A/N: Thank you all so much for your wonderful reviews and the alerts and favorites! You all are awesome! Enjoy and please continue to review! XD
Your Kiss
Chapter Four
She stood outside of the cell, bathed in the dim light that filtered through the barred windows. She was beautiful, hauntingly so, with her long black hair falling down her back and over her shoulders in silky ropes. Her eyes glimmered in the pale lighting, confliction raging within them. Her soft white complexion seemed to glow in the darkness of the dungeons.
When she entered the room, the guards at the cell stood to attention, heads bowed. "My lady."
Merlin continued to glare at the seductress from his shadowed corner as Morgana stood, head held high and chin raised and said, "I would like to speak with the prisoner – alone." Merlin felt his good eye narrow as he heard her request, not trusting the witch or her purposes in the slightest.
The two guards glanced at each other. "Do you think it wise, my lady?" the first asked, head still inclined submissively. "After what he has done to you…" Merlin gritted his teeth at the reminder of the accusation and Morgana's betrayal.
Morgana gave a falsely brave smile and responded in a thin but determined voice, "I do not wish to enter the cell with him. I would just like you to leave until I have spoken with him. I believe I deserve to speak my mind to him after what he put me through." Merlin seethed and the guards still seemed a bit dubious. Morgana cast a swift glance in the prisoner's direction. "He is behind bars and chained to the wall. Do you honestly think he can do me any harm?" She fixed the men with a pleading stare and Merlin couldn't help but wonder darkly what she was planning that she was so determined to be alone with him. He didn't like any of the possibilities that crept into his whirling mind.
"Please," Morgana continued. "I have a right to look him in the eye and demand to know why." She glared at them even as Merlin glowered at her from his dark recess of the cell.
Finally the guards nodded. "Yell if you need us, my lady," the second one requested. "We do not wish any more harm to come to you."
Morgana nodded, her raven hair bobbing around her delicate face as she did so. "Of course. Thank you."
They strode out of the room and down the hall a bit so as to give Morgana her privacy but to also be within range to help if something went wrong. Honestly, though, what did they expect Merlin to do? Morgana had been right, he was in a cell and shackled to a wall – he wasn't going anywhere. Of course, there was always his magic but no one knew about that yet. There was still a chance that he could get out of this without magic – albeit a very small one – but he did not want to reveal his secret just yet. He hoped that Gaius would come see him soon, as much as he loathed his guardian to see him like this, because he desperately needed some advice on how to deal with this situation. This was one plot that in all of his wildest imaginings he had never seen coming.
But before he could speak to Gaius he had to get through this confrontation with the woman who had set it into motion. The woman that he had never been as angry with as he was now. He glared darkly at the beautiful specter that lurked in his line of sight, his nightmares, his dreams. She regarded him coolly for a few moments before stepping forward and addressing him once more. "Hello, Merlin."
When he spoke, his voice was as icy as her heart. "What do you want, Morgana?"
She smirked. "Not enjoying your new accommodations, Merlin? Pity. And I pulled so many strings to get you here."
Merlin snorted derisively. "I'm sure." He scowled although he knew she wouldn't be able to see it because of the shadows in the cell. "Have you just come to gloat, my lady, or is there another reason for you subjecting me to your presence?"
To his surprise, Morgana did not come back with a sarcastic retort. Instead she took a step closer to the bars, eyes uncertain as she eyed what she could see of him. "I-I had a question, actually."
"About how I'd like to be executed?" Merlin snapped. "Sorry, but the king has already made up his mind so I don't suppose you'll get a say in it." He knew he was risking getting into even more trouble by making her angry but at this point he did not care. The only "strings" she had "pulled" had been his heartstrings, the twine that held his emotions in check. She had used him – or rather misused him – humiliated him, and ultimately sentenced him to death. What made him even angrier was the reminder of who she once was… and the comparison to what she was now. It made him sick.
Morgana's expression was unreadable but she took a step closer to the cell, wrapped her pale hands around the bars as her fierce gaze attempted to pierce into the shadows. She didn't speak so Merlin filled the silence, the hurt of her betrayal cutting him deeper than he would have expected. "You know what makes this so bad, Morgana? Not that you went through all of this to see me die, not because you hate me this much – but because of what you have become." He felt a burning pressure behind his eyes and his throat began to ache from the strain of keeping the tears of grief at the loss of the woman who was once his friend out of his eyes and voice. "You – you used to be the most caring and selfless person I knew, Morgana. I admired you for that. And then… you haven't just betrayed me, Morgana. You've turned your back on everyone who loves you, who cares for you, who has risked everything for you. You've become a monster. And that hurts worse than anything…" He trailed off, straightened his back with a clatter of chains, and added, "And after this final betrayal… I fear you will never be able to redeem yourself." His voice was as hard and cold as his words.
Morgana's eyes flashed gold and Merlin barely held back a yelp as his head was suddenly flung against the back of the cell wall. He had to literally force himself not to retaliate with magic of his own. He couldn't afford for anyone to find out about his powers and certainly not Morgana. He knew that she hadn't meant to lash out with her magic as she had little or no control over it. She was inexperienced and weak, something that he feared would be remedied with time. Right now her magic was linked closely to her emotions and what Merlin had said had apparently hit close to home. He wondered if she was struggling with her new allegiance as much as he was… but that was impossible. She had shown her true colors, her real intent.
She was evil.
The idea still made his head spin as the dark goddess glared at him through the bars, almost daring him to retaliate, to protest, to cry, to try and rush forward to hurt her back. But he did none of that. Instead he remained perfectly still, his voice calm and steady, the complete opposite of everything she was right now. He managed to keep most of the dark amusement out of his tone as he leaned against the wall she had just knocked his head into. "Ah. Magic."
Morgana became still, her eyes feral and lips twisted into a grimace of some emotion Merlin couldn't quite identify – rage? fear? sadness? He didn't know.
"Who was it," he continued conversationally, "that was the first to find out about your magic, the first to try and give you advice to go to the druids – despite his better judgment – and the first to promise never to tell another living soul about your dark secret?" He paused. "Even after you made it clear that you had turned your back on him and everyone else, he still didn't speak. Maybe he should have."
"Uther would have never believed you over me," she spat.
Merlin hummed. "Perhaps not. But that hasn't changed the fact that I have told no one of your treachery."
Morgana was livid as she declared in a harsh whisper to keep the guards from hearing, "Possessing magic is not a crime!"
"Of course not – it can be used for good." Eying her steadily although she still didn't have a clear view of him, he added in a low voice, "But using it the way you have is a crime, Morgana. You haven't used magic for good, you've used it to your own purposes, you've let it do the very thing you used to be adamant to show Uther it did not – corrupt." His voice dropped even more and icy venom laced with his anger and hurt at her betrayal coated his words. "Or is it that magic didn't corrupt you, but you corrupted your magic?"
Morgana opened her mouth to answer but instead pressed herself against the bars, eyes peering into the cell. Quite suddenly and unexpectedly, especially after Merlin's last comment (a comment that he had fully expected to get him slammed into the wall again), she demanded, "Did you feel something when I kissed you?"
Merlin was taken aback at her query and wasn't sure how to respond. He didn't know what she meant exactly and was not sure if this was supposed to be some sort of trick question to make him further implicate himself or if there was some other unknown motivation behind her words. He took a few steps further, out into the light, and regarded her almost curiously. "What the hell are you talking about, Morgana?"
Morgana's eyes were locked onto his face, eyes wide and maybe a bit guilty as she looked at the blackening bruise and fading handprint, the trickle of blood running from the corner of those lips that hers had tasted just hours before. The sudden urge to reach through the bars, drag him to her, and kiss him again, this time with no other reason than because she wanted to swept over her suddenly and she shook the foreign thought off, disgusted with herself, with her weakness.
Yes, she had felt something when she had kissed Merlin, but surely it wasn't love or even like. Perhaps the tangy juice of forbidden, dark romance twisted to her own agenda. But it hadn't been that – it had been purer, stronger…
Merlin was speaking now. "Admiring Uther's handiwork? Just an added bonus for you, I'm sure."
She found herself asking a very stupid and very un-foe-like question. "Does it… hurt?"
Merlin stared at her as if she had lost her mind before shooting back, "And why do you care?"
"I don't." The response was automatic and she wondered at the way her stomach seemed to clench like it always used to when she wasn't telling the truth – in the days before lying became the center point of her existence. She changed the subject. "I want to know what you felt when… when I kissed you."
Merlin blinked with the eye that wasn't swollen shut and answered incredulously, "The guard's hand in my hair, for one." The chains clinked as he shifted position. "And…" he paused, eyes dimming a bit, "…you."
"What about me?" Morgana asked. Her heart rate was climbing steadily of its own accord as her eyes ran over his face – one side bruised and broken, the other pale and handsome.
When Merlin spoke again, his voice was soft and sad. "The 'you' I used to know. The one I foolishly believed you had become… The 'you' that I miss… more than anything. I felt… you, Morgana." He sighed. "But not you. Not you at all." His voice sounded as broken as his heart must be now. "Get out, Morgana," he ordered harshly.
Morgana took a step back but continued staring at him. Her voice trembling slightly, she whispered, "You cannot tell me what to do! Uther would have your head for speaking to me in such a tone."
"I thought you hated him."
"I do – but that doesn't mean that he will not jump to my defense in a heartbeat."
Merlin's gaze nearly penetrated her soul as he stared her down and responded resignedly, "Well, go ahead, tell him how I tried to order around someone of your caliber. He's going to have my head tomorrow, anyway, Morgana, so we may as well give him some extra incentive."
For some reason, hearing what was to happen to Merlin straight from the source brought a whole new wave of reality crashing crazily upon Morgana, and the intense emotions that rode on the tip of that wave were scary. New.
She took another step back, eyes wide and the corners prickling with tears. This was really happening. She had seduced Merlin. She had gotten him down here. She had gotten him sentenced to death, just like she'd planned.
She should be joyous.
But in fact, she couldn't find the joy in the midst of all the other roiling, wild, unpredictable feelings that were plunging through her being with every breath, knowing that with each breath she took, she was one breath closer to Merlin's last. Because she'd sentenced him.
Trembling with confusion and the onslaught of overwhelming emotions that threatened to bring her to her knees, Morgana turned on her heel, picked up her skirts, and ran. She could vaguely hear the sound of the guards calling to her, asking if she was alright, but she ignored them. She couldn't be down there any longer. Not with her fears, her doubts, her heart, her hatred, her love, her conflictions…
She had to get away. But no matter how far she ran, Merlin's bruised face and shattered expression, and cold, angry eyes were never far behind.
A/N: What did you think? I know it was pretty intense emotion-wise. I hope Merlin wasn't OOC because he's normally a forgiving person, but I think that there's a point where someone can cross the line – and he's not completely given up on her yet, although his just about blind with rage and grief right now…
Anyway, hopefully you enjoyed it! I sure did writing it although it was quite the emotional roller coaster, eh? Please REVIEW and I'll update as soon as I can! Thanks!
~Emachinescat ^..^
