I took an unsteady step toward him, and he leaned away from my advance.
"What's wrong?" I whispered. "What do you mean?"
"Are you . . ." His golden eyes were suddenly as confused as I felt. "Aren't you afraid of me?"
"Afraid of you? Why?"
I staggered forward another step, and then tripped over something - my own feet probably. Edward caught me, and I buried my face in his chest and started to sob.
"Bella, Bella, I'm so sorry. It's over, it's over."
"I'm fine," I gasped. "I'm okay. I'm just. Freaking out. Give me. A minute."
His arms tightened around me. "I'm so sorry," he murmured again and again.
I clung to him until I could breathe, and then I was kissing him - his chest, his shoulder, his neck - every part of him that I could reach. Slowly, my brain started to work again.
"Are you okay?" I demanded between kisses. "Did she hurt you at all?"
"I am absolutely fine," he promised, burying his face in my hair.
"Seth?"
Edward chuckled. "More than fine. Very pleased with himself, in fact."
"The others? Alice, Esme? The wolves?
"All fine. It's over there, too. It went just as smoothly as I promised. We got the worst of it here."
I let myself absorb that for a moment, let it sink in and settle in my head.
My family and my friends were safe. Victoria was never coming after me again. It was over.
We were all going to be fine.
But I couldn't completely take in the good news while I was still so confused.
"Tell me why," I insisted. "Why did you think I would be afraid of you?"
"I'm sorry," he said, apologizing yet again - for what? I had no idea. "So sorry. I didn't want you to see that. See me like that. I know I must have terrified you."
I had to think about that for another minute, about the hesitant way he'd approached me, his hands in the air. Like I was going to run if he moved too fast. . . .
"Seriously?" I finally asked. "You . . . what? Thought you'd scared me off?" I snorted. Snorting was good; a voice couldn't tremble or break during a snort. It sounded impressively offhand.
He put his hand under my chin and tilted my head back to read my face.
"Bella, I just" - he hesitated and then forced the words out - "I just beheaded and dismembered a sentient creature not twenty yards from you. That doesn't bother you?"
He frowned at me.
I shrugged. Shrugging was good, too. Very blasé. "Not really. I was only afraid that you and Seth were going to get hurt. I wanted to help, but there's only so much I can do. . . ."
His suddenly livid expression made my voice fade out.
"Yes," he said, his tone clipped. "Your little stunt with the rock. You know that you nearly gave me a heart attack? Not the easiest thing to do, that."
His furious glower made it hard to answer.
"I wanted to help . . . Seth was hurt. . . ."
"Seth was only feigning that he was hurt, Bella. It was a trick. And then you . . . !" He shook his head, unable to finish. "Seth couldn't see what you were doing, so I had to step in. Seth's a bit disgruntled that he can't claim a single-handed defeat now."
"Seth was . . . faking?"
Edward nodded sternly.
"Oh."
We both looked at Seth, who was studiously ignoring us, watching the flames. Smugness radiated from every hair in his fur.
"Well, I didn't know that," I said, on the offense now. "And it's not easy being the only helpless person around. Just you wait till I'm a vampire! I'm not going to be sitting on the sidelines next time."
A dozen emotions flitted across his face before he settled on being amused. "Next time? Did you anticipate another war soon?"
"With my luck? Who knows?"
He rolled his eyes, but I could see that he was flying - the relief was making us both lightheaded. It was over.
Or . . . was it?
"Hold on. Didn't you say something before - ?" I flinched, remembering what exactly it had been before - what was I going to say to Jacob? My splintered heart throbbed out a painful, aching beat. It was hard to believe, almost impossible, but the hardest part of this day was not behind me - and then I soldiered on. "About a complication? And Alice, needing to nail down the schedule for Sam. You said it was going to be close. What was going to be close?"
Edward's eyes flickered back to Seth, and they exchanged a loaded glance.
"Well?" I asked.
"It's nothing, really," Edward said quickly. "But we do need to be on our way. . . ."
He started to pull me into place on his back, but I stiffened and drew away.
"Define nothing."
Edward took my face between his palms. "We only have a minute, so don't panic, all right? I told you that you had no reason to be afraid. Trust me on that, please?"
I nodded, trying to hide the sudden terror - how much more could I handle before I collapsed? "No reason to be afraid. Got it."
He pursed his lips for a second, deciding what to say. And then he glanced abruptly at Seth, as if the wolf had called him.
"What's she doing?" Edward asked.
Seth whined; it was an anxious, uneasy sound. It made the hair on the back of my neck rise.
Everything was dead silent for one endless second.
And then Edward gasped, "No!" and one of his hands flew out as if to grab something that I couldn't see. "Don't -!"
A spasm rocked through Seth's body, and a howl, blistering with agony, ripped from his lungs.
Edward fell to his knees at the exact same moment, gripping the sides of his head with two hands, his face furrowed in pain.