╣╠

"They don't cancel other plans,

Have conversations with nothing but their eyes.

They don't hear each other's names and forget to concentrate

Hits a nerve and lights you up like dynamite."

Friends Don't

Maddie & Tae

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Chapter XVI - What Happened Yesterday

╣╠

I woke with the sun, shaking Susan awake as well, we spent half the night researching nightshade in Aslan's old books. Even my cordial wouldn't work. Since it is it a healer for all living things it would act as a healer for the plant as well, only making the nightshade stronger. After exercising all of our options, Ashton was our only hope.

I know she cared more about Peter than she'd admit to anyone. And he did the same. Not that they would ever confess to being friends at all, let alone anything more. Just the way they talked about each other wasn't common. It wasn't common for Ashton to bow her head to mercilessly hide a redness in her cheeks and a smile tugging at the corner of her lips whenever I mentioned Peter's name. On the contrary, Peter couldn't stop nervously rubbing the back of his neck when he makes secret glances that she fails to see.

Susan and I throw on whatever close we can, rushing to run out of the tent. We find Benvolio awake and running to meet us. He had taken up residence in Ashton's tent where he could be guarded away from the people. Susan thought it was better to be safe than sorry.

Ben, Susan, and I make our ways to Peter's tent with nerves in our stomachs. We nod to each other before pulling the tent flap to reveal the inside. I couldn't stop the smile that came to my face as I see Peter fast asleep with all his normal color back in his face and his rash had already faded. Ashton was kneeling next to his cot, leaning her head on his forearm as their fingers tightly entwined.

"We should go. They probably need their rest." I whisper with a smile, being sure not to wake them up.

I get no response and I turn to see if Ben and Susan are even still there. They both are, with their mouths hanging open.

"Oh, come on," I lightly giggle, pulling them away from the tent.

╣╠

My eyes flutter open and I am greeted with a slight headache. Nothing compared to yesterday before I- My brain fails to remember much of yesterday at all. The morning remains clear from my time in the forest with Ashton but the afternoon becomes shaky. I remember fighting a wolf and somehow winning before a polar bear came after me. And then Ash coming out of nowhere to yell at me. Pretty typical. I begin to sit up when I feel pressure on my arm. I find Ash herself fast asleep on my arm, looking the most peaceful he had ever seen her with her fingers interlocked with mine. I smile down at her, using my opposite hand to tuck a fallen strand of her blonde hair behind her ear carefully. I only then realized the little dried trails of tears that seemed to fall not long ago. This only makes me wonder more about what happened last night.

Ash lets out an uneven breath, slowly waking up. She rolls her head over to see me looking down at her.

She sleepily smiles, "Hi."

"Hi." I smile back as she sits up off my arm drowsily.

"How are you feeling?" She asks, lighting dragging her finger down my bicep, were light red patches had appeared.

"Just a small headache," I answer as her trailing finger leads her gaze down to noticed our hands.

"I can explain that." She defends quickly, pulling her hand out of mine and standing up, wiping dirt from her pants.

She also uses her sleeve to get rid of the signs of distress on her cheeks. She quickly turns around grabbing the metal pitcher from the table, pouring some water in a cup.

I quietly laugh at her getting all rattled, "Can you explain practically everything that happened yesterday?"

She puts the pitcher down, taking a deep breath, "There's no easy way to say this, Peter. You ingested poison."

"I what?" I question very confusedly.

"Poison." She confirms again, "You're sister thinks that you found something in the woods."

"You know that's not true, you were with me." I oppose.

"I know that Peter, but she doesn't," She points out, with an obvious tone.

"Oh." I plainly say.

"Yeah." She adds, "But that also means something else."

"That I'm not dumb enough to eat something poisonous?" I chuckle, with hopefulness.

"I suppose it proves that as well, but..." She shakes her head with a small smile, caring for my humor but it quickly retreats from her face, "It also means someone in camp tried to poison you. There's a traitor in camp."

I quickly starting to get up from the cot, no longer needing to preservative myself when others could be in danger, "What about my sisters? Are they alright?"

"They're both fine," She runs over with the water in her hand, pushing me back down, "Drink, your headache is probably from dehydration."

I look down in the cup, seeing nothing out of the ordinary with the water, but at the same time, I didn't find anything out of the ordinary any of my food or drink in the last few days.

Ash notices my concern, "Don't worry, I was told three people checked it when they brought it in last night, I checked it too, just to be safe."

I nod, taking a sip of water.

"So, the hand holding?" I smirk daringly.

She rolls her eyes as a little smile plays at her lips, "There's no antidote for deadly nightshade, the poisonous berry concentration that you got into your system, the only way to give you a fighting chance was to lower your body temperature enough to slow blood flow. Them the poison couldn't attack your body all at once and slowly tolerate it out of your system. And yours truly, the human weather machine," She explains, motioning to herself, "had to make your body temperature drop by pushing the cold from my body to yours."

"Ash, wouldn't it take hours to go through my system at a slow speed?" I question.

"Around six to be exact," She admits, avoiding eye contact with me.

I narrow my eyes, baffled, "Six? Since when can you control your magic for that long?"

"Since last night." She laughs a bit.

"I thought that Lucy told me that the cold was the hardness one to control because it has to do with grief and heartache." I express, not understanding how any of this was possible.

"I need to stop telling her so much, she's going to get me in trouble one of these days." She mutters.

"So it's true?" I ask, concerned with what Ashton had to undergo last night, even if she did wish to hide them.

"We should be getting you to Aslan, I'm sure he will want to speak to you." She comments, changing the subject.

"You're not that good at dodging questions, you know that right?" I tell her, making sure she knows that I can see right through her attempts.

"If I wasn't good, we would still be talking about it." She proves, offering me a hand up, "Come on, you're sisters will be up soon and we should talk to Aslan first."

I take her hands, slowly getting up. My whole body felt sore. I take one step before I feel like I'm gonna fall right over. Ashton places her hand my core, helping me steady myself.

"Thanks." I breathe out, still hunched over, only inches from her face.

"No problem," She nods, swallowing hard, "We can wait some more before we meet Aslan? I could even get more help?"

"No, I'm fine. It's only one tent over," I tell her, regaining my bearings to stand up straight, "I can make it."

"Alright." She agrees, slowly letting go of me to opening the tent flap.

I take the first few steps slowly, feeling like the poison made my bones week in the night. Every step gave a little strength back to my body. Ash followed close to my side, just in case my body decides to give out again. We made it to Aslan's tent in one piece.

"Peter! You're alright!" Aslan exclaims cheerfully, "Ashton! You did it! Well done."

We both exchange light smiles, knowing this is not the time to fully celebrate.

"What's wrong?" Aslan questions, "Shouldn't you both be extremely happy about your success?"

"We would be, but I'm afraid there is a bigger problem," I begin, "Aslan, I didn't eat any berries yesterday, which leads us to believe that a traitor in camp poisoned me."

"Are you sure?" Aslan wonders, "Deadly nightshade is known to cause confusion."

"He's sure, because... I was with him." Ashton explains.

Aslan raises his eyebrows, "Oh, I see. And Ashton, you never saw him eat anything?"

She shakes her head in confirmation, "Nothing at all. Anything that entered his body, did so at camp."

"Oreius!" Aslan roars.

In just seconds Oreius ran into the tent, on high alert, "Yes, my king."

"Did you personally taste every food and drink Peter was given yesterday?" Aslan questions him.

"Yes, of course, I have for him and his siblings since they arrived here." He answers with hesitation.

I turn to Oreius, stunned of this sacrifice for not just me but my sisters as well. I was unaware of any tastings. I had never occurred to me that a taste tester would be necessary or present, but it seemed custom, not a surprise to anyone else in the room. It makes me wonder what else I am unaware of and what else I still must learn.

Aslan steps forward, addressing Oreius, "We have reason to believe that Peter was poisoned yesterday."

"Impossible, sir," He claims. "Everything that has entered his body has also entered mine."

Aslan turns back to me, "Peter, what exactly, to the greatest detail did you consume yesterday?"

I think for a second before answering, "Ashton and I left early, so I only ate toast and jam for breakfast. That's all I had to eat."

"What about to drink?" Oreius asks but his eyes already began to grow with the sight of my bent, "Where did you get the canteen?"

Ashton didn't wait for me to answer before she walked over to me, yanking the canteen to break it off my bent. She takes a sip of it, keeping it her mouth for a second before spitting it out on the ground. She aggressively chucks the whole canteen into Aslan's fire as it glows brighter with her eyes trained on it and her palm opened. Once it was disintegrated, Ash put her hands over her head.

"At least, you know no one was trying to kill you." She claims, with anger in her eyes to cover the sorrow only I could notice deep down. She storms out of the tent without another word.

I gulp, trying to deny what knew deep down this indicated, but I needed confirmation, "The poison was not meant for me... It was meant for Ashton."

Oreius and Aslan both nod solemnly. I run my fingers through my hair, ready to run out after her.

Aslan speaks up before I can leave, "Peter, you might want to give her time. This is a lot to process."

"With all respect, Aslan, the last time I left her alone after something like this, she didn't come out for almost three days," I tell them.

Aslan nods, letting me go after her. I run across the camp, not bothering to ask for permission before entering her tent upon hearing the rolling thunder. I wasn't surprised to find her pacing back and forth.

"Ash, stop pacing," I vocalize calmly.

"Peter, you should just go." She instructs, waving me off.

"I'm not leaving you," I declare flatly.

"Being around me almost got you killed!" She shouts, pacing even faster, with a crack of thunder booming above our heads, "That would be my fault!"

I grab her shoulders getting her to stop moving, as she fights away only making the thunder louder.

"Peter! It's getting worse!" She fights, "You're safer if you stay the tash away from me."

I position my hands lightly on either side of her face, getting her to only focus on me, "I already told you, I'm not leaving you."

For the first time, in the months since I first met the exquisite blonde girl in front of me, she was completely speechless. With no snarky, sassy or sarcastic remark, she kept her eyes on mine. Leveling out her breathing to mine, letting the thunderstorms roll out as fast as they came.

"I guess we know that fear or panic is now?" I joke, trying to ease the remaining tension withdrawing my hands.

"I guess so." She exhales dropping her head.

"What are the odds that Benvolio is with your sisters?" She questions, proceeding to our next thing.

"Based on how Lucy acted yesterday, I would bet on it." Peter guesses.

"We should go find them, they'll want to see you alive and well." I smile, clasping my hands in front of me.

Ashton and I start making our ways to my sister's tent but on our way, we hear a commotion coming from Aslan's tent, most specifically Lucy's laugh. We duck in to see my sisters, Benvolio, Aslan, and Robin Hood all talking. As soon as they see us their laughing stops.

"Peter!" Lucy and Susan call out, running over to hug me.

"How are you?" Susan asks as she pulls away.

"Better, thanks to Ash," I answer, looking at Ash over Lucy's shoulder. Ash's cheeks flushed slightly looking away from me.

"We are all very glad you are back to your health but there's something else we need to speak about," Aslan mentions, "Rumors are going around camp, it would be best to discuss them publicly."

"The sooner, the better, the last thing you need is someone jumping to the wrong conclusion," Susan says flatly, throwing a glare Ashton's way.

"There's no time like the present," Robin Hood states.

"Then it's decided." I answer simply, "How fast can we call a meeting?"

╣╠

I stood tall beside my sisters, with one roar from Aslan everyone, besides the guards on duty came to the center of camp. Ashton remained in Aslan's tent with Benvolio. I could see her as she sat in a chair out of the view of the crowd. I take a step forward letting the whole crowd see me clearly. Public speaking was a big problem for me, but it was also never on this scale. Back in Finchley, I merely had to say a few words in front of classmates, now I was placed in front of hundreds of creatures, all with the highest expectations of me.

"I've heard many worries around camp about my recent incident with deadly nightshade." I start, determined to do this properly, "And the rumors are true, I ended up consuming nightshade. But there is more than I am here today to address, nightshade I drank from was meant for Ashton. This attempt will not go overlooked. There will be an investigation and a trial following."

"Please, know that if the guilty come forward now, we will take that into consideration and the penalty shall be far lesser," Susan announces.

After the statement, we give the people a second to come forward if they wish. The crowd members utter little murmurs, looking around aimlessly. When no one takes Susan's offer we begin to leave.

"Trial? The only person that should be on trial is the Witch's daughter." A voice shouts with annoyance, "She probably set it all up, poisoning you herself."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Ashton stand up ready to walk out of the tent and give a piece of her mind. Thankfully, Benvolio jumped up, holding her back.

I turn my attention back to the voice, I find a mountain lion stepping forward, claiming the voice as his.

I would be lying if I said the thought had never crossed my mind. In a moment of weakness, I pondered the possibility of Ashton doing this. But then I remember our time before the day we spent in the woods. Ashton was ready to pour herself water from the same pitcher she had filled my canteen with. Upon waking up that morning, she never planned to go on the trip or giving me water. If I didn't drink the liquid, she could very well be dead herself right now.

"Trust me when I tell you that Ashton had no involvement in this." I declare without a doubt in my mind. "She has held her end of our agreement as we settled with no controversy."

"You seem to have much faith in this 'agreement' and not to mention, much faith in her." The puma scowls.

"I'm just asking for you to have faith in me." I counter, making the mountain lion fall back in line with the crowd.

I nod to my sisters and they do the same. Glad to end our first public gathering as wanted leaders. We all head towards Aslan's tent, going to regroup in a closed setting.

Ashton officially pushing Ben off of her with her signature scowl, standing and crossing her arms. "You didn't need to do that for me, I can handle myself."

"I know you can, Ash, but you don't have to." I console her, making her drop her arms to her sides.

"Well, that could have gone better." Susan starts, already filling the room with negativity.

Ben snickers lightly, "It also could have gone much worse."

"You consider this a success?" Susan questions the bear.

"Well, no one's dead." Ben deadpans, throwing down a harsh reality.

Susan stepped back, her face dropping a shade of color as she does so, humbled by Benvolio.

"You should have those men followed," Ashton mentions casually as if it were not an unappealing task.

He all turn to her a bit stunned at her request. She meets our shocked eyes, confused on our hesitation to agree.

"Why?" I ask, "They were just stating their opinions."

"People don't just state their opinions to royalty, Cupcake." Ashton pushes, "People that openly question royalty are low on loyalty. As soon as people start to believe that he is staying, he will gain a following. The last thing you want is a civil war in the middle of the civil war."

"And their won't be." I defend the loyalty of the people, "Aren't you questioning royalty now?"

"You know what? Fine, don't take advice from the person at was literally raised to rule 'your country' before you decide to show up." Ashton snarled, walking out to her tent for the night.

"Really, Peter?" Susan questions with a tone like our mother. "She was just trying to help."

"Ash doesn't get that mad unless she cares like really gives a damn." Ben informs the group, "And, not that my opinion will change anything but, she's right."

I go to speak but Susan cuts me off, "And for the record, I agree with her... And the polar bear for that matter."

"What?" I investigate.

"I agree with her," Susan repeats, "I know we are still very new to this whole royalty ordeal, but the shock on everyone's face when he spoke out was something I have never seen before. Some even smiled with pride. This is not something I think we should take lightly."

"I'm not taking anything lightly, Sue. I believe it's handled, no reason to stalk them and take some of the freedom that we are fighting for." I advocate.

"Isn't it better to be safe than sorry?" Susan resists.

I run my hand through my hair, growing tired of this conversation, "We'll put it to a vote then."

"I stand by my choice," Susan states stubbornly.

"As do I," I confirm, standing my ground.

Both of us look to Lucy, by the look on her face, I can tell that she did not want to get between this. I let myself and Susan get carried away and now she will be the one to decide.

"I understand both sides," She tells us, apprehensively, "But I'm sorry Susan. It seems wrong to have them spied on."

As pleased as I am that I won the debate, I still feel wrong about the divide in the family, leading little Lucy to a difficult judgment. During a time when we should remain united more than ever. Not just for ourselves, but Narnia and Edmund too. We can not let stubbornness or pride get in the way of that. Most importantly I cannot. Even with all the pressure of the nation.

I fear I not only let my ego blind me with my sisters but with another as well.

╣╠

After Peter's announcement, I find my way to get something to drink. Something stronger than just water was needed for this after what happened to Peter yesterday. It may seem early to some but I never actually slept last night. I can practically hear my daughter, Alyssa more commonly known as Allie to anyone but close family, in the back of my mind turning the tables on me for all the times I've lectured her about the importance of breakfast. I shake my head as a smile draws to my face. She's a bit wild child, which she gained in her years of competition with her five brothers. She has the beauty of her mother with my spirit.

It's the little things that make me miss my family the most in time away from them. But I must do this now for the better of their futures. If war does break out, my three oldest sons will join the battle, seeing they are of age. My oldest, Jaxon is twenty and the twins, Adrian and Syler turned eighteen a few months ago. Allie would not be pleased to be forced to say behind with Luca and Mason, not when she feels she can do something to help.

I walk to a barrel, turning the tap to allow moonshine to fill my cup.

I was just taking the first sips of my drink when I overheard ramblings not far away, "He has been completely brainwashed by her."

Another voice chimes in, a female one, "The girl made of marble has manipulated him. We can't blame him, he's only a boy. "

I walk to the owners of the voices, strongly disliking the matters I assume were being discussed, "If you are conspiring against the future King, I am seriously suggesting you stop this instant," I order lowly.

"You saw how the future High King and the witch's brat spawn acted towards each other when the polar bear showed up here." The female puma persuades, "They were close, too close. And neither of them seem to see the problem with that."

"This is your only warning. No harm will come to King Peter or the girl." I threaten, taking my drink to go, considering the situation handled.

"She burned your home, yet you stand here and defend her? Has this girl got you wrapped around your finger as well?" The mountain lion calls after me.

I slam my fist down on the table, "Her actions were unforgivable but my trust lies with the crown."

That finally ends the conversation.

╣╠

I'm sorry for not posting, yeah I know, it's annoying for me too. I had two surgeries in the past two weeks and just didn't have the energy for a single thing.

So many emotions were used in the creation of this chapter.

My dear friend, Allie, aka the person this book is dedicated to, her favorite chapter is the next one so be prepared for that. It's a wild one.

THIS GIF GIVES ME LIFE.