A/N: This is the second-to-last full chapter; then there's an epilogue. SEQUEL ANYONE? Thanks to Kitty O, an awesome writer and my beta reader, who helped make the story a lot less... awkward.

I do not own Merlin, or "Your Guardian Angel" by the Red Jumpsuit Apparatus.

25. Your Guardian Angel

The minute Rena heard that Merlin got Aven back to Camelot safely, she had rushed to find them as quickly as she could. Eventually, she found them in the room in which Gaius treated his patients. Merlin was kneeling next to the bed Aven lay on, holding her hand and feeling like he was going to cry every time Aven let out a whimper of pain as Gaius began to mend her leg.

Rena stood with Gaius, handing him whatever he needed as he did his best to fix up Aven.

"This is a rather nasty injury you suffered, Aven," Gaius remarked. "And what of this burn mark right over top of it?"

"I, erm… dropped a candle… on myself… and I just happened to hurt my leg in the same place when I fell off my horse," Aven said, grinding her teeth as Gaius wrapped a bandage around the break.

"If I remember correctly, Aven, you were always a rather skilled rider. How did you fall off your horse, exactly?" Gaius asked, the suspicion in his voice evident.

"Something spooked the mare, I guess. I am not used to riding her," Aven said. Merlin and Rena had to give her credit – even when she felt like hell, she was a good liar.

"But weren't you riding Whisper? Hardly anything spooks her." Aven glared at Merlin, as if to say "You make up something".

"We're, um, not sure what it was…" Merlin stammered, and Aven rolled her eyes. She should have continued to handle the lying.

"I was just lucky Merlin found me," Aven interjected; glad to be telling the truth for once.

"Yes, you are," Rena said harshly. Her blue eyes burned with worry and anger. "You should not have gone riding alone."

"I did not expect to fall off the horse," Aven said, flickering her eyes in Gaius's direction so that Rena understood that the physician could not know of what really happened.

"Of course you didn't," Rena said, scoffing. Aven sighed and tried not to think about the pain her leg. She supposed Rena had the right to be upset; if it wasn't for Merlin, Alvarr would have killed her. By the end of the battle, her energy had been all but drained, and Alvarr was still going strong. She would have died.

An injured leg was better than death. Besides, it was only a sprain now, because on the way back to Camelot, both Aven and Merlin had been working to heal Aven's leg with magic. By the time they were with Gaius, the break had been healed, but she was still in a lot of pain and there may or may not have been a dislocation.

"Alright, Aven, I've done everything I can right now," Gaius said as he finished wrapping the bandages around the lower part of Aven's leg.

"Thank you, Gaius, for everything," Aven said. Gaius had a sneaking suspicion that there was something going on between the three young adults, but gave them a moment alone with each other as he left the room quietly.

"What the hell is wrong with you?" Rena hissed, wasting no time in pouncing on Aven. "You scared me half to death!"

"You stopped it."

"What?" Rena asked, confused by Aven's words. Aven smirked.

"When Alvarr tried to shoot that lightning bolt at Merlin and I pushed him out of the way… that should have killed me. The way it threw me to the ground… you did something, Rena."

"Well, of course I did. I stayed here, sending out protection spell after protection spell for you two," Rena said. For a minute, Aven looked as though she was deep in thought over something, and smiled a little as she looked back at Rena. She took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and recited Ysmina's prophecy.

"The one with a secret will be joined with another.

Alone she stands no chance,

With him, she is whole.

She is strong, though it takes but one wrong move to bring her down.

Help from the sidelines will guide her.

On her own, she will suffer.

With him, she is whole."

Aven opened her eyes and smiled. "It makes sense now." For a minute, the room was silent, as everyone began to understand the prophecy. It had come true.

"This does not mean you're off the hook, Aven," Rena said quietly, though she couldn't help but grin at their realization.

"I know," Aven said solemnly.

As Rena looked from Merlin to Aven, she made her way to the door, silently promising herself she would not eavesdrop.

"I'll give you two a minute alone," Rena said, shutting the door behind her. A silence, one that was comfortable rather than awkward, descended on the room. The bed was only big enough for one person to lie in, so Merlin just stayed at Aven's side.

"Do you believe me now?" Merlin whispered.

"What?" Aven asked, not sure what he meant.

"I told you I love you, and I meant it. Do you believe that?" A breathy, surprised laugh escaped Aven's lips. She wasn't sure what to say.

"You read the letter I wrote, right? Well…" Aven pursed her lips together, hoping the words didn't get caught in her throat. She stayed quiet.

"Aven?" Merlin hoped she didn't decide to back out now.

"…I love you." Nothing more needed to be said… not out loud, anyway. Merlin looked into Aven's eyes for a moment before slowly leaning in to kiss her. Meeting him halfway, Aven relished the taste of his lips. But Merlin's mind was still trying to get a handle on everything that had happened in the last twenty-four hours, and as for Aven, well… there were other thoughts clouding her mind.

"This would be perfect," Aven murmured against Merlin's lips. "If only there was not that arranged marriage. Which, I might remind you, is in ten days." Merlin immediately pulled away. He sighed.

"Was there a part of you just itching to bring that up, Aven?" he asked, exasperated.

"No. But I thought you needed to be reminded. No matter how right this feels… it is wrong," Aven said.

"It is only wrong if we say it is," Merlin muttered. Aven almost smiled.

"If it were only that simple," she sighed. "If only."

"Have we run out of ideas?" Merlin asked. Aven nodded.

"We may be able to end Rena's marriage, but as for mine…" Aven trailed off, and closed her eyes, as though the action alone would end her pain. Suddenly she opened them and looked at Merlin.

"Merlin, that vial I gave you before… where is it?" she asked. Merlin got up from his crouched position by the bed Aven lay on and found the vial inside one of Gaius's cupboards.

"Here." Merlin returned to Aven's side and handed her the vial, which had a small piece of parchment stuck to the bottom of it. Aven let her eyes scan the parchment quickly, before tightening her grip on the vial, closing her eyes, and breathing out slowly through her mouth to calm herself down.

"I knew it," she whispered.

"What?"

"When I was fifteen, my father began to lose his mind. Apparently, that was when my mother began slipping this-" Aven shook the vial slightly, "-into my father's food. According to this, the vial contains a medicine used to ease headaches and things like that. But when used on a healthy person, and with the amount that my father was receiving… it is what caused his mind to be in a fog." Aven frowned. "All these years… had I stayed in Kierian, I might have been able to stop this. All of it."

"And if you hadn't discovered it, you would be dead," Merlin reminded her.

"Well, the past is the past, but I think we may have found a way of preserving our future," Aven said, smiling a little. "I am trying to heal myself as quickly as possible without anyone suspecting magic. Once I can actually walk, I will present this to the court, and…" Aven shrugged. "One can only guess where we'll go from there."

Felicitia grinned slyly as she wrapped her fur shawl around her shoulders. Soon, Aven would be married to Arthur, and the two would become King and Queen of Kierian.

Unless, of course, they happened to die in a tragic accident that Felicitia would be nowhere near when it happened.

Maybe once Aven was dead, Felicitia would stop giving her husband the medicine that made him seem mentally incapable, and his recovery would be pronounced a miracle. It was just too bad that Aven would never get to see it.

And she had always adored her father so much.

The queen reached inside the box and felt around as she looked for the vial with Jonathan's "medicine". She felt a surge of panic go through her body. She did not feel the cool glass of the vial anywhere. Suddenly, she slammed the box shut. There was only one explanation for this.

Her scheming, conniving daughter had discovered her secret.

Now she must die.

"I must say, Aven, your leg has been healing remarkably fast over the past four days. It seems as though you will be perfectly fine for your wedding," Gaius said as he removed the bandage around Aven's leg. There was a nasty bruise, but no scar.

"Yeah, in five days. I feel all right now, actually-"

"No, Aven, I think you need one more day of resting your leg before you're ready for any serious physical activity," Gaius said. Aven sighed; she absolutely loathed sitting around doing nothing. Merlin, Rena, Xander, and even Arthur had been around to see her, but she spent most of her time alone. Also, most of the times Rena was there, Aven was getting chewed out for going to fight Alvarr alone. Aven sometimes mentioned that if Rena had come, she couldn't have sent out protection spells, and then they would all be dead, but once Rena got going on an argument there was no stopping her.

Now, Gaius had to find Merlin. To everyone who didn't know what had really happened, Aven's recovery had seemed like a miracle, just in time for her wedding. The day before, Felicitia had mentioned that the God must be looking over Aven and Arthur and even suggested pushing the wedding date up, but no one had really seemed to want to. The castle was in a rush as it was.

Gaius, however, knew magic when he saw it. He knew there was the possibility that Princess Aven had magic, but that wasn't exactly a question he could just outright ask her. And odds were it was Merlin, anyway. That he was cared about Aven a great deal was no secret, at least not to those close to him. Gaius just hoped his young charge understood the obstacles that lay between him and the princess.

Gaius found Merlin in Arthur's chambers, still trying to polish Arthur's armor.

"Merlin!"

"Yes, Gaius?" Merlin recognized the stern look on Gaius's face. And he knew it could only mean trouble for him.

"I have a few concerns about the Lady Aven that I thought you might be able to help me with," Gaius said. He was planning on asking him point-blank, but he'd have to see where the conversation went.

"What?" Merlin heard the suspicion in Gaius's voice.

"Well, for a nineteen-year-old woman she's certainly healed quicker than expected," Gaius began. Merlin shrugged.

"I guess she's just lucky. Is that all?" Gaius sighed.

"No, Merlin, that is not all. Listen, Merlin, I've noticed you've been paying a lot of attention to and spending a lot of time with Aven lately," Gaius said, deciding he'd have to ask Merlin straight out how he felt about Aven.

"I guess… I don't know, I mean, I like her well enough…"

"That's not what I mean. Merlin, did you use magic to heal her?" Gaius asked outright. Merlin froze like a deer in the forest that had just heard the sound of a hunter's footsteps. He couldn't lie (he was terrible at lying), but if he told Gaius what he had done… well, really, it was mostly Aven… either way, the outcome didn't look good.

"I… I had to, Gaius," Merlin whispered, sounding defeated.

"Why?" was Gaius's only question. Merlin didn't have an answer to that. At least, not one he could tell his mentor.

"She… knows about my magic, Gaius. She asked me to." The second half of that was a complete lie, but for the moment it was slipping past Gaius. He was just concerned with Aven knowing about Merlin's magic.

"She knows? Merlin, you have to make sure that she doesn't tell anyone-"

"She won't, Gaius, trust me. She wouldn't do that," Merlin said. At least that wasn't a lie.

"You're sure?"

"I'm absolutely positive. She would never tell anyone," Merlin said.

"I hope you're not lying to me about any of this, Merlin," Gaius said, raising an eyebrow.

"I'm not. I promise." The pain in the pit of Merlin's stomach told him lying like this to Gaius was really, really wrong, but he knew the pain in his heart would be even worse if he told the truth.

Because, after all, Aven was a princess, and Merlin knew full well it was completely against the law for them to be together.

But that didn't mean he was going to stop trying. Even if Rena was the only one who knew about him and Aven right now, he vowed that someday he would tell Arthur and Xander, and maybe they wouldn't be furious with him... even though it was obvious that Xander was very protective of Aven.

But surely Xander would understand, since he had such strong feelings for Rena?

Yes, of course he would. He must.