𝐒𝐖𝐀𝐍𝐖𝐇𝐈𝐓𝐄 || Narnia x The Hunger Games Crossover

Chapter Fifteen

He ripped it free too late. "Get off," he growled, but his voice came out thin, out of breath or lightheaded, and Lucy stared.

"You're burning up."

Stones skittered up ahead as Caspian landed back down from the boulder he'd been scaling, and Edmund glared, bangs slicked to his forehead. "So?"

A weak comeback, leagues from the sharp attitude and quick wit he'd been so keen to display yesterday. And every day before that.

Caspian stepped back toward them. "What's going on?"

"Nothing," said Edmund, but Lucy retorted.

"I know a fever when I feel one, I'm not stupid."

"And you didn't say anything?" Caspian snapped, "Wanted to infect the rest of us?"

"I'm not sick," spat Edmund, "Mind your own business." He tried to push past Lucy, but Caspian's strong hand flew up to stop him, and when Edmund tried to shove back Caspian grabbed and slammed him into the sharp outcropping.

Edmund choked out a cry and doubled over, grasping the stone for support, hand flying to his side, and Lucy's heart jumped.

For a second he held himself there, breathing out, squeezing his eyes shut and choking back another noise too pathetic to belong to him.

"So you're hurt," said Caspian, accusatory.

"What's it to you?" gasped Edmund, but now Lucy really looked at him, studied him, jacket cinched tight around his waist, and peeking out from beneath it low on the left side of his tunic crept a dark stain unlike the sooty filth smearing the rest of their clothes.

"How long?" she asked, bewildered, "The infection's already spreading."

He squinted back at her. "Real genius, this one. Are you the brains of the operation?"

Caspian shoved him and he slammed to the ground like a ragdoll, curling in on himself with a delayed, stuttered grunt, air catching in his throat as he dug his forehead into the stone.

"Hey!" cried Lucy, and Jill stared wide-eyed from her perch as Edmund struggled pitifully to get his arms underneath himself and glanced over his shoulder at Caspian.

"Gonna put me out of my misery?" he half-laughed, voice thin and strained, and Lucy followed his eyes to the knife in Caspian's hand.

"Caspian," she snapped.

Caspian stiffened, but didn't turn, eyes fixed dark and dangerous on his target. And when he spoke, he answered only Edmund. "I don't have to."

Stone crunched under his heel. He shoved the knife back into his belt and lunged up the next rise, but Lucy said "Wait."

He stopped, ran a hand through his hair, standing silent for several moments, and at last turning stiffly back to face her, black eyes glinting in the green glow as if another spirit haunted their depths.

"He's not going to last down here."

"I know," snapped Caspian flatly.

"Well we can't just—"

"Yes, we can. He made his choices and he can rot with them, would you quit trying to save everyone for just five seconds? Is that too much to ask?"

Lucy froze, taken aback by the venom in his tone. "I— I'm not trying to—"

"Then explain to me why I'm putting up with the kid who worships at the feet of my father's killer!"

Thunder ricocheted through the cavern, black eyes blazing as Lucy's heart pounded in her throat and guilt crashed through her gut anew, stunned into trembling silence. "It—" she stammered, "It just seemed like the best—"