31

A SUDDEN PULL

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Peter had been called away to tend to the army. He had a duty to the families of the fallen soldiers and to care to the wounded that had fortunately returned to Aslan's How. Everyone could tell that there was this aura around the king and a weight taken from his shoulders. He looked not nearly as troubled as he had been an hour ago. Edmund, Lucy and Susan had tried to get him to tell them what had happened but he wouldn't budge.

Susan smiled upon seeing Peter sneak a glance to check on Alexandra. She was bundled in the corner of the room with one blanket over her legs and one over her shoulders whilst she drank some water and ate some bread. She appeared to be... content. That was enough to confirm her suspicions and she went back to work, also feeling as if a weight had been yanked from her shoulders.

But it would be foolish to even consider that everything could be solved so early on.

Because, unknowingly to those not in the room of the Stone Table, Caspian was making a huge mistake. A mistake that could very well have jeopardised everything and everyone. Especially Alexandra.

Suddenly, she was gone. Alex's conscious was silenced in her own body and it was replaced with something much more evil. Her eyes glowed a faint blue and she shrugged the blanket from her shoulders and pushed the one from her legs as she started to robotically walk towards the Stone Table with one thought in mind. Her blood was needed.

Alexandra's disappearance went unnoticed to all but Edmund. At first he thought nothing of it. Perhaps the girl had simply moved location, or maybe she was talking with the Narnians. It only occurred to him later on that he hadn't seen Nikabrik nor had he seen Caspian.

The girl felt an all too familiar tugging in her chest leading her to the Stone Table room, her feet walking robotically against her will. Alex, or the shell of her body, could hear the archaic chanting coming from a couple metres in front of her.

"Alex?" a small voice came from behind her body, not once did she stop. Just one foot in front of the other. "Lexi? Are you okay?"

Lucy ran up to her side, she too could hear the chanting. But what startled her more was the sight of her closest friend. Her eyes were no longer grey. They were blue. The same electric blue that they were all that time ago when she was under the influence of the White Witch.

"Peter!" the girl shrieked loudly; her voice bouncing off the walls within the tunnel.

Yet, just at the beginning of the tunnel to the Stone Table room, Edmund led Peter and Trumpkin in search of the girl.

"Are you sure she went this way?" Peter asked Edmund as he held the torch ahead of them.

"There's no place else she-" Edmund started but stopped upon hearing the echo of a shout from his youngest sister. The boys didn't need to share a glance of worry before they were running as fast as they could, the echo still bouncing around.

It took merely seconds for them to see Lucy trying to push Alex backwards but the white haired girl spared her no attention and continued to try walking.

"Lu?"

"Her eyes! It's the witch!" Lucy cried and tried shoving her back, this time doing it successfully. Alex fell backwards into Peter's arms as he wrapped them tightly around her body so that she couldn't move at all.

He could see her eyes as her head lay on his shoulder, how the bright blue managed to cause such fear. Her arms began to thrash around in his grasp, only making him tighten his grip on her.

"Alex, remember what I told you. This is real. I am real. We are real. This is honestly, sincerely, wholeheartedly real," he whispered into her ear as she slowly stopped fighting against him. She blinked once, then twice and then again. And her eyes were no longer blue, they were grey. They all sighed.

"It's never a dull moment with you lot, is it?" Trumpkin muttered before he too could hear the chanting and the talk of one of his closest friend Nikabrik to who they all knew was Caspian.

"She's here," Alex spoke up, "I can feel her power pulling me to her, someone is summoning that witch bitch Jadis."

That's all they needed for the five of them to take off running into the room with Peter calling for them to stop. The temperature in the room suddenly dropped, the air from their mouths forming clouds in the air as they breathed.

Alex met Jadis' eyes from where she stood in the entrance of the little cave. Even behind the wall of ice, the White Witch smirked as her hand continued to reach out to Caspian who seemed to be in a similar trance to what she had been in moments ago. Then the thought crossed her mind, the very one she had during her trance. Her blood was needed.

"Don't let her get the blood!" she called out and opened her hand, feeling the cold of the handle to her axe in her palm seconds later.

The creatures that Edmund, Peter and Alexandra began to battle were similar to those that fought under Jadis all those years ago on the battlefield that the Crimson Knight made her sacrifice. Edmund took on something that appeared to be similar to a wolf, Peter fought something that appeared to be so foul that she could not comprehend and Alexandra battled a father revolting cyclops. Meanwhile, Lucy watched as Trumpkin's sword clashed with that of Nikabrik.

Alexandra felt a sudden surge of power upon hearing Lucy howl out in pain as Nikabrik twisted her arm behind her back to grasp her dagger after she tried to interfere. The Crimson Knight sent one kick to the abdomen of the beast before slashing the axe upwards at its neck, hearing two separate thumps as the dismembered body fell down.

Peter kicked the hag aside and Edmund disarmed the wolf-like creature. Trumpkin thrust his blade through his friend's stomach upon watching him try to advance to Lucy with her own dagger in his hand. The black dwarf fell to the stone clutching his stomach.

Alexandra watched as Peter shoved Caspian out of the circle and unknowingly took his place, "Get away from him!"

"Peter, dear. I've missed you," Jadis hummed and once more stuck her hand through the wall of ice, still needing a drop of Adam's blood to free herself. "Come. Just one drop."

"Don't touch him!" Alex cried and joined his side with her axe raised, "I've killed you once before, don't make me do it again. Actually, it would be my genuine pleasure to hear you writhe in pain. So, be my guest, go ahead."

Abruptly, a blade, from behind the ice, punctured the surface where the witch's stomach would have been. Alex felt the scar on her stomach sting ever so lightly as the ice smashed into millions of pieced to reveal Edmund looking rather proud of himself.

"Sorry to steal your moment," he spoke to Alex before meeting his brother's eyes, "I know. You had it sorted."

Trumpkin and Edmund promptly left the room with Lucy trailing behind them to check up on them both, bringing a small smile to Peter's face. "Even in the darkest of times Lu manages to put on a brave face."

"She learned from the best," Alex remarked and glanced at the table for a second before looking away. She couldn't stand to see it, being in the same room was enough to make her feel guilt and loss.

Peter sat beside her on one of the fallen pillars, "Is that how you felt for all that time under her power? That pain in your chest and the inability to control yourself?" He watched her nod and throw the white curls over her shoulder. "I don't understand how you do it. How you can face all that trauma and pain and push it all aside."

"Who says I can push it all aside?"

"You look so... composed," he followed up. "I could hardly handle those few seconds under her control let alone all those Narnian years."

She chuckled at him, slowly edging closer on the fallen pillar, so that their legs were against each other. "It's easy Peter, I have you."

He turned to her.

"Back during the 100 Year Winter and we were venturing to Aslan's Camp, I told you that you had melted the ice in my heart," she recalled some of her earliest memories with Peter, "And just a few minutes ago you managed to melt it all again. Peter, every time I feel as though I am becoming the monster that I fear... you always manage to pull me from the shadows. It's always you and it always will be."

She stopped speaking and pushed her lips on his, her hand going to his hair lightly. They stayed like that until their was no breath in their lungs and even then, they stayed connected for a second longer. Every ounce of their love was there and present.

"What was that for?" he asked with a grin as they left their forehead touching but pulled apart.

She just chuckled at him before pressing their lips back together for a much shorter kiss this time, lasting for less than a second if that.

"Now," she spoke shortly after they pulled apart from each other, "I should speak to Caspian. He looked defeated after what had just happened with Jadis and he too must've felt the effects of her powers like you had."

"I understand," he smiled at her.

She acted surprised, "Peter? The High King? Understanding? As I live and breathe."

Peter and Alexandra just shook their heads and laughed lightly before she turned to pick up her axe so she could leave to find the Telmarine prince.

"And Peter-" she turned her head to see him looking up at her through his eyelashes, "Talk to Lucy and Edmund."

He nodded her head as she left the room, passing Lucy on her way and sending her a warm smile. The youngest Pevensie sibling took the seat beside Peter and found that her brother was staring at the stone carving on the wall of Aslan.

"You're lucky to have seen him, you know," he whispered after a minute of silence between them. "I wish he'd just given me some sort of proof."

"Maybe we're the ones who need to prove ourselves to him," Lucy responded and took his arm.

"But what about when Alexandra needed his help after the battle? He didn't show his face then, forcing her to take such drastic actions."

Lucy stayed silent for a second more, "Maybe that was his plan all along. Look at us now, we have been reunited with the girl that saved us and Narnia. For better or for worse, it has worked out how we all wanted it to. We all wanted it to be the five of us once more, and we are." She stopped to look back up at the depiction of Aslan. "We choose to believe in what we do because we need to believe. Believing is what pushes us forward out of the dark and into the light. Be what it may, but perhaps if we choose to put our faith in Aslan then all the answers could reveal themselves to us."

Peter nodded his head and listened. He didn't have an answer. How could he?

Edmund entered looking rather fumbled, "Peter, you'd better come quickly."

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I'm such a simp for Caspian, check out 'a deeper shade of blue' on my page if you are too!