Again: I don't own 'Merlin', in any way, shape or form! This is the second part to the last chapter, only one more to go now.

Last Time...

'Impossible' Arthur thought his mouth opening in shock, and his eyes wide.

He saw Merlin standing silent, he wasn't even going to deny it, he couldn't.

Merlin had used magic.

Now...

Merlin threw his hand up and with a quick wave; the two sorcerers were on the other side of the clearing.

Just as the gold from his iris' was dying away, he saw Arthur turn and look towards him. He immediately knew that Arthur had seen what had happened. There was no way that he could get Arthur to believe that he had no part in this, not this time.

This time he had seen the magic for himself.

He didn't move, he couldn't. For a moment, his heart had stopped, and then it was suddenly racing, nonstop. He had a horrible feeling in the pit of his stomach. Merlin slowly lowered his arm as Arthur continued to stare wide-eyed at him, not saying a word.

'Please…please don't hate me…" He thought, unsure of what to do or say.

He was completely unprepared for something like this to happen. He had always planned on telling Arthur, but not until he had become King, not until he had managed to get Arthur to see how magic could be used for good as well as bad. This Arthur, the one standing in front of him, hated magic more than anything, especially after the most recent attack, which ended up causing his own father's death. He had told Merlin that the whole event had reminded him of how evil magic really was, and that he should never ever trust it.

"Magic is pure evil. I will never lose sight of that again" had been Arthur's words. He had no idea how much those words had cut at Merlin. Earlier that day the young warlock was so close to willingly revealing his secret to Arthur, and then he made him realize that he never could. Not if that was what Arthur believed.

And yet Arthur had found out anyway, now staring in complete shock at his manservant.

When Arthur started getting slowly up, not taking his eyes of Merlin, he still didn't move. They just stood there staring at each other.

Arthur felt himself standing up, despite how suddenly he felt as if he were going to pass out.

He stared at Merlin, expecting him to say something, anything – perhaps defend himself. But he didn't. He just stood there, getting paler every second that the silence passed.

He couldn't stand it for much longer - the silence. Merlin had betrayed him. He was a sorcerer, that made him evil, an enemy of Camelot. Magic was the reason he had lost his parents. His father had taught him all about the evil of magic, and he knew that Uther had been right.

'Magic is evil, not to be trusted' he thought.

Merlin had been lying to him all this time. In that one moment, he felt nothing but the anger and betrayal, and hate - something he never thought he would come to associate with Merlin. He had to stop staring at Merlin, the traitor. The one person that he thought he could trust above all others. He finally looked away, and saw the two men that nearly killed him lying unconscious under the trees. He had such power, powerful enough to simply wave in their direction to knock them out and not have to utter a word. How had Merlin hidden that power for so long?What else had Merlin lied to him about?

Had Merlin ever used magic on him? The thought made him angrier than before. Merlin had magic, and magic wasn't to be trusted, it would only try to kill him and everyone else.

'But didn't he just save your life...?' a voice somewhere in the back of his mind thought.

It made no sense. He couldn't believe that Merlin was a sorcerer, or that he was evil - he had just saved his life, for heavens sake. Evil and Merlin were two things that he couldn't put together. It all seemed to make sense: all the falling branches; sudden fires; near escapes; miraculous recoveries. But Merlin had magic. If someone had told him earlier that day that he would see Merlin perform magic, he would have laughed at them.

Continuing with his thoughts, he walked a few steps in front of him and picked up his sword.

"Arthur…" Merlin said, seeing Arthur pick up the sword. He had said it quietly, not wanting to provoke the Prince into doing something. When he had picked up the sword, Merlin had visibly flinched, letting Arthur know what it was Merlin was thinking. Turning away, Arthur thought about how Merlin had sounded when he spoke. He had sounded scared - scared of him. 'He thinks I'm going to kill him' Arthur thought, knowing that that was the thing that his father would have expected him to do were he there. He knew that magic could not be trusted, and he believed that the next time he found himself face to face with a sorcerer, he would kill them without a second thought. But this was Merlin for crying out loud!

Merlin was clearly very powerful with magic, and yet he was scared of what Arthur was about to do? Even though he knew that Merlin was now an enemy, he still couldn't believe it. Part of him wanted to hate Merlin more than anything, but he still couldn't understand how Merlin could have magic, how he could have lied to him. Merlin had magic, shouldn't that mean that he would want to kill him? And yet he had protected him. Why?

He slowly turned back to look at Merlin, to ask his question aloud, and immediately froze in panic.

"Merlin, look out!" he yelled, starting forwards.

Merlin tried to turn around in confusion, but found he only got halfway around before he realized why Arthur had shouted. Arthur froze as the unthinkable happened, making him drop in sword in shock.

One of the bandits stood next to Merlin, still holding the dagger that he had just forced into Merlin's stomach.

SORRY! PLEASE don't kill me! No pitch forks! I promise that the next chapter will be up soon.

In the mean time, please tell me what you thought :D

Xx