Carlisle had tried to catch my gaze while Aro read him, but I’d stayed focus on Aro’s expression certain that whatever I would see would be my undoing. I didn’t understand their reaction to me. They’d left me willingly enough, but the way they were behaving it almost seemed like that hadn’t been the case. Whatever. I wanted nothing to do with them. Admitting that to myself, I realized that a part of me truly hated them which gave me the strength to sit before them, quit hunching in on myself, and put on a brave face.

“His intentions were pure,” Aro finally stated to his brothers.

“No doubt they were, but that is not a valid excuse.”

“What would you have me do, Caius? Order them dismembered and burned here before the court? Would you like the honor of carrying that out?” Aro never raised his voice, but you could feel the frustration with each uttered word. Esme gasped, trembling enough even for my eyes to register her fear, but one brief look at Alice showed me that Esme had nothing to worry about.

“No, of course not, but some form of punishment must be enacted,” Caius declared.

Aro searched my face again and seemed even more worried than he’d been moments ago when he thought Caius was going to force him to kill his friend and the second most powerful coven of all time.

“Naturally.” He motioned Edward forward and only then did the blonde vampire let him out of her clutches. I busied myself with imaging pictures in the veins of gold running through the marble at my feet. The hatred that had bolstered me moments before fizzled out leaving me a jittery mess as he approached us.

“Bella,” he breathed, his delicious breath swirling around me leaving me slightly dazed. I had to close my eyes in an attempt to mentally prepare myself for the onslaught of pain his voice, scent, his presence was bound to invoke in me.

Aro, ignoring Edward’s attempt to gain my attention, began reading his memories when the door slammed hard against the marble walls. My eyes flew open in response and landed on Dylan. Could it get any worse? Sure, if somehow Jacob had gotten himself mixed up with the vamps and they’d brought him along. That would be worse. I laughed at that and I could feel every eye in the room shift toward that foreign and inappropriate sound. I shook my head in a silent apology not chancing a glance in Aro’s direction for fear of seeing Edward, but I could feel his burgundy eyes burning over me along with Edward’s golden ones.