I can tell you now this will be the penultimate chapter, and that there will be a sequel. I'll announce the title shortly and if you don't want to miss it you can add me to your author alerts if you want. As always, a massive thank you to everyone who reviewed and added me or the story to their follow or favourite lists. Please feel free to leave me a review, I love feedback good or bad!
HighQueenP: Thank you very much, I really appreciate that! I hope this next instalment proves to be satisfactory.
Song suggestion: Everything's not lost-Coldplay
We would not move to Cair Paravel until the next day to allow for preparations for our impending Coronation. No one in the camp woke before mid day, but it wasn't much of a problem considering the circumstances. When all five of us were eventually awake, it was agreed that we could go to the river for some much needed relaxation. But I quickly noticed Peter wasn't himself, and it didn't take long for me to work out why.
While the rest of us happily waded in the water or chatted on the banks, he sat under the gazebo and offered no contribution to the conversations. He wouldn't even move for Lucy who all but dragged him out of his chair, only to be told to go away and leave him alone. The poor girl couldn't understand what she'd done wrong and was almost in tears as she ran back to me and Susan. With a sigh, I got up and walked over to Peter who watched me warily as I approached.
"Come with me," I said firmly as I extended my hand towards him.
"I don't-" he began before I cut him off.
"Now."
He hesitated for a moment before finally standing and taking my hand. I then led him deeper into the trees without another word until I was sure we were out of earshot before I rounded on him.
"Peter, talk to me. Why are you acting like this?" He only shrugged, crossing his arms and keeping his eyes firmly trained on the ground.
I swear to God.
"Stop behaving like a petulant two year old. I thought this had been sorted last night?" I said, my tone harsher than I had intended. Peter looked up at me then, anger flashing in his eyes.
"Anna, you weren't even breathing at one point, and I had to sit and watch not knowing if you would live or die and it was my fault!" he replied, his voice rising. "Do you have any idea what that felt like?"
I opened my mouth to make a caustic remark but stopped when I let his words sink it was ignorance, selfishness or, most likely, both on my part, I had to admit it wasn't something I'd taken into consideration.
"Peter," I said gently, instantly feeling guilty. "I've already told you that it wasn't your fault. I was the one who left you, remember?" He looked at me again, unsure how to answer. I wasted no time in taking advantage of his silence. "You can't take the blame for this."
"And now I'll make you a promise; to never leave until you tell me to," I vowed.
"Are you sure you want to do that?" he asked, a hint of a smile now playing on his lips. I nodded slowly, confused by his words.
"Yes, why?" I asked uncertainly.
Peter moved forward and took my hands in his, all the while keeping his eyes firmly locked on mine. "Because I am never telling you to leave," he said softly.
"Well then," I replied with a grin. "it looks like you really can't get rid of me after all. And I'm going to hold you to that."
Peter chuckled before bringing his lips down on mine and easily forcing me to forget the rest of the world. As the kiss deepened, Peter slowly put his arms around my waist and pulled me closer as I put my arms around his neck, but eventually pulled apart, however reluctantly. But Peter kept me in his arms as I lowered my hands to his shoulders.
"Peter, what is this?" I asked before my courage could evade me.
"What do you mean?" he replied, raising an eyebrow.
"What do we call this...us?" I explained, feeling my face begin to flush slightly.
"Oh," he said, not seeming to have expected the question.
"Well...I think I agree with Edmund that this is far from platonic," he continued tentatively. "But if I'm being honest, I don't really know either," he admitted.
Well, at least you're as confused as I am.
"But I do know one thing," Peter added, somewhat shyly. "That I have never felt as strongly about someone than I do for you. And I know this isn't just a school boy crush, if that counts towards anything."
I was left speechless by his words. There was no question that I had strong feelings for him too, but there had always been a part of me that was afraid he only held a simple infatuation for me and nothing more. But now that he had confirmed this was not the case, it put the context of our relationship on a whole new level. However, I still firmly believed that it wasn't love. Yet.
"Anna?" Peter said, bringing me out of my reverie. "Sorry, did I go too far?" he asked as he began to remove his hands.
"No." I shook my head and caught his arms to stop them from moving any further. "I just...I wasn't really expecting you to say that," I admitted, a little ashamed at my confession.
"But I feel the same way too," I added quickly at seeing his confused expression. "I don't think I've ever felt like this about anyone before either."
Did that sound as cheesy as I think?
There was a pause as we looked at each other before I started to laugh. Peter wasn't sure whether or not I'd lost my sanity.
"Sorry," I finally managed to say. "But I really don't do well with the whole romance thing."
He just smiled and rolled his eyes playfully at me. "I know, that's why you leave it to me," he teased before taking my hand and walking with me back to the river to join his siblings.
As we came back in to view and caught the others attention they stopped and watched us as we approached. Susan raised her eyebrows but gave us an amused smile, Edmund smirked at us and Lucy just looked confused. Edmund opened his mouth to say something, but was stopped by his brothers glare.
Lucy's expression changed from one of confusion to thoughtfulness as she surveyed Peter and I for a moment before asking, "Are you two getting married?" There was a pause as we all exchanged looks before descending into fits of laughter, much to Lucy's chagrin.
"What?" she inquired indignantly. "What's so funny?"
When everyone had eventually managed to get their breath back, Peter began to try and explain that not everyone held hands because they were getting married, and really we were too young for that anyway, when Aslan and Oreius approached us. It wasn't until they came closer, though, that I realised Oreius was carrying something long and thin wrapped in a piece of cloth. Needless to say, it didn't take very long for any of us to understand what it was, and all laughter stopped and the atmosphere rapidly changed.
"Peace, dear ones," Aslan soothed. "We have come to present you with the wand of the White Witch to be destroyed, as per Narnian tradition," he explained. No one moved nor spoke, as we were all uncertain of how to react.
Peter was the first to break the silence. "And how do we destroy it, sir?" he asked slowly.
"You all know that ice can be vanquished by fire. Perhaps this weapon holds the same properties," Aslan said as Oreius handed the wand to Peter. They then both left us and we all stood and looked at the offending parcel in Peters hands.
"Well, I think we should try to get a fire going," I said after a long pause. "Susan, run back to the camp and see if you can get your hands on a box of matches. Peter, Ed, try and find some rocks and make a little circle with them so the fire won't spread. Lucy, come with me and we'll find some tinder."
A few minutes later a small fire was happily burning away. The five of us stood around in a circle and watched it for a few moments before Peter held the wand out to me.
"I think you've earned the right," he said. I took it from him and slowly began to unwrap it, when I really began to think about the significance of this, and I knew in my heart it wouldn't be right for me to destroy the wand.
"No," I said firmly. "Someone else deserves to do this a lot more than I do."
I looked at Edmund then, who became very pale and glanced nervously at the wand.
"Me?" he asked uncertainly. "I don't...I don't think..." he trailed off.
"I've already taken your opportunity to break it, I'm not going to take your chance to get rid of the damn thing once and for all," I reasoned, holding the wand out to him. Edmund took it gingerly and carefully began to remove the cloth, revealing the splintered end and the smattering of dried blood. My stomach turned at the sight, and I could feel Peter tense up beside me.
Although still pale and now shaking slightly, Edmund held the wand in his hand and contemplated it for a moment before throwing it down into the fire, breaking it again into smaller pieces as it was consumed by the flames, which had now changed to a bright green colour as the wand was devoured. We watched in silence, but it only took a few more minutes before nothing more than a pile of smouldering ashes remained. Once we were sure they were cool, Peter found a cup and scooped the ashes into it before allowing Edmund to empty the contents into the stream. We stood together as we watched the water gently wash the ashes away before making our way back to the camp.
After an unnaturally silent meal, I decided to return to the tent to sleep for a while. I was still weak from my wound, despite the help from Lucy's cordial, and after a trip to the resident doctor he had assured me this was perfectly normal, especially given the nature of the weapon, and to rest as much as possible so that I could make a full recovery. But it looked like Susan had other plans for me.
"It's tomorrow Anna, explain," she said cheerily as she entered the tent and sat on her bed.
I groaned and buried my face in my pillow. "Do we have to do this now?" I asked, my voice muffled by the pillow.
"I see no reason why not," Susan replied serenely, but I could tell she was grinning.
I hauled myself up and glared at her. "You'd better make yourself comfortable then," I said sardonically as I settled into a sitting position.
For the next half an hour, I explained everything to Susan; our conversation that first night in the Badger's Den, our brief talk from the river to the camp, how he made his promise to stay by my side during the battle, our almost but never quite there because Lucy interrupted us kiss, how he had helped me get past my fear of using my blades, our first kiss, my confusion over what to call our relationship, how I had to convince him it really wasn't his fault I had been injured and our most recent exchange in the woods.
To her credit, Susan didn't interrupt me once, only making appreciative noises and sighs at the right moments. Once I had finished she surveyed me silently for a few moments before finally speaking, "Imagine if you did eventually get married though."
"Susan!" I groaned, throwing a pillow in her direction which she easily dodged.
"What?" she asked with a laugh. "Is the idea really that deplorable to you?"
Where do I even begin?
"No, but it's not exactly a priority right now," I pointed out. "We're sixteen. Getting married is not something either of us should be thinking about for at least another few years. And besides, you have to be in love to do that."
Susan's amused expression quickly changed to one of concern. "What do you mean?"
"You could hardly call this love, Su. We've only really known each other a couple of weeks," I admonished.
She shook her head. "I agree with you about that, but you're giving me the impression that you think you never could fall in love with one another."
"I'm not saying that," I explained with exasperation. "Just that it hasn't quite reached that level yet." Susan didn't reply and went back to silently watching me. I swore I could hear the wheels in her head turning.
"Can I go to sleep now?" I asked impatiently. She nodded before getting up and walking briskly from the tent, but I thought nothing of it then. I was too tired to even worry about it before I had surrendered to sleep.
Lucy woke me in the late afternoon and the rest of the day passed by with no noteworthy events.
We were woken early the next morning to begin the journey to Cair Paravel. When we emerged from our tent we found that half of the camp site had already been cleared away. After a quick breakfast we assisted with the final round of packing before mounting our horses and making our way to the castle.
It was just beginning to grow dark by the time we reached Cair Paravel, and in the dim evening light it was surely a beautiful sight. Each of the seemingly infinite number of windows in the towering castle was illuminated and the torches in the courtyard cast a soft, welcoming glow on the entrance. I couldn't help thinking that it looked a little bit like Hogwarts castle.
Harry Potter himself would probably be jealous.
Once we dismounted and made our way in to the castle, we were each shown to our chambers and allowed to change. Tonight, we would hold a small memorial service in honour of the Narnians killed in the Battle of Beruna. It seemed that despite Lucy's best efforts, her cordial couldn't save everyone. The experience was made even more sombre at the fact that I could easily have been one of the people Aslan was speaking so gravely about tonight. At some point during the service I found my hand tightly intertwined with Peter's, and when I stole a glance at him I noticed he had the same hard set to his jaw line that had been present at the party after Beruna.
I didn't have an opportunity to speak to him about it though, because as soon as the service was over we ate a modest dinner and retired to our bedrooms early so as to be well rested for the Coronation tomorrow. The Narnians had not wanted to mark the beginning of our reign with the memorial, but would rather have it the day before to make a distinction between the end of the Hundred Year Winter and the beginning of the Golden Age. Everyone intended to start as they meant to go on, so to speak.
When we were lead to our bedrooms, they couldn't be called exactly that, because they were much too big for the term. An apartment or suite would have been a more accurate word. All of our bedrooms were on the same floor, but we all had our privacy. Solid wooden double doors indicated the entrance to each of our rooms, which lead in to a comfortably large sitting area and doors leading off to our bedrooms, bathrooms and private studies. We had little doubt our stay at Cair Paravel would be a comfortable one. From the window in my room, I could look out over the sea just behind the castle.
It was quite strange though having our own bedrooms after having shared the tents for so long, and once I had settled in to bed for the night I found the silence both empty and unnerving. After a good deal of tossing and turning I eventually got up and left my room, peering out into the dark hallway. At the end of the corridor, I had noticed earlier that there was a large bay window with a wide seat covered in a plethora of cushions. I settled into it, and wrapped my shawl around me as I watched the waves gently break against the rocks below.
"Anna?" I heard someone whisper from further down the hall. I turned to see it was Peter.
"Hi," I whispered back as he began to approach me.
"The silence getting to you too?" he asked as I indicated for him to sit across from me.
"How did you know?" I replied with a small smile.
We sat in silence for a moment as I dithered over whether I should mention his behaviour at the memorial. I eventually decided just say it. After all, I didn't think it would do much good to let it pass anyway.
"Peter," I said, causing him to turn his attention from the window to me. Questioning eyes met my unsure ones.
"Earlier today, at the memorial...you seemed...tense," I said vaguely, but Peter must have known what I was talking about, because the look in his eyes softened.
"It's just that I knew it could have been you were remembering today," he said quietly, never breaking his eye contact with me.
Before I could reply he cut me off, "I remember what you said, no need to start that again," he added, more teasing than telling me off. "But I know that's behind us now," he finished with a smile.
"Come on, I think you should try and get a little sleep," he said as he stood, holding out his hand which I had no trouble accepting.
We walked the short distance to my door before Peter leaned down and whispered in my ear. "I have a surprise for you tomorrow, but you'll have to wait until after the ball."
I didn't have to look at him to know that he was smiling. He kissed my cheek and disappeared into his room before I could ask him what in Aslan's name he was talking about.
Well, that'll definitely help me sleep.