Out of Time

AvalonReeseFanFics

A/N: So here we are, it's the last little bit of this episode. We've got an interesting set of chapters coming up next but first I have a very important question. Drama does happen, and I can change the plot line so here's what I want you to tell me when you review. Do you want Merlin to get poisoned or would rather see what happens if it were Addison who drank the poison instead. Come on guys! Who gets poisoned Addison or Merlin. Be sure to tell me who you want so I can write the chapter accordingly! So don't forget to review!

Shout outs: AmalieNico, Fanficqueen306, ringgold913, Crystal-Wolf-Guardain-967, AuyikmoraTano, Like-a-Slasher-Film, Devious Neko Boi, LoveHateEverythingInBetween, taytay4282, VampirePrincess11, AMV1999, and lostsparrow93

Chapter 13: Out of Resolution

Merlin dragged Addison to Gaius first, not knowing whether or not he should alert Arthur of the incident. Addison had vehemently disagreed so obviously that was the decision they went with. Merlin used his neckerchief to wrap up her arm temporarily so he could get her to Gaius without any of the guards alerting Arthur that Addison had been injured while under Merlin's care.

Merlin still wasn't out of the dog house for the time Addison had drowned on his watch, even though it was proven that Addison had faked her death to avoid being punished for stealing jewelry from Lady Helena. Or... well the witch who was pretending to be Lady Helena, who had accused Addison of stealing when she hadn't, and then had tried to kill Arthur. That witch was how Merlin got his job with Arthur and Arthur liked to blatantly forget that Addison wasn't really dead and would hold Merlin accountable for what had just happened. Which meant that when he found out what happened he would kill Merlin. Or at the very least, he'd never be allowed to take Addison anywhere on their own again.

So, while Addison moaned over her injuries which were apparently burning, Gaius patched her up and Merlin explained to Gaius what they had seen. Or in Addison's case, what she had been attacked by.

Half way through patching up Addison and Merlin's explanation, Gaius paused. "I know what that is," he said. He half got up and then paused. He glanced at Addison.

"I can bandage myself, go look in your books," she said taking the bandage in her mouth and starting to maneuver a way to wrap the bandages around her own arm.

"Nonsense, Merlin, you help her, I'll look. Make sure the bandages are tight to seal in the poultice," Gaius ordered as he went in search of his book of big scary magical creatures.

Merlin sat down in the seat that Gaius had vacated and Addison offered her his arm. He chewed his lip a bit as he thought about what he should say. "I'm really okay," Addison whispered. "Arthur doesn't have to know this happened."

Merlin glanced up at her and indicated to the arm he was trying to delicately and tightly wrap at the same time. "You've been raked from the elbow to your wrist, I do believe he's going to notice," Merlin snapped.

Addison rolled her eyes. "So I wear long sleeves," she sighed.

"Addison, he knows you went down with me. When I claim to have seen this creature, as we both know I will, he will want to know what happened to you," Merlin explained. "How do I even begin to explain?"

"It's nothing more than a couple of scratches," Addison complained. "He'll worry over nothing."

"More like a couple of lacerations from a creature I'm pretty sure is causing our plague," Merlin argued. He then dropped his voice to add: "And I was more interested in that trick you did with the ice."

Addison's eyes went wide. Obviously, she hadn't deluded herself into thinking that Merlin hadn't noticed the giant spike that had appeared and impaled the creature that was trying to kill her but she had thought with the whole possibly poisoned injury that maybe he had quite forgotten. Or at the very least would have brought it up after they were certain she was right. Obviously, he had not.

Merlin dropped his voice even lower so there was absolutely no way for Gaius, who was searching fervently through the book of giant poisonous magical creatures, to hear. "Since when can you cast?" he asked.

Luckily Addison didn't have to come up with a lie to tell Merlin for suddenly Gaius shouted: "There!" and was shoving the book towards them. "It's an Afanc."

Merlin quickly finished the wrapping job on Addison and turned to look at the book. "An... a what?"

"A beast born of clay and conjured up only by the most powerful sorcerer," he read out from the pages. "Now we have to find a way to defeat it."

Gaius looked up to his books, he had so many and one of them held the answer. Addison groaned. "No, that will take days! Gwen doesn't have days! And if this is poisonous I won't have days!" she cried.

Gaius turned helplessly to both of them "Well, do either of you have a better idea?"

"Yes," Addison said sharply. "We nuke it."

Both men stared at her with blank eyes, they weren't sure what she was talking about. She looked at between them and rolled her eyes. "I'm saying we give me some of Giaus' potions, leave me alone in that cave and I say... accidentally blow it up like I did to the feast's pheasant last year."

Gaius shook his head. "You nearly killed two guest goers with that explosion, and Uther raged for days. Arthur had to take you on a hunt just so Uther wouldn't execute you. It took me a week to calm him down."

Merlin stared at Gaius in shock. All of that over an exploded pheasant? What the hell had been in that bird to cause that much damage and anger? Addison nodded. "I did promise Arthur I wouldn't explode anything anymore and I was pretty unpredictable with it," she agreed. "Alright, so not my best idea, but let's just say I'm all for revenge."

Merlin started for the door. "You guys start looking, Addison think of some convincing lie to tell Arthur if you don't want me telling him you were injured, I'll be back."

He heard Gaius and Addison chime in with some sort of affirmative before he ran out the door.

Merlin made a beeline straight through the courtyard, well you know, he wanted to, except for the fact that there was a giant pyre blocking his way. He made a quick detour to Gwen's cell to tell her that he was still trying to save her, well actually he told he was going to get her out. He just had to come through with that promise or he'd look and feel like a complete ass.

After that he went straight down to the dragon. There were small pleasantries, literally just a hello and them Merlin launched straight into it.

"I need to know how to defeat an afanc," he said. He didn't ask, there was no point, but if this stupid fire-breathing lizard answered him in a riddle, Merlin was going to walk away and never come back.

"Yes, I suppose you do. I suppose you want a cure for the song-bird, though I've heard you've already found one of those," the dragon sighed in a very snarky tone.

Merlin shook his head. He could cure Addison if she turned out to be poisoned so he ignored that jibe. "Will you help me?" he asked.

The dragon paused for a bit before saying: "Trust the elements that are at your command."

Merlin shook his head. Not another fucking riddle. What the hell was wrong with this stupid Dragon? How bored could it possibly be? Is that what it did all day? Figure out what was going on and then think of clever riddles to throw at Merlin in case he came down to ask for assistant? Because if that was what he did that Dragon needed a better hobby because this was not how you got someone to keep coming back to you for help.

"Elements?" he echoed. "But what is it I have to do?

"You cannot do this alone," the dragon stated quite clearly. Which was not what Merlin wanted to hear. "You are but one side of a coin. Arthur is the other."

Merlin was confused now. What the hell could Arthur do except wave a sword around, look pretty and act stupid? Call him crazy but he didn't think that would kill this afanc. "I don't understand. Just tell me what it is I have to do."

The dragon didn't even bother answering him, or saying goodbye. He merely flapped his wings and took off, disappearing into the deep caverns. Ignoring Merlin's cries and laughing at him. God that Dragon was dramatic. A load of help he was.

Merlin, with Gaius' help had figured it out. Elements were the key after all. The afanc was created with clay and water, therefore wind and fire was needed to destroy it. But what Merlin needed more was Arthur, he needed Arthur to defeat it, to see it. It was all part of saving Gwen. They most certainly could not tell Uther at all.

They had been trying to figure out what to do, how to get Arthur on their side and go against Uther's direct order when Morgana burst in. Gwen's execution had been moved to tonight, they had to move pretty damn fast. She had gone after Arthur, Merlin trusted her to be able to get him down.

Gaius had given him distressing news as well. Addison's hand had gone pasty white and blue veined as she was with him that afternoon looking through the books. He had taken her back to her cell for rest but they most definitely would need to find a cure for this, Merlin's wonder orb would be the best choice so Merlin would have to recreate it again. All should go well this time if no one became aware that Addison was sick.

Problem was Arthur had gone to see Addison and her symptoms had apparently worsened over night which meant that he could tell right away that something was wrong.

Arthur now sat across from her, the white had crept up to her neck. She was groggy and tired, she wanted to sleep but Arthur had forced her to sit up, a blanket shrouded around her to keep her warm and to keep the white and blue invisible to anyone else. Merlin had caught on right away as to why it was paramount that Addison not be discovered to be sick seeing that at the moment the only cure was a magical one. Arthur had his hands clasped firmly to hide his tremors. He was not taking this little story well.

"So let me get this straight. There's some monster in the water that's the cause of the poison, most likely created by magic. And it attacked you?"

Addison nodded. "And instead of telling me, you had Merlin take you to Gaius for treatment... for a plague we don't have a cure to, and instructed them both not to tell me?" he asked. Addison nodded once more. "Are you out of your goddamn mind?" he shouted launching to his feet.

"See," she said gesturing between them. "This is why I didn't tell you."

"This..." Arthur said, mimicking her gesturing between them. "...Is happening because YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!"

Addison paused. "Arthur, you can't tell Uther. He'll blame Gwen for it showing up. You have to save her and kill this thing off," she said. "You'll save us all. Maybe even me."

Arthur had looked her up and down and sighed. This had to be a ploy. He had first thought she had painted herself white and blue, to tease him further, to make his suffer but when he couldn't rub the white off of her he knew she was ill. He had then thought she drank the water on purpose, but Addison had never liked the taste of water, or wine for that matter, she preferred cider or juices she made herself. Now he was guessing that she had gotten herself attacked on purpose, but that was unfair. This was just another knot in Addison's string of bad luck. Arthur never should have left her alone with Merlin, this never would have happened to her had he been there, but he had been cross with her for kissing Merlin and now she was injured, and very likely going to die. He obviously had to destroy this creature.

Before he left he was sure to tuck her in, and once he was certain no one else was around he pressed a kiss to her fevered temple. "You don't have my permission to die while I'm gone," he whispered to her.

Addison nodded. "Don't blame Merlin, had he been closer he would have shielded me from the thing."

Arthur tried not to frown at that before storming off. He very much wanted to blame Merlin, it was hard not to be under the impression that Merlin was to blame for this. But even as she had asked him to he felt the guilt slide away from Merlin and fall squarely on the shoulders of this creature and it's creator.

On the way up to the surface he bumped into Morgana who was looking for him. Arthur had been going off to find Merlin, as Addison had made it clear Merlin and Gaius were search for a way to defeat this thing. Well they found it, Arthur and his trusty sword were all they were going to need to get rid of this creature. Morgana immediately launched into a long-winded speech about how there weren't enough large knights or something. Small knights and not fitting into their armor, something about gallantry being dead and not standing up for what was right. He let her think that she was convincing him to go with her because he knew that if killing this monster didn't heal Addison he was going to beg Gwen to use whatever magic she used to save her father to save her.

And that was how the two of them found themselves storming through the courtyard to where Merlin was waiting for them. Just to prove to Merlin how serious he was, mid stride he pulled out his sword. He was going to take this thing down, and save the goddamn day and his goddamn stupid ward.

And that's how Arthur, Merlin and Morgana ended up in the twisting maze of the caverns looking for a giant creature made out of clay that was poisoning the water system. Arthur had a sword, Merlin and Morgana had torches. Arthur had said several times, and was still thinking: "You better be right Merlin."

He was saving the "How the hell you could let Addison get hurt on your watch AGAIN?!" lecture for later and he had made a mental note to never leave Addison and Merlin alone ever again.

They had gone to the water source first, and surprisingly it was not there. Didn't quite make sense to Arthur as if the thing was supposed to be poisoning the water shouldn't it be in the water? Guess it sensed Arthur's nerves of steel homing in on killing it so it decided to go for a stroll to either flee death by Arthur's sword or just to piss Arthur off.

They heard growling around them, vibrating through the caverns and the little trio came to a halt. Morgana was trying not to look frightened but by the way her breath was quivering in the silence Arthur knew that she was afraid. He shot a glance at her.

"You should stay here," he ordered. He knew full well that she hated when he bossed her around but that didn't mean he wasn't going to try.

"I'm coming with you," she said almost immediately despite the fact that her voice was wavering.

"No," Arthur fairly barked.

Morgana put on a brave facade and said very cockily: "What? Scared I'll show you up?"

Arthur went for the more logical approach. "Father will slam us both in chains if he knew I'd endangered you."

"Good thing he doesn't know about it then," was Morgana's snappy retort. God sometimes he wanted to run her through. But that would be very detrimental to the whole protecting her with his own life thing that he had going.

"I'm telling you, Morgana, turn back. You could get hurt!" he snarled. Seriously why were they still arguing about this when there was a crazy poisonous monster on the loose?

"And so could you, if you don't get out of my way," Morgana shot back and then danced around him and out into the shadows.

Arthur found himself rolling his eyes, god she was annoying. Almost as annoyingly stubborn as Addison could be. He always forgave Addison though because she was from a time where that was acceptable, maybe when Addison went back she could take Morgana with her as she would probably be more at home there then here in the present... or past in Addison's case.

Arthur felt a guilty twinge in his stomach. He never really did intend to find a way to send Addison home. He had all but stopped looking after that first month he had her all to himself. Truth was he wanted to keep her here with him, even if that was selfish. And now she might die.

Damn he kept forgetting about that stupid monster. They could still hear the breathing echoing off the walls in deep growling exhales.

"How are we going to find it?" Morgana wondered.

"Let's hope we do before it finds us," Merlin said, sounding like a complete and utter idiot.

He was so astounded by the level of stupidity that he barely registered a sound following them. Just barely. "Stop," he ordered whirling around and peering into the shadows. When it turned out to be nothing that his eyes could discern he said: "It's nothing but a shadow."

So they turned away and continued on, even though something clearly was following them.

They made a full circle around and back to the pools, Addison's stake still lay there, all chains attached, one of the balls left out. He told the others to spread out, sent them down different corridors. In his mind he assumed that the creature wouldn't go for Morgana that it would clearly go after the threat before picking her for a meal and that if she did meet the creature she'd be more interested in running away to get him then attacking. Though knowing Morgana she would attack it. Arthur couldn't have cared less what happened to Merlin.

He should have gone down the middle tunnel but with that container laying out Arthur didn't feel right. He wanted to believe that Addison would get better, would return here to collect her iced-lollies in a pool not infested with poisonous monsters so he went to it and threw it back in the water. It was then that he heard the heavy breathing beside him.

Arthur turned, and while he didn't get a real good look at the creature he did see that massive clawed limb that was swinging for him in time to duck it. And then the thing vanished in the shadows.

He must have yelped because suddenly Morgana and Merlin were back at his side. If it was a yelp it was a very manly yelp. Morgana concerned with his wellbeing, Merlin just wondering if someone other than he and Addison had seen the monster. Granted Merlin didn't know that Arthur knew about Addison, he was going to surprise Merlin with that one later.

Arthur had just told Merlin that he had seen it, that he didn't quite know what it looked like except that it was quick when Morgana screamed and edged back from the shadows with the giant snarling creature coming for her. Arthur made a swing but the sword did no damage to it even though he felt it connect. The flames, however, did manage to scare it back into the shadows where it once again disappeared.

They could hear it but couldn't see it. They wandered a bit before the saw its shadow. Arthur put himself between it and his two friends. I guess he'd have to call them that now, Merlin he was still on the fence about him but hey, he hadn't run away yet so that was a good sign. The creature came out of the shadows and went straight for Arthur, who lost his sword immediately. He was really going to have to work on his grip.

Morgana came to his rescue shoving her torch into the monster's face, which did drive it back and manage to piss it off at the same time. It made a lunge for Morgana and Arthur got up in its face, shoving his torch into this time. He was driving it back, away from Morgana and Merlin, though he wasn't quite sure what to do now that he and the creature both had their backs against the cavern walls.

Merlin saw this all happening and knew he'd have to get Arthur to use the torch. So he told him as much and as soon as Arthur pitched his hand forward Merlin started chanting. The wind came almost immediately and mingled with the fire which spread out and covered the afanc destroying it immediately.

What our hero's didn't know was that a really angry lady with some severe looking dreadlocks and blood red dress was watching. And boy was she unhappy with Merlin now.

Uther had been made aware of what had transpired down in the caverns and while he didn't like the sound of it, he did agree to give Gwen a stay of execution. If there were no new deaths by morning and everything seemed to be better he would allow Gwen to live, if not she would burn. Simple.

Arthur had told her what had happened, had personally delivered the news himself and then very carefully asked her what cure she had used for her father. She stayed steadfast to her excuse, that she had not used magic and had not cured her father, though if she had she would give it to Arthur instantly as it seemed he most desperately wanted it.

Arthur believed her of course, Gwen was no witch. So he went to Addison, hoping that killing the creature had reversed the poisonous magic.

Her face was all white now, the pale and blue now traveling down the other side of her body, had spread to her other shoulder and was travelling down her other arm. Arthur was sure to wrap her up carefully as he took her to Gaius so no one would see her symptoms. He was about to ask for something really, really dangerous and he didn't want his father to get wind.

He burst into Gaius' chambers and put Addison down. "Save her," he said. "You have to save her."

Merlin came out of his room, concern on his face. Gaius pulled the blanket from Addison's white face and Merlin went wide eyed. Arthur glared at him. "You did this to her," he snapped. "Look at her!"

Merlin glanced down to Addison who had been unresponsive, he had been unable to wake her in her cell and he doubted she'd wake up now. "She's going to die because you didn't protect her!"

Arthur paced a bit. "Why did you leave her unattended?" he snarled. "She was unarmed! It wasn't safe!"

Merlin shrugged his shoulders. "I wouldn't say she was unarmed..."

Arthur straightened. He turned and appraised Merlin and his squirrely look about him. "Did something happen down there? Other then the attack? Did she... do something?"

"You mean something like conjuring up a spike of ice to drive itself through the monster?" Merlin asked, he lowered his voice very carefully to ask: "Did you know she could cast magic?"

Arthur practically flew across the room, he had Merlin by the front of the shirt and shoved up against a wall surprisingly quickly. "And you're not going to tell anyone that happened, are you?" he practically shouted, carrying the heavy weight of many a terrible threat.

"No of course not!" Merlin said in a way he hoped conveyed how honest he was being. Arthur let him go and drifted back to where Gaius was carefully taking Addison's vitals. Merlin noted that he didn't answer his question so he guessed that Arthur did in fact know.

Merlin watched Arthur as he slumped into the seat beside her. He turned to Gaius. "Would magic save her?" he asked quietly.

Gaius thought carefully before answering yes. "Then do it," Arthur said without hesitation. "You can wait for me to leave if that would help you. My father doesn't know she's ill I won't have to explain why she miraculously got better. I swear on my honor that I won't tell him. Just please. Don't let her die."

Gaius took this in before bowing his head and saying: "My lord, excuse me, but you know that magic is expressly forbidden."

Arthur took this in. He turned back to Addison, he caressed her forehead lightly, his fingers brushing slightly against the burning of her skin. He whispered something small in her ear before getting up and leaving. Merlin ran after him.

"I wanted to tell you, she made me not," he called.

Arthur turned back to him. He had so much he wanted to say to Merlin, but the anger had drained out of him. Now he was only afraid. "If she dies, I will make your life an ever living hell," he warned before storming off. They were words Addison used, words Addison had explained to him, they seemed apt in this circumstance.

Merlin watched Arthur leave. He returned to Giaus' chambers and carefully put a chair under the handle to keep anyone else out. He wasn't going to tell Arthur, or anyone this, but for some reason he was attached to Addison, he felt like she was more the other side of his coin then Arthur was. Before he went to bed that night he conjured up another healing spell and laid it to rest under Addison's pillow. He even allowed himself to place the smallest of kisses to her cheek and she rewarded him with a sleepy smile. He felt no butterflies when he did it, but instead a twinge of affection he couldn't quite place, somewhere between loving and brotherly. This time he'd be wise enough to move it in the morning.

Camelot was bustling the following morning. Uther was in good spirits now that his kingdom was out of danger. Gaius had reported that there were no new deaths and that the sick were already recovering. He had even heard that Addison might have iced lollies ready for some time today and if that were true then today was definitely going to be a good day.

That was until Gaius revealed the eggshell he had found at the water source. It bore the mark of the very person that Uther had thought he had gotten rid of. Nimueh couldn't be back. She just couldn't be. After that revelation, not even iced-lollies could get him out of his self-imposed isolated thinking time in the throne room.

In Gaius' chambers Arthur was looking for Addison, except she wasn't there. He had intended to bring her delicious breakfast, but she was missing. Fear lanced through him because where the hell could Addison have gone? She couldn't be dead, that just wasn't a possibility. Gaius had said that all the ill had began to recover, Addison should have been recovering too. He checked under her pillow for what they had found under Tom's the morning after he was found cured and nothing was there. No... this couldn't be happening.

The door banged open and Addison came rushing in. "There you are," she said. She obviously had more to say but Arthur had already dropped the breakfast he brought her—oatmeal made the way she liked it with a spoonful of honey—and had embraced her. They stayed like that for eons, he could feel the bandage still wrapped around her arm as she held him back just as tightly. He was reminded that while the poison was gone she still had a terrible laceration down her arm, one that would probably scar. It was a good thing Addison wasn't too vain about those, she called them her battle scars though the girl had never seen battle and if Arthur could do anything about it she never would.

He kissed her solidly before she could argue and he could talk himself out of it. When he pulled away she put a single finger to his lips halting any words of devotion that could have fallen from Arthur's lips and landed them both back into trouble. She smile briefly and Arthur contemplated brushing her hand aside and kissing her once more. Instead she said: "Come on, I need someone to escort me to the caverns now that they're safe." And then they intertwined fingers and he let her pull her out of Gaius's chambers.

Under the castle was a happy reunion going on. Gwen was officially being released and Tom was there and was the first the fly across that entrance and gather his daughter up into a giant bear hug who was super happy to see him. Merlin and Morgana followed after, each smiling happily by the scene playing out in front of them.

Considering how badly this could have gone, they were really happy that this was the way things had turned out after all.

Once Gwen got out of Tom's grasp, which was hard because he did not want to let go of his little girl again, she ran up to Morgana. "Thank you!" she cried.

Morgana, while happy turned to Merlin. "Don't thank me. It was more Merlin."

Gwen looked surprised. "Really?" she asked.

Morgana nodded and smiled up to the surprised Merlin. This was the first time he was getting the credit for saving someone. He wasn't really sure what to do now that he was in the situation. All that complaining about not getting the glory and he was squirming under it. Maybe he wasn't made to take all the glory, he was too scrawny and humble.

"He's the real hero here," Morgana told her.

"I don't know what to say," Gwen whispered to him.

Merlin shrugged. "I didn't do anything," he said because that was better than saying he did all the magic that both got her in trouble and saved her. But hey he did say he'd get her out of this cell and he most certainly had gotten her out of this cell.

"That's because I did all the hard work," Arthur said appearing in the doorway, with Addison by his side. He held a small metal container in his hands, like the ones that had been thrown into the water source except it was missing its chain.

"I said I'd get you something special, and I always keep my word. Sorry it took so long," she said and then gestured to Arthur who cracked open the container to reveal a perfectly round lump of ice. "It's just the right way, not too hard and not too soft, it's the only one that's ready and I figured now would be a good time to try it out. As a celebration!"

Addison pulled out spoons for everyone and handed them to everyone present. Arthur frowned at her. "Did you not bring me a spoon?" he snapped.

"Of course not, someone needs to hold onto it while we dig in," Addison said and sure enough as soon as the spoons were ready they were digging at the iced lolly chipping it apart to taste it.

Merlin, who had never had anything like it before was so excited for this and completely surprised. It tasted just like spiced mulled wine except it was freezing cold. This was obviously going to be his new favourite treat for a hot summer's day. Merlin watched Arthur frown until Addison brought her spoon to his mouth and then he was all smiles as she fed him herself. Merlin shook his head, he wasn't about to do that for Arthur so he better not get used to it.

After a while Tom wanted to bring Gwen home, seeing as she had spent enough time in a cell. Arthur and Addison left to bring what was left of the rapidly melting iced lolly to Uther who apparently needed some cheering up and that left Morgana and Merlin alone.

Merlin fully intended to nod and move on but Morgana had other ideas. She called him back before he could leave and whispered: "Your secret's safe with me."

For a moment Merlin was confused. "My secret?" he echoed.

She smiled coyly. "Come on, don't pretend. I know what you did."

Merlin cocked his head to the side. She wasn't referring to...? Was she? "You do?" he asked.

She nodded crisply. "I saw it with my own eyes."

Merlin's heart fairly stopped in his chest. "You did?" he asked. Oh God was he going to cry out of fear? Yep he was going to cry out of sheer fear.

"I understand why you don't want anyone to know," Morgana continued.

Merlin's heart rate started again, okay, so maybe she wasn't going to out him to Uther. That was super nice of her. "Well, obviously..." he started but Morgana was still talking.

"But I won't tell anyone," she assured him. Well that was a massive relief. Merlin could only smile, did he really have someone he could trust about this? "You don't mind me talking to you about it?"

Merlin was suddenly ecstatic. He had someone other than Addison he could be upfront with about his magic? I mean, this was wonderful, Addison was great after all but he was always going to have to walk on eggshells around her, seeing how close she was to Arthur.

"Not, it's... you have no idea how hard it is to keep this hidden!" he blurted out.

"Well, you can continue to deny it, but I think Gwen's a lucky woman," Morgana said.

Merlin's smile faded and he took a step back. "Gwen?"

Morgana put a finger to her lips as a show of silence. "It's our secret," she whispered before leaving him there and Merlin sighed.

Well, it was just he and Addison after all.