The day of leaving for Forks was by far the busiest day around the castle I'd ever seen.

It was rare to have the entire guard summoned for anything, since usually there were quite a few patrolling the walls of Volterra or on smaller assignments. From what I'd heard, the last time that much of the guard were brought forward for anything was the war against the Egyptian coven over 1400 years ago.

I think that was what concerned me the most; the thought of us needing an entire army of vampires, highly deadly vampires, to see through a trial with the Cullens. At first, I'd insisted that just having the kings and I would be enough, maybe with the elite guard accompanying us, but once whispers of Carlisle's many allies came through, we knew we couldn't risk being outnumbered.

I walked through the stone corridors almost comically slowly while everyone rushed and bustled past me at full speed, some carrying random items such as documents and cloaks, while others just pelted past me with little purpose.

Just as I recognised one of the blurs as Afton, I held an arm out which stopped him in his tracks. "What on earth are you doing, sir Afton?"

He hopped from foot to foot impatiently. "I need to take all of this," he ruffled through a messy and crumpled stack of paper, "to Master Aro's office ASAP, can't talk."

Without another word, he weaved around my outstretched arm and disappeared behind me around one of the corners further into the castle. I sighed and continued walking through slightly glumly.

Renata was the next one to bustle past me from the other direction. Again, I held my arm out which caused her to slam into it with a soft "oi".

"Why the rush?" I asked her.

"Charles and Makenna are arriving, they'll be in the garage at every second," she gushed.

"Need any help?" I offered.

"Oh yes," she grabbed my arm and began dragging me along with her. "You can come down and greet them with me."

She walked a few strides ahead while keeping a sturdy grip on my arm. "Who the hell are Charles and Makenna by the way?"

We began running down the concrete stairwell that led down to the garage. "Makenna is one of my distant relatives from Malta—vampire, obviously—and Charles is her mate. Caius suggested I personally invite them to testify against the Cullens."

"Whoopee," I deadpanned.

"Don't be like that Eli, you'll love them," she assured me just as we reached the bottom step and pushed open the double doors that lead into the garage.

Only half a minute or so after we arrived down there, the faint rumbling of a car driving up could be heard further down one of the tunnels. A black Mercedes appeared, clearly stolen, but I'd been made aware of the fact that immortals actually stole a lot.

A couple climbed out of the car and strolled around the side, holding hands. The woman, who I assumed to be Makenna, did actually have some resemblance to Renata. Her medium length black hair curled down her shoulders, but she was quite short actually. Not that I was a particularly tall person in the slightest, but she was shorter than me, which spoke volume.

Her mate, Charles, was considerably taller than her, with defined facial features and short dark blonde hair. They both seemed very friendly though, smiling warmly at both Renata and me.

"Renata!" Makenna wrapped her arms around her…great ancestor in a tight hug.

Charles stepped forward to me with his hand outstretched and a broad smile. "I'm Charles, and you are…?"

"Oh," I took his hand and shook it, "Eliana."

"Oh, so you're the new Volturi queen. It is an honour to meet you in person, Eliana. I've only heard good things, I assure you, but the way you fought off the Romanians," he sighed, "remarkable."

"Thank you very much, it's lovely to meet you too." I smiled timidly.

Makenna pulled away from Renata and pointed to me. "This is Eliana? Wonderful to meet you, hi, I'm Makenna."

I shook her extended hand. "Hi, it's nice to meet you Makenna. Shall we head back upstairs? We're leaving today, so I'm sorry you won't have long to settle."

We began slowly climbing back up the stairwell. "That's quite alright, we are happy to make ourselves useful in any way we can," Charles insisted.

"Even just having you join our cause is enough." I checked my wristwatch briefly. "Oh shit, we only have half an hour before leaving."

Once we got to the top of the stairs, I turned around again to face them. "I'm gonna have to go, but Renata will show you to a room you can stay in for the next few minutes. Feel free to bring all of your belongings with you by the way, especially if you want to leave as soon as the trial is over rather than fly back to Italy unnecessarily."

"Of course, thank you for your hospitality." Charles smiled.

"Anytime, it was wonderful to meet you both!" I called behind me.

With a deep, calming breath, I ran at full speed back to Caius' quarters where I'd agreed to meet him 5 minutes ago. I flung the door open to find him standing beside his bed with a black suitcase half packed. His arms were crossed over his chest and he seemed far from impressed at me.

"Late," he said blandly.

"Chill your beans, honey, I was greeting Charles and Makenna."

He sighed and kissed my forehead, his voice softening. "Of course, you are right, but you must pack now. I am giving you two minutes and then I will zip this suitcase up regardless if any of your belongings are inside."

"Snappy," I giggled, causing him to teasingly slap me on the ass.

I bolted into the wardrobe and re-emerged with a stack of random clothing. I arranged it neatly into the space in the suitcase left for my stuff and went to close it again before he stopped me.

"What will you wear for the trial, carissima? Your cloak for this occasion has been prepared as well," he told me.

"What? I have a cloak for this trial? Can't I just wear my usual cloak?" I asked.

He shook his head and ran into the wardrobe, coming back out with a cloak which I assumed was mine since it was clearly too small for him. It was black, as usual, but much more regal than the cloaks I was used to. The inside was lined with crimson red fur, and the edges were covered in a slightly extravagant gold trim.

"This," he shook it lightly in front of me before folding it and placing it beside his in the suitcase, "is what you will wear for this particular trial."

"And I assume yours looks similar?" I asked.

He hummed in confirmation. "Almost exactly identical with only a few design differences. And your outfit?"

"Oh, uh," I pulled out of the suitcase a short black dress with a gold belt buckle around the middle with a dark grey leather jacket and my usual black lace up boots, "this?"

He examined it carefully for a split second. "That will do," he agreed, folding the items I'd pulled out back into the suitcase and zipping it up. "Now, we leave."

I drew in a quivered breath and nodded. Caius must've sensed my anxiety as he pulled me into his arms comfortingly with one hand on my back and the other holding my head to his chest.

"This is so hard," I mumbled against his chest.

"I know, my little Eliana. This situation is not desirable by any means. I cannot begin to imagine how difficult this must be for you." I'd never heard his voice so soft or his words so comforting before—it was quite the change of pace.

"Why is my best friend such an idiot?" I whined.

He laughed warmly and sat down on the edge of the bed to pull me onto his lap. I curled up with my knees to my chest while he tucked my head under his chin and purred gently.

After a few minutes, he stood up with an arm over my shoulders. "We must leave now, carissima."

I pouted but still reluctantly followed him back out of the room.

Once we got down to the garage hand in hand, everyone was already gathered around. I could sense the excitement in the air, and I didn't like it. Not one bit.

There were several sleek black cars gathered around, many belonging to the other covens. "Who's taking which cars?" I asked Caius.

He glanced around quickly. "The French coven plus some of our guard will take the Volvo, the Ukrainian guard in that Range Rover, the Ukrainian coven members in the other Range Rover, the Hamamatsu coven and their guard will be in those two BMWs, in this Range Rover will be some of our elite guard i.e. Jane, Alec, Afton, Chelsea, Renata, Corin, and Heidi, and we will take this car with Demetri, Felix, and Santiago."

I stared at him with my mouth held open. "You understood all of that from this chaos?" I gestured wildly to the crowd of people in front of us.

He smirked. "No, Aro showed me the seating chart an hour ago."

I rolled my eyes. Of course Aro of all people had a seating chart arranged for everyone.

Marcus appeared in front of us with a warm smile on his face. "How are you, tesoro?"

I shrugged, trying to hide the fact that I was on the brink of actually having an absolute mental breakdown. "Could be better, to be honest."

A sudden wave of peace and calm hit me through Marcus' bond, almost too hard, which left me in a bit of a daze for a few moments. I was finally able to refocus, and Marcus was scrutinizing my face with concern.

He winced subtly. "Too much?"

"Just a little," I confirmed, "but I appreciate it in anyway, babe."

"Anything for you, bellissima. Come, Aro is waiting."

He placed his hand on the small of my back and steered me over to the large black 7-seater Range Rover which had dark tinted windows like every other vehicle used by us. The side door was already open, ready for me to hop into the middle seat as usual.

Demetri was in the driver's seat already, absently playing with the keys, and Felix and Santiago occupied the back two seats while they scrolled through their phones. Aro was sat on the seat furthest from the door, his grin widening when his gaze locked on me.

"Il mio amore, are you okay?" he asked with concern at my expression as I climbed into the car and settled myself in beside him.

I nodded and leant against his shoulder with my hand on his bicep. "Just nervous."

The door to the trunk at the back opened and I heard mine and Caius' suitcase being piled in by a lower guard before closing again.

Caius hopped into the passenger seat and murmured something very quickly in Greek to Demetri. Demetri nodded in response just as Marcus moved to sit on the vacant seat beside me.

Marcus reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of black leather gloves, identical to the ones he was wearing but in a smaller size, handing them over to me. "You will need these."

"Thanks." I smiled weakly at him and placed the gloves over my hands.

Aro then reached into his own pocket and pulled out a folded up piece of paper. He offered it to me and I took it from him confusedly. Unfolding it carefully so as not to rip it, I realised it was the seating arrangements drawn up in little diagrams and I laughed quietly.

"Nice one," I teased, handing the paper back to him.

He seemed pleased that I was no longer frowning and folded up the paper to place it back in his pocket. "I always come prepared, piccola."

The car rumbled to life underneath us as Demetri turned the keys into the ignition. Our car was obviously the first to leave, shortly followed by the next car with the elite guard which was being driven by Afton.

I nervously curled and uncurled my fingers in my lap in an attempt to distract myself from what we were on our way to do. The Cullens had been nothing but humble to me. They'd helped me though a lot over year or two I'd known them for, I felt like I could trust them with anything. And now, was this really how I was going to repay them? By executing them all?

I felt a hand tuck a piece of my hair behind my ear and glanced up to see Aro looking at me worriedly. He entwined our fingers together and lifted up our hands to place a kiss on my knuckles.

"We'll make it through, cara mia," he assured with a comforting smile.

I knew he meant it as a reassuring gesture, but it didn't really seem to help. My thoughts were still racing around my head at full speed. It was a good thing vampires couldn't get headaches, because I would've been having the absolute mother of all headaches at that moment.

Marcus pulled me back out of my thoughts by pulling me into his side so that my weight was resting against his chest. His fingertips brushed against my cheekbone softly, tracing every inch of my face he could reach and occasionally placing kisses on the top of my head. Aro draped my legs over his lap and rubbed his hands up and down my legs soothingly. Caius even reached over the gap between the front two seats to hold my hand, his thumb rubbing circles on the back of my hand.

We stayed like that in silence for the rest of the short car trip to Pisa airport. Admittedly, it was annoying that I couldn't sleep, because I would give a lot to fall into a blissful slumber in their arms, but it seemed that the comfort their physical contact brought was the second best thing.

The car rolled around the back of the airport as usual towards the slightly larger white and gold Volturi jet. Fortunately, we'd set off during the night, so there was no need to pull our hoods up or anything.

Demetri parked the car in the small car park just off the runway, and the many other cars followed suit beside us, neatly filing in one by one.

Marcus opened the door and climbed out first. I shuffled over and took his extended hand, hopping out gracefully onto the tarmac. Aro jumped out just behind us and we swerved around the car and made our way towards the jet.

Only half way down the empty runway, Caius caught up with me and wrapped his arm around my waist. I weakly leaned into him, only letting go to climb up the stairs into the cabin.

I must've been the first one in, so I settled in my usual seat by the window. The other three sat down in the rest of the seats in that section while I watched the other covens filing in and sitting themselves down across the plane.

It was lucky that the plane had 20 seats, because almost every single one was occupied. All the many recognisable faces were spaced out across the cabin, and Jane, Alec, Lillie, and Sofia had even claimed the sofa with the TV so that they could binge watch as many TV shows as possible. Apparently, the rest of the guard that wasn't in our cars were to take a separate, less luxurious plane that had been hired, with many more seats than this one.

"Tesoro?" Marcus, who was sitting beside me, opened his arms in invitation.

Wordlessly, I crawled into his lap and curled up in a weak ball, feeling overwhelming amounts of self pity. He held me closely to him with his larger hands encasing mine.

He finally spoke in an effort to distract me from my thoughts. "You will like the house in Forks we rented out for the next few days." He stroked my hair back.

I glanced up at him and raised an eyebrow. "We rented out a house?"

"I was rather proud of the find," Aro chimed in smugly. "5 bedrooms, 5 bathrooms, plenty of open space, only a short distance from the Cullen residence but not so close that Edward would know where we are, a wonderful glass extension, plenty of open woodland space for miles."

I barely laughed although I tried. "You really thought this through."

"And no one is to destroy the house," he added. "I would like my deposit back."

I rolled my eyes, this time giggling genuinely at Aro's regular antics.

⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰

Author's note: This chapter made me soft, I love them so much. The Volturi sound like really fun people to travel with though. I'm not even joking, they're definitely the kind of family who would do carpool karaoke and belt out the lyrics to every Marina and the Diamonds song. Like, Aro yelling the words to Bubblegum Bitch I am so convinced is canon.

Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!