Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of sexual content and death.

The next morning, everyone is worried that Alice is gone. Carlisle, Esme, Edward, and Bella decide to follow her scent. They end up at the Quileute border where Sam is waiting for them. He tells them that he gave Alice and Jasper permission to pass through and that they warned him about the impending danger. She also left a note for them—a page torn from Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice—one of Bella’s books—with a message telling the others not to look for them. It instructs them to gather their family, assuring them that Alice and Jasper will look into the nomads on their journey. Alice apologizes for “leav[ing] [them] this way, with no goodbyes or explanations” but that “it’s the only way for” them (558).

Edward tells Sam that they need to be careful, as everyone’s life is in danger. Sam tells them that his family will stand by them to protect Renesmee and Jacob.

On the way back, Esme smells one of Alice’s trails going in a different direction. Bella and Edward decide to follow it. They end up back at Bella’s cottage.