Many thanks to Fran.


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Chapter Nine

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Aro stares down at the paper, face ashen. Jane is at his side, with Jasper and Alec looking grave. Bella and Edward stand on the other side of the desk. Jane's office is the mirror-opposite of Esme's old office. Bella never thought about that before.

"Well?" Jane prompts, and Aro looks up, eyes darting between Bella and Jane. His normal bravado is gone. Bella is too strung out to truly get annoyed. She feels half caught in memories, not really sure how she will forget them.

"I believe you are right." He clears his throat. "The format is…similar to a wizard's enchantment. The repetition at the end. You say this was…cast by a witch?"

"By my mother." Bella answers. "The force of it killed her and nearly killed me."

"Yes, well…yes. There is power in this, a lot of power. The rhyming will have fed on the magic in the room, echoed it back. If you were both there…perhaps she did not account for it drawing power from you, as well. And you say she added the blood of another witch? The dark witch?"

"Yes. It must have been Esme's blood. But she was…she was good. Back then." Bella feels the need to say this to this odd assortment of people. Maybe she shouldn't bother.

"Three witches. It drew on all your power. And combined with the format…I do not dare say the words aloud. These words need destroyed as soon as possible."

"My mother was trying to help Esme get pregnant. She always miscarried." Bella forces out the words. "She was giving up, so my mother pushed. She evidently pushed too far."

"I wonder…" Aro's eyes flick to Edward, then back to Bella. "I wonder if this is why magic accepted the soul-meld; accepted giving Edward part of your soul because you were already carrying too much from this spell. The middle part…this is similar to the enchantment we have about splitting the magical core. If your mother successfully split the dark witch's magic, meaning it to be saved for an unborn child…perhaps it latched onto you when you were dying, leaving you with part of Esme's magic."

Bella looks at Edward, numb from the realisations of the day.

If that's true…Bella would never have been able to save Edward that day, on St. Kitts, without her mother's spell going wrong. If Renée had not gone ahead with it, and Bella had a normal soul, then she would have come across him and been powerless to help.

One green, one black eye stare back at her, and his lips lift in the smallest of smiles. It is an intricate web they've woven. All their lives linked together, dependent on one another. And it all started with Renée.

"Master, may I?"

Aro hands Jasper the paper silently.

"Combined with Isabella's sleeping trance, we must conclude that Esme's soul is broken into multiple pieces," Jane offers. "Bella carries parts of it, and Carlisle seems to hold some. Then there must be a part that resided in her body until her death. We need a way to combine them, force them together so we can lay her to rest, once and for all."

"We have no spells like that," Aro offers.

"Neither do we," Jane echoes.

"If she mirrored wizard magic and she, herself, was a witch, we will need both." Edward takes a step closer to Bella as if to prove his point. "It may not have started as dark magic, but whatever part was left in Esme's body undoubtedly went as dark as it could, and combined with Carlisle's part…we will need our strength, but the witches' immunity."

"I think I know why." All eyes turn to Jasper, and it is a sign of respect that he addresses Bella, not Aro. "These two lines in the middle - about passing on the best; what if the spell took that literally—passed on all that was good into the part that detached, to be saved for the child? And leaving only peace? Peace can be debilitating, making everything okay, no matter the outcome."

It wasn't meant like that, Bella knows. But it doesn't detract from the fact that if the spell was so grossly overpowered…then yes. Words are fickle. And magic needs direction.

"We need to reverse the spell." Bella knows it is the only way; the only way Esme will finally know peace. Perhaps then, the part of her hidden in that room in her head will finally be free; the part of Esme split from the rest to be handed to her child, which ended up in Bella. "The three parts need to be put back together."

"Where is the body buried?" Aro asks.

"On the north side of the island. I can take you."

"We will need to perform the ritual there."

"Agreed," Jane calls. "Firstly, however, we need to find a way to reverse it."

"She used ergot and verbena," Bella remembers. "Her own blood, and Esme's. Perhaps mine can be a substitute for my mother's."

Jane nods.

"Isabella, you brew the potion. I will help the wizards with the wording. The sooner this is over, the better."

"How will she even know where to begin?" Aro scoffs, some of his old manner returning.

"I don't need the exact ingredients," Bella answers. She doesn't want to argue. "Understand that we are different, Aro. Not weaker, just different."

Edward's fingers snake into hers, and she knows there's at least one wizard in the room that believes her.

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~ Redwood & Elm ~

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The Council Chambers have been cleared of chairs, the windows open to allow the breeze to blow through. The rug that lies in the middle of the room has been rolled up and pushed to the side, revealing an intricate web of circular markings, weaving and spinning on the floor until they all coalesce into a single point in the middle, where a shining gold figure eight is painted right over the vortex.

This room is the heart of Headquarters—of their Coven's power. There is a reason why Esme would have chosen this room as the place she tried to draw on Jane's power. There is a reason the Conclave had to be held here. Only in this spot is the power strong enough to contain the individual wants and dreams of dozens of witches. Here they are strongest. Here they are most joined. There is no other place Bella could possibly make this brew.

The cauldron sits on thin metal legs, the flame just on top of the figure eight. The small burner glows a strong, blue flame, and Bella sits cross-legged in front of it, tearing poppy flowers into the steaming liquid, one by one.

Zafrina and Kachiri have been recruited, and they sit with mortar and pestles grinding down hops with ergot and ginger. They sing as they work, slow, melodic hymns of their ancestors, songs about freedom, the wind, and the love of sisters. Edward sits not far from Bella, giving her enough space to work with the overflow of books and ingredients that lay scattered around her. His staff lies as his umbrella, innocuous once more, somewhere behind him.

He is not here to help, simply here as a comforting presence. This is witches' work. The other wizards are, in his own words, better with spells than he is. He is more for casting, than chanting. Bella does not doubt it but also feels he is making excuses not to leave her side. As the medication is beginning to wear off and the exhaustion of the past few days is making itself known again, she does not argue. Jake is still with her, hissing at the many potent smells in the room. He's taken refuge on one of the windowsills, nose in the air.

"Why don't you need the exact ingredients? You never said," Edward suddenly offers, in a lull in Zafrina's and Kachiri's humming. Bella glances up, seeing the frown on his face, the disbelief. "In London, you needed exact ingredients."

"In London, we had to replicate an exact effect," Bella hedges, aware Zafrina and Kachiri don't know about Rose.

"And that's not the case now?"

"Renée never drank the potion." She stares down at the pale liquid, a slight pink tint to it. "It will have been used as a guide, almost as a support to the spell. Those types of brews are not meant to be consumed; it's the intention behind them that matters, almost as if they become a focal point. This one we will drink, but as long as the intention mirrors that of the previous brew, it should be enough to align magic to our want."

Bella reaches for the verbena, rubbing the flowers in her hands before dropping them in the water, and the bubbles turn a shade of lavender before morphing back into their slight pink.

"I'm disappointed." Bella looks up, Edward's face hidden against his chin. "Here I am, in the middle of the witches' layer, and I've yet to see any naked chanting at the moon."

Kachiri rolls her eyes, and Zafrina clucks, but Bella simply has to hold the snort. He's smirking, underneath that mane of his, and Bella considers throwing something at him.

"Well, we are terribly sorry to disappoint, clearly. Hand me the lavender, please?"

Edward does as he's told, and she holds the lavender stalks in her hands over the brew, eyes closed. She pictures her mother's face, just as she dropped Esme's blood into the brew, the nervous smile on the face the last expression she ever gave her daughter.

Bella's magic feels the intention, remembers the impression, and when the lavender falls into the water, it stays purple.

"You think this is going to work?" He asks, and Bella looks out at the early morning light, the breeze carrying the salt from the sea.

"I hope so." She does not make any assurances. Although she does not know what the alternative will be. She still can't go to sleep without the fear of never waking up, and Carlisle's darkness will burn through Tia eventually. He will be back to being as uncontrollable and volatile as he was when he first arrived. "It has to." Bark of pine goes in next, bobbing on the surface, not yet willing to fully integrate with the rest of the ingredients.

"Matron?" Zafrina hands her the mortar, the substance a thick paste, and Bella takes Kachiri's as well, combining the two and ladling in a spoon full of honey, the sticky paste soft and pliant. Using a large metal spoon, Bella swirls the paste into the cauldron, the water turning an ugly grey colour. Bella closes her eyes, counts the turns.

One spin, two.

Four times.

Seven - clockwise.

Then she does the same anti-clockwise.

A shiver runs through her, and she looks down to see the liquid has turned a shimmering purple, a pearl-sheen to the water.

"Well done, Matron," Kachiri offers, dark eyes flicking up to look into her face.

Bella nods her thanks, never truly comfortable taking praise for her brews. She just does the motions - her magic does the rest. It feels odd to take the credit in full.

"Is it finished?" Edward asks.

"No, I want to let it simmer for a little bit before I strain it out. The rest of the ingredients will need to be added when we perform the ritual."

Edward goes to say something back, but commotion from outside stops them in their tracks.

Raised voices. Shouting. It is coming from outside, but the windows in this room face the ocean - it must be coming from somewhere else.

"Stay with this," Bella orders, eyes unwavering on Kachiri.

Edward's staff is in his hand, emerald glowing as the four of them run out of the room, Bella and Edward in front, Jake and Zafrina just behind. They reach the central staircase, realise the noise is coming from outside, from the courtyard, and then run down the stairs, toward the commotion—

"You bitches don't know the fuck I've been through - I said get me, Bella! I'm not fucking around with you lot!"

Bella nearly stumbles over her own two feet.

"The insolence!"

"You are a child who deserted the order—"

"Call me a child one more time, grandma—"

Golden hair flies around her face as she spins, rebutting insults and giving just as good as she gets to the odd circle of witches that have formed around her. Maria seems to be taking the brunt of the abuse, although whoever dares argue with Maria needs a medical check.

"Rose?" Bella's voice only barely carries over the group, faces turning in their direction.

Blue eyes zero in on Bella, fury on her face, but she looks terrified as well.

"There you are. The fuck have you been?"

"You will not speak to your Matron like that!" Maria argues.

"Oh, stuff it, old hag!"

The noise has finally drawn out Jane and the wizards, and Jane pauses just at Bella's side, on the steps, and they all blink at Rose with an odd sense of detachment.

"Rosalie?" Jane confirms.

"Yes, who else, Jesus? No!"

Jane ignores Rose's stomping, still in the middle of the circle. She turns to Bella, expression unreadable.

"This another one of you strays?"

"If I said yes, are we in trouble?"

"She left the order."

"She is standing right here!"

"She saved my life."

"Her and the human? Aren't you overusing this argument?"

"She's the last, I swear."

"Hello! Are you going to fucking speak to me or what!"

"Can she still perform magic?" Jane asks, eyes finally going to Rose, who looks like her head might just pop right off her neck.

"Yes," Bella answers for her. "Limited amounts, but yes."

"Rosalie, are you willing to stand up and help you sisters?" Jane calls, and there is unmistakable hierarchy in her voice.

"I'm fucking here, aren't I? You think I'm here on vacation?"

"She may stay." Unhappy murmurs go through the crowd, Maria looking more than a little put out. "We need all the power we can get," Jane finishes. "Someone watch her."

Jane does not bother waiting for an answer, but turns, taking Aro with her as they walk inside.

"Well? Piss off then! I can stay!" Rose shouts at Maria. "Or have you grown deaf as well as dumb?"

Bella feels a headache coming on.

"How dare you—"

"Thank you, Maria," Bella steps forward. "I'll…take it from here."

"I do not trust her, Matron," Maria offers, chin high.

"That's okay," Bella tries to smile, but the stress isn't helping. "You just…go inside."

"Run along, now!" Rose goads, and Bella almost swears at her.

"Well, if we were bored before…" Edward murmurs, and they share a look.

They most certainly won't be now.

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~ Redwood & Elm ~

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"You came."

"Well, carrot-top turned up, all doom and gloom. What the fuck was I meant to do? Sit there as you all died?"

"You would've been safer."

"I am not a coward."

"No, that you are not." Bella sighs. "Although, if you were, maybe you wouldn't have insulted almost everyone the moment you turned up."

"I didn't start it! The old hag had to go all high and mighty on me."

"Maria isn't an old hag."

"Could've fooled me."

Edward clears his throat, trying to calm the situation.

"We don't have a lot of time. Jasper said they almost have a spell."

Bella's room is crowded. Bella, Rose, Edward, Alice in the corner, Zafrina silently judging, Jake's yellow eyes giving Rose an odd look.

"Let me have a word with Rose, please. I'll meet you in the Chambers."

"Oh, Alice can stay," Rose rolls her eyes. "She's the only one that looks more out of place than I do."

"I didn't say anything," the woman in question adds.

"We'll just be a couple minutes."

Edward gives her a look but agrees, waiting to close the door behind him until Zafrina has followed him out.

"Why did you come?" Bella asks, too tired for games.

"Have you seen Edward's face?" Rose huffs. "It's fucking terrifying. And then he tells me you're fucking pregnant - nah. I tried to stay, but—" she stops, arms over her chest, pacing in place. "You can't all die, right? I can't be the only fucking witch left. And, with all this fuckery going on with the freaking pregnancies I'm doomed to have a witch for a daughter if I ever have kids. I'm so not raising the only witch in existence, no fucking way. And I knew she," she points at Alice, "was going to insist on being the hero and being here, so I had to, didn't I?"

"I think you're going soft," Bella sighs.

"Piss off. I may not want to be in the Coven, but that doesn't mean I want you all dead."

Bella sits on the edge of the bed, promising herself that if they ever get out of this she will never again complain about her room.

"How did you even get here?"

"Emmett flew us to the capital," she shrugs. "I left him there and took a boat. No need to have him involved more than he already is."

"And he was happy with this?" Alice asks.

"I didn't give him a choice. He knows enough not to ask questions. Also, how hasn't Jane's head exploded? A human and a bunch of wizards? I'm here, and she barely told me off."

"We're desperate," Bella sighs. "Things haven't exactly been…easy."

"Well?" She gives Bella a glare, so quintessentially hers that Bella almost laughs. "You gonna fill me in, or what?"

"You want the long version or the short one?"

"Short."

"Esme isn't dead."

"Fucking great. You didn't think to check the first time?"

"I buried her corpse - trust me, I checked."

"Now what? You kill her again?"

Bella shrugs.

"Something like that."

"And you need the wizards for this?"

"Yes. And every witch we have, which, it seems, includes you."

Rose grinds her teeth together, fingers going white with the pressure she's putting on her upper arms.

"And what are you two going to be doing?"

Alice glances between the two women, pushing the hair behind her ear.

"I'm just here to keep Bella alive," she offers.

"Right," Rose snorts. "Just."

"And I'm going to try to combine the three halves of Esme's soul into her decaying corpse," Bella adds as if this is somehow a normal occurrence.

Rose looks at them both, finally rolling her eyes.

"I hate you both. Bloody hero-complexes, the lot of you."

"You're in fine company then." Bella stands, takes her broom from the corner. "Let's go. We can't stay here."

"Hold up." Rose's hand comes around Bella's wrist, stopping her. "How dangerous are we talking here?"

"You don't want to know."

"Bella."

"We might all die, or you want more than that?"

"Don't give me that. Just tell me."

Bella looks to her friend, her even features, round blue eyes. Her sister. The only one she has left from her year.

"It's our only chance. I doubt we'll get another."

"Well, shit. You're serious, aren't you?"

Bella wishes she wasn't.

There is nothing left for it. She pulls her hand out of Rose's grasp, and they open the door, leaving the relative silence behind them. Bella's shoes echo on the stone floors, and her broom feels heavy in her hands. She is nervous. Her magic feels ready to leap out of her at a moment's notice, and every little sound makes her pause.

Last time she had to fight Esme, she didn't know what she was getting into. It was fear and adrenaline, a desperate need to be somewhere. This, premeditated, deliberate action…she doesn't cope well with it. Rose and Alice walk just behind her, and deserted corridors lead them to the Council Chambers, Edward and Jasper standing at the door.

Like two statues guarding the entrance, Edward's eyes go to Bella's, and Jasper's to Alice.

"I need a moment." Edward's eyes burn through her, intense and hard, and Bella can't figure out where this sudden change is coming from.

"You go on." She urges the others inside, and Bella and Edward are left alone, the click of the doors loud in the empty hallway.

"Everything okay?"

His staff is resting on the floor, emerald giving off a muted glow. His gaze is fixed on hers, unwavering, and it makes her want to squirm.

"Edward? We should probably—"

"Last time I thought we were dying, I told you I loved you."

Her breath leaves her, and half a second later, her heart begins pounding in her chest.

Yes. He, did.

"You think I've forgotten?"

"They all look at me like I'm insane, loving you. My brothers. How I can be in love with a witch - they don't understand it."

She grasps her broom harder.

"What are you trying to say?"

He takes a step toward her. The emotion on his face makes her instinctively take one back. He notices. He lifts one scarred eyebrow, taking yet another step closer. Bella has backed herself into the corridor wall, the back of her broom hitting it with a thump.

"You're meant to be fickle, unpredictable creatures." Another step closer. His staff glows brighter, and Bella recognises the slow pulsing magic. More deliberate than she normally feels. "Uncontrollable."

"You saying you want to control me?"

His face stretches into a slow smirk, his unscarred cheek making one of his eyes crease.

"I'm not that stupid."

She can't place it—the feeling he is forcing into her chest. It seems more apparent to her than normal that he is a wizard.

"Remember Paris?"

Of course, she remembers Paris. She was at her breaking point. She was so confused she was convinced she wanted nothing to do with him, yet everything at once. She'd placed her every fury and insecurity into him, somehow pretending it was all his doing…anything for an excuse to be close to him.

"Of course."

Her back hits the wall, and the wizard's magic emanating from his staff makes her hackles rise, makes her want to fight it. As if he's trying to bind her, hold her in place.

"I was terrified of you, back then. I was besotted, so completely in love with you, and utterly terrified you would just up and disappear."

"I wouldn't have been able to," she whispers, his face one a couple feet away now. "I was fighting it, but there was nothing you could've said that would've kept me away for long."

"Yes, Brazil showed me that."

"Brazil was a mess."

"No more than New York."

"Less than Chicago."

"Chicago led us here." His eyes trace her face, his body leaning toward her, his staff inches away from their faces. "It led us to this moment. With you carrying our child."

Her breath hitches, his empty hand reaching for her waist, fingers splayed over her stomach. She feels as if she's twisted into a knot, knowing they have places to be, things to do, and yet his eyes are everything, her body calling to him, her heart and soul his to take, his to hold.

"You cannot afford to become complacent, Bella. Do not let this disappear from us." He presses his body against hers, her attention caught between his eyes, one bright green, the other coal black, and his staff an inch away from her head. "We have worked too hard; suffered too much, and given up too many people to be here. No matter what happens today - do not let the past drag you down. Be the fierce witch I know you are, and no matter what, come back to me. I am begging you."

Her fingers tremble when she reaches for his face.

"You are my centre." Her voice is barely louder than a whisper. "Ever since that day…I do not feel complete unless I am with you. I spent all those years running, not realising I was running toward you. If my mother had not tried to help Esme, I would probably not have been able to save you. If I hadn't saved you, I would be dead in that alley. It's all connected. All leads back to my mother. I can't—I can't look back because it's all one. We are here because there was no other way. We are here because we were led. Magic gave me you - allowed me to love you. I am not going anywhere. I refuse. I refuse - because if we don't make it, then it was all for nothing."

His lips are furious on hers, and his body insistent against her. His tongue does not ask for permission; there is no part of him that is in doubt.

"Stay with me," he pants, forehead falling on hers.

"Yes."

"Promise?"

"I promise."

"Whatever it takes?"

"Whatever it takes. I'm coming back to you. There's no other way."

He takes a step back, lifting her hand to his lips, the heat on her skin almost burning.

They walk into the room hand-in-hand.

Dozens of eyes flit to them, but no one is surprised. Bella meets Jane head-on, and only when they face each other does Edward let go of her hand.

"You ready?" Jane holds her broom horizontal to the floor, and Bella mirrors her.

"Yes."

They reach for each other's brooms, linking arms and handles, feeding off both their own and the others' magic.

"There is no going back after this." Jane raises a single eyebrow.

"Good."