In Which I Beg for Sweet Release From Breaking Dawn: Chapter 29 -- Defection · 10:35am Jul 20th, 2018
Showing fantastic proactivity, the Cullens wait for Alice to return. For hours. They don’t even send someone out to check up on her. What do Bella and Edward do during this? Take a wild guess.
We’d stared at each other all night, staring at what neither of us could live through losing: the other.
CM + 1
Finally, Rosalie points out that Alice being gone for so long is unusual. Edward realizes that Aro might’ve sent someone to take Alice out, and the Cullens immediately go to follow her and Jasper’s trail. They chase it to the Quileute border, where Sam’s waiting for them. He explains that Alice and Jasper asked for permission to cross the reservation to the ocean. He escorted them there and received a note from Alice. Alice and Jasper immediately took off into the ocean. Carlisle opens the note, which Bella recognizes as being the copyright page from The Merchant of Venice, with her scent on it. In the note, Alice explains that she and Jasper are leaving, as it’s safer for them, tells them to “remember Eleazar” (who we’ve never heard of before), and apologizes. Meaning Alice is safe from the upcoming slaughter. Yay! (Although personally, I want to bet she’s got one of those elaborate plans built on future sight that falls apart if anyone besides the seer knows about it. Want to, but that would be attributing intelligence to this series.)
However, Sam says that he and his pack are going to stay and help the Cullens, because Jacob can’t abandon Nessie and they can’t abandon him. Well, that was fast. As the Cullens head back home, Bella thinks about another, Jasper-less trail of Alice’s that they’d picked up but ignored and wonders why Alice had picked that particular piece of paper for the note. She says she’s going to follow it, and although Edward isn’t enthusiastic, he’s going with her.
“I couldn’t let you walk away from me,” he explained in a low voice. “It hurt just to imagine it.”
I understood without more explanation than that. (“More explanation”? What “more” do you need? That’s pretty straightforward.) I thought of being divided from him now and realized I would have felt the same pain, no matter how short the separation.
“Let’s hurry,” he said. “
RenesmeeNessie will be awake.”I nodded, and we were running again.
It was probably a silly thing, to waste time away from
RenesmeeNessie just for curiosity’s sake.
CM + 2
The trail leads to Bella’s and Edward’s cottage. Bella leaves Edward outside and finds her copy of The Merchant of Venice. Near where the copyright page was torn, she finds a note, “Destroy this”, and a name and address in Seattle. No, we don’t hear either of them. Bella lights a fire and tosses the book in. She decides not to tell Edward about it, given the lengths Alice went to to make sure only Bella knew where to find the note. So she just has a name, an address, and no clue what they mean.
An anxious Edward enters, and he and Bella discuss why Alice left. They conclude that Jasper was in unavoidable danger and she wanted to keep him safe, even if it meant abandoning the rest of the Cullens. Despondent, they head back home.
Alice’s note did not make me hopeful. If there were any way to avoid the coming slaughter, Alice would have stayed. I couldn’t see any other possibility.
Yeah, but you’re not a seer. Alice can see all kinds of things that you can’t.
The Cullens quickly decide to split up, contacting as many of their friends as they can. Tanya and Kate, Irina’s sisters, are already on their way. Jacob explains the situation to Nessie and asks Edward if he, as a werewolf, needs to leave.
“The vampires who are coming to help us are not the same as we are,” Edward said. “Tanya’s family is the only one besides ours with a reverence for human life, and even they don’t think much of werewolves. I think it might be safer-”
“I can take care of myself,” Jacob interrupted.
Stop.
Jacob just heard that a bunch of regular vampires — blood-drinking supernatural serial killers — going to be showing up in Forks soon. They’re going to need to feed. They’re going to kill humans. According to him, the entire “point” of werewolves is to protect humans from vampires. And he doesn’t care at all about the inevitable death toll. No. Not as long as Nessie’s safe. If she was afraid of the dark, he’d be willing to set the world on fire to chase away the night. In fact, not even the Cullens care all that much; Nessie’s all that matters, so if a few dozen people need to be fed to vampires, what of it? They’re just humans.
The person you love matters more than everyone else. That’s the message this book is giving.
As Jacob and Edward talk, Bella uses a computer to look up the name — J. Jenks — and the address. She finds site for a lawyer named Jason Jenks, but the address is wrong. When she looks up the address Alice left her, she finds nothing, “as if the address didn’t exist”. This doesn’t set alarm bells ringing in her head, so she cuts her search short and angsts about the stress she’s under.
I didn’t know if I could stand this. As much as I feared for my life, for Edward’s, for the rest of my family’s, it was not the same as the gut-wrenching terror I felt for my daughter. There had to be a way to save her, even if that was the only thing I could do.
Suddenly, I knew that this was all I wanted anymore. The rest I would bear if I had to, but not her life being forfeited. Not that.
She was the one thing I simply had to save.
CM + 1
Bella and Nessie share a moment that’s ruined by Nessie being speshul and communicating only through her touch. Bella resolves to save Nessie, no matter what it takes.
Clinginess Meter: 57 x 5
Chapters Left: 10
I can see it now, a repeat of Eclipse. As the final battle approaches, everything will get slower and slower.
And you know, who committed the “defection”? Alice and Jasper deserted; if they’d defected, they’d’ve gone to the Volturi.
Ten seems like too many D:
At this point, I'm rooting for the Volturi. Cleanse the Earth of that monstrosity before it grows more powerful!