The Smuggler's Secret
A/N [show-me-your-tardis]
Plot – AU: In which two enemy smugglers are forced to work together. Can they put their differences aside to complete the job, or will their hatred for each other bubble over?
Chapter Ten
I woke up again just before sunrise. Arthur was still asleep but he roused when I moved away from him. He looked up at me, squinting slightly in the light. I looked around for what had hit me.
Moving the hay around the floor, I found it. A key.
The key was small and brass, it had tiny symbols carved around the edge and I realised they matched the symbols on my chains perfectly. It was the key to my chains.
Arthur looked at the key in my hands and, after a brief confused moment, he sat up quickly. He snatched the key from me and quickly undid my chains.
Once the cuffs were off, I rubbed at my wrists. The skin was colder where the metal had been but other than that they were fine. I looked up at Arthur, he was busy trying to use the key to unlock the door.
"It won't work." I whispered.
He continued trying to wiggle the key into the gap. Until he opened his hand and I watched the key drop to the ground. He cursed under his breath.
"Can you reach it?" He asked, lying down on the floor and reaching through the bars.
"Arthur, that key was for my chains only."
He gave up and turned to look at me.
"Why would they only give us this key? If they want to free us, why didn't they just let us go?" He asked angrily.
"Because." I took a deep breath.
The voice in my head was shouting for me to stop; begging me not to go on. I silenced it and cleared my throat.
"I can do this."
I threw my hand up and whispered the spell. The doors creaked open.
Arthur's mouth hung open, he looked frantically between me and the door. His hand was limply raised, halfway pointing at me.
"You..." His voice was weak, if he finished that sentence I didn't hear.
"Have magic." I whispered, biting my lip.
He continued to stare at me. I tasted blood and quickly freed my lip. The blood was thumping in my ears, even if Arthur was capable of speaking, I wouldn't be able to hear him. The air turned to sand in my lungs, I felt like I was choking.
"Magic." He hissed.
The word sounded cruel in his mouth, like poison. It felt like a knife was slowly making it's way to my heart. Any second now the knife would pierce it and Arthur would break it even further.
"Get out." He whispered.
I expected anger, or violence, but not that. Disappointment.
He sounded hurt. I had hurt him.
I couldn't bring myself to move. My veins were filled with stone.
"Arthur, please." I begged him, "You can leave. You can escape."
"With you?" He asked disgustedly.
"No, you can... You can..." Words failed me.
He shook his head and looked away from me. I felt the scratch in my throat and knew I was going to cry.
I finally managed to move. I shuffled past Arthur, hesitating only slightly, before jumping out the cage. I turned back to him, hoping he'd at least watch me go. Or he'd jump out and run the opposite direction.
He didn't. He reached behind him and shut the cage door. I felt my heart split open, he'd rather surrender to his father than spend any more time with me.
I walked quietly past the smuggler's camp, spotting Poppy. She rolled over when I walked past, showing me it was her who had helped.
I ran off far from the smugglers, to an unknown destination. Tears blurring my vision.