COLOURS || Seth Clearwater

FOURTY THREE

Lucinda sat peacefully in the living room of the house, listening silently as Renesmee played on the piano with her father as she had done so many times before. But he never failed to amaze her at just how quickly Renesmee was progressing. Already she looked as if she were four or five, even if she wasn't even a year old yet. Her mind was even more developed than the rest of her, which was equally astounding.

It had been nearly three days since Bella saw Irina, and although Lucinda had her pets out scouring the woods for her, she was nowhere to be found in the area. Even Rowena couldn't find her.

She was essentially by herself for the next day or two. Seth and Leah were both spending time with their mother, and the twins and Virginia had briefly gone back to France to grab some of her things from her apartment.

Apparently, she was going to be staying a while.

The Cullen's had agreed wholeheartedly to allow her to stay with them, since she was so helpful with Bella and Rensemee, as well as the rest of the family. It also seemed that she had quite the influence over the nature around them, which had almost led to some confusing discoveries in the human world had she not caught it in time.

The four magic-folk had then spent an entire night attempting to send a rather large cocoanut tree from Washington down to somewhere in subtropical Asia like the Philippines, where they're more commonly found.

Glass shattered behind her, causing her to jump. Lucinda twisted where she was sitting next to Jasper, who had previously been reading his book but was now standing next to Alice. She had dropped the vase of flowers she had originally been planning to put somewhere in the living room, and was now staring at Edward with mute horror.

"What is it, Alice?" Jasper murmured soothingly, his hands around her.

Carlisle and Esme paused their game of chess, both of them standing up.

"The Voltori," Alice whispered shakily, her golden eyes drifting from her brother and over to sweet little Renesmee, who was still poking at the keys on the piano. "They're coming for us."

"How many?" Lucinda asked carefully, absentmindedly resting her palm over the pocket of dark magic hidden in her side.

While the Volturi had learned the hard way they were to avoid her, she still didn't like the idea of being near the Guard. Especially not now that she had taken her emotions back. Jane would undoubtedly be able to hurt her now, something she knew the sadistic small girl would relish in, but she could take on the rest if she was subdued.

She'd done it before.

"Aro, Caius, Marcus, the Guard, and Irina." Alice inhaled shakily and watched Rensemee spin around on the piano bench to join the conversation.

Bella murmured something Lucinda didn't quite catch, but was gesturing for Renesmee to stand with her; she got the gist of it, and sighed.

"Why?" Carlisle asked softly, sounding hurt.

"What did Irina see in the woods," Edward demanded calmly, his eyes trained solely on his daughter.

"We were just walking," Bella mumbled, her brows pulled together with concern as she revisited that day in her memories.

Jacob only shrugged his shoulders. "Ness was catching snowflakes."

Immediately, Lucinda met Edwards eye as they both came to the same conclusion, and her heart broke. Without a word she stood up and left the room, feeling a pressure in her chest that hadn't been there in an undeniably long time. She walked silently up to her room and closed the door, waving a hand at the lock and sending a burst of purple sparks to slam the bold home so she wouldn't be disturbed.