The Story Of Sarelle: The Immortal Years »

Chapter 43

EPOV

7th July 2048

"Take the deal, Edward." Sarelle's voice was distant.

I can't do this, how can I do this? I don't want to. I thought as my head moved in a slow, unbelieving nod. This couldn't be happening.

"Oh no. I want to hear you condemn her, your first love." Aro's stare lingered on me, a sickly concoction of satisfaction and bloodlust. He was power hungry and my words had the ability to satiate him, so strong was their meaning.

My teeth grit together, a battle to hold myself together, to hold the words in. It was the only way forward and yet it was the one way I wished had never come into fruition. I couldn't lose her, not again, not like this. I had finally been able to have her, hold her, see her smile every day. How would I be able to go back to life without that?

I glanced at Bella on my right. Her eyes were fixed on me, the gold glinting with something that had never been there before, fire. Fire for her fury. Fire for her own determination to survive. A fire that had always been innate to Sarelle and had been the passion I adored her for. It seemed Bella was finally ready to fight for her own life. That sense of self-preservation had finally kicked in.

My eyes flashed to Sarelle and I felt my dead heart clench when I saw her eyes fixed forward. She had shut down. She knew what was coming.

As I said the words, her head gave an infinitesimal nod and I felt as is my heart clench, recoiling from the knowledge that I would have to leave her in this room. Alone. As she had been all those years ago when she made her bargain and paid the ultimate price. And again I could do nothing to stop it. It was decided. It was inevitable.

As the Volturi guard burst from their silence my head filled with noise, but even then all I saw was her. All I heard was the shaky breath she released.

"Sarelle, please. I'm sorry. I..." I didn't know what I could ever say to take those words back, but I knew when this was all over I'd spend forever trying.

"Don't," she snapped and for a horrifying moment I wondered if I'd misread her certainty. I'd thought she'd taken the punishment to gain Aro's trust but could I have been wrong?

"Now is time to take your leave." Aro said with authority, "let's hope we meet under better circumstances in future."

I won. The mantra echoing in Aro's head was absolute. And in his mind, nothing could change it.

Bella turned for the door as soon as Aro spoke. I searched for her thoughts but the voice I'd grown so used to throughout our lives together had vanished. For the first time since her turn, she'd shut me out.

"Edward, come on. Think of Renesmee. She'll be worried about us. They all will be."

I felt myself split in two. The man she'd met in Forks all those years ago yearned to go with her. She'd brought me back from the brink of abyss and built me back up. She'd seen past what I was and the danger I posed, and she'd made me remember I was more than a monster.

But as always there was the part of me that belonged to Sarelle. Ever present and all consuming. With her there was no monster, I was just a man who loved a girl and had done throughout the ages.

"Not yet, Bella."

As I looked at her now, I knew I might never know which of them I loved more, but I did know I loved the type of love I had with Sarelle more than that I had with Bella. There was no shame, no guilt, over the man I had been at my worst. There was no comparison between us. With Bella that would always be there, and it would always eat away at me.