“Alice was just telling me the wonderful tale of your struggles over the last few years, Edward, Bella,” Aro clasped his hands over his stomach and inclined his head towards us as we moved to stand beside Alice and Jasper.

“Oh Bella dear, I haven’t seen you in so long!” Esme cried during the silence that followed Aro.

I went over to hug her and found Edward coming along with me. Apparently he was now attached to me for good. That definitely wouldn’t be a problem.

As I hugged my mother-in-law hard around the waist, I felt a comforting hand on my shoulder that wasn’t Edward’s – his were locked securely around my waist. I looked over Esme’s shoulder to see Carlisle smiling at me, and he gave my shoulder a quick squeeze with the hand resting on it.

“I missed you all,” I whispered, knowing they would hear me.

“Oh Bella, we definitely missed you too,” Alice assured me as she towed Jasper along to stand with our family.

“But my oh my, my dear Cullens, where are Emmett and Rosalie?” Aro asked as we all turned to face him, ending our collective group hug effectively. Caius was flanking him on the right now, and Marcus was hovering silently by the door.

Edward kept his hold tight on me, however, and I placed my hands on top of his, which were locked in place over my stomach.

“Oh don’t worry, they should be here soon enough,” Carlisle surprised us all by explaining. “We urged them to vacation in Rome,” he shrugged nonchalantly and Alice laughed.

“Master, do you know what this means?” Heidi ran over to bow at Aro’s feet, her face exultant.

“What does that mean, my dear?” Aro appeared confused as he bade her rise to position herself beside Chris once again.

Caius, however, was smiling with delight as he moved closer to Aro. “Aro, don’t you see? All of the Cullens here in the heart of Volterra…” He touched Aro’s withered hand with his own to convey his thoughts in private, but Edward could still hear them, and so could I. Alice would no doubt see their outcome as well.

We have them trapped! He was telling Aro with glee. They’ll never escape Volterra alive if we command them to stay and they flee. Those that do remain alive would be assets to our Guard, and those that perish… well, it’s a shame, but it can’t be helped.