Journal Entry before the confession

(He is traveling; he knows he will see her soon. His heart is full and restless.)

15 May
Somewhere between London and home

The sea outside the train window shifts and gleams like her eyes.
Endless. Unknowable.

And here I am, a boy grown into a man, still caught between past and present.
I have seen magic and monsters — have worn a crown, have fought beside kings —
and yet no spell has bound me like this:
the ache that begins and ends with her.

She does not know.
Perhaps she suspects — I am not so skilled a liar as once I was —
but still, the words have never crossed my lips.

"Take my breath away."

It is what I would say, if courage permits.
Not as a prince, not as a Pevensie —
but simply as Edmund.

I have waited through too many hourglasses of hesitation.
I will not wait another.

When I see her again,
I will speak.
And if the world breaks upon those words — so be it.

Better broken than silent.

by Onnaya