Chapter Ten
"Ru, please," I whispered, raising my hands to the sword at my throat. "Please. Don't do this. You don't have to kill me. Please, just explain."
"Explain what?" she spat, digging the blunt edge harder into my neck. I gasped, and felt blood start to ooze out of the wound, warm and thick on my skin.
"Just – just tell me why," I rasped, pushing at the sword, trying to get it away from me.
"Tell you why? Tell you why?" A flash of metal in front of my face, and then my hands were bleeding. I yanked them away, and then realized that it wasn't the sword that had cut me, but one of my knives, the same knife that she was holding in her other hand. "I'll tell you why, little King. I've done this because I hate you. I hate you because I was Human once too. So were my siblings, but we were found by the Witch, and we weren't rescued like that traitor, your brother."
She pressed closer, and I was fighting for a chance to breathe. "I hate you, Peter Pevensie. I hate what you've done to me. I hate what you're making me do. I hate killing you, but it has to be done."
"Ru," I asked, trying to buy just a few more minutes of my life. "Please. Tell me - how we - got here - so quickly." I couldn't breathe, with the blunt end of a sword at my throat, pressing against my air supply, cutting it off.
"Having trouble breathing, Peter?" she asked, ignoring my question. She pressed the sword harder against my neck, the blade not sharp enough to kill me, but sharp enough to hurt and to choke me to death. I gasped, and dry, heaving coughs wracked my body. My head was going fuzzy, everything muddled and hazy around the edges.
My legs gave way and she pulled the sword away from my neck. I collapsed to the ground, sucking in air, and then coughing, and then sucking in more air. I felt a booted foot press against my throat, and I breathed in one more time. The boot pressed harder, and all the colors in the garden turned greyer, and greyer, and greyer. The mist swirled around me, in I could hear Ru laughing softly. She knelt down next to me, touched my face, and laughed again.
"Oh, my lion. I knew you wouldn't last long. Nighty-night."
And then there was nothing but darkness.