I shuddered at his words, and then shook my head angrily. “In what strange parallel dimension would I ever have gone to prom of my own free will? If you weren’t a thousand times stronger than me, I would never have let you get away with this.”
He smiled briefly, but it didn’t touch his eyes. “It wasn’t so bad, you said so yourself.”
“That’s because I was with you.”
We were quiet for a minute; he stared at the moon and I stared at him. I wished there was some way to explain how very uninterested I was in a normal human life.
“Will you tell me something?” he asked, glancing down at me with a slight smile.
“Don’t I always?”
“Just promise you’ll tell me,” he insisted, grinning.
I knew I was going to regret this almost instantly. “Fine.”
“You seemed honestly surprised when you figured out that I was taking you here,” he began.
“I was,” I interjected.
“Exactly,” he agreed. “But you must have had some other theory . . . I’m curious — what did you think I was dressing you up for?”
Yes, instant regret. I pursed my lips, hesitating. “I don’t want to tell you.”
“You promised,” he objected.
“I know.”
“What’s the problem?”
I knew he thought it was mere embarrassment holding me back. “I think it will make you mad — or sad.”
His brows pulled together over his eyes as he thought that through. “I still want to know. Please?”
I sighed. He waited.
“Well . . . I assumed it was some kind of . . . occasion. But I didn’t think it would be some trite human thing . . . prom!” I scoffed.
“Human?” he asked flatly. He’d picked up on the key word.
I looked down at my dress, fidgeting with a stray piece of chiffon. He waited in silence.
“Okay,” I confessed in a rush. “So I was hoping that you might have changed your mind . . . that you were going to change me, after all.”
A dozen emotions played across his face. Some I recognized: anger . . . pain . . . and then he seemed to collect himself and his expression became amused.
“You thought that would be a black tie occasion, did you?” he teased, touching the lapel of his tuxedo jacket.
I scowled to hide my embarrassment. “I don’t know how these things work. To me, at least, it seems more rational than prom does.” He was still grinning. “It’s not funny,” I said.
“No, you’re right, it’s not,” he agreed, his smile fading. “I’d rather treat it like a joke, though, than believe you’re serious.”
“But I am serious.”
He sighed deeply. “I know. And you’re really that willing?”
The pain was back in his eyes. I bit my lip and nodded.
“So ready for this to be the end,” he murmured, almost to himself, “for this to be the twilight of your life, though your life has barely started. You’re ready to give up everything.”
“It’s not the end, it’s the beginning,” I disagreed under my breath.
“I’m not worth it,” he said sadly.
“Do you remember when you told me that I didn’t see myself very clearly?” I asked, raising my eyebrows. “You obviously have the same blindness.”
“I know what I am.”
I sighed.
But his mercurial mood shifted on me. He pursed his lips, and his eyes were probing. He examined my face for a long moment.
“You’re ready now, then?” he asked.
“Um.” I gulped. “Yes?”
He smiled, and inclined his head slowly until his cold lips brushed against the skin just under the corner of my jaw.
“Right now?” he whispered, his breath blowing cool on my neck. I shivered involuntarily.
“Yes,” I whispered, so my voice wouldn’t have a chance to break. If he thought I was bluffing, he was going to be disappointed. I’d already made this decision, and I was sure. It didn’t matter that my body was rigid as a plank, my hands balled into fists, my breathing erratic . . .
He chuckled darkly, and leaned away. His face did look disappointed.
“You can’t really believe that I would give in so easily,” he said with a sour edge to his mocking tone.
“A girl can dream.”
His eyebrows rose. “Is that what you dream about? Being a monster?”
“Not exactly,” I said, frowning at his word choice. Monster, indeed. “Mostly I dream about being with you forever.”
His expression changed, softened and saddened by the subtle ache in my voice.
“Bella.” His fingers lightly traced the shape of my lips. “I will stay with you — isn’t that enough?”
I smiled under his fingertips. “Enough for now.”
He frowned at my tenacity. No one was going to surrender tonight. He exhaled, and the sound was practically a growl.
I touched his face. “Look,” I said. “I love you more than everything else in the world combined. Isn’t that enough?”
“Yes, it is enough,” he answered, smiling. “Enough for forever.”
And he leaned down to press his cold lips once more to my throat.
Twilight Discussion Questions
1. Is the fact that Edward can’t read Bella’s thoughts more important than it seems? Will it serve a larger purpose?
2. Bella faints at the smell of blood. If she were to become a vampire, how might this serve as a hindrance? How might it be an asset?
3. Is Edward selfishly putting Bella in danger or is Bella being too stubborn for her own good? Is it a little bit of both? What are the threatening factors facing Bella and are there ways of avoiding them?
4. Temptation is a major theme in Twilight—more accurately, resisting one’s temptations. Discuss the subplot of Carlisle’s job as a doctor in relation to this major theme. How well does he handle temptation? What do you feel would be the most difficult part for him in his role? Why does he remain working as a doctor when the Cullens don’t seem to need his income?
5. The Cullens live, act and care for each other as a family. How much of their ability to do so is dependant on Carlisle’s rule that they live in a manner that contradicts their nature – hunting animals instead of humans? Do you think that they would be able to maintain their bond if they weren’t all committed to his plan?
6. Edward saves Bella on more than one occasion. Discuss the different instances and how Bella reacted before she knew what he was and after. Also discuss how Edward reacted after each instance both before and after Bella knew he was a vampire.
7. Alice explains to Bella the theory of how vampires come to exist. She mentions that most have some memories of the transition and their life prior to it. How does what we learn from James about Alice’s past explain her lack of memory?
8. Once Edward has tasted Bella’s blood, do you think it will make it harder to resist Bella, specifically, her blood? Will the fact that he was able to control himself make Bella want to be changed into a vampire? Do you think that is fair of her to ask that of him? Do you think it is fair of him to refuse?
9. Jacob Black tells Bella a story about his tribe and the “cold ones.” He doesn’t believe any of it, but says his father clearly dislikes the Cullens. If Jacob’s father believes the Cullens are dangerous, why doesn’t he warn Bella or Jacob? Is he hiding a secret of his own?
10. Stephenie Meyer has noted that each of the novels in The Twilight Saga pays homage to other literary classics. For Twilight, she has said Pride and Prejudice was the key inspiration. Pride and Prejudice is often described as a “romantic comedy.” What parts of Twilight are romantic? What parts are comic? Describe the similarities between Elizabeth Bennet and Bella Swan; Fitzwilliam Darcy and Edward Cullen. What role would Bella’s friends play in a “remake” of Jane Austen’s classic story?
Visit the official site at www.thetwilightsaga.com
Acknowledgments
A
huge thank you to:
my parents, Steve and Candy,
for a lifetime of love and support,
for reading great books to me when I was young,
and for still holding my hand through the
things that make me nervous;
my husband, Pancho, and my sons, Gabe, Seth, and Eli, for sharing me so often with my imaginary friends;
my friends at Writers House,
Genevieve Gagne-Hawes, for giving me that first chance,
and my agent Jodi Reamer, for turning the most
unlikely dreams into realities;
my editor Megan Tingley, for all her help in
making Twilight better than it started out;
my brothers, Paul and Jacob, for their expert advice on all
my automotive questions; and my online family, the talented staff and writers at fansofrealitytv.com,particularly Kimberly “Shazzer,” and Collin “Mantenna”for the encouragement, advice,
and inspiration.
Copyright
Text copyright © 2006 by Stephenie Meyer
All rights reserved. Except as permitted under the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, no part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, or stored in a database or retrieval system, without the prior written permission of the publisher.
Little, Brown and Company
Hachette Book Group
237 Park Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Visit our website at www.HachetteBookGroup.com
First eBook Edition: July 2007
ISBN: 978-0-316-00772-6
NEW MOON
Cover
Copyright
Dedication
Epigraph
PREFACE
1. PARTY
2. STITCHES
3. THE END
OCTOBER
NOVEMBER
DECEMBER
JANUARY
4. WAKING UP
5. CHEATER
6. FRIENDS
7. REPETITION
8. ADRENALINE
9. THIRD WHEEL
10. THE MEADOW
11. CULT
12. INTRUDER
13. KILLER
14. FAMILY
15. PRESSURE
16. PARIS
17. VISITOR
18. THE FUNERAL
19. RACE
20. VOLTERRA
21. VERDICT
22. FLIGHT
23. THE TRUTH
24. VOTE
EPILOGUE—TREATY
Discussion Questions
Acknowledgments
ECLIPSE
BREAKING DAWN
For my dad, Stephen Morgan—
No one has ever been given more loving and unconditional support than I have been given by you.I love you, too.
These violent delights have violent ends
And in their triumph die, like fire and powder,
Which, as they kiss, consume.
Romeo and Juliet, Act II, Scene VI
PREFACE
I FELT LIKE I WAS TRAPPED IN ONE OF THOSE TERRIFYING nightmares, the one where you have to run, run till your lungs burst, but you can’t make your body move fast enough. My legs seemed to move slower and slower as I fought my way through the callous crowd, but the hands on the huge clock tower didn’t slow. With relentless, uncaring force, they turned inexorably toward the end—the end of everything.
But this was no dream, and, unlike the nightmare, I wasn’t running for my life; I was racing to save something infinitely more precious. My own life meant little to me today.
Alice had said there was a good chance we would both die here. Perhaps the outcome would be different if she weren’t trapped by the brilliant sunlight; only I was free to run across this bright, crowded square.
And I couldn’t run fast enough.
So it didn’t matter to me that we were surrounded by our extraordinarily dangerous enemies. As the clock began to toll out the hour, vibrating under the soles of my sluggish feet, I knew I was too late—and I was glad something bloodthirsty waited in the wings. For in failing at this, I forfeited any desire to live.
The clock tolled again, and the sun beat down from the exact center point of the sky.
1. PARTY
I WAS NINETY-NINE POINT NINE PERCENT SURE I WAS dreaming.
The reasons I was so certain were that, first, I was standing in a bright shaft of sunlight—the kind of blinding clear sun that never shone on my drizzly new hometown in Forks, Washington—and second, I was looking at my Grandma Marie. Gran had been dead for six years now, so that was solid evidence toward the dream theory.
Gran hadn’t changed much; her face looked just the same as I remembered it. The skin was soft and withered, bent into a thousand tiny creases that clung gently to the bone underneath. Like a dried apricot, but with a puff of thick white hair standing out in a cloud around it.
Our mouths—hers a wizened pucker—spread into the same surprised half-smile at just the same time. Apparently, she hadn’t been expecting to see me, either.
I was about to ask her a question; I had so many—What was she doing here in my dream? What had she been up to in the past six years? Was Pop okay, and had they found each other, wherever they were?—but she opened her mouth when I did, so I stopped to let her go first. She paused, too, and then we both smiled at the little awkwardness.
“Bella?”
It wasn’t Gran who called my name, and we both turned to see the addition to our small reunion. I didn’t have to look to know who it was; this was a voice I would know anywhere—know, and respond to, whether I was awake or asleep...or even dead, I’d bet. The voice I’d walk through fire for—or, less dramatically, slosh every day through the cold and endless rain for.
Edward.
Even though I was always thrilled to see him—conscious or otherwise—and even though I was almost positive that I was dreaming, I panicked as Edward walked toward us through the glaring sunlight.
I panicked because Gran didn’t know that I was in love with a vampire—nobody knew that—so how was I supposed to explain the fact that the brilliant sunbeams were shattering off his skin into a thousand rainbow shards like he was made of crystal or diamond?
Well, Gran, you might have noticed that my boyfriend glitters. It’s just something he does in the sun. Don’t worry about it....
What was he doing? The whole reason he lived in Forks, the rainiest place in the world, was so that he could be outside in the daytime without exposing his family’s secret. Yet here he was, strolling gracefully toward me—with the most beautiful smile on his angel’s face—as if I were the only one here.
In that second, I wished that I was not the one exception to his mysterious talent; I usually felt grateful that I was the only person whose thoughts he couldn’t hear just as clearly as if they were spoken aloud. But now I wished he could hear me, too, so that he could hear the warning I was screaming in my head.
I shot a panicked glance back at Gran, and saw that it was too late. She was just turning to stare back at me, her eyes as alarmed as mine.
Edward—still smiling so beautifully that my heart felt like it was going to swell up and burst through my chest—put his arm around my shoulder and turned to face my grandmother.
Gran’s expression surprised me. Instead of looking horrified, she was staring at me sheepishly, as if waiting for a scolding. And she was standing in such a strange position—one arm held awkwardly away from her body, stretched out and then curled around the air. Like she had her arm around someone I couldn’t see, someone invisible...
Only then, as I looked at the bigger picture, did I notice the huge gilt frame that enclosed my grandmother’s form. Uncomprehending, I raised the hand that wasn’t wrapped around Edward’s waist and reached out to touch her. She mimicked the movement exactly, mirrored it. But where our fingers should have met, there was nothing but cold glass...
With a dizzying jolt, my dream ab
ruptly became a nightmare.
There was no Gran.
That was me. Me in a mirror. Me—ancient, creased, and withered.
Edward stood beside me, casting no reflection, excruciatingly lovely and forever seventeen.
He pressed his icy, perfect lips against my wasted cheek.
“Happy birthday,” he whispered.
I woke with a start—my eyelids popping open wide—and gasped. Dull gray light, the familiar light of an overcast morning, took the place of the blinding sun in my dream.
Just a dream, I told myself. It was only a dream. I took a deep breath, and then jumped again when my alarm went off. The little calendar in the corner of the clock’s display informed me that today was September thirteenth.
Only a dream, but prophetic enough in one way, at least. Today was my birthday. I was officially eighteen years old.
I’d been dreading this day for months.
All through the perfect summer—the happiest summer I had ever had, the happiest summer anyone anywhere had ever had, and the rainiest summer in the history of the Olympic Peninsula—this bleak date had lurked in ambush, waiting to spring.
And now that it had hit, it was even worse than I’d feared it would be. I could feel it—I was older. Every day I got older, but this was different, worse, quantifiable. I was eighteen.
And Edward never would be.
When I went to brush my teeth, I was almost surprised that the face in the mirror hadn’t changed. I stared at myself, looking for some sign of impending wrinkles in my ivory skin. The only creases were the ones on my forehead, though, and I knew that if I could manage to relax, they would disappear. I couldn’t. My eyebrows stayed lodged in a worried line over my anxious brown eyes.
It was just a dream, I reminded myself again. Just a dream...but also my worst nightmare.
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