Shifting Moon

Chapter 233 - 233: The Reach

(Edythe POV)I reached for Bella's mind, but it proved to be just as impossible for me to read as it had been when she was human. No longer the frightened and somewhat out-of-place girl, but now a mother and taking to vampire life like she had been practicing for years. It was a bit unsettling how easy she made being a newborn appear.

I remembered my first few years and how hard it had been to stay focused on any one thing and shook my head.

My thoughts were distracted by Edward falling to the ground once again. It should be something I teased him about, but having seen it so much, I had grown numb to the sight.

"Sorry…sorry!" Bella called out in her now melodious voice.

Edward was quick to respond and try to soothe his wife's worry. "It's okay, Bella. We knew it was going to take time to get it right."

Kate said nothing, her eyes hard to read, but her mind was not.

{"Come on… Make her want to try harder. Don't comfort her for her failure."}

I just smiled, knowing that if I heard that, then Edward definitely did. Kate isn't wrong either; Bella needs the motivation to improve. If she can shield more than herself, and this comes down to a fight, it could take the Volturi's main weapons out of the fight. At that point, it's almost too easy to defeat them. They had become so reliant on Alec and Jane that I was willing to bet none of the Guard had trained in centuries.

It's not like Bella was hopeless either, three days of training had taught her it was possible to extend her shield. Now she just needed to be able to do it reliably and learn how far she could cover.

Edward stood up and nodded to Kate, "Again."

Kate looked at Bella, "Are you ready?"

"Not yet, give me a second…"

Before Bella could finish, Edward hit the ground again.

"I said I wasn't ready, Kate"

Without missing a beat, Kate replied. "You think Jane or Alec will wait for you to be ready? They will not announce that they are getting ready to use their powers. They will just do it. So, you have to do that as well. Even as I am talking to you right now, you should be trying to wrap Edward in your shield."

When she finished speaking, she reached down and touched Edward. Again, he jolted like he had been electrocuted.

"Looks like another failure, Bella."

Deciding Bella needed a second to collect herself, I was getting ready to step in when a distraction came from another source.

Garrett.

He had been watching from the edge of the clearing with the sort of expression that never led to anything sensible. Arms folded. Head tilted. Eyes bright with curiosity.

No, not just curiosity.

Interest.

The dangerous kind.

His gaze had been moving between Edward and Kate since the first time Kate took Edward's hand. At first, I thought he was only watching the training. Trying to understand Bella's shield. Measuring the usefulness of Kate's gift against Jane's. He had the mind of a fighter, not a fool, no matter how often he tried to look like one.

But his attention kept returning to Kate.

I turned my gift toward him just as he took another step forward.

{Is it truly that fierce?}

I almost sighed.

Of course that was what he was thinking.

Kate looked over before he spoke, as if she had felt the shape of his stupidity coming toward her.

She probably had.

"Do not," she said.

Garrett smiled. "I have not said anything."

"You were about to."

"I was about to ask a question."

"That is usually how trouble begins with you."

Bella lowered her hands slowly, still glaring, but the edge of her building frustration had shifted. Edward rose again and dusted snow from his sleeve, watching Garrett with the exhausted patience of someone who had already heard the question in his mind.

Because he had.

Garrett looked at Kate's hand, then at Edward, then back to Kate. "Is it really so difficult to bear?"

Kate's expression went flat.

Tanya made a sound that might have been a warning.

Carmen closed her eyes briefly.

Eleazar looked interested despite himself.

I turned my gift from Garrett to Kate.

Her thoughts were much quieter than her face suggested. Not embarrassed. Not offended.

Wary.

{He thinks this is a game. They always think it is a game until they cannot stand.}

A frosty smile spread over her face, "I don't know… Maybe Edward is just particularly weak to it. Or maybe those older can handle it better?"

She held her hand out, "Care to see?"

Garrett gave her a confident smile and reached his index finger out just enough to brush her palm.

Then he hit the ground, spasming. After a second, he went still.

Kate looked down at him.

Her frosty smile had not moved.

"Well?" she asked.

Garrett did not answer.

I focused on his mind for a heartbeat, only long enough to make certain he was not injured in any meaningful way.

There was no coherent thought waiting for me.

Only a bright, stunned rush of sensation.

Then, very slowly, one word formed out of it.

{Oh.}

I had to press my lips together.

Edward did not bother. He laughed once, low and quiet, which earned him a glare from Bella and an even flatter look from Kate.

Garrett blinked at the gray sky.

Then he smiled.

That should have worried everyone.

It certainly worried me.

"That," he said, voice rougher than before, "was not what I expected."

Kate lifted one eyebrow. "No?"

"No."

"You asked."

"I did."

"You touched."

"I did that too."

"And now you are on the ground."

Garrett turned his head enough to look at her. "I am aware."

"Good. I was concerned the lesson had not reached you."

A laugh broke out from Emmett, too loud and far too delighted. "I always did like her."

Rosalie gave him a look. "You like anyone who drops someone in the snow."

"That is not true."

Rosalie waited.

Emmett considered it. "It is mostly true."

Garrett pushed himself up on one elbow. Snow clung to the back of his coat and one side of his hair, but he seemed far less concerned with his dignity than with Kate's hand.

His eyes returned to it.

Not cautiously.

Curiously.

Worse.

I turned my gift away from him before I heard something I did not want to be responsible for knowing.

Kate noticed his stare and lowered her hand. "Do not look at me like you are considering a second attempt."

"I was considering a compliment."

"That is also unwise."

"Only if badly delivered."

"All of yours are."

Garrett smiled wider. "You wound me."

Bella let out a laugh. Just a short one, but it was a laugh all the same. I could tell that her mounting frustration from earlier had eased considerably.

Kate turned her attention to her. "Would you like to try shielding two idiots?"

Garrett let out a wounded, "Hey…"

Kate took a second. "I will change that. Would you like to try and shield one idiot and one devoted husband?"

Without waiting for a reply, Kate reached out and grabbed Edward's forearm.

Edward looked at her hand in surprise. He didn't feel anything. For a moment nothing happened, then he jolted again until Kate released him.

"Better," Kate said.

Bella's face lit for one brief, beautiful second.

Kate added, "Still terrible."

The light vanished.

"I covered him," she said.

"For a second," Kate said.

"That counts."

"It counted for a second. Then it didn't matter anymore"

Bella's mouth closed.

That was fair, and she knew it.

Eleazar stepped closer. "Your shield has always protected you. That part is instinctive. What Kate is teaching you is that it can be moved by need."

Bella looked at him. "Need is not enough."

"No," he said. "Need is only the beginning."

Kate's voice was blunt. "Your body already knows how to fight. Your gift knows how to say no. You have spent your entire life saying no without knowing it."

Bella's face changed.

"Again," Bella said.

"No," Zafrina said.

Every head turned.

Zafrina stepped from between the trees as though the forest had simply decided to become her. Senna moved behind her, silent and watchful. Zafrina's thoughts were calm, focused, and curious, but not surprised.

"You have opened the door, Kate. Now the child must learn distance."

Bella's posture tightened at being addressed as child.

Zafrina's mouth curved slightly, as if she knew that without hearing it.

"You have learned the shield can leave you," Zafrina said.

Bella looked at Edward, then Kate. "Not far."

"No," Zafrina agreed. "Because pain teaches urgency. Urgency is short."

Kate folded her arms. "Pain also teaches consequence."

"Yes," Zafrina said. "That is why you were first."

Kate did not answer.

I almost smiled.

There were not many people who could redirect Kate without making Kate immediately more dangerous. Zafrina seemed to be one of them.

Bella studied the Amazon carefully. "What are you offering?"

"Reach," Zafrina said.

Then the world disappeared.

The clearing, the snow, the broken cedars, the gray sky…all of it vanished beneath a red desert and a white sun. I could not even feel Thomas next to me, though I knew he was still there.

I cast my mind to my left and heard a mantra of repeated {Not real. Not Real. Not real.} that was Amun.

Then I cast my mind out in a sweeping motion again. I heard Garrett's amazed reaction and moved on to the next mind. Most were lost in wonder, but a few recognized just how dangerous this ability was. Eleazar immediately put it right next to Jane and Alec in the danger category.

Before I could hear more, my eyes returned to the clearing and Thomas's anxious gaze. I reassured him with a smile and a touch.

When I focused on Bella, I saw her eyes wander in question. All she had seen was our eyes lose focus and glance around. Edward quickly told her what had happened and why she had seen nothing unusual.

Zafrina drew Bella's attention once again with a raised hand. "My gift deceives. Yours denies. They are not the same. But I can teach distance. I can teach attention. I can show you what it means to hold more than one person inside a boundary."

Bella's eyes narrowed. "By blinding everyone?"

"By giving them something to see, and you something to take away."

Kate looked interested despite herself.

She moved us like pieces on a board.

Edward closest to Bella.

Kate beside him, ready to provide the sting Bella already understood.

Jacob farther back, because Bella worried about him, whether she admitted it or not.

Carlisle behind Bella.

Eleazar watching from the side.

Me near Thomas.

Zafrina's eyes paused on him.

"You are outside this," she said.

Thomas looked amused and wary at once. "That happens a lot."

Her thoughts brushed the shape of his immunity and found nothing to hold.

{"So very interesting,"} she thought.

Amun stood near the trees with Kebi at his side, golden eyes fixed on Benjamin, who watched Zafrina with open fascination. Amun loved him. That was plain enough. The love was old, possessive, and terrified. It was also not the only thing in him.

{"Too many unknowns. Too many gifts. Too many chances for Aro to notice Benjamin. Leave. Take Kebi. Take Benjamin if he will come."}

His eyes moved to Benjamin.

{"And if he will not…"}

The thought broke there.

Not because I stopped hearing him.

Because Amun stopped himself.

He recoiled from the idea so violently that his face did not change at all.

I looked away before he noticed me noticing.

Aro was not even here yet, but fear had already begun taking its toll.

"Close your eyes," Zafrina told Bella.

Bella did.

Zafrina's power rolled outward.

The red desert returned, brighter this time. Wider. The house disappeared behind dunes. The trees became black pillars under a burning sky. Edward was a pale shape ten paces from Bella. Jacob stood farther, a shadow in heat shimmer. I could see everyone in the vision but no Bella or Thomas.

"Find Edward," I heard Zafrina say.

Edward's thoughts reached for her before he could stop them.

{"Here. I am here."}

"Do not help her," I said.

Edward's jaw tightened.

His thoughts did not obey as quickly as his mouth did.

For a few moments, the desert did not change, we all looked at each other or at the surroundings.

Edward remained in my head.

Then, suddenly, he vanished.

He was no longer in the desert with the rest of us, and his mind was gone too, as if outside my range to hear.

Then, Bella's shield must have snapped back.

Edward returned to the desert landscape.

His thoughts returned, fierce and dazzled.

Kate's mind approved despite her expression.

{"Good."}

Zafrina smiled. "Again."

They worked that way until Bella's success became more reliable.

Edward disappeared first, again and again.

Then Jacob.

For one impossible second, the world went quiet.

Then it vanished.

Sound returned without sound.

Thought returned like a crowd rushing through a door.

I staggered one half step.

Thomas caught my elbow.

He had not seen what had changed. He had seen me change.

"Edythe?"

"I am all right."

Bella opened her eyes. "Did I get you?"

Her voice was too hopeful to be casual.

"Yes," I said.

Edward turned toward me sharply.

He knew what that meant.

So did Eleazar.

Zafrina looked pleased.

Kate looked satisfied.

Garrett thought, {'Magnificent."}

For half a second, I thought he meant Bella.

Then Kate stepped forward and Garrett's attention followed her like iron finding a magnet.

Ah.

Still a problem.

Kate lifted Edward's wrist again. "Hold him before I touch him."

Bella closed her eyes.

Then Edward's mind vanished.

Kate shocked him.

Nothing happened.

Bella held the shield for three seconds.

Four.

Five.

Then it collapsed.

Edward came back into my head, glowing with pride and worry and the urgent desire to put Bella somewhere safe where no one would ever test her again.

He knew better than to say that aloud.

Kate released him. "Better."

Bella opened her eyes cautiously. "Still terrible?"

Kate considered. "Less terrible."

Bella smiled.

Edward looked like he had just been handed the sun.

"Again tomorrow," Zafrina said.

Bella's smile faded. "I can keep going."

"No," Kate said.

Bella looked at her.

Kate did not soften. "You can keep failing tired. That is not the same thing as learning."

Bella's eyes narrowed.

Eleazar added, "She is right."

Bella looked betrayed that reason had joined the enemy.

Zafrina moved closer, her gaze steady on Bella's face. "Do not waste the rest. Use it."

Bella frowned. "How?"

"Look inward," Zafrina said. "Kate has taught you that your shield can move. I have shown you that it can reach. Now you must find it where it begins."

Bella glanced once toward Edward, then back to Zafrina.

Zafrina touched two fingers lightly to her own temple. "Not with your hands. Not with panic. Sit somewhere quiet. Think of what it feels like when the world cannot touch you. Think of what changes when Renesmee can reach past it. Learn its shape. Tomorrow, we stretch it again."

Bella looked like she wanted to argue and hated that she wanted to obey.

"Fine," she said.

Unfortunately, ending Bella's training did not mean the clearing became peaceful.

It only meant Garrett got bored.

That was proving dangerous.

His attention drifted from Kate to Thomas, and I heard the thought before he smiled.

{"So that is the tiger."}

Peter noticed the look and gave a quiet laugh. "Careful."

Garrett's eyes stayed on Thomas. "That sounds like a recommendation."

"It was not," Charlotte said.

Peter's mouth curved. "Jasper said he was interesting."

Thomas looked toward him. "That is a very Jasper thing to call a problem."

Peter's smile widened. "He said that too."

Emmett folded his arms and looked far too pleased with himself. "We already tested him."

Garrett glanced over. "You tested him?"

"Me and Jasper first," Emmett said. "Then Carlisle and Edward got all serious and technical about it."

Carlisle's expression suggested he remembered the event with less fondness. "We measured what we could."

"And?" Garrett asked.

Emmett grinned. "Then we stopped before my house had fewer walls."

"It is not your house," Rosalie said, having come from the house.

"It was going to have fewer walls either way."

Carlisle gave Emmett a look.

Emmett smiled wider and wisely stopped talking.

Thomas stood at my side, watching the conversation in amusement.

He had told me and Leah that eventually someone was going to test him.

I had my money on Garrett.

Leah had placed hers on Jasper's friend, Peter.

Technically, we were both right.

Garrett's smile spread slowly as he looked from Thomas to Peter, then to Charlotte. "Well? Since Jasper is not here to defend his stories, someone should verify them."

Peter glanced at Charlotte.

Charlotte looked unimpressed. "That is not a reason."

"It is a very good reason," Garrett said.

"No," Kate said.

Garrett looked at her, delighted. "You are becoming very invested in my safety."

"I am becoming very tired of your voice."

"Same thing, in some cultures."

Kate's eyes narrowed.

Thomas looked at Carlisle. "Controlled?"

Carlisle was quiet for a moment. He did not look afraid, exactly. Carlisle rarely looked afraid. But caution settled over him in a way every vampire in the clearing noticed.

"Controlled," Carlisle said at last. "No teeth. No tearing. No strikes meant to maim. If anyone says stop, it stops."

Garrett placed a hand over his heart. "I am always respectful of medical authority."

Rosalie said, "That sounded like a lie."

"It was more of an aspiration."

Peter laughed under his breath and stepped away from Charlotte. "Jasper did say he was fast."

Thomas flexed his hands once. "Did he? Did he also warn you how irritated I can get when I'm spoken at instead of to?"

Peter's smile sharpened. "He said a lot of things."

Charlotte sighed, but she moved with him.

That was the first sign that this was going to be worse than Garrett's curiosity. Garrett wanted to test Thomas. Peter wanted to understand him. Charlotte wanted to make sure Peter survived understanding him.

That made her the smartest person involved.

I shifted my gift toward Peter for a breath.

{Jasper liked him. That means dangerous.}

Then I turned away confident that there was no hidden malice.

Thomas stepped into the open part of the clearing, snow crunching softly under his boots.

His heartbeat followed him.

Slow.

Steady.

Wrong enough that even Garrett's smile thinned for a moment when he first heard it.

I knew the sound by now. I knew the rhythm of it in the dark, beneath my hand, against my ear when Thomas held me close enough that I could pretend the world was smaller than it was. But to the others, it was still impossible. A living heart inside a body that moved too fast, held too much strength, and carried warmth like a dare.

Garrett circled first.

Peter moved to Thomas's right.

Charlotte drifted left, quieter than both of them, her eyes on Thomas's feet instead of his hands.

Good, I thought despite myself.

Jasper had taught them well.

Thomas noticed too. His mouth curved faintly.

"You all look much more serious than Garrett sounds."

Peter laughed. "Most people are."

Garrett lunged.

Not a playful lunge. Not a warning.

Vampire fast.

Thomas did not shift.

He did not blur.

He simply moved.

Garrett's hand should have reached his shoulder. Instead, Thomas caught his wrist and turned with him, using Garrett's speed to pull him across Peter's line of attack. Peter adjusted instantly, ducking under Garrett's arm and coming in low.

Charlotte moved at the same time.

For a moment, Thomas was boxed in by three vampires who knew better than to take turns.

Then he was not.

He dropped straight down, one hand striking the snow hard enough to break the frozen crust beneath it. His body twisted, low and fluid, and Charlotte had to leap back to keep his sweeping leg from taking both of hers out from under her.

That half step saved her from falling.

It cost Peter.

Thomas released Garrett and drove his shoulder into Peter's chest. Not a full strike. Not even close. Still, Peter slid backward across the clearing, carving a long line through the snow before catching himself against a cedar.

The tree shook.

Peter looked down at the mark his boots had left.

Then he looked up at Thomas.

"Well," he said.

Garrett laughed. "Again."

Thomas did not laugh with him.

That was what tightened my hand around nothing.

The first pass had been a test.

The second would not be.

Garrett, Peter, and Charlotte moved together this time. Faster. Cleaner. Charlotte did not aim for Thomas's strength. She aimed for his balance. Peter kept to his side, forcing Thomas to turn. Garrett came straight in, reckless enough to draw attention and skilled enough that ignoring him would be a mistake.

For two seconds, Thomas only defended.

A block.

A turn.

A step through snow.

Garrett's fist missed his ribs by less than an inch. Peter caught Thomas's sleeve and tried to use the grip to pull him off balance. Charlotte came in behind him, one hand reaching for the back of his neck.

Thomas let Peter pull.

That was the mistake none of them expected.

He went with the force instead of resisting it, turning the pull into momentum. His elbow caught Garrett's forearm and redirected the strike into empty air. His hand closed over Peter's wrist. His other arm swept back without looking and stopped Charlotte's hand before she touched him.

All three froze.

Thomas held them there.

Garrett by the arm.

Peter by the wrist.

Charlotte with her fingers trapped inches from his shoulder.

No claws.

No fur.

No visible shift.

Only Thomas, breathing calmly while three vampires strained against his grip and did not move him.

The clearing had gone silent.

Even Emmett had stopped making comments.

Thomas let them go.

Garrett stepped back first, eyes bright. "That is your base strength as Carlisle put it?"

Thomas nodded once. "Yes."

Peter looked at Charlotte.

Charlotte looked at Thomas.

Her thoughts, when I brushed them, were carefully controlled and edged with disbelief.

{That should not be possible.}

No.

It should not.

Garrett smiled again, but it was different now. Less teasing. More respect. More hunger for the answer he had not yet found.

"One more," he said.

Kate's voice cut across the clearing. "Do not be stupid."

Garrett did not look away from Thomas. "I am being educational."

"You are being Garrett."

"Usually the same thing."

Thomas looked at me.

I wanted to say no.

He knew that. Of course he knew that.

"I will stop," he said reassuringly.

That did not help as much as he probably hoped.

Carlisle's voice was soft but absolute. "One more exchange. Then we are done."

Garrett nodded.

Peter and Charlotte reset around Thomas.

This time, Thomas closed his eyes.

Every vampire in the clearing noticed.

Jacob muttered, "Show-off."

Leah said, "Do not encourage him."

"I am respecting from a distance."

"Coward."

"When it comes to fighting Thomas, yup."

Garrett moved.

So did Peter.

So did Charlotte.

Thomas opened his eyes.

Gold eyes with slit irises looked back through them.

Not the tiger unleashed.

Just enough to drive the point home.

The air seemed to tighten around him.

Garrett saw it half a second before he reached him. His confidence shifted into alarm, but momentum had already made its promises.

Thomas stepped forward.

Not away.

Forward.

He caught Garrett at the shoulder and turned him aside so hard that Garrett flew into Peter before either of them could correct. They hit the snow together and kept sliding, a pale blur that ended against the same cedar Peter had used before.

This time, the trunk cracked.

Charlotte used the opening perfectly.

She was already behind Thomas, already inside the space Garrett and Peter had made, already reaching for the hold that would have put her arm around his throat.

Thomas turned.

His hand stopped an inch from her chest.

The air cracked.

Not from impact.

From the force he did not release.

Charlotte went perfectly still.

So did Thomas.

The gold in his eyes dimmed back toward human.

Slowly.

Carefully.

Carlisle said, "Stop."

Thomas lowered his hand.

Charlotte stepped back, her face calm and her thoughts anything but.

Garrett sat up in the snow with Peter half under him.

For once, he did not speak immediately.

That worried me more than his laughter would have.

Then he looked at Thomas and grinned.

"Jasper," Garrett said, "is a terrible storyteller."

Peter pushed Garrett off him. "He undersold it."

Charlotte brushed snow from her sleeve. "He may have been trying not to encourage this exact thing."

Garrett looked offended. "That would be unlike him."

"No," Peter and Charlotte said together.

Thomas exhaled slowly.

There had been no struggle in him. No pain. No loss of himself. No battle to drag the tiger back beneath his skin.

Thomas had simply used more strength.

Then less.

Exactly as much as he chose.

Carlisle crossed to him, studying his face. "Enough?"

Thomas nodded. "Enough."

No one argued.

Not even Garrett.