Bella Swan arrived in Forks - quietly, almost apologetically, as though she didn't want to disturb the air around her.
Charlie spent the whole drive from the airport talking in careful, hesitant little bursts, trying his best to make the silence feel less heavy. It had been so long since he had his daughter back; four years felt like forever.
While Bella looked paler than the clouds outside, but nodded along with her father's efforts.
Rowan was found waiting on the porch when they finally pulled up. A blanket around her shoulders and two steaming mugs in her hands. Charlie hadn't asked her to be there, but she just felt she needed to be. Something tugged at her magic the moment he had mentioned Bella's name.
Charlie stepped out of the cruiser, a sigh of relief to be home, before he went to the trunk to get Bella's bags.
Bella followed looking up at the young woman on the doorstep with tired but curious eyes.
Rowan smiled, "Hi. You must be Bella. I'm Rowan."
Bella blinked; she hadn't expected Rowan. Someone who felt like sunlight after rain didn't seem like she should fit on Charlie's doorstep, and yet she did.
"Hi." Bella tucked a brown strand of hair behind her ear, "I didn't know... Charlie had company."
Charlie spoke up, "She's staying with me for a while." Before slipping past Rowan and heading indoors. Coming back out briefly afterwards to check on the two girls, and was handed one of the steaming cups by Rowan.
Bella walked up the steps of the house and accepted the second mug that Rowan held out.
"Hot chocolate. You look like you've been traveling for a hundred years."
Bella let out a small, startled laugh. "Feels like it."
The two young women stepped into the house, Rowan felt the shift in the air instantly.
The air shimmered around Bella - like a faint glowing thread wrapping around her. Soft and golden, but thinner than the band that tied Rowan to the three kings. This one was drifting...no...searching.
Rowan's magic stirred, brushing against it and she gasped.
Not because who it was attached to but who it wasn't.
It didn't point to anyone in Forks.
No coil around Edward Cullen instead it stretched outward beyond Washington and America - toward something ancient.
Rowan sat down abruptly on the couch in the living room.
Bella looked over in worry, "Are you ok?"
Rowan blinked until her surroundings came back in focus again. "Yeah I just...feel things sometimes."
Bella huffed a self-deprecating laugh, "Same."
Bella settled on the sofa next to Rowan and Bella studied Rowan as if she were learning a new language.
"So..." Bella started, "How did you end up here? With my dad?"
Rowan smiled, smoothing out her pants in a nervous gesture she'd picked up from her mother a long time ago. "It's a long story. Maybe I'll tell you some other day."
Bella nodded and didn't press further. She looked down into her cup, "I'm glad he isn't alone."
Rowan noticed the lonely slant of Bella's shoulders, and her magic stirred, reaching out as if trying to find a way to heal the hidden not-quite-sadness. Bella's soulmate thread sparked - like in recognition. Rowan tried her best not to have her magic touch it; she'd already learned that soulmate magic wasn't something to meddle in.
Bella's eyes glazed over, as if she was looking off into a world only she could see.
"Do you...have you ever dreamed of places you've never been?"
Rowan's eyes widened.
Bella continued her voice hushed like she was imparting a secret and maybe she was, "I've been dreaming of...stone corridors. Columned hallways far grander than anything I've ever seen before. Red cloaks. And voices echoing like in a large hall." Bella blinked, "It feels so familiar. Like I've been there before... or I'm supposed to be."
She looked up at Rowan, a sad tilt to her smile. "I know it sounds crazy...." she shook her head, "I'm sorry, I don't even why I said that."
"You are not crazy." Rowan reached across the sofa to wear Bella sat and placed her hand over Bella's that rested around her warm mug.
Bella's thread flared.
Rowan spoke slowly, softly, the words rising to her lips brought forth by instinct and magic: "Your heart is waiting for someone...far from here."
Bella inhaled sharply, "What?"
Rowan squeezed Bella's hand reassuringly, "Forks won't be the end of your story. Someone is out there, someone just like those stone walls you dream of. They are waiting for you, even if neither of you knows the other's name yet."
Bella's fingers trembled beneath Rowan's.
"Why does that feel true?" She whispered.
"Because your soul knows it is."
Bella took a sip of her tea and relaxed into the sofa. "That feels weirdly comforting."
"Hold on to that feeling."
Bella nodded - she couldn't help feeling a bit unsettled, but steadier at the same time. Like someone had at last confirmed a truth she'd been trying to ignore most of her life.
Charlie came down the stairs and looked at the girls with a small smile, relieved Bella wasn't alone.