WITCHCRAFT

CHAPTER 24

Bella had not in fact fallen down the stairs. But that was the stories any and all humans around her had been told. What Carlisle had admitted to Lucy was that Bella had been attacked and tossed around by the tracker before they had managed to find her. Edward had sucked venom out of Bella's wrist where the tracker had bitten her while Emmett and Jasper had killed the attacker behind them.

Bella now had her wrist in a bandage and her leg in a boot cast that still had not come off by summer. So she went to prom with the boot on as well. But Edward had picked her up and Charlie was happy to see Bella happy. Angela went to prom with Eric and Lucy went to prom with Carlisle, as co-chaperones.

Carlisle wore a nice suit without a tie or bowtie, to not look like he was actually enjoying the party and Lucy wore a nicer jumpsuit with an oversized blazer over top to dress it down, along with chunky heels. As they watched the students dance and enjoy their time the couple got to talk, have a laugh and try the punch, only to make sure it hadn't been spiked of course.

"I'm worried about Bella", Lucy told her boyfriend when they looked outside and saw Bella and Edward dance out in the lit up schoolyard.

"Aren't you in a very similar situation?", Carlisle looked down at her, his hand on her back.

"Bella seems very excited to become like you", she turned away from the view to look at him, "Yet, if I understand Rose correctly she's Edward's blood singer. Can you promise me she's safe with him?"

"No", he said almost immediately, honestly, "I can't ever promise you that a human would be safe with somebody of our kind."

Lucy pressed a breath through her nose, turning to look back at the other students, slow-dancing with their respective partners, "Why is nothing ever just simple?"

They wasted the night away dancing, joined the clean up with the student council and Carlisle drove Angela and Lucy home afterwards. It was shortly after midnight when they arrived. Lucy and Carlisle shared a short kiss that reminded of a couple that had left their honeymoon phase.

It made them all sad. However, nobody mentioned it. Angela and Lucy engaged in some self care after going inside to take off their makeup, wash off hairspray and exhaustion, and chat on the couch about the highlights of the night.

Eric had kissed Angela and they were officially a couple now which made Lucy happy. Angela talked far more than Lucy did as they sat there with teas and their face masks on, a romcom playing in the background. They went to bed around three in the morning, planning to sleep in.

"Lucille, may I ask you something?", Genevieve sat down next to her sister where the older one was working on some scrolls.

"Anytime, Gen", she smiled, putting her quill down to look at the girl.

"Why did you argue to Mari that Carlisle might be your soulmate?"

Lucille's smile fell, knowing exactly what Gen was referring to but she shook her head and plastered the smile back on, "Because he could be."

"No. Your soulmate died in the arena. Didn't he?"

Her vision became blurry as tears built in her eyes. She looked down and let them fall, "I want to believe that we get second chances. Otherwise immortality is anything but fair."

"I don't know", Gen still carried the childlike innocence even though she was over two thousand years old and had finally started aging into teenage hood, "I think you're making things up out of sadness."

Lucy woke up on a damp pillow. She had cried in her sleep. Cried for a man she had made up in her dreams. Instead of thinking of the one she had in real life.

Angela spent most of the summer with her friends and Eric. Bella spent it with Edward. Lucy spent it with Charlie, Carlisle and mostly Esme and Rosalie. She went back to her summer routine of a morning run, ending with breakfast from the cafe with Charlie and Angela.

Then, after Angela left, she would take care of chores, paint, read, garden or spend time with anyone aforementioned. It was a boring summer but a relaxing one. She wondered almost daily if it was bad she spent her time like this instead of getting things off of her bucket list now that death was dooming over her, less than a year away.

But this distracted her. Going by a normal routine, pretending everything was fine.

"I'm sorry I shut you up", she whispered into the wind, sitting under their tree, "I wish I had listened now."

She looked up at the crown of the tree, seeing the leaves sway in the wind and listening to their rustling. She imagined he was answering.

"I'm alive", her tears rolled down her cheeks, "You were wrong, Carus, I'm sorry. I wish you had been right. How will I go on without you, forever?"

The leaves rustled and she smiled through her tears, feeling the embrace of the wind as if it were his arms.

"I still believe in humans. You've given me a bout of faith in them", she pressed her lips together, "If you're one of them they can't be too bad, can they. I'll help them. I'll go on helping them, for you, Amor. I wish I had anything else left of you."

He had planned to give her a ring in marriage, the day after that last fight. It made her sob again. Now she had nothing left of him.

"Don't", the giant was stopped by a hand on his shoulder as he was going to go to her, "You cannot control yourself yet. You'll kill her."

"I-", his voice sounded different, it still shocked him, "If anything's going to help my control wouldn't it be her?"

"You can't know she's your mate", the vampire rolled his eyes, "You cannot trust a witch."

He wished he could cry in this moment, watching the love of his life break down over the end of it. Why couldn't the love of his life be the love of his afterlife?