"NOW!"
Edward's shout tore across the clearing.
The Cullen side moved first.
They had known the signal was coming.
The Volturi had known violence was possible.
Those were not the same thing.
For several precious seconds, ancient vampires who had survived wars, purges, rebellions, and centuries of bloodshed simply stared at the headless body of Felix collapsing into the snow.
Jasper used every one of those seconds, his power reaching out.
Calm swept through the Cullen fighters.
Fear and uncertainty went the other direction.
The Volturi recovered quickly, but quickly was not quickly enough when wolves were already charging and vampires were already inside their formation.
Benjamin struck first.
The frozen ground buckled beneath three guards and threw them apart.
Kate caught another by the wrist.
Electricity flashed.
The vampire locked rigid.
Garrett hit him from the side and sent him tumbling into two others.
The wolves struck in coordinated pairs, one drawing attention while another came from the blind side.
Then Thomas reached the Volturi line.
There was nothing elegant about what happened next.
A vampire lunged.
Thomas caught him around the chest and tore one arm free before throwing the body into another attacker.
A second came from behind.
Thomas's tail swept his legs out from under him.
One clawed hand closed around his ankle.
Thomas swung him into a third vampire hard enough to crack both bodies.
He kept moving.
Ahead, the vampires who had accompanied the Volturi as witnesses stood where they were in shock at the unfolding battle.
That was where Thomas was going.
Something white rushed into his path.
Thomas reacted without looking.
His arm came around.
The back of his hand connected with a pale face.
Caius vanished.
He crossed thirty feet of snow, struck the ground once, bounced, and disappeared into the trees hard enough to break a trunk.
Thomas spared the impact one glance.
Then continued toward the witnesses.
Caius had simply been in the way.
Two guards attempted to stop him.
Neither remained whole.
Thomas took the first one's leg at the hip, caught the second around the throat, and drove him into the ground hard enough to leave a crater in the frozen earth.
Then he was through.
The Volturi witnesses backed away.
Thomas stopped between them and the battle.
He lowered one claw.
Dragged it through the snow.
Frozen earth split beneath it.
The claw kept moving, carving a deep trench across the ground until a clear line separated the witnesses from the fighting.
Thomas straightened.
"You came here as witnesses to watch my family die."
No one answered.
His sky-blue eyes moved across the group.
"You cross this line, you are no longer a witness but a hostile participant."
He pointed toward the ground.
"Stay behind it, and no one on our side touches you."
One vampire laughed.
"You presume to dictate—"
"No."
Thomas looked directly at him.
"I'm telling you what happens next."
The vampire's expression hardened.
Then he deliberately stepped across the line.
Thomas moved.
The vampire had time to widen his eyes.
Nothing more.
Thomas caught his head in one hand, his shoulder in the other, and pulled.
The head came free.
He threw the body back behind the line.
Then the head.
Neither moved.
Not yet.
Thomas looked across the remaining witnesses.
"The line wasn't decorative and he just got the last bit of my mercy for the day."
No one else crossed.
Thomas nodded once.
Then turned back toward the battle.
The warning had been given.
Anyone else who ignored it had made their choice.
The first fire appeared moments later.
Jasper had torn the head from a Volturi guard and kicked the body away, but both pieces were already beginning to move.
"Benjamin!"
Benjamin understood immediately.
One hand lifted.
Flame erupted from the snow near the eastern side of the clearing.
Then another farther south.
A third near the trees.
A fourth on the opposite side.
Four controlled fires.
Separated.
Contained.
Far enough from one another that a single attack could not extinguish all of them.
Jasper threw the head into the nearest blaze.
The body followed.
Flame raced over pale stone.
The scream ended quickly.
For the first time since the battle began, it wasn't just Felix who wasn't getting back up.
Everyone understood.
Dismemberment stopped an enemy.
Fire ended one.
The Cullen side adjusted almost instantly.
A severed Volturi arm went into the eastern fire.
A head followed.
One of the wolves caught a leg in his jaws and hurled it toward another blaze.
Benjamin fed the flames higher when pieces reached them, then lowered them again.
The fires became markers across the battlefield.
Four places where temporary victories became permanent ones.
And Thomas began feeding them.
Whatever restraint he had shown before the battle was gone.
A Volturi guard came at him from the left.
Thomas caught both wrists.
Pulled.
Both arms came away.
The vampire had barely opened his mouth when Thomas drove one clawed hand through his chest, caught him beneath the ribs, and ripped his torso apart.
Pieces flew toward the nearest fire.
Another guard attacked before the first one landed.
Thomas tore his head free.
A third leapt onto his back.
Thomas reached over one shoulder, caught him by the face, and pulled him over.
The vampire hit the ground.
Thomas planted one foot against his chest.
Pulled one leg free.
Then the other.
He moved on before the pieces stopped sliding.
The witnesses behind the line watched in absolute silence.
None stepped forward.
Demetri watched Thomas but didn't even think about interfering with him.
He had already learned that lesson.
His severed arm lay where it landed after Thomas had hit him in the face with it hard enough to leave a crack on his cheek.
Demetri crawled to it while the chaos of the large battle swallowed everyone's attention.
His remaining hand closed around the limb and pressed it back into place.
Venom immediately began knitting stone-hard flesh together.
The process was not painless.
That did not matter.
Demetri held the arm in position and watched the battle.
Felix would have charged Thomas again.
Demetri watched.
That was why Felix was dead.
By the time he flexed the reattached fingers, the seam at his shoulder had already begun to disappear.
Not perfect yet.
But good enough for now.
He rose.
And disappeared into the fighting.
Bella's shield covered nearly the entire Cullen advance.
Jane discovered that first.
Her red eyes fixed on Jasper.
Nothing happened.
Then Kate.
Nothing.
Edward.
Nothing.
Jane's expression tightened.
Beside her, Alec released his gift.
The strange haze spread across the ground.
Then stopped.
It pressed against something invisible.
Spread sideways.
Climbed.
Could not pass.
Alec increased the pressure.
Bella widened her shield.
The mist expanded.
So did she.
Chelsea tried next, trying to sever the feeling of allegiance between the Cullen clan and their allies.
Nothing.
Three of the Volturi's most dangerous gifts had been reduced to watching the physical battle unfold without them.
Jane looked furious.
Alec looked thoughtful.
Aro continued smiling.
Renata remained beside him.
Eleazar was the first to underestimate her.
He saw an opening.
Aro appeared exposed.
Eleazar charged.
Renata barely moved.
Three feet from her, Eleazar's body snapped sideways.
It wasn't his mind that was affected, his attention didn't suddenly wander. It was his body that was deflected.
All of his forward momentum curved around Renata as though an invisible wall had become a ramp.
Eleazar tried to correct.
He couldn't.
Renata stepped into his redirected path.
Caught his arm.
Pulled.
The limb came free.
Before Eleazar could turn, she struck the back of his knee, forced him down, and kicked him toward a nearby Volturi guard.
She was already beside Aro again before Eleazar stopped sliding.
Tanya saw him fall.
She attacked immediately.
Renata looked toward her.
Tanya's charge bent.
She dug both feet into the snow, trying to force herself back toward Aro.
The invisible pressure simply changed her direction again.
Renata met her as she passed.
One hand caught Tanya beneath the jaw.
The other planted against her chest.
Tanya flew backward.
She hit the frozen ground, rolled twice, and came back to her feet with murder in her eyes.
A broken section of stone came flying toward Aro from elsewhere in the battle.
Renata turned her head.
The stone curved in midair and buried itself harmlessly in the snow.
The small woman beside Aro had not raised her voice.
Had not shown anger.
Had barely moved.
Eleazar was missing an arm.
Tanya had been thrown away.
And Aro had not been touched.
Edward stared.
Bella's shield had covered Eleazar.
It covered Tanya.
Renata's power had affected them anyway.
Whatever her gift was, it wasn't touching their minds.
Edward tried next.
He knew when Renata saw him.
He could hear Aro's thoughts.
Could anticipate the reactions around him.
He changed direction before the invisible force caught him.
For half a second, it worked.
Then Renata adjusted.
Edward's body snapped sideways.
He landed cleanly, rolled once, and came immediately back to his feet.
Renata watched him.
Aro smiled.
The message was obvious.
Try again.
Elsewhere, Seth hit a Volturi guard with enough force to carry both of them across the snow.
The vampire was large.
Seth was enormous.
The difference became obvious when the wolf landed on top of him.
Jennifer arrived before the guard could recover.
She placed both hands around his head and twisted.
The vampire screamed.
Seth's jaws closed around one shoulder.
Together they pulled.
The head came free.
Jennifer glanced toward the nearest fire.
Then threw the head in her hands into it.
Seth understood.
He caught the remaining body and flung it after the head.
Both disappeared into flame.
Another guard charged Jennifer, thinking her distracted.
Seth moved between them.
Jennifer stared at the broad wall of fur.
"Seriously?"
Seth growled.
She stepped around him.
He shifted again.
"Stop trying to hide me."
Another growl.
The approaching vampire swung.
Jennifer ducked.
Seth, distracted by her, took the blow across the shoulder and rolled.
Jennifer's expression hardened.
She hit the vampire before he could follow Seth.
Once.
Twice.
The third blow cracked his jaw.
Seth returned beside her with his ears flattened.
Jennifer looked at him.
"Watch out for yourself before worrying about me."
He huffed.
Then both turned their focus to the stunned vampire.
The Cullen side kept advancing.
Volturi bodies began reaching Benjamin's fires more frequently.
One blaze flared high enough to cast orange light over the snow.
The smell of burning venom and vampire filled the clearing.
Jasper pushed harder.
Alice remained near him, seeing openings before they formed.
Peter and Charlotte moved on his opposite side.
Emmett broke through a pair of guards and threw one directly toward a fire.
Rosalie intercepted another trying to pull him back.
Kate's gift made touching her a gamble.
Garrett seemed to be having the time of his life.
Even the Romanians had stopped smiling.
Not because they were unhappy.
Because Marcus was finally within sight.
Vladimir and Stefan drove toward him with the focused hatred of men who had waited centuries for the opportunity.
The Volturi line bent.
Then bent again.
It was not yet broken.
But it was close.
Caius pulled himself out of the remains of a tree.
A crack ran from his cheek almost to his ear.
Half his cloak hung in strips.
His eyes found Thomas.
Thomas did not spare him a glance.
That was worse than the blow.
Caius had ruled vampires for millennia.
Thomas had removed him from his path without even bothering to see who he struck.
Caius stood.
His gaze moved across the battlefield.
Felix was gone.
Volturi pieces burned in Cullen-created fires.
Jane and Alec were blocked.
Renata remained with Aro.
And beyond the main battle…
the rise.
The children had been moved far from the fighting.
Protected behind the Cullen position.
Away from Thomas.
Away from Jasper.
Away from the strongest concentration of fighters.
Caius stared.
Then smiled.
He caught the nearest guard by the shoulder.
"You. With me."
Another joined.
Then another.
Five vampires followed Caius as he left the main battle.
They did not move toward the rise directly.
Caius took them wide.
Into the trees.
Around the clearing.
The sounds of battle gradually dulled behind them.
They ran for nearly half a minute before the terrain began to rise.
Only then did Caius catch sight of figures through the distant trees.
Carlisle.
Esme.
Leah.
Jacob.
The children.
Other vampires farther behind them.
No Thomas.
No Jasper.
No Bella.
Caius's smile returned.
He increased his pace.
At the center of the clearing, Edward tried Renata again.
Eleazar had failed.
Tanya had failed.
Edward himself had already been thrown aside once.
But now he knew more.
He watched her eyes.
Listened to Aro.
Tracked the almost imperceptible shifts in Renata's stance.
Then moved.
Renata looked toward him.
Edward cut right.
The force reached for him.
He changed direction.
This time it missed.
Renata turned.
Edward came from the opposite side.
Again the invisible pressure tried to catch him.
Again he changed before it fully took hold.
For the first time, Renata took a full step.
Aro's smile thinned.
Edward pressed.
Left.
Right.
Feint.
Turn.
Every time Renata committed, Edward was already somewhere else.
He got closer.
She drove him aside.
He recovered.
Came again.
Closer.
Aro stepped backward.
Edward saw it.
He accelerated.
Renata watched.
Edward feinted left.
Her attention shifted.
He cut right.
His hand came within reach of Aro.
Renata moved at the last possible instant.
Edward expected to be thrown away.
He wasn't.
The force caught him.
Twisted him.
Not away from Aro.
Toward him.
Edward's eyes widened.
Renata had never been limited to keeping attackers away.
She could choose where they went by manipulating her shield.
Aro caught him.
One hand closed around Edward's shoulder.
The other caught the back of his head.
Edward twisted violently.
Aro held him.
The pleasant smile disappeared.
His mouth opened.
His teeth sank into Edward's neck.
Bella saw it and screamed.
"Edward!"
Aro bit deeper.
Then pulled.
The sound of cracking stone cut through the clearing.
Edward's neck tore open.
His head jerked violently sideways as nearly half the stone-hard flesh connecting it to his shoulders separated.
"EDWARD!"
Bella forgot everything else.
For one heartbeat, there was only Aro's teeth in her husband's throat.
Her shield vanished.
Jane felt it immediately.
For the first time since the battle began, there was nothing between her and the people she wanted to hurt.
Her eyes found Kate.
The Denali vampire had one hand around a Volturi guard's throat and the other pressed against his chest.
Jane smiled.
Kate screamed.
Her entire body seized.
Electricity vanished from her hands as she collapsed into the snow.
The Volturi guard she had been holding stumbled backward in surprise.
Then understood.
He lunged.
Two more guards converged with him before Kate finished falling.
One caught her left arm.
Another seized her leg.
The third planted both hands against her shoulders and neck.
They pulled.
Cracks spread through Kate's body.
Garrett heard her scream.
His head snapped around.
He saw Kate on the ground.
Saw the three vampires on top of her.
Saw one of Benjamin's fires burning less than twenty feet away.
Everything else stopped mattering.
He ran.
Jane had already moved on.
Her part was finished.
Vladimir and Stefan were almost there.
Marcus stood ahead of them.
After centuries of waiting, centuries of humiliation and hatred, one of the men responsible for everything they had lost was finally within reach.
Stefan grinned.
Vladimir reached for Marcus.
Neither noticed the pale mist rolling across the snow behind them.
Alec did.
His expression barely changed.
The mist touched Stefan first.
His hand stopped inches from Marcus.
The grin disappeared from his face.
Not because he had changed his mind.
Because there was suddenly nothing.
No sight.
No sound.
No smell.
No touch.
No sense of the frozen earth beneath his feet or the vampire standing directly in front of him.
Vladimir took one more step.
Then the mist reached him too.
He stopped.
The two Romanians stood motionless only feet from the man they had crossed centuries to kill.
Marcus looked at them.
For the first time during the battle, something resembling interest touched his face.
"I know you… You once threatened to dismember my dear Didyme." Rage crossed his features. "Were you responsible for her death?"
Marcus stepped forward.
The Romanian never knew what happened.
Marcus caught his wrist.
Then his shoulder.
And pulled.
Stefan's arm came free.
Vladimir reacted to nothing.
Could react to nothing.
Two Volturi guards rushed forward.
One hit Vladimir from the side.
Another caught him from behind.
The Romanians had been predators for longer than nearly everyone on the field had been alive.
Without their senses, they were statues that happened to move.
Marcus caught Stefan again.
Stone cracked.
And they were thrown into the fires nearby, not even aware that they would never get their long-sought revenge.
Jasper felt the battlefield change before he understood why.
For the first several minutes, the Volturi had been drowning in uncertainty.
His uncertainty.
A hesitation here.
A flash of fear there.
Enough confidence stripped away at exactly the wrong moment.
Now something surged back through them.
Relief.
Confidence.
Hunger.
The guard in front of Jasper stopped retreating.
Jasper tore his arm free anyway.
Another attacked from the right.
Jasper turned—
—and saw two more closing from behind.
Alice had been only a few yards away.
Now three Volturi stood between them.
Peter was fighting farther to the left.
Charlotte had been driven in the opposite direction.
Jasper had pushed too deep.
Because it had been working.
Because the Volturi line had been folding.
Because Bella's shield had made Jane and Alec irrelevant.
A fourth guard closed behind him.
Then a fifth.
Jasper looked toward Bella.
Saw her staring at Edward.
Understood.
"Bella!"
She didn't hear him.
Or couldn't.
A vampire attacked.
Jasper ducked.
Another caught his shoulder.
He tore free before the grip could lock.
A third came from behind.
Seven Volturi now surrounded him.
The opening Jasper had driven into the center of their formation had become a pocket.
And the pocket was closing.
Benjamin saw Alec's mist coming.
He threw both hands outward.
The earth rose.
A wall of frozen soil erupted between him and the haze.
The mist passed through it.
Benjamin's eyes widened.
He stepped backward.
Too late.
The pale nothing touched one foot.
Then his leg.
His waist.
Benjamin raised one hand toward the fires.
The eastern blaze flared.
Then Alec's mist reached his chest.
His hand fell.
His face emptied.
The fire continued burning without him.
So did the other three.
Four flames Benjamin had created to make sure the Volturi could never rise again.
Four flames that suddenly belonged to whoever could reach them first.
Demetri noticed.
He noticed everything.
Felix would have seen the Cullen line falter and charged whatever looked strongest.
Demetri saw the fires.
Then he saw Rosalie.
Emmett was several yards away, finishing a guard who had lost both legs.
Rosalie had her back toward Demetri.
His reattached shoulder still hurt.
That was irrelevant.
Both arms worked.
That was enough.
He moved.
Rosalie sensed him too late.
Demetri caught her from behind.
One arm snapped beneath her jaw.
The other locked across her chest and trapped one arm against her body.
Rosalie snarled and threw her weight sideways.
Demetri moved with her.
He didn't try to overpower her.
He didn't need to.
Emmett turned.
His expression changed instantly.
"Let her go."
Demetri smiled.
Emmett started toward them.
Demetri stepped backward.
Rosalie went with him.
Once.
Twice.
The heat behind them grew stronger.
Emmett stopped.
One of Benjamin's fires roared less than ten feet behind Rosalie.
Demetri tightened his arm beneath her jaw.
Hairline cracks appeared along the side of her neck.
Rosalie stopped struggling.
Demetri took another step backward.
"Don't."
Emmett froze.
His hands curled into fists.
Every instinct in him demanded he charge.
Break Demetri.
Take Rosalie back.
But Demetri did not need to kill her himself.
He only needed to throw her eight feet.
A broken vampire could be repaired.
A severed head could be returned.
Ash could not.
Demetri watched that realization cross Emmett's face.
His smile widened.
Kate twisted beneath the vampires holding her.
Jane's pain was gone.
That helped.
Not enough.
One of the guards had both hands around her leg.
Another was wrenching her left arm in the opposite direction.
The third had begun twisting her head.
Kate screamed again, this time from actual stone beginning to separate.
The fire was closer.
They were dragging her toward it.
Garrett hit the first vampire at full speed.
The guard disappeared sideways.
Garrett didn't watch where he landed.
He grabbed the vampire holding Kate's arm and tore him away from her.
The third attacked immediately.
Garrett barely got his arm between the strike and Kate's neck.
Stone cracked.
His own forearm split.
He ignored it.
Kate kicked the vampire holding her leg hard enough to break his grip.
She rolled away.
Garrett moved with her.
Another Volturi closed in.
Then another.
Garrett planted himself between them and Kate.
She pushed herself up behind him.
"You do realize," Garrett said without looking back, "that you are becoming an extraordinarily inconvenient woman to keep alive."
Kate's head snapped toward him.
"Is that what you call this?"
A guard rushed them.
Garrett caught him.
Kate grabbed the vampire's wrist from behind Garrett.
Electricity exploded through the guard.
Garrett tore his head free.
Kate looked at him.
Even surrounded by battle, Garrett realized she was still waiting.
He threw the head toward the nearest fire.
"I'm in love with you, you impossible woman."
Kate blinked.
Garrett turned toward the next attacker.
"There. Direct enough?"
A smile slowly spread across Kate's face.
"About time."
Garrett stared at her.
"Now?"
"You picked the timing."
The next Volturi reached them.
Kate and Garrett attacked together.
Far from the center of the clearing, Caius slowed.
The battle sounded distant now.
Trees stood between him and most of the fighting.
The rise was ahead.
Beyond it—
the children.
Harry.
Nancy.
Renesmee.
Caius could see Carlisle.
Esme.
Leah.
Jacob.
Several of the vampires who had withdrawn rather than participate in the battle.
Five Volturi guards stood behind him.
Caius smiled.
"Quickly."
They moved forward.
The trees ahead remained still.
Back at the center, Aro still held Edward.
Bella's shield was gone.
Jane's gift worked again.
Alec's mist was swallowing the field.
The Cullens' advance had stalled.
For the first time since Felix's death, the battle looked like something Aro recognized.
His teeth remained buried in Edward's neck.
He pulled again.
Edward's hands locked around Aro's arms.
The tear widened.
Then something changed.
Aro's eyes moved past Edward.
His expression shifted.
Thomas had seen them.
He was coming.
Aro released Edward.
Not gently.
He tore his teeth free and threw him aside.
Edward struck the ground and rolled, one hand immediately clamping over the torn side of his neck to force his head back into alignment.
Thomas never looked at him.
His sky-blue eyes were fixed on Aro.
The guard between them moved to intercept.
Thomas went through him.
One claw removed an arm.
The second tore through his chest.
Thomas never slowed.
Another vampire attacked.
Thomas struck him aside.
Thirty yards.
Aro's smile disappeared.
Twenty.
Renata stepped forward.
Thomas kept coming.
Ten.
Aro took one step backward.
Then another.
For the first time since the confrontation began, fear showed plainly on his face.
Thomas saw it.
And accelerated.
Renata did not retreat.
Thomas hit her shield at full speed.
For one impossible instant, all that momentum seemed to stop.
Then it changed direction.
Thomas was no longer moving toward Aro.
He was flying sideways.
Seven feet of muscle and black-and-white fur crossed the clearing so quickly that several vampires never saw what happened.
Thomas struck the frozen ground.
Bounced.
Tore a trench through the snow.
Hit a tree.
The trunk exploded.
He continued into a second.
That one held.
Barely.
The entire tree shuddered.
Thomas dropped into the snow beneath it.
He did not immediately rise.
Aro stared.
Renata returned to his side.
Small.
Quiet.
Almost fragile.
Aro looked from her to Thomas.
The fear disappeared.
His posture straightened.
And slowly, his smile returned.
Even Thomas could not reach him.
Jane saw that too.
She had already proven Bella's shield was gone.
Kate had screamed.
Alec's mist was spreading.
The battle had changed.
Now Renata had done something Felix could not.
Something Demetri could not.
Something no one had managed since Thomas transformed.
She had put him down.
Jane looked toward the broken trees.
Thomas moved.
One claw dug into the frozen earth.
Then another.
He pushed himself onto one knee.
Stopped.
His head hung.
He shook it once.
His balance shifted beneath him.
Jane smiled.
He was hurt.
Actually hurt.
She remembered Felix kneeling in the snow.
Remembered Thomas looking directly at her.
Remembered every word.
Every insult.
The powder drifting from his hands.
Thomas planted one foot beneath himself.
Tried to rise.
Stumbled.
One hand struck the ground again.
Jane's smile widened.
For the first time, he looked vulnerable.
And Bella's shield was gone.
Jane started toward him.
Thomas slowly raised his head.
Sky-blue eyes found crimson.
She stopped.
This was not about Aro.
Not about the law.
Not even about winning.
Jane wanted one thing.
She wanted to hear him scream.
She reached for her gift.
And unleashed it.