Disclaimer: The Twilight story and all publicly recognised characters in it are the creation and property of Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement is intended.

Huge thanks to my beta, papilioarcanus. Love you Miss P!

I halted the rental in the tiny car park. It was still dark but there was the first shy blush of light in the east. I took a deep breath; it caught in my chest as usual. I coughed the tightness clear, got my stuff together and walked over rough grass, down to the beach. I picked my way unsteadily across pale grey rocks. I had no desire to have an accident so I went, gingerly as a cat. There was no slime but only a few patches of sand. Some of the rocks had been tossed around haphazardly by winter storms long past and they teetered uneasily against each other.

It took me a while to pick my way across and down to the rock pools. The tide had retreated far out and I found a large smooth outcrop and perched there. I checked over my rucksack and its contents and sat looking at the sky. I felt…just a bit silly. I didn't know what I expected - it was just one of those things that I'd wanted to do – to go down to the sea at dawn and watch the mid-summer sun rise. It didn't help that this time of the year sunrise happened at about three o'clock. The nights were so light on the east coast of Scotland.

Far above me and behind lay my cottage, my home for the summer. It had seemed a sensible thing to put some distance between myself and Jake; to allow us time to adjust I'd told him, but really it was so that I did not have to see the subtle change that came over him whenever Ness was mentioned, the shift that contentment and certainty occasioned in him. Nor did I have to see the glowing happiness in his eyes that I had never quite been able to put there for him.

I realised it was for the best that Ness had happened sooner rather than later. Jake and I were regarded as inevitable since childhood. We were comfortable together and we had loved each other but Vanessa's arrival had changed everything.

And now all that I loved lay thousands of miles and a whole ocean away.

Sorrow sat heavy in my chest as solid and palpable as the grey rocks surrounding me. It was, I had come to realise, not sorrow for a changed relationship but for the fact that love such as theirs existed and I doubted if I would ever find anything like it. Above all there was the knowledge that if I did not then I would always remain alone.

And here was my attempt to deal with that sorrow. It had been eating me for long enough so I had come to the beach to play it out. And really, that was what I had been hoping for. If I was completely and utterly honest with myself, I hoped to look out at the sea on mid-summer dawn and play away at least some part of the heartache that I had been feeling. I glanced sideways at my rucksack. I had brought what seemed sensible necessaries. A flask of tea, a blanket, my phone - no matter that reception was dicey and I had no one to call anyway – but it was nice to have. I also had some trail mix and a basic first aid kit. But mostly the bag held a box, unopened in months, which contained my flute, well loved and well wrapped as always but now silent to me.

Almost for as long as I could remember, music spoke to me. I heard it as a little girl, just before I would drop off to sleep. I would hear it in dreams or at strange, sometimes inconvenient moments in the day. Over the years I had learned to wrap it to me, to tame it and then sometimes to attempt to pin it down to shape on a stave. It was always with me… until two months ago and the sorrow was just too hard to touch so I fell quiet. It seemed that, as the music slipped away from me, I started to fade a little. I turned pale and lost weight. My father and Sue, his new wife had worried quietly while Jake lashed himself with guilt. Until, to save myself the additional burden of their pain, I handed in my notice at work and blew most of my savings on renting the cottage on St Abb's Head until my return in the fall to attend Jake's wedding.

For years I had played a silver flute and it served me well. Then Jake had given me a flute of his own making. In it I heard the notes of his own language, lilting yet earthy and I knew that I had found the instrument that spoke to my heart. That my boyfriend had made it with his own hands for me added to the magic. And now he was far away and as lost to me as the pale moon. I no longer owned our future together and I had absolutely no idea what to do with the future that was now such a blank to me. I wished that I could have felt free but instead I didn't feel free at all. I felt adrift. There was a difference.

I noticed slowly that there was no bird song. All the other dawns that I had sat through in my garden up at the cottage were rich with varied trills and whistles but now on the edge of the sea all I could hear was the susurration of waves on the shore, constant and lulling. I edged over slightly to the tide pool beside me and dabbled my hands in the chilled water. Thin green weed, long and wavy curled delicately around my fingertips.

It felt like his hair

And with that, with that sudden jerking realisation, finally the stone within me broke and I was able to weep. I cried greedily, hiccupping and sobbing, pushing out that goddamned pain, cracking it open as wide as I could, keening out my sorrow for a future lost and a love that just wasn't enough. I knew that Ness was good and good for him. So it wasn't so much Jake that I wept for. Instead I was aware enough to recognise the selfishness of my grief.

What about me, what about me? He is happy. There is no one for me to worry about. Everybody is safe and warm and well loved, but what am I going to do?

No answers came to me out of the sunrise. Nothing happened and I felt just a little disappointed - I didn't know what I was expecting really but I knew I was expecting something, no matter what it was.

Slowly, slowly, slowly I managed to calm my shuddering breaths and dry my face. My tears had made my hands sticky and I rinsed them in the clear pool beside me. Small salt water ripples licking the evidence of my grief free from my fingers. I sighed but within that sigh I found that at last, at last I could finally breathe deeply again. It appeared that while no clear resolution had come about what I was to do, I had at least managed to free my sorrow and that was a blessing. A thin damp wind cooled my heated skin and I lifted my face to it. I breathed deeply once more and from the peace welling within me I spoke their names

"Be happy and blessings on you both." I blew a kiss toward the lightening sky and released them more easily than I would have believed even an hour ago.

Only a little while later, when my breathing had finally returned to normal and I had had a cup of tea and a nibble of the trail mix, I sat in stunned admiration of the wakening sky. While I had wept, an ocean equally wide of orange and green had rolled across the sky filling the sea below with its own weird reflected fire. Gradually it deepened to rose and blue violet shot through with amber and gold. I sat and watched the flood of fire soak into the northern summer sky and as I did so, I heard the first high faint notes of a new song. I lay there tasting it in my mind. Not too quick to reach for pen and stave paper but fixing it slowly and while I played with the audible taste of the wildfire ocean I tried to capture too the swooping flight of the terns that landed about me along with the solidity and grace of the smooth grey stones and the gentle slope of the surrounding bay. Gradually I wove these separate threads into the banner that would become a new song.

When it had sunk somewhat into my mind I reached for the flute case and opened it gently. I sat there and looked at the instrument, the golden wood smooth and beautiful, and felt that, yes it had been made by my lover, but first and foremost it had been made by my friend, one that was a friend still. I lifted it out and caressed it as I would a loved one whom I had not seen in a long time.

As I did so I noticed, tucked under the instrument, a small slim brown paper packet about as long as from my wrist to my elbow. To it was tied a small note. I recognised my father's unassuming hand

Bella

Billy gave this to me the night before you left and told me to slip it into this case so that you might find it when you need it (his words kiddo, not mine) He wanted you to know that he made it himself for you and hopes that it will be a brand new song for you, a new beginning he said. He also said that it comes with love. So I guess it's from Billy,

With love.

I chuckled a little over the brusqueness, the difficulty of the note. I could virtually feel Charlie straining himself to find words but failing and instead using the plain and simple words of his friend and fishing buddy.

Smiling I tore open the paper and pushed aside a protective layer of soft red felt to find a slim bone flute. I knew from previous experience of Billy's workmanship that it would sound true but even so I was surprised at the purity of sound that flowed out when I lifted it to my lips.

And so with the sea rumbling bass and the terns calling descant I played the new song. Breathing out a wide arcing ribbon of sound that was made up of the east coast at sunrise: high and searching and clear and beautiful, lilting and seeking with that peculiar shade of longing that I always felt when I looked at the sea.

I did not know the future but I knew that it had the possibility of good and even I could hear the newborn golden thread of hope running through the music pouring from my breath. The song came to rest naturally like a boat to a safe harbour. I piled the blanket into a pillow and snuggled myself deeper into my thick coat, sighing happily.

Far away from Bella, further than most could comprehend, one sat listening attentively. The threads were deep but so brightly coloured she was not surprised that the sound had travelled so far. The sound was so pure she could almost taste it and the truth it carried was searing. Bubbling with excitement and sudden thrilling joy she called her family. Soon the small group were knotted about her, alert to hear also.

Listen! Do you hear it?

Yes. It is unmistakable.

Wonder

It's been so long since there has been a true Call Is he nearby?

Not far, he has heard it just as surely as we have.

Wistfulness

Do we all go? Do you want to miss this?

A woven thread of amusement

Not in a thousand years Has it been that long then? I can't remember… Certainty He is travelling to her. Shall we go to meet him? Lead on my darling.

I blinked sleepily in the new light. I had not slept the previous night, choosing instead to stay wakeful until the time came for me to drive down to the bay. My cottage rested almost at the cliff edge and a path trailed down from the garden to this very cove but it was terribly steep and narrow. I had had no desire to fight my way down it in the dark.

I blinked once more at the luminous waves that reflected the warm rose and gold of the blossoming sky. Something caught my eye and I smiled to see seals moving far out beyond the breakers. I counted six sleek heads as they broke through the water. One dipped and twisted and a tail followed the long grey back only for a gentle whiskered face to bob up again so smoothly as to barely cause a ripple in the molten surface of the sea.

Their heads turned simultaneously as a narrow triangle marked the water and a seventh joined the group. They greeted each other with soft growls and affectionate nuzzles. I smiled and yawned at the same time. I was so tired, my vision was blurring.

The air tingled. The fiery sky moved above me with the same undulating motion as the waves. I heard the refrain of my new song reverberating around the tiny cove but I did not recognise the sound. It was similar to a voice singing but impossibly sweet and clear. The rock beneath me seemed to shift and I clutched at it, gasping a little as I whirled to look for the invisible singer.

The air was full of falling notes as sweet as rain, my vision blurred more and then hardened out to utter clarity as I saw a man rise up from the sea and walk towards me.

Time slowed while staccato impressions stabbed my brain. Tall, utterly beautiful, impossibly graceful. His muscles moved smoothly beneath his pale skin as he pushed his dripping tawny hair away from his face. Some grey fabric was slung around his slim hips like a towel but other than that he was unclad and barefoot. He walked very slowly towards me, allowing me to look my fill but likewise his aquamarine gaze burned into me. I was utterly unable to look away from him, even while the heat of him dried my mouth and made my heart pound. It was like looking into the burning heart of a star, knowing it would kill you but the beauty of it making you willing to die for such a vision.

I was aware as never before of the blood moving through me, the air in my lungs, the filaments of hair that moved across my face, the clever play of tendon and skin as I lifted my hand to my face to brush away the obscuring strands. In that brief moment of blindness he had come to kneel before me, his spine bent, every muscle defined. He reached out a slim, fine boned hand, lifted the rough denim of my calf length skirt and pressed a kiss to its hem.

"Who, who are you?" I gasped stupidly. "Where did you come from?"

He lifted his searing eyes to my face but remained kneeling. His voice when he spoke was soft but held all the music that I ever knew.

"You could not say my name in my tongue Lady, the sounds would be too strange for you. In your language I am called Protector…perhaps…Edward would be the closest one could make it. And where I am from?" he paused and smiled slightly, wryly. "When on land I have always said that I am from the town of Cullen, further north from here and around the coast. But I called nowhere home until a half hour since when I first heard your song and knew you for my own."

"What?" I shook my head. My vision had cleared, the air was sweet in my mouth, the rock firm beneath me and yet I could feel my world tilting as he spoke.

"You Called me my lady. You shed tears into the sea for a man that had broken faith with you and then you wove magic into a song that bound me and called me forth. It has been many years since the Seal Folk have heard a true Call and that is what you made, whether you know it or not and I am here for you now, yours for as long as you want me."

"Magic?" my voice quavered a little.

"Indeed," he replied gravely.

"Impossible," I shook my head and clenched my heart against the flare of sudden unreasonable hope.

"Is it so hard to believe?" he countered. "A new song born on a mid summer dawn on a shore that has seen legend after legend come to pass. We are ancient and an ancient power still calls song to water, water to song. Of this I am proof." His voice was sure and rang with truth.

"My God," I whispered.

He laughed and it was like sunlight breaking "Not quite," he laughed softly. "Though certainly descended from gods. I am of the Sidhe, of a branch known to those that live on these shores as Selkies and we are immortal. We cannot die but we are true to our hearts and everything else that you need to know can be found in this..."

And slowly but inescapably he rose and pulled me gently towards him. As I slid forward his hand cupped the back of my head as delicately as he might a rose that he was about to pluck. His left arm twined around my waist and he lifted my face to his. His breath was sweet as I breathed him in. My heart jumped in my chest like it was trying to escape.

"Your name mo chiall; what is my lady's name?" he whispered diffidently.

"Bella Swan," I answered faintly before his lips touched mine.

"Bella," he replied and it sounded like a vow.

He kissed me. He kissed me and all that I had ever been, all that I was and all that I ever would be melted into the shape of him. Never had I felt the consuming desire to fall into a man, to take shelter in him, to feel at last that I had come home and yet I felt it all in this stranger's arms.

"Mo chiall, my heart, my beloved," he whispered into my hair. "I would have you forever."

I felt the truth of his words burn into my soul.

"Forever is a long time," I whispered shakily

"That I know. The millennia have been long without you, my heart. May I tell you? May I show you our lives?"

I nodded mutely… and could not possibly have expected what happened next.

Gently, delicately, he shuttered my eyes with his thumbs and then… licked my closed eyelids.

"The old tales tell of spitting into a mortal's eyes in order to give the Sight," his voice was steady but laced through with laughter. "But I feel that that is very ill mannered indeed. Open your eyes my Bella. Look at me and you will see one of the oldest of all the long tales told."

I opened dazed eyes, met his own deep aquamarine gaze and sank into them. I could not later say precisely what I saw or felt. It came in blurred rushes of sensation or vision. I heard whale song, snatches of music, threaded with poetry. I saw bubbles and swift flashes of silver as fish fled from my hunting; saw the moon from beneath the water, the silver disc blurred but beautiful, irresistible and haunting so I rose from the depths and sang into the night. I explored dark caverns and basked in warm coral seas. I danced on the edges of the currents at the mouth of underwater volcanoes, rejoicing as the hot tongues of water licked my cold body. I caught the fishermen and sailors that fell from the boats, felt their fate weave around them, pulled some to shore or a floating line and held others as they breathed the water in, knowing that the last they would feel was tender arms about them as they surrendered to the sea. I pulled magic from within myself to capture foul oil and poison to release it into the Depths so the sea could be cleansed from the filth that was poured into it and finally I saw the distant caves on the shores of the Summer lands that the Selkies called home, filled with light soft and dim. I saw the love of mated pairs, the helpless joyful surrender to the Call, the agony of mortal lovers lost and the unending bliss when one joined their mate.

The floating sensation left me and I felt the earth beneath my feet once more as I slumped exhausted into Edward's arms. He lifted me without effort and carried me further up the beach. When he reached one of the small patches of sand he sat and held me close to him. I think I dozed for a while.

I became aware of his hands caressing my hair, long soft strokes that smoothed the tangles under his fingers. I nuzzled into his shoulder and sighed in contentment.

"Are you well?" he asked.

"I'm fine. You are very comfortable."

A laugh rumbled in his chest. "For that I thank you. I like holding you."

"That…that, whatever it was...thank you. It was unbelievable"

His mouth twisted a little. "You travelled far, which is a good sign. But I had rather hoped that you would believe it."

I thought for a while. This man was solid beneath me. The breeze was cool on my skin. I could hear the cry of the terns as they squabbled and the hush of the waves as they broke on the shore. I could even smell the sea. How often does one smell something in a dream? It did not feel as if I was asleep.

"It is a lot to take in," I said. "But if this is not a dream…"

"This is magic my lady, not a dream."

"Then yes, I trust you and I do believe you."

"I am glad of that mo chiall," he smiled down at me and it seemed as though his heart stood in his eyes. Recognition rang like a deep sounding bell within me. This, here, was where all my songs began and ended, in the wide aquamarine eyes that captured me totally.

"Lie down," I commanded, abruptly.

His eyebrows quirked at me.

"Lie down…and close your eyes. I want to look at you without distraction."

"Do you find my eyes distracting mo chiall?" laughter was rich in his voice.

I frowned and smiled at him at the same time. "I find all of you distracting. That is why I want to look undisturbed."

He lay back, one arm pillowed under his head. He closed his eyes but kept his other hand curled out toward me as if waiting for my touch.

He might have been carved from pearl. The sun brought a faint translucent shimmer to his skin. I could see the veins travel up his arm, violet and green roads to his heart. I wondered suddenly if he had a heart. I placed my hand on his chest and felt the heavy beat under my fingertips. He was warm in the sun. I traced the graceful line of his collarbone. His skin was cream satin and I sighed with pleasure at the feel of him.

His skin pebbled to goosebumps as my breath flowed over him and I could see his muscles bunching under my hand. I expected at any moment to be pulled into a crushing embrace but he restrained himself and allowed me to explore. As I reached the wrap that clung to his hips my touch grew hesitant.

"What is this?" I asked.

"It is my Skin," he replied evenly.

"No this," I smoothed the wrap more confidently. "It looks like a pelt of some kind? I've never felt anything like it though," and I pushed my hand over his hip, exploring the strange texture. His sudden indrawn gasp made me jump.

"Gosh, are you okay?" I asked, concerned. "Did I hurt you?"

He laughed and I felt a gentle shudder move through him.

"Not at all mo chiall, I swear to you true. This is my Skin." His voice turned soft and hesitant. "When you touch this," he motioned to the fur "…it is as if you are touching all of me everywhere at once. It is…most intimate."

"I'm sorry, I didn't know," I whispered and he could tell I was upset. "I didn't want to make you uncomfortable, I'm so sorry."

For reply he lifted my hand and placed it on the wrap once more. "What does it feel like to you?" he asked and he dragged our joined hands over his hip. Utterly distracted by the sensation of his body under my hand, it took me a while to answer. He too was lost in my touch and I slowly withdrew my hand and laid it back in my lap.

"It.. it feels like fur actually," I whispered . "Really heavy fur." I looked closer at the grey pelt. Its pile was thick and sleek.

"You are correct," he said and captured my hand in his once more. "It is fur, but it is not taken from any beast. I was born with this but some of my people have the skill of weaving them too. My sister is one such and she is not the least of our Weavers. This is part of the magic of the selkies. We don the skin and take the form of a seal. It keeps us safe, undiscovered from prying human eyes."

I looked at him quizzically. He smiled and continued.

"No one is surprised by an old grey seal miles out in the water after all," he said. "A fair human though? That would raise an alarm. And this fur…it is all of me, like my soul perhaps. Without it, I would be trapped on land forever and while the mortal lands are pleasant for a while - to be kept from the sea is a hell for my kind."

"Has it happened before?" I asked.

He nodded solemnly. "Many times. It is a terrible thing."

"Did they die?"

"No beloved," he answered. "We cannot die, but we can live a human lifespan in sorrow and when you are yearning for home it does not matter that three score years and ten is but a blink for an immortal - each minute is a year to us."

There was a note of something in his voice. "Has it happened to you?" I asked.

"Once only," he clasped a little firmer on my hand. "I was not Called, something as beautiful as you has never happened to me before. No, I was trapped. My skin was discovered and stolen by a human while I was bathing with my kindred in human form. It was sixteen years before I found my skin and could return to the sea."

"I am so sorry," tears started in my eyes for the pain that he must have endured.

He smiled at me and rubbed his thumb over my knuckles comfortingly. "It was over four hundred years ago beloved. I am healed from that wound."

And there it was: the casual way in which he dismissed four centuries caused my tangled sense of reality to unravel suddenly within me.

In all the enchantment, with all the music and beauty he had shared with me; I had simply overlooked this one glaring thing and my stupidity took my breath away. He was not of this world. Even if this was indeed happening as the result of something as simple as a song on a mid-summer sunrise, what was happening now was too big for me to come back from. In a few short hours my life had changed beyond all reason and a new fear bloomed sudden and ugly within me.

"Will you leave me?" I gasped and even I was surprised at the strangled agony in my voice.

In a blur of motion I was swept up in his arms and laid down on the soft sand beside him. The movement was so swift I lost my breath but he held me as tenderly as if my pain was a razored thing and would slice him too.

He pressed tiny kisses all over my face, brushing away my sudden hot tears. His breath was warm and sweet against my face.

"I will never leave you," he whispered urgently. "Never. I am here at your side and your slightest wish is my command."

I believed him, really I did but I could not see how two such creatures as ourselves could ever really be together. One thing though I knew and that was the need in me for him. Mortality, humanity, eternity be damned, I needed him desperately and devil take the consequences.

"I wish for you," it was almost a sob.

"I am yours," he said simply.

"Show me." I demanded, his eyes darkend at the desire in my voice.

"With all my heart mo chiall," and he dipped toward me.

He pulled me tighter to him as his touch drifted up my throat. I was amazed at the harshness of the breaths that escaped me, how my empty body wilfully pressed into him, seeking more contact. My hand slid from his shoulders and into his thick tawny hair and finally oh god, finally he pressed a kiss to my skin, his lips so soft though I felt as if his touch would brand me. He pressed kisses up the slim tendon in my neck and stopped for a while to nuzzle under my ear, sucking my earlobe lightly before tracing his way across my cheek and resting millimetres away from my lips. I felt his warm breath upon me as he savoured this second, enjoying the anticipation.

I leant infinitesimally toward him and watched his eyes shade darker as he reflected my movement. I breathed out, he breathed in. He could doubtless feel the pulse racing in my neck and I wondered at myself when I whimpered a little at his touch.

I could not stand to wait and as I pushed forward to close the unbearable distance between us I could feel his smile against my lips. My fingers tightened a little in his hair and a groan escaped him rough and guttural. He pushed his tongue against my mouth and I opened for him willingly sinking into him like a flower on the outgoing tide. Another rough sound broke from his chest and he plunged deeper with his kiss. I pressed harder against him, stroking my palms along the corded muscles of his back and waist. I could feel his strength under his skin and how carefully he used it for me. His arousal pressed hard against my belly and an answering pulse echoed within me. He lifted his mouth from mine and pressed scalding kisses along my neck and where my shoulder met my throat he sucked warmth to the surface of my skin.

He muttered words against my shoulder and I felt our garments slide from us, unconcerned with anything other than the flickering fires that his hands and lips ignited along my body. He lifted himself over me, I held him to me with my legs and welcomed him inside. Gently, inexorably he began a rhythm within me as I wept with joy at the feel of him. He was everything, the ground beneath me and the sky above. His breath hot against my ear as whispered words of devotion tumbled from his lips. He lifted his head and stared down into my eyes, dipped swiftly to kiss my tears away and I felt the consuming intensity in his sea green gaze even as his body filled me.

I chanted his name as he pushed even deeper within and his eyes lit with a desperate fire. I could feel the pitch and stretch of my body as I tilted toward ecstasy and as I felt the fluttering of release begin, I pulled on him harder.

"You too…please," I begged and fell helplessly into light.

A stuttering gasp left his lips and his back arced like a bow drawn as he pulsed into me. I wrapped my arms about his back, tugging more of his weight upon me and he sank panting to press his lips to mine once more.

It took a while for my heart to return to normal. Edward moved us to our sides and he faced me, pushing the wild mass of my hair away from my face. Every so often he would lean forward and kiss my forehead or the corner of my mouth. I laughed as I could feel his body stirring to life against me once more. He smiled wryly but made no comment.

"You are beautiful," he whispered tenderly.

"So are you," I replied. "I have never seen anything more beautiful in all my life."

"I will love you forever."

I did not answer, what could I possibly say? Slowly I gathered my crumpled clothes and dressed. When I had done so he wrapped the fur about him once more. We sat at the edge of the water and held each other silently. We watched the waves together for a long time. It was still very early but the fire had finally left the sky which had smoothed out into a clear, soft turquoise. He stroked my hair, my face, my throat. My breath caught but I held still while each touch sent sensation fizzing under my skin.

"Why do you doubt me? Do you not trust me?" he asked eventually.

"I trust you. It's almost as if I do not have a choice. I can't even reason it out…" my voice trailed off.

"Listen," he said. "The Sidhe forget nothing. It is a blessing and a curse to us for our mortal lovers fade and yet the pain remains with us forever."

His voice became deeper, rougher, with sorrow woven ancient within it. "We have lived in these waters for millennia. Although memory of us dims in the mortal world, tales of us remain - of winter storms and famine when our names were called in supplication for fair weather and good fishing. We have our own lore too. Lore of fair mortals and love made in magic under broad summer skies."

He lifted my face to his and his eyes were like the summer sea. His voice slipped once more into a formal cadence and what he spoke next burned into my soul.

"So I am yours mo chiall for you have captured my heart and I will be true to you for all our lives long and to this I give you my oath. If you were of my people you would understand this without being told, but I tell you now the old words for a betrothal: The sun rises in your eyes."

I was utterly still under the power of his words. It was not until a wave of dizziness hit me that I realised that I had forgotten to breathe. I dragged air into my lungs once more and as I did so the old enemy gnawed at me again.

This could not be meant for me.

Screwing my eyes shut I fought it off. I had battled for years against self-doubt and now at the most important moment of my life its stinking jaws wrapped about me. It was if he could feel it too and determination marched across his face.

"Woman, listen to me. I love you now and forever. Did you not feel that when I showed you the Summer lands? Do you not realise that when the Call is made we do not fight it and we mate for life?" I nodded mute as he drew me close to him.

"You are a Swan, a bird of two worlds-made up of air and water both. Poets say that they die of sorrow when their mate passes. That sorrow will never be ours. So will you stay with me Bella Swan? Will you stay with me forever?"

I shook my head against the fierce hope in his eyes. "I will not last forever and I have no magic of my own."

"A fact that can soon be remedied," a soft, honeyed voice spoke up.

Edward wrapped his arm around my shoulders as a tall, astonishingly beautiful blond woman walked toward us. She was wrapped in a Skin dappled silver grey and white and held another delicately in her arms.

"Isabella Swan, I am…" she hesitated, the words obviously strange in her mouth "…Edward's sister and I made this for you on the day of your birth." She held the Skin up for me to see it better. It was the colour of a smoky quartz and a faint haze hung about it, like the shimmer over a road on a hot day. I stared at her, bewildered, while she nodded at me reassuringly.

"Our other sister is a visionary… a prophet you might say?" She shrugged delicately, dismissing her difficulty with my language. "She saw you coming a long time since and bade me make this. We have waited for you my dear. You do not know how long. You Called him and he answered. He had no choice, but then neither did you. Your fate was cast when you were set in your mother's womb." She held the Skin out to me. "Take it, I worked hard on it." Pride coloured her tone. "It is no small skill to weave a Skin," and she smiled at me, all gold and silver, her beauty so different to her brothers but equally dazzling.

I stepped forward and lifted the skin from her arms. It was warm and comforting and there was no weight to it. It felt like silk, draped fluidly in my hands and it took me a second to realise that a faint vibration ran along my skin as I held it. Stunned, honoured and rather scared I searched her face for a clue as to what to do. She gave little away but she seemed a little amused by my confusion.

"Thank you…?" I faltered, hoping for her name but no answer was forthcoming. I guess I would have to ask. "May I know your name?"

The woman nodded her approval. "My names are many, long and complex. And you would be able to say none of them so you may call me Rose."

"The most beautiful of flowers. It fits you perfectly."

"Thank you. I think so too," and the blonde woman smiled into my eyes and, faint but sure, I saw a friend in the making. She turned swiftly towards Edward.

"I am leaving now. Don't wait too long. Our family want to meet her and our sister is beside herself."

"We must talk some more first. A mortal cannot just up and leave. There are kin folk to worry about."

Rose's voice when she replied was amused but tinged just slightly with impatience. "Stop putting obstacles in your own way…Edward. This is fated. The mortal world is not forbidden to us. She can come back and visit as she wishes, just with her mate in tow. That is all." Her eyes rested on me once more. "As for you, don't over think things. This is strange to you, don't try and figure it out. You have seen love, take it."

"As you did?" there was a note of challenge in Edward's tone but Rose was unmoved and regarded him steadily.

"As I did and never have I regretted it. Neither has he."

Edward's eyes dropped under her gaze. "I know Rose. Thank you."

She nodded at him and turned to the sea. I felt the strange blurring shift again, heard strange, sweet notes and where Rose once stood in the shallow wavelets there was nothing but indented sand. I looked out to the breakers and there was a seal, white and silver like foam on a wave. She lifted and sank as if bowing, then dove into the water and swam away.

I looked down to the Skin in my arms, felt the tingle on my arms and looked for Edward only to see his gaze sinking into me. His eyebrows lifted and he smiled at me gently.

"Well, my heart. What do you wish? Shall you come with me and see where the sea takes us?"

Fear, desire, nerves, longing and trust all muddled together - I was a tangled mess of confliction. Yet Edward stood before me and the truth was that although there were many things that I did not understand I realised that I did not need to understand them all. He was enough.

"And we can come back? I can see my father again?"

"We can go where ever there is salt water. We can live on land if you wish it but once you wear the Skin then you will find that the Land does not hold you in the same way." I heard both warning and longing in his words.

"You told me that the sun rises in my eyes." I heard the question in my voice. "The 'traditional words' you said. Tell me, what is the 'traditional' answer to them?"

He laughed softly. "Why… you say 'yes' of course."

I put my hand in his. "Then yes, I will come with you and we will see what follows."

He kissed my hand and drew me to the water's edge. "Then come mo chiall," fierce joy in his voice. "They are waiting for us."

Sight blurred, the Skin wrapped warm and soft about me. The high sweet notes fell about us. Edward held my hand tightly in his and together we leapt into the sea.

Author's Note

Mo chiall is Scots Gaelic for "my darling"

Sidhe is both Scots and Irish Gaelic. It is pronounced "Shee" and is a collective name for The Fair Folk. There are many branches in the Sidhe family, both fair and foul. The English called them fairies but they do not conform to the clean, tame, sanitised versions found in later tales. The Sidhe were altogether a wilder sort and were not to be messed with in any circumstances.