New Moon by Stephenie Meyer

Text copyright © 2006 by Stephenie Meyer

All rights reserved

Little, Brown ard Company

Hachette Book Group USA

1271 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10020 Visit our Web site at www.lbteens com

First Edition September 2006

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or

dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author

ISBN-13 978-0 316-16019-3

ISBN-10 0-316-16019-9

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

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.my life; I