Solstice

PREPARATIONS

Gloria and Nahuel had talked for hours. He was fascinated by tales of the half-sister he'd never met, and intrigued – and, I felt, slightly disgusted – by his father's antics. 'It was a huge, but unexpected pleasure to meet Gloria,' he told me as we walked in the forest. The mercury was heading towards ninety, and heat radiated from the sunbaked ground. I worried about wildfires, but then caught myself; why couldn't I simply enjoy something for once, for its own sake? 'She will tell me more stories about Rochelle this evening. I hope we can help the girl to come to her senses.'

'It might be a bit of a challenge.' I caught my bottom lip between my teeth, worried about Gloria. How horrible, how terrifying to have your only child go off with a man you know is the devil – and for that man to be prepared to bargain that child's life? Inconceivable! 'You know how you feel about Ness – how you felt the moment you first laid eyes on her. The same way I felt when I saw Edward. It's hard to believe it was only nine years ago.' I turned towards a little clearing of which I was particularly fond – it was perfectly round like Edward and my favourite meadow, a place where we spent quiet hours when we wanted to be alone. I tried not to think about what Emmett and Rose used it for. 'And now she's grown,' I said with a sigh.

Nahuel's eyes, suddenly sharp, flashed to my face. 'Do you resent me?' he asked in his forthright way.

'Of course not!' I was horrified. 'What would make you even think that?'

'When I came into Ness's life, she was relinquishing the burden that was her wolf protector. You have had so little time with her. And all the time she has free, now, is spent with me. You are very generous to me – too generous; I do not think I would be so willing to give up precious moments to spend with my daughter, after she had been kept from me for her whole life.'

'If she hadn't met you, I don't think she would be free,' I told him.

'Explain, please.' He clasped his hands behind his back as he walked; his glossy hair, streaming like a silken river of deep brown down his broad back, touched them.

'When she met you, she had fallen out of... affection, is the word I think I want, with Jake. She felt like a prisoner; he was always making demands on her. For her time, for her to reciprocate his love for her. But when she saw you, that was the moment. The moment she fell in love, the moment she knew she wanted a life with you. And a life to herself.' Against my will, despite the fact that Emmett, Rose, Esme, Edward, Carlisle, Gloria and Sam and his pack were with Ness, my pace picked up, and I went unerringly in the direction of the house. Besides, the terrifying events of Kachiri and my visions weren't supposed to happen until tomorrow. I rued the fact that Emmett, the strongest of us, would be leaving with Rose on an early plane. But the others would be there to protect us both, and I tried not to let fear take over my mind. 'It made it real for her, I think. She saw someone she loved instantly, and she saw the boy who had been by her side all her life, and she knew which of you she wanted. It really is as simple as that.'

'So I have nothing to fear? She really has no feelings for Jacob?'

I looked at Nahuel in surprise. 'Not at all,' I told him emphatically. 'I know my daughter. She was planning on finding a way to tell Jake that she wanted him as a brother, or an uncle, but not a husband. And she wouldn't have done it unkindly; they've been linked for too long by the imprint for her ever to do that.' And then I remembered her spiteful words, before I told Jake she no longer cared for him, and fell silent. 'Why, do you worry?' I asked, and he gazed at the forest floor.

'I fear that, having gained something so precious, I may lose it. Her.' He spread his hands wide, then let them fall. 'I fear that she will fall out of love with me as swiftly as she fell out of affection with Jacob.'