꧁ Skeletons in the closet ꧂

Narnia had a funny way of reversing the course of events: one moment you were facing a terrifying dragon, and the next you were sitting next to it, around a bonfire.
In a few hours the impossible had happened. The crew had discovered that the golden beast was really none other than Eustace, who had been tempted by a cursed treasure that had turned him into a dragon. Thus it was decided that the royals, Elizabeth and some other sailors would have spent the night on the beach and, the next morning, they would have looked for a way to bring the dragon Eustace with them, considering that, given the new dimensions, he couldn't get on the ship anymore.

✵✵✵✵

Elizabeth had decided to sit a little farther away from the fire than the others. She rested her back on a rock and hugged her knees, gazing into the flames. The events of the past few days were still vivid in her mind, the fear of losing someone else she cared about still had an iron grip on her heart.

Caspian had stopped listening to Edmund and Lucy bickering for a while now. His gaze was fixed on the young woman who, in such a short time, had managed to win his heart. The King could not continue to see her like this, it was clear that she was suffering and it seemed that there was nothing that could ease her pain.
Without thinking much longer, Caspian got up and went to sit by her side.

"Who did you lose?" he asked her calmly, capturing her attention.

"Mh?" she murmured, turning to him.

"Before, in the cemetery, you said..." he started.

"I know what I said." she firmly said, moving her gaze back to the fire. "I don't want to talk about it." she then added.

"All right," he nodded. "Why are you afraid of fire, then?" he tried again.

"What is this? An interrogation?" she replied sharply.

"No." he stated quietly. "But you can't bottle everything inside. It'll kill you." he told her.

The woman sighed but didn't say anything else. He was probably right, but she couldn't find the word nor the courage to speak.

"I never met my parents. They were murdered shortly after I was born." Caspian started telling her. "I was raised by my nurse. She was an old, stern woman, but she was nice to me." he chuckled. "She used to tell me stories about the Old Days of Narnia, the time of the Great Kings and Queens." he said, as a melancholic smile appeared on his face. "I wanted to be like them. I wanted to be a great king, someone my parents would be proud of. The king that Telemar deserved, that Narnia deserved." he told her.

"You are a great king." she reassured him, looking at him with her head rested on her knees.

"Maybe," he nodded. "Maybe I am. Maybe I am not." he said.

Elizabeth open her mouth to correct him but he did let her speak. "Every night I see my father in my drams. He's angry at me. He sees me as a failure. Every night he repeats me the same three things, that I'm weak, that I don't deserve to be a king and that I don't deserve to be his son." he explained.

The woman didn't know what to say. She wasn't expecting something like that.

"But the point is, that even if he screams at me and insults me, I don't want this dreams to go away, because I miss him. I miss him more than anything. And I don't even know why since I've never known him. But I do." he told her, as he looked in her eyes and gave her a sad smile.

They stayed in a comfortable silence for a while, each of them lost in their thoughts, as they looked at the flames dancing in front of them.
Elizabeth wanted to comfort the King, but she couldn't find the words to do it. He had trusted her, opening his heart and letting her give a look inside. Maybe now it was time for her to open hers.

"Kate." she murmured, immediately drawing Caspian's curios look on herself. "Her name was Kate," she told him. "She was my sister." she added, turning to look at him. "When we were young, she had the bad habit of getting hungry in the middle of the night. She would always wake me up and ask me for hot chocolate and biscuits." she chuckled. "One night, my parents had gone out, so it was just us two. As always, I was heating the milk on the stove; she made a joke, I don't remember about what, but I started to chase her around the kitchen. We were running around and playing, and I completely forgot about the milk." she told him, as she moved her gaze back to the flames, not being able to look at him. "When the fire alarm went off was already too late. We had old wooden furniture. The fire spread quickly. We were stuck." she said. Elizabeth close her eyes, as as single tear rolled down to wet her cheek. "The firefighters got us out. Me first, since I was the closest to the door, then her. We had no serious burns, but my sister had inhaled too much smoke. She didn't make it." she concluded.

Caspian was speechless. Everything made sense now: why she wanted to become a doctor, the way she was towards the little Gael, her fear of fire, her words in the cemetery. Everything. She had lost a sister, and she was blaming herself for it.

"Liz," he called her, but it seem she couldn't hear him. "Elizabeth," he repeated, placing a hand on her shoulder. The woman revived and looked up at him. "It wasn't your fault." he told her calmly.

"Yes, it was. I shouldn't have left the stove on, I shouldn't have gotten distracted, I should have saved her, I was the eldest, she was my responsibility, I should have gotten her out of there, I..." the woman slurred as more tears left her eyes.

Caspian drew her to himself and held her close, as he stroke her hair. "No, no it wasn't. It wasn't your fault, Liz." he whispered. "There was nothing you could do." he kept telling her, while leaving soft kisses on the top of her head. "It's all right. It's gonna be all right, I promise."

Elizabeth cried silently in the arms of her lover. She let out all the fear, the remorse and the pain she had kept inside until eventually she fell asleep, lulled by the rhythmic beat of his heart.

Caspian hadn't said anything else, he just held her tight, letting her blow off. He couldn't sleep much that night, his head was crowded with too many thoughts. From her earliest days aboard the Dawn Trader, Elizabeth had seemed to him the strongest woman he had ever known, and yet, she was broken. For years she had carried on her shoulders the guilt of a crime never committed, a chain now long and heavy from which she could've never broken free. He would have destroyed that chain, ring by ring, erased it completely. He would have made her free, free as she should always have been, as she deserved to be.

✵✵✵✵

It was still dark when Elizabeth felt someone shake her slightly.

"Liz, Liz wake up." a voice called her.

"Hmm?" was the only answer she could've given at the moment.

The owner of the voice chuckled, "C'mon, wake up."

She would've recognized that crystal laughter everywhere. She opened her eyes and was struck by an intense blue light. It took her a few seconds to realize what was going on, then the surprise painted over her face as a wave of hope attacked her heart.

"It's the Blue Star, Liz" Caspian told her, "It's our guide."

The woman lifted her torso slightly to better observe it. She wanted to laugh, jump, shout for joy, instead she threw her arms around Caspian's neck and captured his lips in a fiery kiss.
The King was caught off guard, but quickly recovered, tightening the grip around her waist and returning the kiss with as much passion.
They separated only when they were both breathless. They both laughed.
Caspian took her face in his hands, focused on capturing every detail, before leaving a final sweet kiss on her lips.

"Our past doesn't define us. We are forged by it." he told her. It was a truth, it was a promise, the promise that he would've stayed by her side, that he would've helped her lock her skeletons in the closet and throw away the key.

She nodded, understanding. She leaned her forehead on his and closed her eyes, grateful.

No one seemed to pay attention to them, all too busy cheering and preparing bags for the trip. There was a little more hope in their hearts, a little more determination in their minds.

Author Space

Hi everyone, here I am with a new chapter...finally!
I'm so sorry for my long absence, school and health took up a lot of my time. From now on I'll try to update this story as frequently as possible, but I can't promise anything because it's not the only one I'm writing at the moment (check out my profile if you're curious).
Anyway, I hope you'll like the new part.

Until next time, a kiss
Lis💗