Adoration

vii

"It has always been you, Susan. You will always be the love of my life, my soulmate if you believe in that." She smiled, already feeling the tears that coated her eyes.

She knew she shouldn't, she knew it was wrong: but at that moment, she didn't care. She pressed her lips gently to his, both of them melting into the action. When they pulled back seconds later, their foreheads remained touching.

"Go." He spoke simply.

"Go. For you." Caspian's hands tightened slightly on her face. "You still have so much to accomplish in your world, and I would never aim to stop you from achieving it.

"When you left the last time, you made me promise to marry Lilliandil and I wanted to hate you for it. I wanted to marry you." He paused. "I want you to promise me the same –" she was already shaking her head before he had finished "- fall in love and marry them, Susan. Please, for me."

Reluctantly and after a long pause, she nodded. "I love you." She whispered, as though she was indulging him in a secret.

He placed a kiss on her head before stepping back. He continued to do this until she understood what he was doing. They took a step back at the same time, then another, then another, until they had reached the doors on either side of the hall. Counting to three in her head, she turned and walked out, not paining herself to look back.

She met up with her siblings and cousin outside, just as they were pulled from Narnia.

* * *

Caspian sighed as he left the room, leaning against the door, exhausted.

The walls around him and the floor beneath him shook violently, not stopping to give him time to recover. He made his way to his son's room as quick as he could without being knocked over by the shaking.

As he entered, he saw son asleep. Lilliandil was holding him, asleep too. Smiling woefully, he lay beside them, wrapping his arms around the two of them.

Caspian didn't know how he felt.

Upset that his son would not be able to grow up knowing Narnia. Scared about what came after death. Would they go to Aslan's country, or would that be destroyed alongside Narnia?

Guiltily, he also felt content. He had made his peace with Susan, shared a final moment with her, and knew now that her three words would be the final thing he would ever hear.

And as Narnia caved in around them, that's all he remembered. All he heard. All he felt.

I love you.

* * *

As the five landed back in their own world, silence overtook them. They all shook with silent sobs, grieving for the land they had loved with their entire beings.

None of them spoke. They went to bed shortly after returning, probably to hope they would wake up still in Narnia and this had all been a stupid nightmare. They all knew that none of them would be getting any sleep though.

Susan lay in bed. The covers felt uncomfortable and scratchy against her skin, nowhere near as comfortable as the Narnia beds. She sighed, having a feeling that these comparisons would be common from now on despite how much it hurt her heart.

Her heart had been split right down the middle; her body ached and was shaking slightly; her head pounded; her chest was heavy; there was a pain in her side.

There was a pain in her side.

Literally.

Frowning, she reached down, feeling a slight bump in her pocket. Her lips parted as she pulled a necklace out of her pocket. At first, she did not recognise it. Then she realised.

The necklace she had lost a long time ago. She was questioning how it had been returned to her before realising that Caspian must have had it this whole time. She did not mind that fact, though her heart was being pulled so hard that she feared it may jut out from her chest.

She clipped the necklace around her neck before finally allowing a sob to tear itself from her throat.