One afternoon, Alice called us together. "I can't see anything past tomorrow," she said. "I think this is it. We—you—should head out in the morning."

I had a long, long talk with my dad on the phone. I couldn't quite hide my unease, but he said nothing about it, for which I was grateful. I wanted my last memory of him to be like this, casual, just talking about life. Then I called my mom who was either more intuitive or else simply bolder in asking about my tone, and most of the conversation involved me comforting her. It was probably the last chance I would ever have to comfort her; I wished the letter I'd be leaving behind would be enough to medicate the hurt losing me would cause her. But I knew that was impossible.

After hanging up with Renee, I picked up Laelia and didn't put her down for several hours. The family kept close about us, sitting shoulder-to-shoulder but speaking little; Nahuel brooded in a corner, writing busily in a notebook. The Denalis were camped out on the mainland, the Aonair family were staying in the manor. It was just us tonight.

Laelia knew that she was going on a trip with Auntie Alice and Uncle Jasper. They would be crossing Ireland, England, and then Scandinavia by car and ferry. The car which had been provided was equipped with fuel and food, oodles of cash in several currencies, assorted documentation and other supplies. Recordings of songs Edward had written for Laelia, my copy of The Blue Castle. Alice and Jasper were absolutely petrified by the notion that as early as tomorrow, they might have no family left but each other and Laelia. Several times, Alice tried to convince us to rethink the plan, let her stay and die with us. But Jasper kept a steadier head, and talked her down. Keeping them away from the fight was the best chance we had of derailing Aro's scheme.

I cuddled Laelia for a long time, though ordinarily she wouldn't have had so much patience with my clinginess. I kissed every dimple on her face and knees and elbows, chomped her little fingers and toes for good measure, and then passed her off to Edward. By this time Laelia was becoming alarmed by all the serious faces in the room. Her attempts to cheer up her daddy—messing up his hair, counting on her fingers for him, holding her little hands like cheeping birds to kiss his face—all fell flat. After a while, they just stood together silently, their heads resting gently together, their hands clasped.

Then she had to be passed around to everyone. Lastly Edward bundled into her warmest clothes and gave her to Jasper, who looked about as miserable as I'd ever seen him.

"See you later, sis," said Jasper, kissing me gravely on the cheek. Alice flung her skinny arms around my neck and hugged me tightly, quivering. Then, like two silent shadows, the pair departed.

"I love you, sweetpea," I called, tracking the curly auburn head resting on Jasper's shoulder as he ran out into the night.

Her answer came back on the wind, almost too tiny to hear, already vanishing:

"You too, Mama!"

I turned away from the door. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Edward's shoulders shuddering, his head shaking back and forth. I heard his ragged breath, and to me it sounded like a heart breaking.

"If those vultures do manage to kill us," he said, "I swear I will haunt them until they wish they'd never been born."

We said little, waiting for sunrise. Then we made our way to the manor island, where the others were waiting to row across to the mainland where we could meet up with the Denalis and the wolves.

I held hands with Edward all the way to the glen fifty miles away where we would probably all be killed. We reached the meeting place before the Volturi did and stood together. Jake hulked like a sentinel at my back; his hot breath radiated through my shirt, a comfort.

"It doesn't matter what field we go to," said Tanya. "They'll come wherever we are. But I scoped out all the logical meeting places around here and I like this one the best. It has a good view of the hills."

Then they came. They were so completely silent that even I didn't hear their approach. They moved in step, more grotesque in their synchronization than the wolves. Tadi's pack was a well-trained army of four; the Volturi were more like puppets. I counted them, placed names to faces: Aro, Renata, Caius, Marcus. Chelsea, Afton, Demetri, Felix and Heidi. Jane and Alec. There were two others, as well, whom I couldn't identify. A tall man with light brown hair and a woman, small and dark. Both had vividly red eyes.

Now the Volturi were approaching us, slowly, deliberately. Giving us time to get good and scared?

Well, if Aro wanted to give me time, I might as well use it. I looked inward, as I had so often these last days, searching for the center of my shield. What was it that let Jasper break through, just once? How could it be wrapped around Laelia and me, even when we were apart? Was it still around her now? I'd never been this far away from her. The way Alice drove, they were probably in France by now, driving north. They'd be in Sweden by nightfall. My daughter was countries away from me. But she didn't seem so far. I could still feel a spark of her, glittering green like her eyes.

"Carlisle, old friend," Aro was saying in a voice like a classical sculpture, cool and flawless. The handsomeness of his face did not quite offset the cruel eagerness in his eyes. "I see you received my letter."

"To what letter can you possibly be referring?" said Carlisle. "I haven't had the pleasure of hearing from you in decades."

"Why, the letter informing you of our intention to visit...and, truth to tell, to investigate some troubling rumors I've heard of late. It is my custom to alert potential enemies of the state that they are being surveilled. You must have received it, for here you are!"

"No such letter ever crossed my desk," said Carlisle.

"How perfectly dreadful," said Aro. "I will have to have words with my secretary. She is human, you know, and therefore flawed. But come. Let us put it behind us and embrace. It has been far too many years since our last meeting."

Carlisle crossed the short distance to Aro and allowed himself to be "embraced". It must have been humiliating for Carlisle, standing there with Aro's hand on the back of his neck, stealing his memories just because he knew he could get away with it. What an asshole. I couldn't repress a little twinge of fear that something in Carlisle's mind would tip our hand. Then I remembered—we had no hand. Just hope, and little enough of that. We'd never succeeded in coming up with a secret weapon. Esme had thought it might be me, but she'd been wrong.

Finally Aro relinquished Carlisle, who returned to stand side-by-side with Esme.

"What a dreadful few weeks you've endured, my friends," said Aro feelingly. "In truth, these weeks have not been easy for us, either. To know that three such respected, respectable covens have willingly thrown their lot in with the enemies of our kind. And you have brought the dogs here. Such gall, old friend, I would not have expected of you. All here." He let his gaze settle on Jake in a way I did not like one bit, and I shuffled to stand a little closer to my friend. "Except for...what was her name, Carlisle? Oh yes, the leader. Tadi."

I felt a frisson of anger sweep through everyone on our side. Aro was trying to provoke us, flaunting his power, gloating in our faces over the fact that he now knew everything Carlisle knew. There were twice as many of us but still they wielded all the power, because nearly every one of them possessed a weapon that we had no way of fighting.

All the while, that precious tug of Laelianess teased at the corners of my mind. I wasn't imagining it. I focused harder, my brow wrinkling in concentration. I could really feel my daughter. Far away and getting farther, but no less connected. Still a part of me. It wasn't a visible spark, wasn't a directional tug. It was more like I'd just awakened a faculty I'd never known I had, an internal sensor that thrummed in time to my love for her. It felt green, and bright, and strong, without actually being any of those things. It was simply her.

"Before we proceed," Aro was continuing, "I must introduce Makenna, a relative of my own dear Renata." The small dark-haired female nodded carelessly at us. "And her mate Charles, a lie detector whom I've asked to accompany us to ensure that proceedings remain wholly above-board. It seems only appropriate, since this event appears to have affected so very many covens. It is important to me that there be transparency in law among our kind. You see, Carlisle, you are not the only one with a sense of social justice."

I felt my lip curling into a sneer. Aro was well-prepared for a future in which he took what he wanted from us and burned the remains. He must know that the sudden, unexpected disappearance of three well-respected covens would raise a few eyebrows. He was already planning to spin the story, and who would question the word of a lie detector? What did it matter if that lie detector was evidently mated to a relative of Aro's own personal bodyguard? Aro would spin this and spin this, stopping only when his own corruption looked like fairy gold.

"What a thoughtful touch," said Carlisle, smiling for all the world like he was pleased at Aro's tidings. "I am thrilled to learn that you have come to share my beliefs, where justice and transparency are concerned. And may I introduce Magdalena of the clan Aonair, who also possesses the ability to know when she is being lied to. In fact, falsehoods of any stripe cause Magdalena great discomfort, not only those spoken aloud but indeed dishonest intentions. I am sure that you will agree that it is of great importance that Magdalena have the opportunity to freely disseminate her experiences of this meeting, when all is said and done. So that the world may know of the Volturi's great justice and mercy."

Aro's expression soured for a split second, then he smiled. "How wonderful," he said graciously. "Old friend, my admiration for your wisdom and foresight never fails to grow. Indeed, so high is my opinion of you that I simply cannot manage to comprehend your unholy alliance with the sworn enemy of our kind. You know the law. Besides which, you have a family now, who require your guidance. Yet you have advised them to accept this breaking of our dictates. Your betrayal of law and order are shocking. I cannot fathom your motivations, no matter what I may see in your mind."

"Betrayal, you say?" repeated Carlisle. "Think of it not as a betrayal, Aro, but as the next step in our kind's evolution."

"I shall be interested in hearing the reasoning behind this curious statement," said Aro. God, this circus was exhausting. How had Carlisle stood living with these people for so many years? Listening to Aro speak for three minutes was making me want to claw my own ears off. I tuned him out and resumed thinking about my shield.

What had happened that day in my room, when Jasper had reached through my defenses?

Nothing, really. A viola recital. Alice was playing a concert for Laelia. I'd asked and asked, and that was what everyone remembered. It was a perfectly ordinary day. I'd been happy. I'd been safe.

Safe? A breakable human surrounded by vampires? Incubating who-knew-what little apocalyptic monster, my body in constant danger from the one person I most desperately wanted to keep from harm, and I called it safe? But it was a safety that had nothing to do with my body. I'd trusted these people. My physical body may not have been particularly safe, but I'd known in that moment that we were all together in the most integral way, a team, a family. I could trust them to be close to me without fearing that they would hurt me. Not necessarily physically. Emotionally.

And there it was. The edge, one shred of my shield that had pulled loose and floated now in the invisible wind of my love for my little girl. A few yards away, close enough that I could measure his pupils to one-tenth of a millimeter, Caius smiled eagerly. Jane and Alec, both stiff and ready for their master's will, moved not a muscle. Marcus stood a little way off with Demetri, Heidi and Felix. Aro stood with Chelsea and Afton, Renata, Charles and Makenna. A terrifying picture. But they didn't have what we had:

Love. Trust. Family.

I imagined that shred of shield blowing on a wind conjured by my own mind. I let it blow around Edward, who was closest to me in every possible way right now, his hand still gripped in mine. In the same moment that I felt his spark join Laelia's in my consciousness (green like hers, but more somber in shade), he jolted and looked around in confusion. Of course. Under my shield, all the thoughts he'd been reading had just disappeared. Regretfully I let that wind blow the shield away from him, which didn't ease his confusion. He was smart enough to put a lid on his reaction, though. Aro was staring at him.

"...It is entirely possible to live in harmony with the wolves," Carlisle was finishing. "Surely you can agree that such a lifestyle is for the greater good?"

"What are you proposing, sir?" snapped Caius impatiently. "That we all join your love-in, that we excuse your crime, that we raise your conscience above our law?"

"Not at all," said Carlisle. "I am suggesting that we adjust the law to suit the needs of an evolving society. I am requesting clemency, not merely now, and for us; but for all times and all people. The four families—shape-shifter and vampire alike—have found a means of circumventing the natural dislike between our species. As peacekeepers, surely you must feel compelled to celebrate this occasion."

Caius snorted and brushed an imaginary strand of soft white hair away from his snowy brow. "Absurd," he said. "Aro, let us finish what they started."

"Patience, Caius," said Aro, not sounding terribly patient at all. "Our friend has a point. The times are changing indeed. Very well, Carlisle. As usual, you have shown yourself to be both passionate and wise. Your words have swayed me. It was our intention to come here and punish you according to our law. I propose a new solution. It was your coven that broke this law. I see from your memories that it was at your own encouragement that the treaty between the Olympic Coven—as you call yourselves—and the shape-shifting wolves was formed. I will agree to the following terms: Instead of executing all members of the so-called Olympic coven, instead of executing all breakers of our written law, and instead of eliminating the shape-shifters here present, I will accept instead the immediate defection of one member of the Olympic Coven. This individual shall join the Volturi as an ambassador of goodwill, shall give us absolute and immediate allegiance, and shall be chosen by myself. The wolves will be permitted to leave our presence unharmed, with the understanding that they will never receive such a boon again from us. The alliance between the Olympic Coven and the wolves will be dissolved, and all parties here present will be put on watch, to ensure that said dissolution is preserved. On these terms, and no others, will your desired clemency be granted. Let it not be said that Aro of Volterra is unmerciful."

"You're lying," Maggie blurted out. Siobhan looked unspeakably horrified and slapped her hand over her daughter's mouth, but it was too late.

"Am I?" said Aro, smiling unpleasantly. "Thank you for your honesty, child. Perhaps, since I seem not to have spotted it, and Charles here certainly hasn't, you might tell me my lie."

"I don't know what it is precisely," she said, her eyes wide and wild, searching his face. "You have dishonest intentions. You have this whole time. You're so dishonest you're giving me cramps."

Aro laughed pleasantly. "Well, child," he said, "when you leave here you may certainly spread that tale if you wish. I have nothing to hide."

Beside me, Edward jerked, then stared at Aro with a dawning smile on his face. I wondered what he'd just heard in Aro's mind. Aro caught this and studied Edward's face for a few moments.

Good. Focus on Edward, Aro, I thought. I need time to practice. Esme stood beyond Edward. I tossed that shred of shield over her (her spark was a brilliant violet). Edward glanced at her quickly, then at me, then down at his feet.

How many people could I fit under this blanket fort of love? I tried looping it around Jake and Rosalie. Easy. Then Emmett and Carlisle. It stretched and conformed to their sparks, wrapped itself snugly around them, clung like a second skin. By now, Edward had stopped looking around when someone dropped out of his head.

Could I get it around people with whom I was not especially close? I tried Kate (silvery-white, like lightning). Then her sisters. Laurent. Eleazar. Carmen. Bree. Easy.

I tried Jake's brother-wolves. Jae gave me some trouble; he was furthest from me, both emotionally and physically. For a second I thought it wouldn't work. In what way was he connected to me? Jae was Jake's great-grandfather and possibly also mine, but this technicality meant little to me. It certainly didn't change the way I felt about him. I needed something more to make the shield stick to them like it stuck to everyone else.

The first thing Laelia had tried to do when she met Jae was take a bite out of his thumb, and he'd laughed and let her. Ard had helped facilitate Jake's journey to see me and apologize. I'd barely pictured the memories before the shield was clinging to them both.

Marcus was watching us intently, holding hands with Aro, who suddenly looked angry, or was it scared? Marcus must no longer sense what held us together, but Chelsea had not yet been ordered to pull us apart. Aro, perhaps, was beginning to realize that he had come here with far too little information. A mistake he'd never have made, if he'd had Esme. She was the one he should really recruit.

Not that he'd ever have a chance. Renata hovered around him and Chelsea like a fly. I could run past her shield before she even knew I had one of my own, or that unlike hers my shield could be a weapon. With every member of my family shielded, we outnumbered the Volturi. We could best them in a fair fight, I was sure of it. There were so many of us, so few of them. With their powers, they had us under their thumbs in every conceivable way; without their powers, they were just a dozen vampires looking to brawl.

Carlisle said, "I could never abandon any one of my children, or my wife. Never could I ask one of them to leave their family. I cannot agree to this condition."

"And if I could convince my choice of the benefits of joining my coven?" said Aro. "Would you prevent him or her from joining us?"

"My children are free to follow their own consciences," said Carlisle. "I would not prevent them. But neither will I ask it of them."

"Then I shall put it to her myself," said Aro. "How very unfortunate that the one whom I would choose has been kept from this meeting. I am not inclined to be patient, Carlisle. I would have the female Alice brought to me. Call her back at once. I will leave you with a few of our Guard, to demonstrate our seriousness, and we will reconvene tomorrow. If you do not agree to this, we will end you all, and without delay, and then track her down ourselves; do not think that she can avoid us, Carlisle. Remember that I have seen what is in your mind. I know how to find her, if you do not willingly summon her. But of course, I am sure you will not permit it to come to this." Then, as an afterthought that none of us really believed was an afterthought, he added, "If his devotion to the girl exceeds his attachment to the coven, of course her mate Jasper may join the Guard too." Aro nodded once, a mockery of graciousness, and turned to go. Caius, Marcus, Renata, Makenna and Charles turned with him. The others did not. He was leaving us under house arrest for the day.

Time to act.

"Actually, could I offer a counter-proposal?" I said, loudly and distinctly.

Aro turned slowly back to us and stared at me in abject shock. He looked so offended you'd think I'd just insulted his mother.

"Miss Swan," said Aro, schooling his reaction. "The newest member of the Olympic Coven. Oh dear—I should say the second newest. The very littlest is currently being conveyed toward—where, Demetri?" The tall, dark Guard with shiny black hair and the poise of a dancer touched Aro's palm. "Ah," said Aro. "Somewhere in the vicinity of Belgium, then. Sweet Laelia. I saw from Carlisle's memories she is quite a treasure." He was trying to bait me, but I wouldn't let it work. Victoria had tried the same thing as a last resort, and look at what had happened to her. The thought almost made me smile.

"Thank you, I'm fond her her myself—but then, I am biased," I said calmly, conversationally. This shield of mine had a wonderfully mellowing effect on me. I was swimming in love and care for these people, each of them bathed and protected by my devotion. Love—and the shield which that love was sustaining—was like a flame, spreading, begetting itself over and over again until I was bathed in its warmth and light. A whole sun of it, living inside me, longing to come out and protect everyone from everyone.

"What is your offer, child?" he said, his honeyed tones dripping poison.

I smiled at him. Not snottily or sarcastically, but warmly. I felt such happiness and peace I could have smiled at anyone, although the warmth of my shield could turn deadly in a moment, and would, if Aro was not careful.

"The same offer you've just made to us."

Aro stared. "I'm not sure I—?" he began delicately.

"We will take in one member of your coven, whom we will choose. If she wishes, her mate may come too. That seems only fair, since you were nice enough to make the same offer to Alice."

Aro seemed to be repressing laughter. Carlisle and Tanya looked like they'd been frozen in Carbonite.

"And your choice would be…?" said Aro indulgently, like a parent addressing a spoiled child.

"Chelsea," I said. If the moment hadn't been so tremendous, I would have laughed at the expressions on all the faces around me, every one of them shocked or horrified or amused or some combination of the three. All but Esme. She didn't look like she thought I was crazy. She was gazing at me like she trusted me. Like she was proud of me. It gave me strength to do what needed to be done. The edges of my shield felt flexible and elastic. It would reach, I was sure of it. I imagined holding it in my hands. I imagined raising it, kneading it briefly, preparing it. I thought of Chelsea, the woman who was kept in thrall to Aro's will, whose choices were not her own. I was supposed to kill her, but I didn't want to, had never wanted to. I felt sorry for her.

Sympathy was all my shield needed to stick. I flung it like a blanket over Chelsea.

The effect was instantaneous. I could feel her now, under my shield with me, a dim spot of light in the corner of my consciousness. Divested of the loyalty that had bound them unnaturally to Aro, Heidi and Demetri both staggered and then turned on their master, snarling and screaming in rage. Caius attempted to subdue Aro's attackers, but without assistance. Alec's arm was around Jane, who was shaking like a leaf.

"You didn't have to do it like that," Jane had begun sobbing tearlessly, clinging to her twin. "I wanted to be with you. I wanted to. You didn't have to use her on me!"

Renata watched it all with a look of dawning horror. Aro took a step toward her, but she edged closer to Makenna, her tiny black-haired head shaking from side to side. She whispered something in a language I didn't recognize, and Aro recoiled as if struck.

What was most shocking of all, though, was Marcus. His handsome young face face had shown nothing but bored resignation from the moment I first saw him. But now he hurtled toward us at a dead sprint—no, not at us. At Nahuel, who was standing a little off to one side. I didn't have time to call out a warning before a gray-furred giant on four legs catapulted over my head, so close his hind legs grazed my hair in passing. Jake intercepted Marcus a split second before he could reach Nahuel.

The ancient was in pieces before he even hit the ground.

Taking out Victoria, Jake had looked slow and clumsy in comparison with this. And there was nothing Aro could do about it: Demetri, Heidi and Renata had gotten him into a chokehold while Afton and Felix beat Caius back. The others simply watched, unwilling either to join in or to run away.

"Stop, stop! I beg of you!" Aro's facade of cool authority crackled and fell. Not that he'd held on to much authority while being pummeled by his subordinates.

"Some of your laws are good ones," I said. "In some ways, you've been protecting the human race this whole time, and on the whole, I'm on board with that. But I think it's time we update some things. For one, no more of this trying-to-kill-my-family business. For another, if you want your coven to stick by you, you're gonna have to find something better than stealing their free will. No more using Chelsea to turn your coven into an army of zombies. In fact, if any of you want to hit the road, now would be the time to do it."

Demetri and Heidi looked at Aro, their faces mirror-images of misery, regret and loathing. They took each other's hands and vanished into the north. After a moment's indecision, Felix, Renata, Makenna and Charles followed after them. Jane and Alec hung their heads unhappily, but didn't move a step.

"This is my family," I said. "These are my friends." I looked around at the Denalis, the Aonairs, the wolves. Jake bristled, big as a house, in front of Nahuel. "There are four different covens standing here right now, plus the wolves, and I think if we worked together we could probably do some pretty amazing things. But you no longer get to pretend the whole planet is your sandbox. I mean, no disrespect, sir, but it's the twenty-first century. There's such a thing as civil rights now. No more one ring to rule them all. We have to work together from here on out. Can you agree to that?"

Aro straightened, patted down his dark suit, straightened the hair that Demetri and Heidi had disheveled. Caius was sneering at him disdainfully; Jane and Alec both looked like creepy little kicked puppies.

"It will never work," he said stiffly. "I have tried to govern our kind without Chelsea's help. It cannot be done."

"So you won't take the deal?"

"I would rather see her dead than in your hands," he spat, and on the last word he reached for Chelsea; a flicker in his hand betrayed the presence of that most dangerous of weapons, a lighter. But her mate saw it coming, and he was faster. He clamped his teeth on Aro's wrist, a second lighter snicked brightly in Afton's hand, a spark touched the thin stream of venom issuing from his arm, and he was burning like a flare in the middle of his own demolished coven. The whole thing had happened in the space of a single breath.

There was a long, terrible silence.

"Jane," whispered Caius. "Punish them."

The sparks of Aro's immolation danced in Jane's eyes. She looked at me, mouth twisted, spirit broken. I felt a curious, unpleasant itching at the back of my consciousness. Jane glowered, but only for a moment. Her shoulders slumped and she turned away, still held by her twin. They left the field, dragging their feet the whole way. Chelsea and Afton followed them in a huddle.

Caius was the last to leave. "Let me take Marcus," he said. "Let me rebuild my brother." He paused. "Please," he added, his voice small and wretched.

"Marcus has longed for the release of death since Aro murdered his wife," said Edward bluntly. "He stays."

In seconds, Caius was gone.

The smell of smoke and charred flesh went to my head, turned my stomach, made me retch and reel. One sacrifice, just as Alice had foreseen. I could not wrap my mind around it. For years now Aro had been a shadowy figure of fear, a distant politician who might decide to cause trouble. And now he was dead.

And we were alone, not one of us harmed, not one of us the worse for wear. We blinked slowly at each other. Edward was squeezing my hand so hard I felt my phalanges realign themselves. Esme was squeezing the other, and Rosalie was flinging her arms around me and crowing with joy.

"My friends," Esme declaimed, solemn and joyous at once, "we are sovereign!"

1. Meyer wrote some really specific weakness into the Volturi power structure. What with Aro's dependence on Chelsea, and Bella's immunity to Chelsea, and Bella's ability to share her shield with other people, the Volturi threat really seemed like one of those knots where you just have to know which string to pull and the whole thing unravels. So, since Meyer was good enough to leave that one Chelsea-shaped string flapping in the breeze, all I had to do was let Bella give it a tug. It's so obvious I can't even pretend to take credit for it. I actually thought this was where Breaking Dawn was headed, up until the last couple chapters. Like, okay, Bella, throw your shield at Chelsea. Then you can just sit back and watch the Volturi self-destruct. No, don't just use it to defend your own peop—no, Bella! Work smarter, not har—Bella! You can beat Aro at his own game! Just shield Chelsea! No, really, Bella, SHIELD CHELSEA FOR LIKE ONE MINUTE THE BAD GUYS WILL LITERALLY DO ALL THE WORK FOR YOU AND KILL EACH OTHER PRO BONO, YOU WON'T EVEN HAVE TO LIFT A—OH MY GOD WERE YOU BORN YESTERDAY.

2. I really enjoy writing Aro dialogue. Such a skeevy faker. I wish I was him.

From the bottom of where my heart should be: thank you all for reading and for all our great conversations. I will see you here next week for the final chapter of what has been a long, educational, sometimes frustrating, and always rewarding project