"Demitri. For the last time, I said I'm fine."

He still hovered, fussing over her like an anxious mother hen and she had absolutely no idea why. It was funny at first to see him like this, but the fun had soon dissipated and now Nora was annoyed, her face flat with vexation.

They were safe. Away from the butchery probably already befalling Edward; taking advantage of the Cullen patriarch's soundproof office so poor Bella, who was crying and hugging Nora still, didn't have to be put through more trauma actually having to listen to Edward be killed.

Nora, whose mind was filled with dark stray thoughts as she attempted to ignore Demitri, would bet Edwards screams were loud and agonized. She was only slightly disappointed she couldn't hear them for herself, the relief she would feel to know and see he was suffering would know no bounds should she bear witness to his timely demise.

Wringing his hands, Demitri paced in front of the two of them who were squished together on the velvet emerald settee adjacent to the fire and the lone armchair before it. "Are you sure you're alright? Maybe we should go somewhere else, this is already too much for you and what if the Cullens attack in anger as a form of retaliation? You could be–"

"What, Demitri?" Nora had enough of his dulcet tones. "What's going to happen, huh? Do you really think they're going to get past Felix? I may not like the guy, but there's no denying he's built like a fucking tank. Plus, you're here to protect me, though...are you doubting your abilities? Are you not good enough?"

The jab was cheap, she'd admit it. But it had the desired effect.

He lost all worry and became stern, angry. "Of course I am good enough, Queenie. I will never let anything hurt you."

She smirked up at him from where she sat, knowing she'd caught him out. "So what's the problem?"

He grumbled under his breath and looked away in frustration, unable to provide any more argument.

Nora shook her head, turning her attention to Bella who laid her head on her shoulder.

Stroking her sister's hand connected to hers, Nora sighed through her nose to try to expel some anxiety, repeating it slowly three more times. It was a technique she used often to thwart panic attacks, only today it didn't seem to be working.

Talking as a distraction would have to suffice. "I swear, you're just as bad as them sometimes, Dem."

He jutted out his hip and leant his weight on his left leg, folding his arms crossly over his toned chest. "I resent that statement, thank you."

"Resent it all you want, you know it's true." He made a small noise of agreement from the back of his throat and shrugged at her, his hands falling to his sides. He wasn't as collected and casual as he had wanted to appear and Nora became much more irritated by his nerves. They were doing nothing to ease hers or Bella's, who was already intimidated by his presence in the room as it was...even if he was acting like a skittish idiot.

"Demitri, if you're so worried, why don't you guard the door? I need some privacy, anyway."

It wasn't often Nora felt like the queen she was made out to be, but now was only one of those times where she did understand and blatantly see her importance, because Demitri nodded and got rid of his bouncy if not worried demeanor so quickly she felt a tad disturbed.

He swept into a low, elegant bow with his face now blank of all emotion except a deep respect for her. "As you command, my Queen."

Soon, he was gone.

Feeling Bella shift, Nora looked down at her to see her sister was now sat up, staring at the floor. Unsurely, given how things had last been left between them, Nora thought it best for her to begin. It was a sad fact to state, but she was more well versed in matters of emotional turmoil than her sister.

Of the two, she knew she'd handle this better and that things would go relatively smoothly if she were the one to extend the olive branch.

"So...this is a really stupid and dumb question but, are you feeling okay?"

Bella smiled, a blank emotionless smile that set Nora on edge. She felt, if she wasn't especially cautious, that Bella might snap at the drop of a hat. She was unpredictable, her thoughts and feelings shrouded.

"I'm great, yeah. I mean, it's not at all like I just found out I've been lied to, that the love of my life is going to be put to death, I–I...what the hell is going on, Nora?"

Bella, once more in tears, sniffled and looked up at her sister with such a lost expression on her thin face that Nora felt queasy, a familiar feeling as of late. "I thought that what we had was real, he made me feel seen and heard and...it was all a lie? I don't...I can't process it."

Nora shook her head vehemently, "You don't have to Bella, not on your own. To be perfectly blunt..." She adjusted her position so she could see Bella more clearly. "What you do need to come to terms with is that you've been manipulated. You understand that, don't you?"

Bella nodded–and she even looked ashamed. "I know that...I knew it when he was doing it to me. He just had this way of getting in my head, of making me doubt myself...even when it came to you and dad. Even if I wanted to disagree, there was some part of me so concerned for him and what he would think of me that it felt like there was something keeping the true me back. I'd have an opinion, and he'd counteract it and almost...make me feel stupid? Like I was an idiot for thinking those things and then, because he made me feel that way, anything he said after that I just agreed with. I think I just...wanted him to like me, to not see me as some weak, pathetic human girl who was beneath him. To see us as equals. But I...guess he never did."

Nora bit her lip, contemplating how to go about what she wanted to say. Well versed. Heh. Maybe she should reconsider her capabilities.

"Bella, you understand the severity of it though, don't you? It's not–it isn't like Edward was just mean to you, it's...it's emotional abuse." Such a violent word to use, even in context like this, but it was the only one that fit the description of Edwards behaviors and habits. At the thought of her baby sister enduring such things daily, Nora's stomach churned with that incessant sickness.

Bella looked as if she were teetering along agreeing or not with Nora's abrasive label, so Nora did her the good grace of elaborating and dissecting Edwards methods of manipulation to make his rancid character perfectly clear for her.

"When someone belittles you and they take any opportunity to break down your self worth as a person, so they can control you and the way you think...so all you want to do is please them so they aren't angry or disappointed by you anymore, it's abuse. Point blank. Do you understand? It's not normal and it isn't how any person in your life should willingly treat you. It was willingly, don't make any mistakes over that. He knew exactly what he was doing to you and he liked it, Bella."

Nora felt annoyed by her struggle to articulate what she wanted to get across, but she couldn't have Bella thinking it was completely fine and dandy to be treated this way.

Bella fumbled with her hands and Nora had to will away tears, because her sister had never looked so weak.

It was a harsh word to use against someone she loved, but it was an appropriate one. Bella was meak, a shell of herself. A pale color of the girl Nora was used to and though she had a socially awkward and shy constitution, she was such a ray of light to be around.

That girl had been missing ever since Nora had arrived in Forks and the only culprit, the only one to blame was Edward Cullen. She sort of wished now, that she could be there to see his end.

Knowing Caius, even Aro and Marcus, it was bound to be a sight to behold in its barbarity.

Bella, who had been processing Nora's words, eventually nodded her head, her voice wobbly and quiet. "I know and I–I'm sorry, Nora."

Nora frowned, scooting closer to Bella who could only bring herself to look at the floor. "Why are you sorry, Bells?"

"Because I was horrible to you. Because you've done so much for me in my life that even our own mother couldn't and all I've done since you got here is be a snotty brat who's thrown it back in your face–and I know what you're gonna say," Bella spoke louder when she felt Nora tense, ready to disagree. "You're going to say that none of it is my fault, because of Edward. It might be true to a certain point, Nora, but please just...don't think I'm innocent. I knew what I was saying to you yesterday wasn't right, that it wasn't true in the slightest but I did it anyway to make him proud of me, to make him like me. How can you still defend me? H–how can you still want anything to do with me when I treated you like you were nothing?"

Nora always defended her, even when she was on the receiving end of Bella's torment and undeserving anger. It wasn't right and only made Bella feel more awful, because she had hurt one of the only people who actually, genuinely gave a fuck about her.

Nora paused, a hefty and pregnant atmosphere of uncertainty in the air. What was there to say at this moment? What could she add or do to convince her sister that she really, truly harbored no anger for her?

This was something they had opposing views on, because to Nora, her sister wasn't to blame...and that was a revelation in and of itself. A shocking, light perception even to her.

A few hours ago, Nora had to admit she would have been unwilling to do what she was now. In spite of her kind nature that drew so many to her like moths to a flame, Nora was relatively petty when she wanted to be. The one thing she had unfortunately inherited from their 'mother'.

She had promised herself Bella wouldn't get off easily. She'd been iron–willed, knowing her tendency to be too forgiving. Now though, she could hit herself with how flaky her resolve was. She couldn't even make her scorn last a whole day? It was as annoying as it was pathetic and she wondered, sometimes, how she was ever going to be a proper queen when the time came for it.

Still, she supposed it was an odd sort of comfort to know she wasn't so catty and nasty as that. She'd had too much darkness in her young life, too much hate and pain; from strangers and from those who were supposed to love her.

Why show her sister a life as cruel as hers? Why treat Bella as others had treated her when she'd needed them most?

Smiling gently she pushed aside any leftover anger and tutted at Bella, smoothing her hair behind her ear. Her heart ached at her sister's uncertainty. "Look, Bells. You know me and you know I'm honest, even when people don't appreciate it. What you did, what you said...it did hurt me. Deeply."

Bella pulled a funny face of sadness and went to lower her head in shame, but Nora nudged her in the ribs to get her to look up, lips still displaying her pretty smile. "But I know you, better than anyone and I know it wasn't you saying that. You never would and you never have spoken to me like that before and to be honest Bella? Under normal circumstances, I don't think you even have it in you. Don't take it the wrong way sis, but you're kind of awkward when it comes to saying anything really."

Her sister sniffed with a small grin and nodded, knowing it was true. She couldn't even speak to strangers without tripping over her words and making a fool of herself.

Nora expelled a flippant groan of exhaustion with this whole mess and sunk back in her seat. She was so done with this. Why couldn't they both just get to be happy? Even if only for a little while.

Slumping her body back completely, their shoulders touched as they both stared into space, hands intertwined and placed between them on the comfy seat.

"It's not your fault, Bella." Nora smiled shallowly when she could be bothered to talk. "You're young and unfortunately you don't know any better. Edward...he saw it–that innocence and that...fresh youth, that growing individuality. He saw your kind nature and how naive you are and there are some people in this life, Bells, in this world...who take advantage of that. Who seek to take that from you for their own enjoyment and sick agenda."

Bella's face was pinched with the unpleasantness of anger, because Nora's voice was mingled with something, with knowing. With too much experience on such matters. It made her more angry than she had ever been that her sister sounded so sure of what she was saying. As Bella had learned, Nora had unfortunately been privy to the sickness of men–of one particular man.

A different kind of sickness then Bella had experienced, one she hoped she'd never have to endure.

Bella gazed up at Nora's face that was set into a hard mask as she re–lived something, torment weighing down her features.

"They don't see you as a person when they look at you. They see an opportunity. An object. A dream–a version of you who will devote all of their time, all of their attention to them and nothing else. You can't deny that's what it was between you and him. Infatuation on your part, greed for admiration and acceptance on his. An affliction of disease that's only cured by one of you being strong enough to see through the dream and recognize it for the toxic nightmare it is, to end it. Unfortunately, Bells, neither of you were. So, there's your answer: No. I'm not mad and I don't hate you, because how could I resent you for the things you've done when it's not your fault?"

Bella felt...dumbfounded. Enlightened. For the first time in months, she felt hope and she felt lifted and she didn't feel like she was carrying the crushing weight of the world on her shoulders.

The hope was little. A small spark, barely anything. But it was there...a glimmering absence of worry that maybe she could get better after this, that maybe things hadn't been ruined by him, at least not forever because through it all, her sister was still here somehow–and she was right.

Nora took Bella's silence as hesitancy to see the light. Looking down at her, she delivered the final blow.

"You need to know Bella that eventually, Edward would have left. A week, a month or fifty years from now, he'd have left you. He might have come back, but only to make it a cycle until you've reached and fulfilled your usefulness for him. You understand now? How little you meant to him–if you meant anything at all. Understand, you were the dream he knew he realistically could never have thanks to his own confliction and it drove him to madness."

Nora knew it was harsh but it needed to be said. Their tie needed to be severed. If callous words were the key, then they had to be used to unlock her sister's freedom.

Wrinkling her nose, Nora thought to herself how glad she really was that Edward Cullen would soon be only a memory. "It doesn't matter now, anyway. None of it. Not anymore. He's getting what he deserves and you will see, Bella, you'll soon be glad for it."

Surprisingly for Nora, Bella grinned up at her, fresh ambition for a better life reflected in her eyes. "Yeah...I think, maybe I will. Someday."

Returning her smile, she squeezed Bella's hand, the two sisters silently mending their broken relationship.

With impeccable timing that was almost laughable, Demitri opened the door and stood in the doorway like a child about to be scolded by their mother, probably thinking he had interrupted something important.

Nora inclined her head at him subtly, her aura encouraging and warm and he stepped into the room, keeping the door open.

"My Queen. Edward has been, um...disposed of. You are free to rejoin the Kings." He worded it delicately and his eyes flickered unsurely over Bella's stiff form.

Nora sucked in a deep breath, so as to hide and control her elation.

Bella would be saddened by this, even if she had now accepted his death and the terrible effect he had placed upon her life. Nora would need to tread carefully, it was still sensitive for her sister after all.

Hands still twined together, Nora regarded Bella with hesitancy. She had no idea, after their little chat, how Bella would react to the not so sad news. She had made it known just then that she could get over it eventually, but eventually was not now. This was fresh.

Bella had gone rigid, both in body and face, but other than that she looked...exhilarated–sad, but liberated. She seemed to know now that she was free, and that deep pit of grief she would have felt yesterday was nowhere to be found.

Standing stiffly to her feet, Nora let her hard persona slip into place, knowing Bella would need it to get through this. Staying silent, she tugged on her sister's hand and soon, she was on her feet too, just as blank as Nora in expression.

Protective instincts for her sister ringing through her mind, Nora learned to whisper to Bella, noticing Demitri doing his best to appear as if he wasn't listening. "When we get up there, I'm going to have Demitri take you to the Kings car so you don't have to see anything, okay? You can trust him, he won't hurt you. No one will." She assured when Bella shrunk into herself with uncertainty, her eyes distrusting.

Bella said nothing, fearing if she talked she'd lose it–on the brink of tears as it was. She might now dislike Edward, but love doesn't just disappear. Not for her, anyway. Nodding at Nora when she calmed her racing heart, they both readied themselves for what was to come.

Demitri held the door open when they set off, stepping foot in front of them to lead the way.

With their quick pace, they soon reached the demolished living room, now absent of any trace of Edward Cullen minus the disgusting, gloopy venom that had gushed from his injuries.

They lingered and Bella couldn't help but to be seized by sadness, reduced to small unfalling tears as she remembered her last sight of him, of the boy she once loved, that she still loved...even if that love was tainted and a ghostly imitation of what it had once been.

Nora let her hand go and Bella became frightened almost too quickly for her liking, her deep brown eyes pleading when she whirled around to see her sister.

"It's alright," Nora soothed and stood close to her, quick to squash and chase away her fear in only the way big sisters can. "I will only be a short while and then I'll be with you, we'll get out of here. Trust me, Bella. It's all going to be alright."

Bella differed for a moment before she was eventually swayed, convinced by the warmth on her sister's face. In astonishment, it only took a simple wave of Nora's hand for Demitri to understand her sister and intimidatingly, he had lifted her into his arms like she weighed nothing.

Bella had no opportunity to be afraid. Demitri was probably one of the quickest vampire's Nora had met so far. She had barely blinked before he was back within a second, her sister nowhere in sight.

Suitably happy that Bella was safe and protected from any further pain, Nora rubbed a hand over her face, massaging her temples with a sigh. "Let's not dilly dally, Demitri. Take me to them."

He nodded, but he looked almost afraid for her. She knew why.

After all, Demitri had been the one to inform her of her mates brutal nature, he felt a pre–warning when she had first joined them was necessary and she often thanked him for it. Even when this bond had begun, Nora was no fool. She had expected a majority of what he had told her.

He had every right to look afraid for her, but as they traveled closer to their destination, Nora was not. They were brought together for a reason, their lives entwined and joined for eternity for a purpose. Yes, they were dark. They were remorseless. They slaughtered and they killed and they were unforgiving. But through all that, they were hers. Completely. Every aspect of them.

She wouldn't have them any other way.

The chill of the early morning wrapped around her when she stepped through the door into an open space; a large stretch of grass surrounded by tall fir trees, casting a beautiful veil of shadows over the home.

In front of her and truthfully a sorry sight, the Cullens were gathered like the mourners they were, Rosalie and Emmett now fully patched up. A thin, bumpy silver line was wrapped where Nora assumed Rosalie's arm had been reattached.

They were all grouped around something, and when Nora got a little closer she staggered to a stop, nearly tripping over her own feet.

Nora beheld the mess before her in shocked horror, but even that description felt too much of an injustice to the feeling rolling through her whole body. The sight before her was so repulsive it couldn't be put into words. She stared for so long without blinking that her eyes stung, begging her to blink, but she couldn't look away.

She was glad she'd made Bella leave. Relieved. Appeased internally that she wasn't here. If she'd have seen this, it would have broken her.

Edward...or what was left of him, was now just a beaten and battered pile of limbs discarded in an off–puttingly neat little pile on the floor, waiting to be set aflame.

His...parts...were haggard and ripped. Smashed and cracked and dented and weeping and–God, it was horrid, as if the person who had done this was in a frenzy. As if they couldn't control themselves. His torso was littered with gaping holes, identical to the one she'd inflicted and Nora physically felt the blood drain from her face as she conceived that he had been stabbed sadistically; over and over and over again with that white hot poker, the torrid heat sizzling and melting into him.

His clothes had been destroyed, stingy little scraps clinging to barely intact skin. There was scarcely anything left of him and he had actually been mangled and crushed to a pulp. His arms, legs and his head–they were falling apart, his neck somehow still attached to his chest. The rest of him just...pieces, like a puzzle.

He was literally falling to pieces.

Vampires felt like marble, but Nora hadn't understood how true that was until she had seen this. Some parts of him were so destroyed he was chipping away at the seams, exposing the garishly strange and alien 'flesh' lay underneath his skin that more resembled glass than it did the body and anatomy of a man.

He looked like the result of someone dropping a stack of plates on the floor, he was scattered everywhere. Everywhere.

Someone had taken their sweet, torturous time in dismembering him and the...flaking away of his skin reminded her of an aged porcelain doll falling apart, no longer able to keep itself together.

She managed to drag her eyes from his body to look at his head and face and this time she genuinely gagged, fighting down the acidic bile that fought its way up her throat...partly because his jaw had been monstrously dislocated to the point it had nearly been ripped clean off, hardly hanging onto his face: and partly because that one eye she had left untouched was still intact, staring right at her...and she had seen it move–seen it blink at her and roll lazily in its socket.

He...he was still alive.

"Oh Jesus, ew." Cringing away from the absurdity of such a punishment, it ultimately revealed where her mates were. They stood but a few meters away, indifferent to what they had done. They weren't looking at anything else, only her and she noticed Felix behind them, lighter at the ready and waiting for his orders to let the bastard burn.

There was not a hair out of place on any of them and either they were exceedingly precise and clean in their demolition, or they had already rid themselves of the evidence of their involvement.

Either way, she was grateful. She was strong willed and she really did accept them, but if they had been trapped in their vengeful state still, she might have lost some of her daring nerve.

She was only human after all and though she had partaken in some of Edward's misery, on a normal basis gore and torture just wasn't her thing.

Marcus moved first. With a kind and patient smile, he extended a cautious hand to her and looked as if he were afraid she would reject them. It saddened her, all of it. Especially Caius's eyes.

Caius...The Butcher. The Warrior. The Executioner.

All names Demitri had said were given to him due to his wickedness and from the guilt on his face, the way he was clearly awaiting some sort of furious berating from her, he had dished out a majority of Edwards retribution just like Nora had thought he would.

After all of the profane things he'd just done, he still looked vulnerable. He still valued her opinion of him more than anything else at that moment.

That angular, perfect face crafted by Adonis himself that she adored and that could be full of so much love, so much wonder for the things he cared for was haunted, and she would do all in her power to rid him of his worries. Not even because Edward had deserved what had been done to him and more, but because her mates in their entirety and their darkness were gorgeous to her. It might have been unbelievable, a sole opinion only she owned but it was true.

She stretched out her own hand and approached, and her heart nearly broke for them when all three seemed to slouch in relief. As if they had thought she really would have abandoned them for this.

Caius barged past Marcus and a furtive Aro when she neared, apparently not having the fortitude to wait any longer. He grabbed her hand to pull her into his chest quickly, wrapping her in his arms with such gentleness and care that Nora forgot where she was, her breath stolen by him.

The juxtaposition of his hands that annihilated, that were used to destroying anything before them daily touching her so softly, so deftly and lovingly was what truly made her head spin; because he always and had always treated her like some breakable jewel meant to be treasured, when to others he was not a kind man, not a lenient one and not one that ever cared enough to treat them as if they were anything greater than the dirt on his shoe.

She all but fell into him, uncaring of the others, of the Cullens, that surrounded them. They were in their own little grieving bubble as it was, anyway.

It didn't need to be said, but Nora felt in the air that Caius was waiting–waiting for her to say something in response to what they had done.

Marcus was less explicit with his wariness, but still he unarguably needed a sign, his lips pressed into a straight line and his hands subconsciously fidgeting with his clothes.

The only one of them not displaying any signs of anxiety was Aro. His striking face was serene, his body still and his whole demeanor screaming that he knew there was nothing to fear from her. Nora was aware he was only calm because every time they touched, he saw her acceptance of them. It struck her that for Caius and Marcus's sakes, she was going to have to make it more verbal.

"Are you really so worried?" She asked in muted velvety tones, carding a hand through Caius's wild blond locks with a smile, even though he couldn't see it. Marcus did, though, and his tension fully faded at how relaxed she was. He knew she meant it, he knew she didn't care about what they had done.

Caius was quiet, too quiet and Nora chuckled lightly in amusement over how stressed he was. She turned her head slightly and ran her lips sweetly along his jaw, feeling him press into her in response, arms winding more snugly around her waist. "There's nothing you could do, any of you, to drive me away. You need to know that, okay? I don't care about your reputation, Caius, or the things you do. I'm still yours, I'll always be yours." Her whispered promise in his ear ignited something in him and he drew back, his eyes smoldering with love.

He caressed his nose against hers, a hand cupping her jaw so he could see her, his thumb brushing along her warm skin.

Breathing in her scent, his lips pressed against hers slowly, deeply, feather lightly so he could drag it out and savor this moment. She returned the kiss with just as much yearning and hummed out a quiet moan when he nipped lightly at her bottom lip and pulled it between his teeth, his tongue soothing the small bites, not to coax her mouth open...just to feel her.

Her hand skimmed the cold skin of his neck, her fingers lacing in his hair to pull him closer. He groaned at the softness of her skin against his, at the taste of her and the smell of her and her warmth in his arms.

Their kiss might have been sweet and gentle and loving, but it was passionate, purely driven by his instincts and his fear of losing her.

Their foreheads pressed together when he found the power to pull away, staying close so he could take her in, his eyes closing in content. She giggled as she watched him, the tinkling sound making him open his eyes questioningly. "I never knew you were such a worry wart."

This time, he rolled his eyes and chuckled himself, trying to be aloof but she could see how shaken he was still.

"I wasn't worried, sweetheart. You said it yourself. You're mine." He smirked coyly and pressed a long kiss to her cheek when she blushed a scarlet red.

She kept her teasing guise, but internally she was melting at what he had said, at the compelling and steely rasp in his voice. 'God, that was hot.'

And it was true. She would always be theirs, no matter what.

She stayed in his arms, her own around his slim waist, and looked at Aro and Marcus who perked up when she acknowledged them, happy enough to let Caius have his moment. It only meant they would get their own attention later.

"That goes for you two as well, you know?"

They both smiled, and Marcus crooked his head to the side wryly, his wavy hair caught in the material of his coat which she was sure he couldn't wait to get out of. "Is it a promise, my love?"

His happiness was infectious with those dimples, she couldn't help but to beam back at him. "Definitely."

Aro rumbled out a quiet laugh, his hands in his pockets. He was so carefree you'd have thought nothing had gone awry at all in the last day. "Then we will hold you to it for eternity, my sweet darling." He uncovered his hands to adjust his clothes, his eyes scanning passingly over the scene before them, pushing back his loose ebony hair from his face thoughtlessly. "Now, let us finish this so you can get some well deserved sleep, hmm? You must be exhausted, love."

Nora hadn't realized it, but she had been up for over 24 hours now. That was just wrong. She never liked to miss sleep, not now that her dreams were pleasant. Forcing back a yawn, she nodded tiredly, her face pushed into Caius's cool chest so the addicting smell of his faint, spicy cologne could relax her further.

That was all the indication Aro needed to send Felix the signal. He lifted his arm, crooking his index and middle finger twice.

The colossal man's face hardened and he approached the 'corpse' of Edward, passing through the bereaved Cullens who glowered sullenly but didn't stop him. They cried and they sobbed, dry sobs that were vacant of tears and watched in silence as Felix stepped ever closer to Edward. In less than no time he stood over him, Edward's imminent doom now finally here.

Nora burrowed further into Caius's embrace for support when Felix dropped the lighter and Edward Cullens end was cemented for good, his remains bursting into a strong, tall fire.

Nora thought she should feel bad, feel some remorse or something but...there was none in her. Not for him.

Caius laid his head on top of hers when he felt her body go stiff against him and his hand on her waist began to rub soothing circles that instantly erased her self doubt. It was like he knew exactly what she was thinking.

Edward burned and Nora smiled angelically, the small little upturn of her lips illuminated by the flames and the soft morning light, any remaining guilt over her impassiveness soothed when Aro and Marcus joined her and Caius to watch the vermin be swallowed by the blisteringly hot, boiling inferno.

The pyre of flames was a guarantee of faith to her, a glowing hope that things would get better from here on out.

Nora only prayed she was right.

A/N
Hey guys! So, some serious topics today. I wanted to shed light on narcissistic relationships and the importance of being there for those in one. I won't bore you, but I recently lost my sister to a narcissistic abuser despite my best efforts to get her out of the relationship, to get her safe. She cut ties with me and my whole family even though she's miserable, not wanting to hear it anymore. So please, take this chapter as an incentive to check up on those you know in relationships like this and try to help, even if they act like they don't want you to. If you are in one yourself, please feel free to privately message me if you ever need to talk. Seriously.

Ciao x