"Lucy!" he called.

Lucy's eyes widened at the sight of her sister-in-law on the ground with blood covering her hands and her stomach. Peter looked at Elaine fearfully, gently stroking the side of her face. If he lost her now, he didn't know what he would do. How had he not seen how injured she was long before this? He was her husband! He was supposed to be the first one to notice these kinds of things!

His anger. He had been so blinded by his anger against Caspian that he hadn't realized his wife was bleeding out behind him. How could he have let it get this far?

Everything seemed so far away to Elaine. The images in front of her were blurred, and everyone's voices sounded slowed down and a million miles away. She could make out Peter calling urgently for Lucy to do something, and Eva and Lucy running over to her. Her breathing had become extremely shallow and her skin was beginning to turn very pale.

As Lucy tipped her healing potion into Elaine's mouth, Elaine could feel the wound begin to heal itself. She slowly felt her strength return to her and her vision cleared up again.

"Thank you, Lucy," she said to the girl as she touched her hand.

Peter helped her stand up again and looked at her gratefully. He tried to kiss her, but Elaine stopped him and looked back at him with sadness in her eyes. The confrontation she had witnessed between him and Caspian was unlike anything she had ever seen from him. She finally tore herself away from him and went inside the How.

Edmund glared at Peter and followed after her. He found Eva once again looking at the pictures.

"I trained for hours and I feel like my arms are going to fall off," she said. "How do you all do it?"

"It's not easy, I know. But learning how to swordfight is the difference between living and dying, and if you're going to be in Narnia, it's one of the most important things you'll ever learn while you're here."

"Edmund…what happened out there?"

Edmund sighed and looked at her sadly. "I'm not exactly sure. Somehow, the Telmarines got alerted that we were in the castle, and from there…everything went wrong. I couldn't signal everyone fast enough, the Telmarines killed a lot of people, and the gate got closed before a lot of our army could get out. I…I don't think I'll ever be able to get the sight of so many dead Narnians out of my head…"

Eva put her hand on his shoulder. "I'm sorry. I'm glad you're alright."

"You're a good friend, Eva. You've always been there for me this past year. Even when you didn't know why we were acting weird."

"Well, as far as I knew, you weren't acting weird."

Edmund laughed lightly. "All the same, I'm glad you're here."

Eva smiled up at him and felt that stupid blush. But before she could feel too mad about it, her brow furrowed. "Edmund…do you hear something?"

They both listened to what sounded like growling and chanting and went to go see what was happening. Evidently, Peter and Trumpkin had heard the noises too because they all ran to the Stone Table.

"Stop!" Peter yelled when he saw what was going on.

Eva froze at the sight of what was in front of her. She didn't know how she knew it, but she was fully aware that it was the White Witch in front of her upon a wall of ice where the carving of Aslan used to be. She looked…kind of pretty and nice. It was no wonder Edmund liked her at first.

But judging from the coldness she felt inside her body, she knew that the woman in front of her was evil and could not be trusted. The mere thought of her trying to kill Edmund was proof enough of that.

Using her training she had just spent hours learning, she and Edmund fought against a werewolf while Peter battled against a hag. Trumpkin was almost killed by his dwarf friend, but Lucy stopped him. The dwarf squirmed out of her grasp and twisted her arm painfully behind her back which caused her to scream. The dwarf then threw her to the ground, but before he could kill her, Trumpkin came up behind him and stabbed him in the back.

Edmund and Eva fought against the werewolf and successfully managed to kill him.

"Come on! Come," the Witch said to an enraptured Caspian. There was a huge gash on the hand he had reaching out towards her. She must've needed blood in order to be freed from the ice!

Peter came up and pushed Caspian out of the enchanted circle. "Get away from him!" he cried as he aimed his sword at the Witch.

The Witch smiled. "Peter, dear. I've missed you." She held out her hand for him.

Eva looked over at Edmund and found him staring at the White Witch. "Edmund," she said. "Do something."

He broke his gaze away from her and looked at Eva. She had never seen such an emotion in his eyes at that moment. He looked…terrified.

"Get her back for what she did to you. Do it."

Edmund snuck around to the back of the ice wall the Witch was in.

"Come," the Witch beckoned Peter sweetly. "Just one drop. You know you can't do this alone."

Peter looked at the Witch, and Eva realized that he was actually considering it! Before he could do anything, Edmund stabbed his sword into the Witch's abdomen…right where she had stabbed him in the Battle of Beruna. The ice cracked and then shattered, saving Peter and Caspian from her spell.

"I know," Edmund said to Peter. "You had it sorted."

Peter looked in front of him where the ice had been and saw the carving of Aslan. He started feeling extremely guilty for even considering getting the Witch's help. Had he forgotten everything she had done to them?

Edmund went back over to Eva who rubbed his shoulder encouragingly.

Peter and Caspian turned to find Susan and Elaine glaring at them. Peter felt horrible when he saw his wife's cold stare. He wasn't sure she had ever looked at him like that the entire time they'd been married. It was awful to see her like that, but he didn't blame her one bit. First, he hadn't noticed she was dying, and now this...

Elaine whipped around and left the Stone Table.

"Elaine, wait!" Peter called as he ran after her. He caught up to her and touched her shoulder.

She furiously turned to him. "You want to explain to me what just happened in there?"

"Elaine, I—"

"I get that you're having a hard time dealing with everything. We all are. But I have put up this for far too long! You have been childish and rude and inconsiderate for others ever since we got back here! In fact, you've been like that since before we even returned! I thought coming back here would change that, but clearly, it's only made things worse! Last night wasn't good. In fact, it was one big nightmare. I know that. But the White Witch, Peter? She almost killed your brother! Our brother!"

"I know…"

"How could you even think of her?!"

"After last night…and seeing you so close to death outside…I lost hope. I know how powerful she was, and when she said we couldn't do it alone, for a second, I believed her, and I believed that she could defeat Miraz for us."

"Peter…it's a temptation. We all have them, but what matters is what we do about it." When Peter didn't say anything, she continued, "I know how much you've been trying lately to be the leader you once were. But the fact is that things are different. And I don't know why it took so long for us to come back, but it did. There must be a reason for that."

Peter looked away from her, but she put her hand to his face.

"Our wedding rings were the only things that came home with us from Narnia. I don't think that was an accident. Aslan wanted us to remember the promise we made to each other and to him while we waited to return. When I swore that I would love you forever, I made that promise to Aslan just as much as I did to you."

"I'm so sorry, Elaine. I know that I haven't really honored my promise lately. Not just my promise to you, but my promise to protect Narnia. Last night, I used very poor judgment that got a lot of Narnians killed. I was just…trying so hard to prove to everyone, including myself, that I could still lead them. That I was still their King."

Seeing how much he was beating himself up, Elaine put her hand on him. "Peter…you are King. Once a King or Queen of Narnia, always a King or Queen, remember? We must hang onto the belief that Aslan will be there for us. That is our greatest strength. Because it is something that the Telmarines don't have."

Peter met her eyes, and she saw just how remorseful he was about his actions.

"I love you," he said to her.

"I love you too."

Elaine kissed him passionately which fully reminded them both of their promise to each other.