A/N: I'm back! Enjoy. I still don't own Merlin, sadly enough.
"I can't." Merlin said shakily, closing his eyes.
"Coward." Morgana said, sneering, "I told you there would be blood on your hands."
She was sitting on the throne of Lot's kingdom. Supposedly the most heavily guarded, and it was taken within two days by two people. All the knights and guards surrendered, and were theirs.
Merlin was standing, supporting himself on a wall.
And kneeling in front of both of them, bound and gagged, was Gwaine. He kept trying to bite the guard on his left's ankle.
"We have no need of him." Morgana said.
"Can't he fight for us?" Merlin asked weakly.
"Let go, Emrys. You promised me you would let go."
Merlin opened his eyes, aimed his hand, and spoke one word.
He closed his eyes again, not wanting to look at Gwaine's body.
"Remove him." Morgana said, pointing at the body.
Arthur was in shock.
Gwaine's body had been sent back to Camelot.
The knights who delivered it also gave Arthur a message that shocked him rather more than Gwaine.
The message was: 'Merlin did it.'
That was the impossible part. Arthur had gone through so many mental scenarios where any of the knights died. But it was never because Merlin killed them.
If he thought of it as a new threat to Camelot's safety, it made him feel a hell of a lot better.
Merlin hadn't quite recovered from killing Gwaine.
Which was probably why he showed up in Morgana's chambers in the middle of the night.
"Sit down." she said.
Merlin did so.
"Gwaine isn't the last." Morgana said.
"I know." Merlin said.
"Be glad that Mordred's going to take care of Arthur, because you know you couldn't."
"I am."
Morgana sat up, and poured them both a glass of water.
"To eternal life." she said, raising her glass.
And as Merlin drank, he wondered just how important immortality was to her.
A/N: One more chapter…Please review!
