. If Heaven's real, and you have to be free of sin to get in, that is one giant empty dance floor up there. I'm just saying."

Edward paused for a while. "I'm sure Carlisle would be interested in discussing theology with you sometime."

"Does that mean we're done having this painfully awkward, 'casual' conversation," Asteria asked.

"Yes," Edward replied with a wry smile.

"Oh, thank god," Asteria said as she put her necklace back on. "I'm so bad at these. I notice everyone else just disappeared for it, which was super cool."

"I asked if I could have a minute," Edward confided. "It's easier to ask questions without someone interrupting every few seconds."

"Alice? Interrupt? Never," Asteria said as she went back to her smoke bomb recipe.

Edward chuckled, and it was maybe twenty seconds later when Alice came back through the door.

"I heard that," Alice said as she mock glared at Asteria. The harsh look fell off her face easily though. "I'm glad to see you two didn't wind up killing each other."

"Nah, I wanted to save that for a special occasion," Asteria said as she stirred a large pot. "If you start killing every day it loses its wow factor."

"You're impossible," Edward said with an eye roll.

"And yet, here I am thriving," Asteria said with a grin before he left the kitchen.

Alice shook her head. "I can't tell if you two hate each other or not."

"Same," Asteria said as she wrapped up her bombs.

Asteria made extra smoke bombs to test, but they needed to sit for a bit and dry out some more before she tested them for full results. In the meanwhile, they got a couple large buckets and expertly mixed rock salt with cumin. There was more than enough to cover the floor and make sure the entity went directly into their trap.

They ended up having to mix two different paints for spells; the first was a purple paint to create the mirror sigil, and the second was a black paint to go over the sigil on the wall that created the doorway. Asteria ground sea salt, thyme, and wormwood in a mortar and pestle and then mixed it into a little plastic container with the purple paint. There wasn't enough to affect the paint too badly, but it did have a slightly grainy texture. It would be able to do the trick though, and that's what mattered.

The other paint needed to break the portal, which wasn't going to be easy. Asteria decided the best way to destroy it was to damage the sigil underneath first, and then paint over it with her own sigil. It needed nutmeg, black pepper, cayenne, nettle, and blessed thistle. Everything about it seemed to pack a punch, which was exactly what she was going for.

It seemed like the only thing left was the tethering spell, but Asteria hadn't looked up knot spells yet and didn't know exactly where to start. Looking at the time, she realized she was out of options for the night anyway.

"Holy crap, when did it get so late," Asteria said as she looked at the clock.

"Time flies when you're flying on a broomstick," Emmett called out to her from the living room.

"If I could fly I wouldn't have to put up with your terrible humor," Asteria called from her spot in the kitchen. Esme had magically appeared and was making herself busy cleaning dishes.

"Esme, you don't have to do that," Asteria said. "I made the mess."

"Nonsense," Esme replied. "I'm happy to help any way that I can."

"It looks like you were busy today," Carlisle said as he leaned on the doorway.

"Just a bit," Asteria said. "Don't you know all the best plans have forty six thousand complicated steps?"

"Is it going to work," Carlisle asked. He was smiling but his eyes looked worried.

"I'd say there's like a solid eighty five percent chance," Asteria said.

"I'd much prefer one hundred," Carlisle replied.

"Huh, I just redid the math. It's one hundred now," Asteria said.

Carlisle gave her an amused look. "What can we do to increase the odds?"

"I don't know," Asteria said. "I wish I knew how powerful it was right now. I should have gone back to the house to relight the candle and recharge that spell, but you know, concussions happen."

"Actually, there's no need to worry about that," Carlisle said. "I've been relighting it every day after work. I have no way of knowing, but it seems to be working."

"How come he gets to go to the house by himself," Asteria asked to the occupants of the house in general.

"Because the entity would be no use attacking him," Jasper said at the same time Alice said, "The entity isn't after him."

Asteria threw her hands up. "I give up, I'm going home."

"Want me to ride home with you," Alice asked. "I can run myself back home after."

"I should be fine," Asteria said. Just then, Alice's vision glazed over and she lost focus. Asteria stared at her curiously. "Alice?"

Jasper was beside her in a flash. "What did you see?"

"Nothing," Alice said with a fake smile. "Asteria is just going to spend the night."

"That's what you saw," Asteria asked with a flat tone.

"Yep," Alice replied, which was very un-Alice.

"Assuming I'm not a child that's easily lied to, what did you actually see," Asteria asked.

"It's not important, it doesn't matter now," Alice said.

Asteria closed her eyes and focused on her witchy intuition. "Something bad happens in the car, doesn't it?"

"How did you-,"

"Lucky guess," Asteria said. "But I can't just stay here forever. Eventually I have to go home, go to school, see other friends, prove I'm not tied up in a basement."

"Fine," Alice said. "We will drive you to and from school, and you can't go anywhere without us."

"Why am I being grounded," Asteria asked.

"Because I'm doing my best to keep you safe," Alice said exasperatedly.

"What did you see, Alice," Carlisle asked.

"It materialized in the road and made Asteria spin out and crash her car," Alice said. Asteria didn't want to ask how bad it was, both for herself and her poor Camaro.

"It's probably best for someone else with faster reflexes to drive you around in the meantime," Carlisle sighed while looking at Asteria.

Asteria wanted to make a joke, but ended up just nodding. She was tired mentally and physically, and didn't think it was worth the trouble of humor. The ride home was tense; Jasper drove while keeping his eyes peeled as Alice sat with her eyes closed, concentrating on any sign the entity would pop up. Asteria sat in the backseat looking out the window into the dark trees that were blurring by way too fast.

"My Camaro is my baby. My very old, very breakable baby. Please don't kill her," Asteria said quietly.

"Don't worry," Jasper chuckled. "I'll treat her with care."

"Turn left ahead," Alice instructed. "Take the side road down a while."

Asteria took this to mean the road ahead was booby trapped. Jasper took the turn so sharp Asteria thought they were going to spin the car out anyway. It was a great reminder to click it or ticket. Thankfully Asteria was already strapped in as she grabbed the handle in the backseat for dear life.

The driveway might as well have been Hawaii based on how badly Asteria wanted to go there. The Cullens didn't stay; it was too suspicious without having one of their cars there. Alice walked her up the doorstep and then she and Jasper slipped quietly into the backyard.

"Hey kiddo," Charlie said. "A little late to be coming back on a school night, isn't it?"

"Sorry, Charlie," Asteria said. "I was just hanging out with Alice, we were helping Esme in the kitchen, and lost track of time. I should have said something."

"Its fine," Charlie waved off. "Just remember to come home earlier on school nights. Do you at least have your homework done?"

"Yep, all finished," Asteria said, for once not having to lie. She had finished it all the other night, and never got assigned more.

Charlie wasn't the type to grill people for information and sent Asteria along her way thankfully. She was able to retreat to her room and go over her plan for the 28th time. She knew she was obsessing but didn't care by that point; the main thing was to get it over and done with.

Asteria still wasn't too happy about the Cullens' involvement in the plan, but there was no way around it. Ailis green lighted it, so now she was stuck. She wasn't exactly bothered by them joining in, but she was slightly afraid it might make the plan go sideways. After all, no one was positive what sort of influence the entity would have on them. Feeling entirely unsure about that portion of the plan, Asteria tried to get ready for bed and fell asleep without any negative vibes.