Between his wand and the luminary she'd lit he could see far enough to make them out, hunched in the distant bushes. Fewer than he had expected, and farther away. Maybe they had actually moved back — maybe being with Rosalie was helping after all — but he wasn't going to count on it just yet. It was also possible that he'd mistaken them before, in the confusion of the trees and the shifting shadows that naturally occurred in a place like that, or it was also possible they simply hadn't had enough time to creep in closer since they'd apparated in. Maybe in a few moments they'd be just as tight as he'd thought they were before, just as suffocating.

In the meantime, he had to deal with questions from Rosalie. She wanted to know what he had seen — she was more perceptive than he'd anticipated, though he wasn't surprised to hear she hadn't given his cover story of a stomach bug much credence.

"I'm not crazy," he insisted, while wrestling with the knowledge that there was no way to answer her question. Anything he could say would sound crazy, even if he worded it carefully.

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