𝐋𝐎𝐍𝐆 𝐋𝐈𝐕𝐄 || peter pevensie [2]

chapter ten ~ the truth untold

Nimueh re-entered the Stone Table chamber to find Peter and Lucy silently staring up at the carving of Aslan. At the soft echo of her footsteps, Lucy's head whirled around. She smiled at her, stood, and circled the Table to meet her.

"Have you come to talk to Peter?"

Nimueh only answered with a small smile. Lucy bowed her head low and left the chamber. Once more, she and Peter were alone.

Peter had not moved an inch since she had come into the cavern. He continued to stare intensely at the depiction of the Lion, as if his life depended on it, even as she sat down on the stone next to him. Only when she spoke did his eyes shift, angling away from her at the floor.

"I'm sorry I got so angry before. I didn't know that you had been suffering."

"It's alright." His reply was quiet.

"No, it's not. Yes, mistakes were made, but you were doing the best you could. And I don't follow you because some prophecy said that I had to. I follow you because I...want to."

Peter was silent for a minute or two, then said, "Going from a respected King back to a kid, it just makes you feel so helpless. It's like you work so hard to become the best you can be at what you do, and then suddenly it's all taken away from you and you realise that you aren't really that good at anything else."

"You can't really believe that." Nimueh brushed the tips of her fingers over the pad over her thumb. "Susan told me that you've been getting into fights. Did you miss the battlefield that much?"

"I might have to have a word with her about how much she's been telling you."

Nimueh smiled silently. "You can't let other people get to you, because the people who really matter, they believe in you. You don't have to prove anything to them." Though hesitantly, Nimueh reached out to touch Peter's hands which were clasped over one knee, but retracted at the last moment, just as he had done. "I stand by what I said before; you will always be my King."

Finally, Peter turned to look at her face. His blue eyes were laced with something so familiar, but in the couple of years that had passed, she had forgotten what it was. Taking her hand, he threaded his fingers between hers. It was a gesture so alien, inappropriate for a King to make towards his subordinate, but Nimueh couldn't pull away. She remembered the one time he had done it before, and how she'd wanted nothing more than to hold his hands for the rest of her life.

"There were moments, back at home in England, when I didn't let myself believe that you were real. I had myself convinced that I would never see you again, so it would just be better if I forgot all about you. I'm sorry."

"It's alright. The first time you leave, you wonder if any of it was real. I suppose, had I not remained so distant, you wouldn't have thought that I didn't-"

"I love you." The words slipped from his lips so suddenly, as though he had been holding them back for an eternity, as though they had spent every second fighting to break free.

Nimueh felt her heartbeat cease. Pulling her hand away from Peter's, she stood and moved a couple of steps away from him. With her back turned, she placed one hand where the ring lay under her shirt, and wrapped her other arm around herself. When Yvaine had given the ring to her and told her that the King loved her and wanted to marry her, she had believed it. Even since they had been reunited, she had wanted to think it was still true. But now, hearing it from his own mouth, she could hardly entertain the idea.