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"I wish you had enough discipline for the both of us.
Just because I don't know how to turn off the way I feel."
Crazier Things
Chelsea Cutler
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Chapter IX - Heavy is the Head that Wears the Crown
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I crept down the hall; it was unlikely for anyone to but up at this hour. I opened the library door as quietly as possible, praying it doesn't make any creaking noises. I shut it behind me in the same manner, turning around to see Ashton with a candle, leaning over a table with a map on it. The same thin silver chain hung out of her shirt that I noticed earlier. I assume Ashton couldn't sleep the same as me which led her to prepare plans for the Navy. I assume she didn't watch me walk in. She would have already made some comments that a King needs his beauty sleep.
"Can't sleep?" I ask, scaring her, making her initiate fight-or-flight mode, throwing the water in the cup next to her at me without ever touching the glass.
"Peter!" Ash shouts, letting a little laugh out.
She fakes a frown, trying not to laugh herself, "I should have learned my lesson to avoid scaring you by now."
"Only if you were smart." She comments.
"You're supposed to be on bed rest." She claimed.
"I got out early," I corrected. She nodded, considering that if I can talk my way through international relations, I'm sure a few nurses were a piece of cake.
Ash sighed, turning her focus to retrieving every droplet of water into the air from my clothes, making it all fall back in the cup. My eyes traveled with the water the whole time.
Ash smiled, "I swear, every time I use magic, you act like you've weren't there when I discovered it."
"When you discovered it you didn't nearly have this much control or variety. You were just learning how to stop it from ruining camp." I defended.
"I'm still learning." Ash downplays her progress. Going back to moving around the map.
"Show me," I smirk.
"No."
"Come on, show me." I urge.
"I do not produce tricks for your enjoyment." She shakes her head, quickly finding a different subject, "How are you feeling?"
"I'm bruised but not dying, my ego hurts more than anything. Now don't try to change the subject." I told her and she sighed and rolled her eyes, setting down a small version of a Navy ship on the map.
"Come on, Ash."
She sighed, giving in I believe partly because she was too tired to fight at this point, "You have to give me all your trust."
Peter nodded eagerly, "Deal."
Ash kicked off her shoes and walked over to the window seat, standing on top of it to open both windows, let the night air in. Ash beckoned me forward and I joined her, taking off my mud-filled boots to step on the cushions without damaging them. Peter looked down, his nerve noticing that they were fifteen stories above the sea.
"Are you ready?" Ash evilly smiled
"But why-"
"Shh, full trust remember?" She shuts me up.
"What's something that brings you happiness." She instructs with excitement in her eyes.
"That's a wide range of things," I tell her, not to be a smartass but because I didn't want to mess something up if I didn't say the right thing.
"What's a time you remember being your happiest?"
"Coronation night, everyone was together and safe. I swear the whole country danced that night." I thought out loud.
"Dancing, perfect." She concluded.
I feel Ash's hands prepare themselves like they would for dance, one in my hand and the other on my shoulder. She led us in a simple waltz. I kept the memories playing in my mind, allowing her to focus on her magic, though nothing seemed to happen. I felt no temperature change, no increasing wind, just the hard tile beneath my feet and Ashton's touch. The grace in each step felt natural, every movement in sync between the two of us.
"Okay, whatever you do, don't freak out," Ash says, and I already know there's a smile on her face as we stopped dancing. "You can open your eyes."
I slowly opened my eyes, first only seeing her green ones, but my body jerked into its fight-or-flight response when I caught sight of the change of setting around us. I pulled Ashton closer. Panic set in because she led us into the air outside of the castle using what looked like flat clouds of floating ice.
"I'm never asking about your magic ever again," I say in pure fear, looking down at the fifteen stories of pure air beneath us. She laughed confidently.
She lightly lifted my chin, "Just don't look down."
The soft-touch of her hand, reminding me of simpler times, "This is something else, weather machine. It's as amazing as it is terrifying. You never fail to impress me."
Even in the moonlight which painted a pale silver on everything it touched, I could fix a light blush on her cheeks because of the compliments on her skill, not beauty.
"When did you find out you could fly?" I wondered.
"By accident actually, long story short, I was scouting in a tree and had a misstep. I thought I would hit the ground, but my magic had a different idea of using the wind to throw me back into the tree. The sheets of ice are for stabilizing and control." She explained.
I smiled at the pride in her voice, "In only two years... I remember when you couldn't even control one power, now you are using multiple at once."
"And you couldn't even hold a sword and now you're leading armies." She reminisced.
"Not to mention we hated each other." Ash laughed, finding the humor in it now, "You saved my life and I still hated you."
"I called Benvolio, your boyfriend," I commented with a look of disgust, making Ashton laugh harder.
"Even Aslan couldn't keep a straight face when you said that."
We started to descend back into the window as Ash grew tired, "Any other tricks you learned while you were away."
"Most are too dangerous to practice in the castle. I almost accidentally blew Edmund up when I discovered that under enough stress and hunger, I felt like my brain was on fire, I brought my hands to the side of my head and the next thing I knew I literally spontaneously combusted. But it only happened twice, and both times I passed out."
"Part of me wants to see that in action but the other half really hopes I never have to," I admitted.
"To be safe, let's hope I ever have to go that far."
I grabbed onto the windowpane with one hand, keeping a hold of her with the other hand. Ash's magic was left unbalanced for a second as I stepped back into the library, ruining her chance of a smooth transition. She stumbled forward, knocking into my chin with her head.
"Oh, tash! I'm sorry." Ash apologies.
"It's all right," I told her but still couldn't shake the fear of floating five stories off the ground, still was holding tightly onto her. I didn't want to let go yet.
I synced my breathing to Ash's. My mind wandered to my feelings, our feelings. The feelings we both tried to hide, crush and forget.
My adrenaline was still surging, which gave me the confidence to ask his next question, "The night of the coronation, you cut a small 'P' charm from the inside of my cuff." Her face lost a bit of color when I brought it up, expecting what I would ask next, "Is that the charm hanging from your necklace?"
Ashton looked like she wanted to speak, but she was afraid her voice would betray her with a crack so she just pulled the chain out from under her shirt, revealing the silver letter. I pulled back, taking off my crown and handing it to her. She inspected the outside for a second, looking at the jewels, but misunderstood why I handed it to her. I turned the crown over, revealing a clearer view of the inside of the crown where a small black bow of ribbon was sewn into the interior. Ash's ribbon from coronation day.
"Two of the most powerful people in this world, given every authority to make any decision but one."
"Peter..." Ash breathed out slowly, "Why do you still have this?"
"I assume, the same reason you have this," I answered softly, taking the dainty letter softly in between my fingers.
Her eyes met mine under the moonlight. For a second, I saw a flash of Ashton when we first met, when I followed her out to the cliffs above the old Narnian war camp, when my head told me she brought me out there to kill me and run but my heart said otherwise. She told me the true story of Loxley and I found myself leaning in to kiss her, even though I knew better. Just like now.
Each centimeter of distance we lost between us, the less I could focus on anything else. The less I could focus on the difference between what was wrong and right. Any sense of morality was blurred around her as she encased every part of my brain with the drive for her. Centimeters turned into millimeters and millimeters decreased to nothing as my lips met hers.
She closed her eyes with a sigh and sank into my arms. I wrapped my arms tightly but delicately, not because I thought I would break her, but because I was afraid to become consumed with our vulnerability.
She kissed me harder, beckoning for more. The idea brought a little smirk to my face between kisses.
I swiped the books from the wooden table behind Ash and tapped her thigh, signaling for her to jump as I kept a hold of her leg and placed her softly onto the table. One of her hands scaled up my arm, over my shoulder, lightly pulling me down as she ran her fingers through my hair at the base of my neck. Absorbed at the moment, I promised myself I would never settle for anything less than this. Nothing but the reason I feel with her would ever make me this happy. My hand found its way up her thigh, closing the small gap between us.
The bliss was broken by the slamming of the library door shut and a loud voice, "Bloody Tash!"
Edmund's British accent and Narnian slang had now become one as he stood in the doorway. He scoffed loudly, "Are you two out of your bloody minds?"
I jumped back and Ash hopped off the table. She tried to hide the blush on her cheeks, only adding to Edmund's rage.
He marched towards me, pushing me away from her, "How could you be so stupid? I knew you two couldn't stop yourselves! Oh, we aren't kids anymore!"
He pushed me back again, making my back hit a bookshelf, "Do you know what they would do to her if they found out? They would paint her as a traitor, ending in banishment or death. When have you ever not let your selfishness get the best of you? You let her go two years ago! I helped put her back together, I was there when she needed me. You weren't! You don't get to come in and wreck her again."
"Ed!" Ashton shouted in shock, telling him to shut up. She didn't want me to know. Whether it was to protect her own feelings or mine.
Edmund had never taken up sides between us until now. I always thought Ashton didn't need me, that's why she left. I was the one that needed her. I never wanted her to feel the way I did.
"Ed..." I broke, trying to stop his angered fit. I had nothing to say, he was right. And I couldn't blame him for worrying about her. He was afraid that because of us one of the most important people to him was going tobe taken away from him. He had to know I would never allow that to happen to her.
He turned to her, softer but still hurting and full of anger, "Everything you've done, every achievement and growth from the time you escaped your mother to now would be stained. Some could claim you did everything to end up as Queen, going far enough to home wreck an engagement. Or that you never changed at all and we've now and the insider of this war threatening Narnia, with you as the leader of her old supporters. You would be executed for treason."
"Edmund. I'm sorry." She said, looking ashamed. Her expression of regret was enough to sober me up from the adrenaline. "I have no excuse, I wasn't thinking."
"So help me, Aslan, if I find you two again..." He threatens.
"It won't happen again," I said with a hollow voice. Ashton nodded in agreement, catching my glare.
"This will not leave these walls. Tell no one, not even Lucy. We can never speak about it again." Edmund ordered. Usually, I would disagree with the idea of giving me an order, both as a King and an older brother. But this is not a battle I wanted to fight.
We both silently nodded like children being yelled at by their mother, agreeing to whatever he said, "Now, Peter comes with me. Half the castle is looking for you since you snuck out of the doctor's ordered bed rest."
Ashton's eyes grew wider, unexpecting my bold disobedience. Edmund escorted me out of the library, leaving Ashton behind.
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The song I put at the beginning works so perfectly it makes me so happy.
Are there any things you guys would like to see in the following chapters?
Possibility any predictions?