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And Yet They Shine

Chapter 16 - Bound

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"I want to go home."

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The words reverberated off the marble and gilt. Carlisle sucked a soft breath and Edward didn't breathe at all. Esme formed a sad smile. It's what she thought would happen, what she fought for, but she knew there would be consequences. Edward has always been the moodiest – most troubled of them all. He will be more so ,now, she thought.

Carlisle was the first to move. He reached for Bella's hand slowly, like he was taming a wild thing, and standing there, watching her, Esme thought the description is apt. She was a little wild – with courage enough to stand up to the gods, while being frightened enough to long for home, and familiar things. Esme bowed her head. She longed to comfort the girl, reach out to her, but it seemed her fight in the affair is over.

"Isabella? I'm sorry, that…may not be possible."

Then it was the girl's turn to gasp, and Edward's face animated with a look she had never seen on any god's face: hope.

Before anyone could speak, a giant interrupts them.

"Goddamn, Carlisle. I've got fourteen conflicts and two outright wars to oversee, and you call me home for what?"

He was tall, dark haired and dimpled, and his body was bulky and defined. He moved with lithe grace and a trace of mischief, as though he was really nothing more than a boy, and if it wasn't for the horrible lot he's drawn in life, Esme would believe it to be true.

The giant stopped and looked around, and then stared hard at Isabella.

"What the hell? Since when do we let humans in here? Damn. Do I miss out on everything?"

Carlisle was quick to interrupt.

"Emmett, this is Isabella. She has, ahm, she is bound to Edward."

Emmett whistled low and punched the stiff god in the shoulder. "Nice job there."

Then he looked over the girl again, and when he got to her wide, unblinking eyes, he paused. She was not, in fact, a nice job. She was a human amongst gods, and even he, a god who wrings the good out of every moment that he can, if only to offset the terrible things that he inspires, even he was brought short by her fear.

"It's okay," he said to her. "No one will hurt you here."

Isabella eyed his musculature and thought that maybe he was right. Maybe no one would hurt her.

Still. She wanted to go home.

Before she could respond, a tall, beautiful blonde woman moved into the room. She was beautiful. No, Bella thought, her mind correcting her on an instinctive level. She is beauty.

"Rose?" The giant spoke, his soft voice belying his strength. "This is Edward's mate. Isabella."

"So why are we here?" She cast a bored look down to her fingernails, then tossed the shining gold mane over her shoulder.

Carlisle spoke.

"There seems to be some dispute about the binding. Edward was not entirely honest, and Isabella did not make an informed choice.

Edward hissed at his brother's words, but they were true. He had not been honest with Isabella, driving by an emotion he refused to inspect, he'd pressed the food on her, forcing her into an eternity of his…what? Love? Ardor? Service?

He was disgusted by himself, yet uncertain that he would change his actions if he had them to do over.

"So why are we here?" The blonde was bored and pacing around the hall.

"Because if she did not consent to the binding; it should not hold." Esme's voice was firm, fire and ice and strength.

"But she ate, right?" The giant spoke now, looking at his open palms as though weighing justice.

"Yes, she did." Edward this time. His voice, pitted against Esme's, could have been a sword. Bella thought it might have won, if their voices were physical things.

She took one step back, and then another. Before her, the gods argued and bickered over her future as though…as though she was nothing more than a pawn.

She remembered back in time, back to a moonlit beach and a sunlit man, how easy and perfect it had all seemed. He'd come to her, mysterious and warm, and she'd melted into him, giving him her heart and body, anything at all that he might want. When he left her, she'd felt desolate, and remembered her cold skin on hot days, wishing, wishing, to never feel so low again.

It struck her that she had what she'd wished for. One who would see her as a queen. Queen of the dead. A small, bitter laugh escaped her mouth, but the arguing creatures around her paid no heed.

Stop it, she thought. Stop, stop, stop. "Stop it!"

She rushed forward to inject herself into their midst, into the conversation that was happening around her, about her, and without her.

Before she could make herself heard, Emmett, always the most animated of them, raised his arms in exclamation. He caught Bella across the shoulder and chin, and she flew back against the marble floor. A bruise began to bloom against her pale skin, and the snap of her wrist, as it caught beneath her, was deafening to them all.

Edward reached her first. He cradled her in his lap, small, wounded bird, and blew soft, warm breaths against her skin. He petted her face, his eyes scanning her all over, and when he found the small lump at the back of her head, he whispered, low and fierce, until it receded to nothing beneath his palm.

He lifted her arm, careful, so careful, of her damaged wrist. He wrapped his fingers around it and he held it close to his chest. He whispered and he blew and he did not notice the silence all around him. He did not notice the gods brought to pause by these small healing acts for his human. He noticed nothing other than his own fear until Isabella's pale eyelids began to flutter and she twisted herself further into his lap.

When she opened her eyes he exhaled. He stood with her still clutched into his arms, and then he set her down, holding her by the waist and shoulders until she was steady again on her feet.

He took two large steps back from her, so that he was standing among the others, and she eyed them all, wary.

"Carlisle?" Edward's voice was soft enough that his brother almost didn't hear him.

"I release her from her bond. Let her go."

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AN: This instead of review replies. I hope that's okay. Thank you, all of you, who have kept the faith with me, with this. I promise you, I am working as quickly as I can.