Solstice

JOURNEYS

'You've been quiet for days, Bella.' I looked across at Jasper, at his kind eyes, and sighed. How did I tell him? How did I tell anyone? I'd been in such a state of shock since the other evening that I'd been unable to speak. 'What happened? Please tell me.'

'I don't know how to begin,' I whispered, tears clouding my vision. I blinked them impatiently away. 'The other night, I went to see Persephone, and...'

'Yes? Bella?' Jasper sat forward. 'Did she do something to upset you?'

'And then some.' I tried to speak through the tears, but my throat fell full. 'She pinned me down and took my shield – a big part of it – and gave it to everyone in the coven. She's Changed everyone. They're all vampires now. And she threw me out when she was Changing Angela against her will, and I couldn't get back in...'

Jasper's eyes widened so that I could see the white all around them. 'I must tell Carlisle,' he murmured. His fingers flew across the keypad of his phone, and he murmured a message to my father-in-law so rapidly that even I had some difficulty keeping up with it. Evidently, so did Carlisle, because Jasper repeated what I'd told him.

There was a long silence on the other end of the phone.

'I think you should get the family together and strategize,' Jasper murmured. 'Bella has only just been able to tell me now – she's still in shock.' He nodded several times as Carlisle spoke. 'Get Bella's mom on the phone,' he said, giving me a wary look, and I gasped. 'Her life is going to be on the line now, too.' He disconnected and looked over his shoulder, at the closed cockpit door. We were being flown across the world by humans, but we didn't want to risk them overhearing our conversation either. 'Carlisle is shocked and upset. He sends you his love, Bella, and wants you to know that he doesn't blame you in any way for what has happened. We were all taken in by Persephone. She must have had a way to shield her thoughts from Edward so that he didn't see her true intent. Alice hasn't had any visions about her, either.'

I shook my head. It was my fault. 'I Changed her,' I whispered.

'You did so to prevent Jacob Black from murdering your daughter and yourself,' Jasper pointed out. 'If you could go back, would you do anything differently?'

'I should have handled everything better. I shouldn't have let Jake leave that day, and I should've gone down to La Push to talk to him, rather than letting him build up a head of steam.'

'Bella, you're not responsible for other people's actions,' Jasper reminded me. 'You don't want to be like the Volturi, taking others' free will, do you?'

I shook my head stubbornly. 'This one is all on me,' I told him, my knuckles gleaming white with tension.

Jasper sighed, but didn't try to change my mind any further. 'I suppose this explains the headline.' He unfolded a newspaper in front of me. 'Thirty Girls Go Missing From Seattle-Tacoma Area,' I read. The circumstances of all their disappearances were the same: they took a small bag with their essentials, drivers licenses and passports – and simply vanished. I recognised some of the names on my lists. Sisters in my coven.

'I wonder where they're all going?' I wondered, frowning. 'Thirty women aren't all going to fit in Persephone's back room.'

'Carlisle checked her bedroom in the apartment when I was on the phone with him. All of her possessions are gone. I suppose she's found a place for them all to hide out. They wouldn't be able to move around in large numbers, either – they'd be far too conspicuous.'

'Persephone says they want to take on the Volturi.' I rubbed my eyes. I didn't want to see his expression. 'She's going to be Changing a lot more people before this ends. And it all comes back to me. I Changed her. I need to get away from the family. I need to go far away so that the Volturi only come after me, and leave you alone. They can't read my mind, so they won't know that you were involved in any way. Which you weren't, in actual fact. She was my friend. The rest of you barely got to know her.' I swallowed hard. 'I suppose I didn't get to know her, either.'