Solstice

PLOT

'Greetings, friends. You all look wonderfully fresh and recovered. The clear mountain air is so invigorating,' Aro told us all. The crowd, most of whom were definitely not wearing happy morning faces, looked sourly back at him: the hunting ban meant many of them were thirsty. 'Overnight, the Symposion and I sent many messages to one another. We are moving forward, dear ones. There is definite progress.' He beamed at us all. I should hope there was progress – there was only today and tomorrow left and, given how much time Aro had spent talking yesterday, no firm plans to take over the world's governments would ever be made. 'We have agreed, then, to unite as one. To challenge the humans' dominance over the natural world and care for our planet. To give them better lives while we live freely, in the free air, in the light. With harmony for all.' For a moment, Aro looked saintly. 'But there is one little matter I think must be addressed,' he said to Gregorius. 'Witches.'

There was a stirring throughout the hall, and every vampire's face was suddenly alert. I kept my own face smooth. I didn't want to suddenly flinch and reveal myself in front of all these potential enemies.

'Yes, witches.' Aro strolled around the dais, and sighed. 'One who is mortal and a witch – yes. One who is immortal and a vampire – yes. But one who is a witch and a vampire? I say 'no'.' He paused, looking everywhere but at me. I seethed silently. What on earth was he planning? 'The risk of a vampire-witch hybrid is too great, too terrible to ignore,' Aro said quietly, clasping his hands behind his back. 'They combine two great powers – and end up with too great power. I move, then, that we make, as one of our aims, the commitment to remove the scourge of vampire-witch hybrids from the earth.'

'Nonsense,' said Theodore tetchily. 'I know plenty of hybrids. They work for us. They work with us. Where's the harm?'

'Where is the harm, you say?' Aro pounced. He pointed his finger at Theodore. 'Why, in Seattle at this very moment, a vampire-witch hybrid has created a hundred followers! A hundred followers who seek to overturn Volterra! A hundred followers who seek not only to overthrow Volterra, but rewrite history.' He paused to let his words sink in. Theodore looked like he'd eaten something indigestible. 'In fact, only a few days ago, several witches did rewrite history. And the one who helped them to do so is in this very room, standing amongst us.' Shock rippled through the crowd, and vampires turned from left to right, back to front, peering into the faces of those around them. 'She created this vampire-witch hybrid. Oh, they say her intentions were good.' Aro's tone was heavy with sarcasm. 'But intent matters not at all when the hybrid plans to return to the year of my and my brothers' Change and remove us from the face of the earth, to take power and subjugate the Symposion – oh, yes, this is her own intent – under her will. Does it, Theodore?'

'You got the witch?' Theodore demanded truculently.

'I have the witnesses,' Aro breathed. 'And they will lead us to our villain. The one who is carelessly bestowing immortality on the unworthy. But we must go up into the light, my dear ones. My two witnesses have just undergone the Change themselves – and again, this witch is responsible for this Change. These little hybrid changelings are afraid of the dark. Just imagine, my dear friends. Over a hundred hybrids, now, in a single city, poised to create a mighty army and unleash a wave of destruction that we could never imagine. -And we cannot imagine it,' he added, wagging his finger, 'because these hybrids would ensure that none of us – not a single person standing in this room – was ever born. If this coven gains power, none of us will exist. The vampire world will come to an end.'

There was uproar. I stood in front of Edward, and he wrapped his arms around my waist. I could feel the desperation in his embrace. This was what Aro had been building up to all along. This is what he had been planning.

Revenge on me.

I hadn't realised just how badly his defeat in the clearing, due to the power of my shield, had affected him. He had spent the past seven years working out how to destroy me, while I was going on with my mundane little life in my mundane little world. I had exposed his weakness in front of his brothers, his guard, his witnesses and his wife – the only people who mattered to him. He planned to return the favour.