This is The Missing Chronicle:The Lion, The Witch and His Lioness from Edward's POV.
I don't think it hugely matters if you've read the other one first, this stands as a story on its own, Edward's own individual story, but to those of you reading this after the other then I hope this answers any questions you had ro sheds a light on some of Edward's behaviour and decisions.
To everyone who has waited for this and stuck by me through dry spells and writers' block, you're amazing and you're the reason this is finally on here, if it wasn't for you guys I'd have given up.
Chapter 1. Lightening.
"Before you, Bella, my life was like moonless night. Very dark, but there were stars-points of light and reason. ...And then you shot across my sky like a meteor."
"Cousin," I greeted Tanya, bending down to kiss her cheek, "Will you do me the honour of sitting by me at dinner?"
"Anything for the birthday boy," she laughed at me, tossing her thick mane of blond curls over her shoulder, "You can relax Edward, no one is within hearing distance."
"As if I'm the one concerned with appearances," I muttered in her ear as she placed her hand on my arm and allowed me to guide her over to the seat next to me at the table.
I could feel my aunt, Tanya's mother, watching my every move. She was desperate for a marriage between us, but it would never happen, as my own siblings and parents knew quite well. But they had tried. I remembered the day I had met Tanya. It had been early summertime, very late June. I was already four and she would turn four that July. She had been sent to spend the summer with us, the reason given being that her eldest sister Irina was engaged to a Narnian man and the entire family would be going to Narnia that summer to meet him. Tanya, however, was deemed by her mother 'too young' to travel such a distance and as her father worked with my father at the Court in Narnia and would be spending his summer there regardless, there was no one to watch over Tanya.
The real reason of course had been to have Tanya and I strike up a friendship that would hopefully in due time flourish to romance. Or at least Tanya's mother was hopeful of this, as with my father's social standing at the Narnian Court was higher than anyone's other than the King himself, I was a favourable husband, even if I did say so myself. My mother and father themselves were open to the idea of a marriage between Tanya and I but they were not set on it.
Tanya had been perfectly polite when we were introduced but the minute the two of us were alone together she'd turned to me and said "Just so we are entirely clear, I have no intentions whatsoever of ever falling in love with you. And that may upset my mother but I shall only love someone I chose to, not someone I am told to, and since I shall only marry someone I love, I shall not marry you." Not even four years old and already so opinionated. As a child I hadn't known what to make of it, I'd only ever lived in society where men made the decisions and woman went along with that.
"Okay," I'd eventually managed to come up with.
"You're not upset?" she'd asked, seeming surprised.
"No." I was being truthful, I wasn't upset, I didn't care if she wanted to love me or not, I was only four years old and in truth neither of us had any inkling of love or what it meant, but the idea was more that she was going against her mother's wishes and making her own decisions, which confused me more than I'd care to admit.
"Oh good. It's nothing personal. Plus I'm going to marry a prince with blond hair and live in a castle."
"Okay," I'd said again. And then we began to play at being Narnian animals, as though everything was totally normal.
It took me a few years of these repeated summers to come to respect Tanya. In front of everyone else she was as a woman was expected to be, submissive quiet and unargumentative, but around me she opened up, and in time whilst I was always measured and reserved around everyone else I began to open up with her.
If I had met Tanya as I knew her now later in life I probably could have loved her, but having known her since we were so young I couldn't accept her in that way. Though, if I had met her later in life, then I would probably not have been on the receiving end of so many of her rants and opinions, as she would never have gotten as comfortable around me as she was now. And those rants and opinions were what made her different from so many others. My sister in law Rosalie ranted, but she was almost too forward.
I wanted a woman who would act properly in public but with whom I could have decent conversation, someone I could argue with, debate with, discuss with. I wanted someone with something between their ears who would be someone my family would deign suitable for my status. And of course she'd have to be beautiful. Tanya was all of these things, especially beautiful. She had a luxurious waterfall of golden hair and a figure that put even Rosalie's to shame. Rosalie was referred to as a witch by some due to her looks, but Tanya was even more… more than Rosalie. The main difference was their height; Tanya was smaller whereas Rosalie was almost as tall as me. For whatever reason, Tanya's shortness seemed to make her even more feminine. But despite the fact I could acknowledge all of this about my cousin, something in me just knew that I shouldn't be with her, and that I could never love her in the way that a man should love his wife, love his woman.
Tanya was someone I could have talked to for hours behind closed doors, but who would have played the part of a dutiful wife well in public, and I wanted that. But her perfectly curled mane of blond hair did not give me the urge to stroke it, her beautiful, definite curves did not make me want to run my hands up and down them, feeling the grooves of her waist and back. I had no fire for her, no passion.
According to the majority of the old philosophers, Tumnas, Peter, Corrin, passion was an over rated thing, they believed that marriage should be intellectual. A smart match of minds. And Tanya and I would have been a smart match of minds, but that wasn't enough for me, I wanted more. I wanted intellect, I wanted someone whose mind I could love, but I wanted that consuming need too, that need to have that one other person by your side forever. I wanted to love someone mind, body and soul. It was a lot to ask, but it wasn't too much, it couldn't be too much, all I had to do was look around the table I was seated at just now for proof of that.
My brother Emmett and his wife Rosalie sat together, her arguing about the things he was passing for her to eat and him sometimes giving in and other times ignoring her. Alone this couple proved to me, more than any other, that everyone could find love. Rosalie was vain, spoilt, and a bit ridiculous. She appreciated nothing and cared for very little. Emmett was slightly better than she was but he was tactless, lazy and self centered. But they had love. Together they worked. You only had to look at them to see their love. Sure, Rose complained a lot and Emmett had to spank her pretty damn often to make her mind, and he grumbled about her lack of obedience plenty, but they loved one another with every fiber of their being, with everything that they had and were. They didn't deserve love, deserve that level of happiness. They weren't angels, they weren't perfect, they weren't saints, they didn't always make all the right decisions. And to gain the happiness that they had you'd think that you'd have to be, and that you would, but they weren't and didn't. But they had found one another. Found someone to love them, unconditionally, despite all their faults. Someone who would do anything for them. And I was jealous.
My sister Alice (who was technically my twin but had been born a minute before midnight and therefore liked to claim that she had a different birthday, purely for the excuse of an extra party) sat by her husband Jasper. Alice was sweet, gentle and slightly over excited the majority of the time, but she was loveable. Sometimes. Jasper was quiet, calm, thoughtful and caring. And he loved her. Always. They, too, suited each other perfectly. With Alice and Jasper you didn't even need to have them looking at one another to see it. Even when they had their backs turned they were in perfect harmony. It was as though they were always connected. But they were good people, pure people, unlike Emmett and Rose, and they deserved happiness, deserved to have that person who would know them better than they knew themselves. But that couldn't stop me still coveting what they had, still wanting it, still being jealous.
Jealousy, my father had once told me, was not a feeling to be entertained. Jealousy had to be driven out, expelled. My father had an iron will, like nothing or nobody I'd ever seen before, or ever would see. And my mother, his wife, Esme, was gentler than anything that had ever existed, never wanting to say no or upset anyone. Together they made the perfect set of parents, Carlisle the upstanding father, whose respect you sought to earn, Esme the loving mother, who would hold you close and make all your problems go away. We sought approval from our father and nurturing from our mother. Carlisle laid down the law in his ever calm, diligent and omnipresent way, and Esme made you feel alright about it. They were two separate beings, who together made one perfect whole. Two halves that fitted together, a perfectly balanced scale. They were a team, there could never be one without the other. Their love was older, more mature, more comfortable and defined. But it proved the strength of love. The longevity of it. It proved that love stood the test of time, and all the tests that were set within that time. And I had to thank their love for that, for setting that example for me. For setting that standard for me. For letting me know what I could aspire to, what was possible.
Tanya kept her eyes down at the table, allowing me to fill her plate for her as was custom. And as was custom she would have eaten anything I put on the plate, but she'd chew my ear off about it later if I gave her anything she didn't like.
"So," I asked her after I was certain no one within hearing distance was bothering to listen to us, "How is love going these days?"
She kept her head down but laughed "If anything had happened Edward, you know I would have told you immediately." Tanya and I wrote to each other at least once a week, often more.
"Fair enough, just checking to see there's nothing you're not telling me," I laughed.
"There's plenty I don't tell you Edward, though mainly because it is too mundane for words or because I think you'll have no interest in it. However, rest assured, should I ever find love, you'll be the first person I tell," she replied, rolling her eyes.
"I'm honored," I smirked at her, earning myself a sharp kick under the table.
"Why do you ask anyway Edward, anything you're not telling me?"
"Hardly, Tanya, you are told more details of my life than anyone in their right mind would care to listen to as it is, and there is nothing new to report."
"No developments on the Isabella situation then?"
I shook my head in answer.
The Isabella situation. Right now there wasn't even really a situation, never mind developments on it. Isabella Swan, future high queen of Narnia, Empress of the Lone Islands, daughter of my father's best friend King Charles, didn't even know I existed. Which was odd considering how close my father and the King were, but Carlisle had never introduced us. Since Queen Renee had died the King had stopped visiting us. He stayed more and more in Narnia and we saw him once a year on his official annual tour as King. This year his daughter was accompanying him, and I was due to meet her the day after next.
Carlisle said that Isabella was a quiet, reserved young woman who was slightly spoilt. He said that she was stubborn but could compromise if given very good reason, but that she demanded exceptionally good reason and even then wasn't easily brought round to the ideas of others. He said she was strong willed, which she would need to be, to be queen. He said many things. He said she had many traits that would make her a great Queen. But I wasn't convinced that any of these traits were what I wanted in my future wife.
Jasper had known her, said that her mother's death had altered her but that probably the right man could help her. Probably true love could be her savior. That in itself was an idea that I loved, not that I'd admit that to Jasper. But what were the chances that I would be that one who could save her? That I would be that one person, that one true love? That I would be her soul mate? A million to one. It was almost impossible. And if I failed her I would never forgive myself, even if the only thing I could have done not to fail was to not be myself. And there was no point in hating myself for being myself…
As for the fact that she was a spoilt brat, Jasper said it was nothing a good spanking, or a few regular good spankings wouldn't cure. Carlisle concurred with this view, said that if her father had spanked her when she was younger she probably wouldn't be such a brat today. It wasn't that I was against the idea of spanking my wife if she needed it, providing a woman with discipline when it was needed was all part of taking proper care of her needs, all of her needs, but if your wife was the High Princess, the future Queen, was turning her across your lap for a spanking really acceptable?
Who, in that relationship, would be in control? Being my Queen she would be above me always, and even if I did marry her she would be High Queen whereas I would only ever be King, not High King. But that would only be for official purposes, within the marriage I would still be husband and therefore –
Why was I working out the details of a marriage I would probably never be in?
"So you like the sound of her?" Tanya pressed.
"I don't know Tan, but she's the future Queen and I'm merely a Lord, even if I did like her I am not allowed to ask her to marry me, she must ask me, and if the future High Queen asks you to marry her, is that really a question, do you really have a choice? Do you have the option of refusing your Queen? And if not then what kind of a marriage is that?"
The rant came out of me quickly and more passionately than I'd intended and she raised an eyebrow at me before rearranging her features and answering light heartedly, "A marriage of convenience?"
"You're funny," I said sarcastically in response to her glowing smile and sunny laugh.
"Oh I know, I'm highly witty," she smiled serenely.
"If you're going to be rude to me when I'm your male elder I'll get you orange pie for dessert," I mock threatened her, trying to look serious, whilst I prodded her in the ribs underneath the table, a spot I knew she was ticklish in.
"Don't you dare Edward Cullen!" she almost shrieked at me, due to the tickling or the horror at the idea of orange pie I wasn't entirely sure.
Emmett whipped his head round in amazement at her and I had to work to keep my face neutral. I didn't think Emmett had ever heard her talk so loud. Tanya straightened her face and kept her eyes down, playing the part of a submissive woman very convincingly until Emmett turned back to Rosalie and his dinner and she then decided to give me my second kick of the night under the table.
"Strawberry tart then?" I murmered.
"Whatever you wish dear cousin," she smiled at me, above the table being a vision of womanly gentleness.
After dinner was over and the dancing well underway I was just beginning to relax and enjoy some quiet time with my own thoughts, which consisted mainly of Isabella Swan and the meeting that was to occur in two days time, when Emmet came stumbling over, drunk on far too much wine.
"Edward!" he cried, slapping me on the back, "My innocent, ickle, virgin baby brother!"
"Emmett please," I snapped coldy.
It was not a case of me being the only one Tanya could ever let her guard down with, the situation was true in reverse, she was the only person I ever relaxed around. Emmett relaxed far too much and since the Queen's death our Father spent most of his time in Narnia, leaving me to be the only responsible man in the house until Jasper had married Alice, and by then I was so used to the role that I didn't entirely know how to shrug it off.
"Oh lighten up Edward" Emmett sang out, punching me on the arm, "I am here to tell you that your troubles are over. I have found you the perfect gift, brother. And it is waiting for you, in your room! Now! Follow me!"
He spun quickly, almost falling from the combination of speed, spin and wine.
I grimaced and shut my eyes. This would be the slave Alice had talked of. I had no use nor patience for slaves. I found them to be uneducated and useless in the ways of work due to the lack of education, and useless in the ways of companionship due the lack of conversation that was again due to the lack of education. Still, despite their lack of education I did not believe it to be right for people, even useless ones, to be owned by others. No, the slave trade was something I had very little time for.
Rosalie came to Emmett's side and laid her arm on his, steadying him.
"Edward, the quicker you let him show you this present the quicker I can get him to bed," she said crisply.
"Fine," I snapped, standing. I never let my family see me as anything other than cold, and even though the tenderness Rose had just shown in the way she supported and cared for my brother made me want to smile I managed not to, I had gone so long without showing emotion that I wasn't quite sure how my siblings would react if I ever did, not that I ever intended to.
In truth I was glad to go, I was tired of the party. I did not enjoy them as a general rule and with Tanya having been taken to the dance floor my Michael Newton as soon as the dinner was over I was finding the conversation to be less than stimulating.
"I'll bade everyone good night from you brother," Alice popped up next to Rosalie.
"And why, exactly, would you do that?" I asked her indifferently.
"Once you see her you won't want to leave your room," Emmett grinned sloppily, then clapped his hands over his mouth, looking scared, "Ooops! I ruined the surprise!"
He bit his lip looking remorseful, my brother was fairly amusing at most times and when drunk more than anyone else I knew. Possibly because Emmett was basically 300lbs of pure muscle.
"Alice told him earlier anyway," Rosalie informed him.
"What about my new bed slave!" he roared.
"The Narnian?" I clarified with my siblings.
"Yes," Alice stated simply.
"Alice!" Emmett thundered at my twin.
"Emmett Alice has already been spanked today so don't go getting any ideas," Jasper's calm voice with its thick Narnian accent entered the conversation as he appeared behind Alice, not putting his arms round her or holding her, but at the same time showing that they were together without so much as even needing to look at one another or feel one another.
"I think Emmett's too drunk to spank her anyway," Rosalie pointed out.
I agreed with her but said nothing. I was too busy thinking of how to get rid of this slave. I always got rid of them. I wanted a woman's body that meant something to me. Not a slave woman's used goods.
I had been given several slaves before, but there had only been one I had any interest in. And I had stopped myself from being interested the minute I realized there was any interest at all. I had asked Rosalie to fetch me a gown that would make any woman, even the infamously beautiful Rosalie Hale look ugly, and she had returned to me with a wrinkled brown sackcloth of a gown. As soon as the slave had put it on all the lust I had felt quickly stopped. My standards were high and if they were not met then I lost all interest.
I had kept the dress though, but I highly doubted that I would ever need it again. The slave in question's beauty had been as high as I believed it possible for one to be.
It was purely because I was bored of the party that I found myself following Emmett out of the party with my siblings to go see the woman that he had picked for me.
"She really is quite beautiful," Alice smiled widely.
"Alice we have discussed the beauty of slaves already today," I reminded her. I would not have slaves be thought of as beautiful, I didn't agree with the slave trade but if they were to be there then they would know infinitely that they were slaves and that they were to work, not be thought of as beautiful.
She sighed at me. My twin wanted me to fall in love, marry, give her a new sister and plenty of nieces and nephews.
"Honestly, Edward, I actually think you'll like her," Jasper cut in, "There's something about her that's different to the usual muck you get brought in from Gliftin. She's not your typical slave, she's almost dignified, proud."
"So she'll do about a tenth of the work she's meant to then," I replied.
"She'll be wonderful for you, Edward. She is dignified and proud, that's why I chose her," Emmett grinned, drunkenly staggering from side to side as we progressed along the corridor, "Gave Gliftin some amount of back talk, thought that would suit you, spirited and strong willed. Since our submissive little Tanya holds no interest I thought I'd find one that would sass you. Plus, I couldn't stand to see the little lamb get whipped anymore. Honestly, Edward, you've got your work cut out with her, you'll need to spank her often to make her mind, but if you decide to beat her in the slave's way make sure I'm not there. She's got the cleverest brown eyes you ever saw. She reminded me of you Ed, her face, she's so blank and impassive and emotionless, she hides her thoughts and emotions well, but her eyes give her away. Not for any length of time but you see, fleetingly, something in them that betrays her. And they're sad eyes. And I can't stand to see anymore sadness in them, even for a moment. If she needs to be beaten don't mark her back, please, Edward."
I took a moment to compose myself as I listened to my brother nearly well up into tears. True he was drunk but he was speaking more seriously than he ever usually did and it was making me feel sorry for the slave. And feeling sorry for a slave was not a good thing, it did no one any good.
"And what do you suggest I should do, turn her over my knee as if she were my equal in society?"
"Oh I don't know," moaned Emmett, wringing his hands, "But please, Edward, please don't beat her back. She's educated you know…" He trailed off looking despairingly at the floor.
"Oh shut up Emmett I personally think the slave needs to be beaten, she's got a horrid coltish nature that needs to be broken," Rosalie snapped. She probably just didn't like seeing Emmett appear to get upset over another woman, especially not a slave.
"She'd got a beautifully opinionated nature," Alice said dreamily, "I think she and I shall be great friends."
"Which is exactly what Edward needs in a woman," Emmett smiled suddenly, perking up.
"In a woman maybe but not in his bed slave," Rosalie sniped.
"Stop arguing or I'll turn you up and spank you!" Emmett turned on her.
Rose crossed her arms and glared at him, her face flushing. Emmett's spankings consisted on him turning her across his lap and tapping her a few times firmly on the backside and they didn't seem much to bother Rose. In fact I was pretty sure the embarrassment of being turned up across his knee and being suspended there completely helpless like a child was more of a punishment for Rose than the actual spanking, as was any mention of the fact it happened. One thing she couldn't stand was to be embarrassed. If he decided to beat her then it was a different story. Emmett's beatings were rare and if she pushed him to the point he gave her one then she was really in for it, and she truly deserved it. I had only gotten one once from Emmett whilst our parents had been in Narnia. I remembered it well. I remembered I ate meals standing up for a week and I remembered being outraged when Carlisle and Esme had returned from Narnia and I got no sympathy. I had been outraged. But now that I was older I realized just how much I must have deserved it if I had pushed my elder brother into it.
"Jasper and I will leave you now," Alice tugged on Jasper's hand, "Give you a bit of privacy."
"Since when were you bothered about my privacy?" I stonily asked my twin.
"I think you two could have a moment," she smiled at me before disappearing down the corridor. I glared at her retreating back. Have a moment? With a slave? As if!
As I watched her go Emmett had thrown open the door and when I turned back my breath caught in my throat. For a moment my heart stopped beating. Every part of me, inside and out, seemed at once to freeze, to stop, to cease to exist, but also to go into overdrive. It was as though something flowed through my being. Something warm and comforting. And something cold and harsh. Something that felt so natural it was as if I'd known it all my life, and something that felt alien and strange and wrong and scary and new.
Something unknown that I couldn't decide if I liked or not. Something I didn't know if I wanted to proceed with or not, but that grabbed me, took over me. It latched onto my very core and suddenly I was going where it was going, where this feeling was going, with no say in the matter.
It was, I imagine, like being electrocuted. And she was the cause of the electricity.
Sitting there with her nose in a book. My book. I couldn't see what book it was but she had touched it and I would treasure it.
She was an angel. An electric angel. She glowed, she hummed, she had a pulsing all around her. She was magnificent. She was electricity. She was like a fork of lightening, coming across a black sky, illuminating what had always been in darkness.
She was lightening.
Dangerous, beautiful lightening.