𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 | carlisle cullen (3)

(𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐰𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐲-𝐞𝐢𝐠𝐡𝐭) dead or alive

✧✧✧

"ESTE IS ALIVE" EDWARD SPOKE IN SUCH certainty that Carlisle was taken aback. Silence collected around them as he let the information wash over him. Alice looked indignantly against what Edward had just spoke into the air but right then, Carlisle could only imagine that it was true. He could only see her, alone in the darkness with a lost mind and thoughts that carried all the way up to her son.

"Where is she?" Carlisle asked quickly.

"I don't know... somewhere deep under the halls" Edward replied.

"She's in there?" Carlisle asked wildly as he pointed to the entrance of the tower where he had just come from. The letter was still held in his hand but it felt useless now, paper between his fingers as he saw her clearer than ever. Carlisle felt the same emotion as he had done leaving the tower, as though he was leaving her behind.

"We don't know that" Alice said quickly.

"You heard her?" Carlisle asked softly, "Edward did you hear her?"

"Yes" Edward nodded.

"Listen" Alice stepped in front of Carlisle as he went to walk back towards the halls of Volterra, "soon we're going to bring them down, with that letter we'll end the Volturi and we can come back here and search every corner of those halls—"

"You don't believe she's alive?" Carlisle asked, seeing the lack of brightness in Alice's eyes. Alice, always the sense of optimism now lost in wandering thoughts and emissions of grief.

"Carlisle when I look into the future, I can't find her. I know my powers been diminished over the last few months but even when I search for the smallest second of her time I don't find anything. She is the only person I can't find and I think there must be reason for that"

"But Edward... he heard her" Carlisle stated and he suddenly felt like a child searching for validation.

"The Volturi are known for their powers against the mind" Alice shrugged, "look I don't know what Edward heard but... I think we of all people know how easy it is to be fooled by the Volturi"

"What do they have to gain from tricking me?" Edward frowned, "why would they possibly want to do that?"

"What do they have to gain from keeping Este alive?" Alice quipped in response, "they had every reason to want her dead even before Caius started messing with her mind. She's stood in their way too many times and then they had to cover their tracks. If people had found out that Caius was using his powers there'd be uproar... keeping her alive would be dangerous for them, why would they want that?"

"I heard her" Edward stated again as he looked towards Carlisle, "I don't believe it was a trick"

"Because you think you're incapable of being fooled?" Alice raised her eyebrows.

"She was saying the same thing over and over again Carlisle" Edward sounded desperate to convey this meaning to his father, "stars will fall. She kept saying stars will fall"

Carlisle's heart ached as his lips parted slightly. The phrase set alright memories in his mind like fireworks as he stood in the cold night of Volterra trying to relive them all. For a while he stood in shock because to him it seemed so concrete. Of course she wasn't dead, he would've known if she had died. Carlisle always felt that they shared a connection that he could feel. It's why it had been so hard to believe, not only because it was impossible to live without her but because he could still feel her, she was still there, moments away.