Breaking Dawn

      “What was it?” Jacob asked.
      I blinked quickly several times. “Um. Me. I think. But I looked terrible.”
      “It was the only memory she had of you,” Edward explained. It was obvious he’d seen what she was showingme as she thought of it. He was still cringing, his voice rough from reliving the memory. “She’s letting you know that she’s made the connection, that she knows who you are.”
      “But howdid she do that?”
      Renesmee seemed unconcerned with my boggling eyes. She was smiling slightly and pulling on a lock of my hair.
      “How do I hear thoughts? How does Alice see the future?” Edward asked rhetorically, and then shrugged. “She’s gifted.”
      “It’s an interesting twist,” Carlisle said to Edward. “Like she’s doing the exact opposite of what you can.”
      “Interesting,” Edward agreed. “I wonder. . . .”
      I knew they were speculating away, but I didn’t care. I was staring at the most beautiful face in the world. She was hot in my arms, reminding me of the moment when the blackness had almost won, when there was nothing in the world left to hold on to. Nothing strong enough to pull me through the crushing darkness. The moment when I’d thought of Renesmee and found something I would never let go of.
      “I remember you, too,” I told her quietly.
      It seemed very natural to lean in and press my lips to her forehead. She smelled wonderful. The scent of her skin set my throat burning, but it was easy to ignore. It didn’t strip the joy from the moment. Renesmee was real and I knew her. She was the same one I’d fought for from the beginning. My little nudger, the one who loved me from the inside, too. Half Edward, perfect and lovely. And half me—which, surprisingly, made her better rather than detracting.
      I’d been right all along. She was worth the fight.
      “She’s fine,” Alice murmured, probably to Jasper. I could feel them hovering, not trusting me.
      “Haven’t we experimented enough for one day?” Jacob asked, his voice a slightly higher pitch with stress. “Okay, Bella’s doing great, but let’s not push it.”
      I glared at him with real irritation. Jasper shuffled uneasily next to me. We were all crowded so close that every tiny movement seemed very big.
      “What is your problem, Jacob?” I demanded. I tugged lightly against his hold on Renesmee, and he just stepped closer to me. He was pressed right up to me, Renesmee touching both of our chests.
      Edward hissed at him. “Just because I understand, it doesn’t mean I won’t throw you out, Jacob. Bella’s doing extraordinarily well. Don’t ruin the moment for her.”
      “I’ll help him toss you, dog,” Rosalie promised, her voice seething. “I owe you a good kick in the gut.” Obviously, there was no change in thatrelationship, unless it had gotten worse.
      I glared at Jacob’s anxious half-angry expression. His eyes were locked on Renesmee’s face. With everyone pressed together, he had to be touching at least six different vampires at the moment, and it didn’t even seem to bug him.
      Would he really go through all this just to protect me from myself? What could have happened during my transformation—my alteration into something he hated—that would soften him so much toward the reason for its necessity?
      I puzzled over it, watching him stare at my daughter. Staring at her like… like he was a blind man seeing the sun for the very first time.
       “No!”I gasped.
      Jasper’s teeth came together and Edward’s arms wrapped around my chest like constricting boas. Jacob had Renesmee out of my arms in the same second, and I did not try to hold on to her. Because I felt it coming—the snap that they’d all been waiting for.
      “Rose,” I said through my teeth, very slowly and precisely. “Take Renesmee.”
      Rosalie held her hands out, and Jacob handed my daughter to her at once. Both of them backed away from me.
      “Edward, I don’t want to hurt you, so please let go of me.”
      He hesitated.
      “Go stand in front of Renesmee,” I suggested.
      He deliberated, and then let me go.
      I leaned into my hunting crouch and took two slow steps forward toward Jacob.
      “You didn’t,” I snarled at him.
      He backed away, palms up, trying to reason with me. “You know it’s not something I can control.”
      “You stupid mutt! How couldyou? My baby!”
      He backed out the front door now as I stalked him, half-running backward down the stairs. “It wasn’t my idea, Bella!”
      “I’ve held her all of onetime, and already you think you have some moronic wolfy claim to her? She’s mine.”
      “I can share,” he said pleadingly as he retreated across the lawn.
      “Pay up,” I heard Emmett say behind me. A small part of my brain wondered who had bet against this outcome. I didn’t waste much attention on it. I was too furious.
      “How dare you imprinton mybaby? Have you lost your mind?”
      “It was involuntary!” he insisted, backing into the trees.
      Then he wasn’t alone. The two huge wolves reappeared, flanking him on either side. Leah snapped at me.
      A fearsome snarl ripped through my teeth back at her. The sound disturbed me, but not enough to stop my advance.
      “Bella, would you try to listen for just a second? Please?” Jacob begged. “Leah, back off,” he added.
      Leah curled her lip at me and didn’t move.
      “Why should I listen?” I hissed. Fury reigned in my head. It clouded everything else out.
      “Because you’re the one who told me this. Do you remember? You said we belonged in each other’s lives, right? That we were family. You said that was how you and I were supposed to be. So… now we are. It’s what you wanted.”
      I glared ferociously. I did dimly remember those words. But my new quick brain was two steps ahead of his nonsense.
      “You think you’ll be part of my family as my son-in-law!” I screeched. My bell voice ripped through two octaves and still came out sounding like music.
      Emmett laughed.
      “Stop her, Edward,” Esme murmured. “She’ll be unhappy if she hurts him.”
      But I felt no pursuit behind me.
      “No!” Jacob was insisting at the same time. “How can you even look at it that way? She’s just a baby, for crying out loud!”
      “That’s my point!” I yelled.
      “You know I don’t think of her that way! Do you think Edward would have let me live this long if I did? All I want is for her to be safe and happy—is that so bad? So different from what you want?” He was shouting right back at me.
      Beyond words, I shrieked a growl at him.
      “Amazing, isn’t she?” I heard Edward murmur.
      “She hasn’t gone for his throat even once,” Carlisle agreed, sounding stunned.
      “Fine, you win this one,” Emmett said grudgingly.
      “You’re going to stay away from her,” I hissed up at Jacob.
      “I can’t do that!”
      Through my teeth: “ Try. Starting now.”
      “It’s not possible. Do you remember how much you wanted me around three days ago? How hard it was to be apart from each other? That’s gone for you now, isn’t it?”
      I glared, not sure what he was implying.
      “That was her,” he told me. “From the very beginning. We had to be together, even then.”
      I remembered, and then I understood; a tiny part of me was relieved to have the madness explained. But that relief somehow only made me angrier. Was he expecting that to be enough for me? That one little clarification would make me okay with this?
      “Run away while you still can,” I threatened.
      “C’mon, Bells! Nessie likes me, too,” he insisted.
      I froze. My breathing stopped. Behind me, I heard the lack of sound that was their anxious reaction.
      “ What… did you call her?”
      Jacob took a step farther back, managing to look sheepish. “Well,” he mumbled, “that name you came up with is kind of a mouthful and—”
      “You nicknamed my daughter after the Loch Ness Monster?” I screeched.
      And then I lunged for his throat.

23 MEMORIES

      “I’m so sorry, Seth. I should have been closer.”
      Edward was stillapologizing, and I didn’t think that was either fair or appropriate. After all, Edwardhadn’t completely and inexcusably lost control of his temper. Edwardhadn’t tried to rip Jacob’s head off—Jacob, who wouldn’t even phase to protect himself—and then accidentally broken Seth’s shoulder and collarbone when he jumped in between. Edwardhadn’t almost killed his best friend.
      Not that the best friend didn’t have a few things to answer for, but, obviously, nothing Jacob had done could have mitigated my behavior.
      So shouldn’t Ihave been the one apologizing? I tried again.
      “Seth, I—”
      “Don’t worry about it, Bella, I’m totally fine,” Seth said at the same time that Edward said, “Bella, love, no one is judging you. You’re doing so well.”
      They hadn’t let me finish a sentence yet.
      It only made it worse that Edward was having a difficult time keeping the smile off his face. I knew that Jacob didn’t deserve my overreaction, but Edward seemed to find something satisfying in it. Maybe he was just wishing that he had the excuse of being a newborn so that he could do something physical about his irritation with Jacob, too.
      I tried to erase the anger from my system entirely, but it was hard, knowing that Jacob was outside with Renesmee right now. Keeping her safe from me, the crazed newborn.
      Carlisle secured another piece of the brace to Seth’s arm, and Seth winced.
      “Sorry, sorry!” I mumbled, knowing I’d never get a fully articulated apology out.
      “Don’t freak, Bella,” Seth said, patting my knee with his good hand while Edward rubbed my arm from the other side.
      Seth seemed to feel no aversion to having me sit beside him on the sofa as Carlisle treated him. “I’ll be back to normal in half an hour,” he continued, still patting my knee as if oblivious to the cold, hard texture of it. “Anyone would have done the same, what with Jake and Ness—” He broke off mid-word and changed the subject quickly. “I mean, at least you didn’t bite me or anything. That would’ve sucked.”
      I buried my face in my hands and shuddered at the thought, at the very real possibility. It could have happened so easily. And werewolves didn’t react to vampire venom the same way humans did, they’d told me only now. It was poison to them.
      “I’m a bad person.”
      “Of course you aren’t. I should have—,” Edward started.
      “Stop that,” I sighed. I didn’t want him taking the blame for this the way he always took everything on himself.
      “Lucky thing Ness—Renesmee’s not venomous,” Seth said after a second of awkward silence. “’Cause she bites Jake all the time.”
      My hands dropped. “She does?”
      “Sure. Whenever he and Rose don’t get dinner in her mouth fast enough. Rose thinks it’s pretty hilarious.”
      I stared at him, shocked, and also feeling guilty, because I had to admit that this pleased me a teensy bit in a petulant way.
      Of course, I already knew that Renesmee wasn’t venomous. I was the first person she’d bitten. I didn’t make this observation aloud, as I was feigning memory loss on those recent events.
      “Well, Seth,” Carlisle said, straightening up and stepping away from us. “I think that’s as much as I can do. Try to not move for, oh, a few hours, I guess.” Carlisle chuckled. “I wish treating humans were this instantaneously gratifying.” He rested his hand for a moment on Seth’s black hair. “Stay still,” he ordered, and then he disappeared upstairs. I heard his office door close, and I wondered if they’d already removed the evidence of my time there.
      “I can probably manage sitting still for a while,” Seth agreed after Carlisle was already gone, and then he yawned hugely. Carefully, making sure not to tweak his shoulder, Seth leaned his head against the sofa’s back and closed his eyes. Seconds later, his mouth fell slack.
      I frowned at his peaceful face for another minute. Like Jacob, Seth seemed to have the gift of falling asleep at will. Knowing I wouldn’t be able to apologize again for a while, I got up; the motion didn’t jostle the couch in the slightest. Everything physical was so easy. But the rest…
      Edward followed me to the back windows and took my hand.
      Leah was pacing along the river, stopping every now and then to look at the house. It was easy to tell when she was looking for her brother and when she was looking for me. She alternated between anxious glances and murderous glares.
      I could hear Jacob and Rosalie outside on the front steps bickering quietly over whose turn it was to feed Renesmee. Their relationship was as antagonistic as ever; the only thing they agreed on now was that I should be kept away from my baby until I was one hundred percent recovered from my temper tantrum. Edward had disputed their verdict, but I’d let it go. I wanted to be sure, too. I was worried, though, that myone hundred percent sure and theirone hundred percent sure might be very different things.
      Other than their squabbling, Seth’s slow breathing, and Leah’s annoyed panting, it was very quiet. Emmett, Alice, and Esme were hunting. Jasper had stayed behind to watch me. He stood unobtrusively behind the newel post now, trying not to be obnoxious about it.
      I took advantage of the calm to think of all the things Edward and Seth had told me while Carlisle splinted Seth’s arm. I’d missed a whole lot while I was burning, and this was the first real chance to catch up.
      The main thing was the end of the feud with Sam’s pack—which was why the others felt safe to come and go as they pleased again. The truce was stronger than ever. Or more binding, depending on your viewpoint, I imagined.
      Binding, because the most absolute of all the pack’s laws was that no wolf ever kill the object of another wolf’s imprinting. The pain of such a thing would be intolerable for the whole pack. The fault, whether intended or accidental, could not be forgiven; the wolves involved would fight to the death—there was no other option. It had happened long ago, Seth told me, but only accidentally. No wolf would ever intentionally destroy a brother that way.
      So Renesmee was untouchable because of the way Jacob now felt about her. I tried to concentrate on the relief of this fact rather than the chagrin, but it wasn’t easy. My mind had enough room to feel both emotions intensely at the same time.
      And Sam couldn’t get mad about my transformation, either, because Jacob—speaking as the rightful Alpha—had allowed it. It rankled to realize over and over again how much I owed Jacob when I just wanted to be mad at him.
      I deliberately redirected my thoughts in order to control my emotions. I considered another interesting phenomenon; though the silence between the separate packs continued, Jacob and Sam had discovered that Alphas could speak to each other while in their wolf form. It wasn’t the same as before; they couldn’t hear every thought the way they had prior to the split. It was more like speaking aloud, Seth had said. Sam could only hear the thoughts Jacob wanted to share, and vice versa. They found they could communicate over distance, too, now that they were talking to each other again.
      They hadn’t found all this out until Jacob had gone alone—over Seth’s and Leah’s objections—to explain to Sam about Renesmee; it was the only time he’d left Renesmee since first laying eyes on her.
      Once Sam had understood how absolutely everything had changed, he’d come back with Jacob to talk to Carlisle. They’d spoken in human form (Edward had refused to leave my side to translate), and the treaty had been renewed. The friendly feeling of the relationship, however, might never be the same.
      One big worry down.
      But there was another that, though not as physically dangerous as an angry wolf pack, still seemed more urgent to me.
      Charlie.
      He’d spoken to Esme earlier this morning, but that hadn’t kept him from calling again, twice, just a few minutes ago while Carlisle treated Seth. Carlisle and Edward had let the phone ring.
      What would be the right thing to tell him? Were the Cullens right? Was telling him that I’d died the best, the kindest way? Would I be able to lie still in a coffin while he and my mother cried over me?
      It didn’t seem right to me. But putting Charlie or Renйe in danger of the Volturi’s obsession with secrecy was clearly out of the question.
      There was still my idea—let Charlie see me, when I was ready for that, and let him make his own wrong assumptions. Technically, the vampire rules would remain unbroken. Wouldn’t it be better for Charlie if he knew that I was alive—sort of—and happy? Even if I was strange and different and probably frightening to him?
      My eyes, in particular, were much too frightening right now. How long before my self-control and my eye color were ready for Charlie?
      “What’s the matter, Bella?” Jasper asked quietly, reading my growing tension. “No one is angry with you”—a low snarl from the riverside contradicted him, but he ignored it—“or even surprised, really. Well, I suppose we aresurprised. Surprised that you were able to snap out of it so quickly. You did well. Better than anyone expects of you.”
      While he was speaking, the room became very calm. Seth’s breathing slipped into a low snore. I felt more peaceful, but I didn’t forget my anxieties.
      “I was thinking about Charlie, actually.”
      Out front, the bickering cut off.
      “Ah,” Jasper murmured.
      “We really have to leave, don’t we?” I asked. “For a while, at the very least. Pretend we’re in Atlanta or something.”
      I could feel Edward’s gaze locked on my face, but I looked at Jasper. He was the one who answered me in a grave tone.
      “Yes. It’s the only way to protect your father.”
      I brooded for a moment. “I’m going to miss him so much. I’ll miss everyone here.”
       Jacob,I thought, despite myself. Though that yearning was both vanished and defined—and I was vastly relieved that it was—he was still my friend. Someone who knew the real me and accepted her. Even as a monster.
      I thought about what Jacob had said, pleading with me before I’d attacked him. You said we belonged in each other’s lives, right? That we were family. You said that was how you and I were supposed to be. So… now we are. It’s what you wanted.
      But it didn’t feel like how I’d wanted it. Not exactly. I remembered further back, to the fuzzy, weak memories of my human life. Back to the very hardest part to remember—the time without Edward, a time so dark I’d tried to bury it in my head. I couldn’t get the words exactly right; I only remembered wishing that Jacob were my brother so that we could love each other without any confusion or pain. Family. But I’d never factored a daughter into the equation.
      I remembered a little later—one of the many times that I’d told Jacob goodbye—wondering aloud who he would end up with, who would make his life right after what I’d done to it. I had said something about how whoever she was, she wouldn’t be good enough for him.
      I snorted, and Edward raised one eyebrow questioningly. I just shook my head at him.
      But as much as I might miss my friend, I knew there was a bigger problem. Had Sam or Jared or Quil ever gone a whole day without seeing the objects of their fixations, Emily, Kim, and Claire? Couldthey? What would the separation from Renesmee do to Jacob? Would it cause him pain?
      There was still enough petty ire in my system to make me glad, not for his pain, but for the idea of having Renesmee away from him. How was I supposed to deal with having her belong to Jacob when she only barely seemed to belong to me?
      The sound of movement on the front porch interrupted my thoughts. I heard them get up, and then they were through the door. At exactly the same time, Carlisle came down the stairs with his hands full of odd things—a measuring tape, a scale. Jasper darted to my side. As if there was some signal I’d missed, even Leah sat down outside and stared through the window with an expression like she was expecting something that was both familiar and also totally uninteresting.
      “Must be six,” Edward said.
      “So?” I asked, my eyes locked on Rosalie, Jacob, and Renesmee. They stood in the doorway, Renesmee in Rosalie’s arms. Rose looked wary. Jacob looked troubled. Renesmee looked beautiful and impatient.
      “Time to measure Ness—er, Renesmee,” Carlisle explained.
      “Oh. You do this every day?”
      “Four times a day,” Carlisle corrected absently as he motioned the others toward the couch. I thought I saw Renesmee sigh.
      “Four times? Every day? Why?”
      “She’s still growing quickly,” Edward murmured to me, his voice quiet and strained. He squeezed my hand, and his other arm wrapped securely around my waist, almost as if he needed the support.
      I couldn’t take my eyes off Renesmee to check his expression.
      She looked perfect, absolutely healthy. Her skin glowed like backlit alabaster; the color in her cheeks was rose petals against it. There couldn’t be anything wrong with such radiant beauty. Surely there could be nothing more dangerous in her life than her mother. Could there?
      The difference between the child I’d given birth to and the one I’d met again an hour ago would have been obvious to anyone. The difference between Renesmee an hour ago and Renesmee now was subtler. Human eyes never would have detected it. But it was there.
      Her body was slightly longer. Just a little bit slimmer. Her face wasn’t quite as round; it was more oval by one minute degree. Her ringlets hung a sixteenth of an inch lower down her shoulders. She stretched out helpfully in Rosalie’s arms while Carlisle ran the tape measure down the length of her and then used it to circle her head. He took no notes; perfect recall.
      I was aware that Jacob’s arms were crossed as tightly over his chest as Edward’s arms were locked around me. His heavy brows were mashed together into one line over his deep-set eyes.
      She had matured from a single cell to a normal-sized baby in the course of a few weeks. She looked well on her way to being a toddler just days after her birth. If this rate of growth held…
      My vampire mind had no trouble with the math.
      “What do we do?” I whispered, horrified.
      Edward’s arms tightened. He understood exactly what I was asking. “I don’t know.”
      “It’s slowing,” Jacob muttered through his teeth.
      “We’ll need several more days of measurements to track the trend, Jacob. I can’t make any promises.”
      “Yesterday she grew two inches. Today it’s less.”
      “By a thirty-second of an inch, if my measurements are perfect,” Carlisle said quietly.
      “ Beperfect, Doc,” Jacob said, making the words almost threatening. Rosalie stiffened.
      “You know I’ll do my best,” Carlisle assured him.
      Jacob sighed. “Guess that’s all I can ask.”
      I felt irritated again, like Jacob was stealing my lines—and delivering them all wrong.
      Renesmee seemed irritated, too. She started to squirm and then reached her hand imperiously toward Rosalie. Rosalie leaned forward so that Renesmee could touch her face. After a second, Rose sighed.
      “What does she want?” Jacob demanded, taking my line again.
      “Bella, of course,” Rosalie told him, and her words made my insides feel a little warmer. Then she looked at me. “How are you?”
      “Worried,” I admitted, and Edward squeezed me.
      “We all are. But that’s not what I meant.”
      “I’m in control,” I promised. Thirstiness was way down the list right now. Besides, Renesmee smelled good in a very non-food way.
      Jacob bit his lip but made no move to stop Rosalie as she offered Renesmee to me. Jasper and Edward hovered but allowed it. I could see how tense Rose was, and I wondered how the room felt to Jasper right now. Or was he focusing so hard on me that he couldn’t feel the others?
      Renesmee reached for me as I reached for her, a blinding smile lighting her face. She fit so easily in my arms, like they’d been shaped just for her. Immediately, she put her hot little hand against my cheek.
      Though I was prepared, it still made me gasp to see the memory like a vision in my head. So bright and colorful but also completely transparent.
      She was remembering me charging Jacob across the front lawn, remembering Seth leaping between us. She’d seen and heard it all with perfect clarity. It didn’t look like me, this graceful predator leaping at her prey like an arrow arcing from a bow. It had to be someone else. That made me feel a very small bit less guilty as Jacob stood there defenselessly with his hands raised in front of him. His hands did not tremble.
      Edward chuckled, watching Renesmee’s thoughts with me. And then we both winced as we heard the crack of Seth’s bones.
      Renesmee smiled her brilliant smile, and her memory eyes did not leave Jacob through all the following mess. I tasted a new flavor to the memory—not exactly protective, more possessive—as she watched Jacob. I got the distinct impression that she was gladSeth had put himself in front of my spring. She didn’t want Jacob hurt. He was hers.
      “Oh, wonderful,” I groaned. “Perfect.”
      “It’s just because he tastes better than the rest of us,” Edward assured me, voice stiff with his own annoyance.
      “I told you she likes me, too,” Jacob teased from across the room, his eyes on Renesmee. His joking was halfhearted; the tense angle of his eyebrows had not relaxed.
      Renesmee patted my face impatiently, demanding my attention. Another memory: Rosalie pulling a brush gently through each of her curls. It felt nice.
      Carlisle and his tape measure, knowing she had to stretch and be still. It was not interesting to her.
      “It looks like she’s going to give you a rundown of everything you missed,” Edward commented in my ear.
      My nose wrinkled as she dumped the next one on me. The smell coming from a strange metal cup—hard enough not to be bitten through easily—sent a flash burn through my throat. Ouch.
      And then Renesmee was out of my arms, which were pinned behind my back. I didn’t struggle with Jasper; I just looked at Edward’s frightened face.
      “What did I do?”
      Edward looked at Jasper behind me, and then at me again.
      “But she was remembering being thirsty,” Edward muttered, his forehead pressing into lines. “She was remembering the taste of human blood.”
      Jasper’s arms pulled mine tighter together. Part of my head noted that this wasn’t particularly uncomfortable, let alone painful, as it would have been to a human. It was just annoying. I was sure I could break his hold, but I didn’t fight it.
      “Yes,” I agreed. “And?”
      Edward frowned at me for a second more, and then his expression loosened. He laughed once. “And nothing at all, it seems. The overreaction is mine this time. Jazz, let her go.”
      The binding hands disappeared. I reached out for Renesmee as soon as I was free. Edward handed her to me without hesitation.
      “I can’t understand,” Jasper said. “I can’t bear this.”
      I watched in surprise as Jasper strode out the back door. Leah moved to give him a wide margin of space as he paced to the river and then launched himself over it in one bound.
      Renesmee touched my neck, repeating the scene of departure right back, like an instant replay. I could feel the question in her thought, an echo of mine.
      I was already over the shock of her odd little gift. It seemed an entirely natural part of her, almost to be expected. Maybe now that I was part of the supernatural myself, I would never be a skeptic again.
      But what was wrong with Jasper?
      “He’ll be back,” Edward said, whether to me or Renesmee, I wasn’t sure. “He just needs a moment alone to readjust his perspective on life.” There was a grin threatening at the corners of his mouth.
      Another human memory—Edward telling me that Jasper would feel better about himself if I “had a hard time adjusting” to being a vampire. This was in the context of a discussion about how many people I would kill my first newborn year.
      “Is he mad at me?” I asked quietly.
      Edward’s eyes widened. “No. Why would he be?”
      “What’s the matter with him, then?”
      “He’s upset with himself, not you, Bella. He’s worrying about… self-fulfilling prophecy, I suppose you could say.”
      “How so?” Carlisle asked before I could.
      “He’s wondering if the newborn madness is really as difficult as we’ve always thought, or if, with the right focus and attitude, anyone could do as well as Bella. Even now—perhaps he only has such difficulty because he believes it’s natural and unavoidable. Maybe if he expected more of himself, he would rise to those expectations. You’re making him question a lot of deep-rooted assumptions, Bella.”
      “But that’s unfair,” Carlisle said. “Everyone is different; everyone has their own challenges. Perhaps what Bella is doing goes beyond the natural. Maybe this is her gift, so to speak.”
      I froze with surprise. Renesmee felt the change, and touched me. She remembered the last second of time and wondered why.
      “That’s an interesting theory, and quite plausible,” Edward said.
      For a tiny space, I was disappointed. What? No magic visions, no formidable offensive abilities like, oh, shooting lightning bolts from my eyes or something? Nothing helpful or cool at all?
      And then I realized what that might mean, if my “superpower” was no more than exceptional self-control.
      For one thing, at least I had a gift. It could have been nothing.
      But, much more than that, if Edward was right, then I could skip right over the part I’d feared the very most.