A Drop Of Magic

by themasterofescapism

Present day city of London and Merlin Emrys is the new Detective Constable in Scotland Yard. Arthur Pendragon is the arrogant Detective Sergeant. The decades old mystery of the Old Religion leads them into an unconventional partnership, their involvement sparking a fated chain of events governed by magic, love, and darkness. Merlin stands, unknowingly, at the centre of this stage.

42. Reality

Reality.

Merlin didn't want to go. He didn't want to see Arthur. He didn't want to walk, eat, breathe, and most of all he didn't want to feel sorry for himself. Fate, coincidence, whatever it was or wasn't was set on him not getting what he wanted though.

He had to go. He had to see Arthur. He had to walk, eat, breathe and feel sorry for himself. Mordred walked beside him silently and relaxed with a neutral expression.

'Go on ahead,' Merlin said and stopped by the car park's grey gate.

Mordred frowned at him then understood and rested his hand on his shoulder. 'You're okay.'

Merlin nodded. Mordred was right. He was okay but he was also the opposite. Dr Ruadan was back on his weekly schedule, and this time he'd lose his job if he didn't go to the appointment even though talking about what was going on would drive him insane. He'd accepted that slowly over the last week. He'd spent it sleeping, reading, practising magic, walking, talking with Mordred, and thinking existential thoughts.

One conclusion had been made: he would go insane. Soon.

He was okay and he wasn't at the same time, he had almost died twice in the last year and he'd seen himself that second time. He'd seen himself in Aredian's place. He was definitely losing his mind. Life sucked, too. Maybe more therapy would be a good thing.

Merlin gave him a small smile and with that Mordred reluctantly left. He watched him go, watched the back of his curly hair-covered head. Mordred made him feel better for whatever reason but he wasn't enough. If he could climb out of his own head and hide himself in Mordred's it would come a lot closer to enough. He let out a long breath and let it all go out with that exhale. He had a job here, he was a detective, he solved crimes and found bad people. He was good at it, he'd worked hard for it his whole life and magic, the past life, wasn't what made him. He was more than that, more than himself.

Merlin stuck his thumb under the one strap of his backpack and marched on. A strange hush followed him as he went. Conversations stopped, paused, then started up again slowly. Scotland Yard was an efficient statement to policing in London but it was made up of people and people gossiped, lied, corrupted and became corrupt, and the petri dish of colours smudged across the air told him far too much about that reality. The lobby was buzzing, and the lift up was cramped, and eyes followed him with the hush and the mess of colour. Merlin set his face into a hard expression and tied down the magic he subconsciously projected. Colours dimmed and came close to completely disappearing. That was another thing he'd practised in the last week. With Mordred's combined strength he found it easier to control his own power and erasing the colours and trails in the air made him feel a little bit normal again.

The third floor doors opened and Agravaine stepped on. 'DS Emrys.'

'Agravaine,' he replied stripped of all formality. His superior, hateful as the hierarchy was, didn't notice. He looked even more depressed than Merlin felt.

'Your Monday's had a bad start, sir?' he asked.

Agravaine looked at him reproachfully. 'I'm sure you can imagine, Emrys.'

They didn't say anything else for the next few levels and then Merlin stepped out into the familiar floor of operations. He immediately spotted Elyan laughing with Gwaine at Percy's desk, Percy nowhere to be seen. Leon was scanning some files at the far end of the office floor and Gwen was on the phone smiling. He remembered her expression when he'd told her about Morgana and couldn't reconcile the two images in his head. The whole scene slammed into him with a warm, sweet and sickening sense of nostalgia.

She looked up at him and covered the mouthpiece of the phone. 'Kilgharrah wants to see you in his office.'

'Okay,' he said and tried to hide his wince at her formality.

'Glad to have you back,' she added with a smile. 'Gwaine hasn't shut up about you.'

Merlin grinned. He couldn't help it. That was when Gwaine slammed him into a hug. It was bone-crushing and Merlin's mouth was trapped against his shoulder. When he asked for Gwaine to let go it came out as a strange muffle.

'Sorry, mate, but this is what you get for ignoring me for a week,' he said and when he finally pulled back he kept a hand on the back of Merlin's neck to keep their heads close. 'Drinks tonight. You buy. We talk.'

Merlin scoffed. 'Alcohol and talking is dangerous with you.'

Gwaine patted his cheek. 'That's the whole point, Merlin. Anyway Kilgharrah wants to brief you on the new case. Murder never sleeps. Percy's out canvasing witnesses with Uniforms. Me and Elyan are going to check out the vic's home.'

Merlin frowned. A lot had already happened and it wasn't even 9am. 'Working hard, I see.'

'You haven't missed much but we were called in an hour or two earlier.'

'Why wasn't I?'

Gwaine's charm and happy expression faltered. 'Well, Arthur's taking point with this one and Kilgharrah wanted to talk with you properly before you started running around London again. You've had an interesting month, mate.'

Elyan walked up and gave Gwaine a pat on the shoulder before heading to the lift. He didn't even say hello to Merlin, or really look at him.

'That's my cue,' Gwaine said and started to leave. He paused next to Merlin with a frown. 'What's going on between you and Arthur?'

Merlin's face heated up. He'd assumed that Arthur might confide in someone, and that it might have been Gwaine, or at least that the Irishman would figure it out. Evidently he hadn't.

'Nothing,' he said.

'Okay. What's going on between you and Mordred?'

Merlin stared at him and Gwaine stared back.

'Nothing,' he said again.

Gwaine nodded and looked back to where Elyan waited for him. 'Merlin, if you haven't noticed, our whole dynamic is essentially gone. With you two barely talking and Arthur launching himself at Mordred like he's a killer, which he is by the way, work and social conditions are a little strained.'

Merlin clenched his jaw.

'Shutting me out isn't going to help,' Gwaine said.

Merlin considered staying silent, considered leaving to see Kilgharrah without another word, considered agreeing and promising he'll tell all that night, but he couldn't. His chest hurt too much. He couldn't talk about it and no one had even checked up on him for a whole week.

'It's not like you tried to keep up a dialogue after I went to the hospital,' Merlin said instead.

'Gwaine!' Elyan called. Merlin saw Gwaine's expression darken and didn't know what to make of it. Tapping into his magic revealed nothing else besides the sight of Gwaine's usual forest green aura turning a murkier, pond green. He didn't understand why they weren't actually clicking properly, why he didn't want them to click, why his green had changed, or why he felt more than upset or sad or angry. He felt it all and then nothing at the same time which wasn't even possible.

By the time Merlin brought himself back from the magic and analysing Gwaine's green the Irishman was gone. Merlin turned and saw him step into the lift with Elyan, then the doors closed and left the green lingering pathetically in the air. Merlin pulled back his powers, the green melting away, and dropped his bag on his desk. He looked through the glass wall of Kilgharrah's office and could see the back of Arthur's head. Below that the glass was frosted and everything beyond it obscured.

He slipped the coat from his shoulders and hung it on the back of his chair. His desk was eerily untouched, neat and plain. They had probably searched it and meticulously returned everything as it should be out of respect to his rank and his above average arrest record. Before he headed over he dug around in his bag for the water bottle he'd thrown in and drank little over half of it. In the middle of his last mouthful Mordred's voice cut through his thoughts and he choked.

Merlin?

He coughed a few times and wiped his mouth. Yeah?

I don't know if I'll be here to give you a ride back tonight. Will you be okay?

Merlin screwed the cap on the bottle back on and sat it on his desk. He started towards Kilgharrah's office and checked the time on his watch: 8:28am. Magic, remember?

Oh, right, I forgot. Don't know how I forgot actually. I'm talking to you with it now. Thinking to you is more accurate, I suppose.

Where are you going?

Don't know yet. Confidential. Although you'll probably know when I do.

Merlin's lips twitched up. Mordred's voice calmed the anger and anxiety in his chest from the conversation with Gwaine. Who needs the privacy anyway?

He knocked lightly then opened the door. Merlin locked his eyes onto Kilgharrah who nodded in acknowledgement and waited form his to step inside and close the door.

'DS Emrys, I'm glad to see you back on duty,' the DCS said and gestured for him to come forward and stand next to Arthur. The proximity had his throat tighten and stomach twist. 'As I've just informed Arthur you will be investigating the death of Susanne Chambers. She was found shot in her office at the Exchange House in Liverpool Street this morning around 6am and pronounced her dead at the scene. Forensics have cordoned off the scene but given the location we'll need to examine and clear up the crime scene as efficiently and quickly as possible. Percy and Gaius are already there. Your main priority will be investigating the crime scene and interviewing her work colleagues at Clayton and Chamberlain LLP. Got all that, Emrys?'

'Yes, sir.'

Arthur moved out of his peripheral vision. When Merlin started to turn and leave as well Kilgharrah stopped him.

'Just a moment, Emrys.'

He looked back, heard the door close, and felt the sudden emptiness of the room. Keeping his magic hushed he didn't see dragon scales in the man's face, just wrinkles, age, dying skin. He pursed his lips at the memories of his own skin being that old, of how it had felt to look in the mirror and see a stranger. Without his old friends he'd killed himself to stop it, to stop seeing that face, to stop seeing the world.

'Morgana can't be dead,' Kilgharrah broke the silence. Merlin licked his lips, focused on the current moment again and frowned.

'You don't believe Mordred?'

'It doesn't make sense, Merlin. We were brought back for a reason.'

He held back a bitter groan. 'Not everything happens for a reason, Kilgharrah, and not everything has to make sense. Mordred says he saw Nimueh stab her and she hasn't shown up since, I haven't felt her magic and I believe him. No one could survive that.'

'I have a bad feeling about all of this.'

'You always have a bad feeling.'

'You remember what I told you from our meetings beneath the castle in Camelot, Merlin? You and Arthur are destined to protect Albion, to unite it. We weren't brought back into this new life by chance, young warlock. King Arthur will rise again when Albion needs him most.'

He stared at Kilgharrah with narrowed eyes. It was the same song, the same preach, that he'd heard too many times before. Merlin could hear the words in Camelot, in that older, cleaner air. He could feel the rough fabric of his clothes, the constant anxiety to be with Arthur, the anxiety he still felt when he was with him. 'Arthur isn't a king anymore.'

'No, no he's not,' the ex-dragon agreed, 'but he still has that strength. Whether Nimueh's enchantment took hold or not there must be something dark on its way, something that has nothing to do with us. Nimueh, Morgause, Morgana, Old Religion, they were all brought back as a consequence of Arthur's reincarnation. Even you, Emrys, were brought back because he was. So far we haven't seen the real issue, and so Morgana can't be dead and you and Arthur can't be done with each other. Your destiny hasn't changed, Merlin. You must protect him.'

He clenched his fists. 'Arthur doesn't want anything to do with me.'

'I thought you two had become involved?'

'We're not anymore, or ever were, really,' he said, and a hot numbing flush ran down the back of his head, neck, shoulders. His body couldn't believe it.

'Fate has other plans, Emrys.'

'Fate?' he scoffed. 'Fate won't change the facts of this twenty-first century life, Kilgharrah. If there's a big bad on its way I'll do the moral, fateful, thing and help Arthur, but my presence doesn't seem to be helping anyone beyond that. I'm not going to repeat the past. I won't let myself believe that he'll understand and forgive me. Not a second time round.'

'You never lied to him. You yourself didn't know at first.'

'I've known for months and I didn't tell him. He might have accepted my magic in this life but not the lie. Lies.'

Kilgharrah leaned back in his chair and stared at him over half-moon glasses. 'What would you suggest?'

'Reassignment.'

Kilgharrah lifted one eyebrow and waited.

'Assign me to a different murder investigation team within the CID,' he continued. 'That way I'll be close enough to help him if he needs it, but far away enough that everyone can work properly again.'

'I doubt that would be necessary.'

'Even if we shared past lives together I've only known them and you in this life for less than a year. I didn't even know about magic a year ago,' Merlin said, hands relaxed and body cooler now that he'd said it. 'We aren't who we were before, Kilgharrah. Things are different and I won't make the same mistakes.'

'Mistakes are a part of life, Emrys.'

'Then I'll make better mistakes. It's not as if staying glued to Arthur's side saved his life the last time. I'll be here if and when you need me, but-'

'But?'

He took in a breath. 'You didn't see his face, Kilgharrah. Before we only worked so well together because we had no idea and then because I kept the truth from him. What we have now isn't enough.'

'Very well,' Kilgharrah said. Merlin wanted to yell at him for making it so hard, for not just agreeing when he'd said, 'Reassignment', for making him explain. He kept his jaw clamped shut and back straight. 'Solve this case and you'll be reassigned to a different task force. This will be your last investigation with DS Pendragon and his team.'

'Thank you, sir.'

Kilgharrah hummed then looked back down to an open case file on his desk. 'You're dismissed, Detective Sergeant.'

'Sir.'

Merlin's eyes searched out Arthur the moment he opened the door. He couldn't see him anywhere. Leon was now filing away whatever he'd scanned, Gwen was still making calls and a few other teams milled around conducting their independent investigations.

'Gwen,' he called out, and she held the phone down against her shoulder to listen when he came over.

'Have you seen Arthur?'

'He left,' she said after a small hesitation.

Merlin's stomach wrenched. 'Where?'

'Crime scene.'

'Oh.'

'Susanne Chambers? She's an only child and her parents are retired in San Fransisco,' Gwen told him, her momentarily sympathetic look turning cool and professional again. 'I've tried to get a hold of them but they're apparently on a cruise and unreachable for another two days. I'm on hold with the travel agency right now.'

'Okay, thanks,' Merlin said and left her to grab his coat. Once he was inside the lift and its doors had closed he Vanished.

The Exchange House, part of Broadgate Estates, spanned an impressive chunk of the financial district. Glass, dark metal, suits and non-disclosure agreements cut the atmosphere into something purer, faker, harder. Merlin hopped up the steps on the ground outer level quickly, taking in the beams of black metal that stretched across overhead, before heading up a black staircase a Uniform directed him towards. It was all strung together by bolts and steel to make an intricate, intimidating framework that housed three high profile companies.

Merlin pulled out his warrant card as he entered the Clayton and Chamberlain offices. The ceiling was high and the outer wall a mixture of rectangular glass windows cut through by sharp metal in a cross-hatch pattern. Strangers in bespoke suits and others in Metropolitan Police uniforms filled the large foyer-like space with conversations, questions and directives.

'Merlin!' someone shouted over the chatter, his name echoing slightly. He opened the black leather wallet in the face of a pushy security guard and passed without pausing. Percy jogged up to him. 'Turns out we can't lock down the building without causing a financial crisis that'll cripple the world's economy or something like that, so we've got to work quickly.'

'That explains all the bankers,' Merlin said as he fell into step with the DC who led him up the polished marble staircase into a main corridor.

'And lawyers,' Percy added. 'That's what Chambers was anyway. A partner to the law firm. Her specialties were asset management and dispute resolution. Gaius wants to take her body to the coroner's office but I held him off until you and Arthur got here. Where is he?'

'On his way,' Merlin said, ignoring the bitter taste in his mouth. 'And dispute resolution? You're kidding.'

'Ironic or coincidental?' Percy asked with a grin. Merlin smiled at him, wanted to hug him for a brief second, then deconstructed the moment into its naked pieces before letting them fall away with his smile, the humour, and looked ahead. 'She's through here.'

Percy pointed to a door at the end of the corridor and held up the police tape stretched across it for Merlin. On the other side white body suits, covers for shoes and gloves waited. A Uniform took his coat and Merlin tugged on the set quickly. Percy headed back out to settle the mess with the rest of Clayton and Chamberlain's employees. Before he stepped into the office Merlin hooked the mask over his ears and pulled up the suit's hood. Securely wrapped up and contained he walked inside and lifted the constraints on his magic.

'She died instantly,' Gaius, the only other person in the eerily quiet and still room, said. 'One bullet entered through the parietal bone, exited the temporal bone, and embedded itself here.'

Merlin watched from the further available stepping plate as Gaius crouched down out of sight behind the desk. The air was hot, uncomfortable, and the voice made his hair stand on end.

'Killing me won't help you. Please, just think this through.'

Susanne Chambers' last words, pulled and strained through the room by his magic which picked apart the moment. That was all he could hear though, all he could really feel. That last moment when the killer had shot her, how she'd heard the click somewhere in her mind but couldn't understand what it meant. She didn't have time to understand it before her thoughts stopped. Gaius was right. She died instantly, painlessly too if you ignored the mental stress of having someone threaten to take your life away from you. Merlin swallowed and moved forward.

'Prints?' he asked and at the sound of his voice Gaius shot up.

'Merlin, I didn't realise it was you,' the man said through his mask.

'I didn't realise you now attended crime scenes.'

'While working in the laboratory or coroner's office are my preferred areas, I make the exception every now and then,' Gaius said and used a set of tweezers to capture a dark coloured hair sat on her shoulder. Merlin zoomed in on the hair. Its smell was masculine and expensive.

'Why now?'

'Kilgharrah asked me to. I could hardly refuse.'

'So? Are there any prints?'

'Several. Whether any of them belong to the murderer we'll have to wait and see. I'm afraid there's little more I can do here.'

'Don't worry you'll get to head off soon,' Merlin assured him and came around the other side of the office. 'Estimated time of death?'

'With the extent of lividity, rigor mortis, and her body temperature, I'd say between midnight and 3am this morning.'

Susanne Chambers had ginger hair, strawberry blonde, red, whichever description she had preferred. It was long, sleek, loose, and draped itself over her shoulders, the nape of her neck, the table where strands had hardened in the congealed blood. A few years before seeing a dead body like that, looking almost alive, had made him throw up. Fast forward through his training at the Academy, the first two years working a beat, testing himself into the rank of Detective Constable, and the queasiness was gone, the shock absorbed and distress wound into determination.

'I was actually expecting Arthur,' Gaius said. Merlin could feel it running through his veins, the adrenaline she'd felt, the way her heart had thumped so heavily in her chest and ears, the way her hands and feet had grown numb with survival instinct.

He stepped over to the other side of her body, being careful to stay on the plate, and leaned down so his face was in line with hers. Brown and green eyes, thin and delicate eyebrows, smudged mascara, freckles and peachy lipstick. 'Doesn't everyone?'

'Are you feeling better, Merlin?'

His cheek felt the pressure hers had when the killer pushed her head against the table, teeth cutting into his skin until it bled. 'How do you know I was ever feeling bad?'

'What sort of question is that? You were throttled in broad daylight.'

Think this through.

He'd pushed harder. It was a man and he'd pushed the barrel against her head with more force and filled her ear with his voice, filled Merlin's ear with his voice, his breath, his heat. He couldn't hear the words. He felt them, though, felt the pain of the gun barrel's sharp edge. They made his heartbeat race, his face heat up and his hands turn even colder. He couldn't breathe, the air was too thick, too hot, it stuck itself in his head and throat with the man's words and breath. It was just like the lake, that fire, the grip of Aredian's hands around his neck. He'd seen himself, though, it wasn't Aredian. He'd been the one killing himself. In broad daylight, he'd throttled himself, he'd murdered Aredian.

'Merlin!'

Gaius' hand clenched around his upper arm, pulling him away from the desk which had snapped up too close, and the other pulled him back around his waist. Merlin stepped away from the body and Gaius onto a different plate. His back hit the wall with his loss of balance but he managed to stay up.

'Merlin,' Gaius started, that old and careful voice sharp with concern. His head was too hot to care though and he darted out of the room. He brushed the hood back from his head and pulled the mask off, throwing it to the ground. The forensic examiners that littered the corridor watched him strangely as he walked away, under the tape and into one of the nearby empty rooms.

Merlin timed his breaths in and out, concentrated on the sensation of the air rushing past his lips, ignored the metallic taste of blood. He wasn't dead, he wasn't dying, he wasn't Susanne Chambers. He was alive. He wanted to be alive. He ran his tongue along the fine bleeding wound and remembered it wasn't his teeth that had cut into the inside of his cheek. It wasn't really his blood.

'Shit.'

He let out another long breath and snapped the gloves off, unhooked the shoe covers, and slipped the white suit from his body. Once he'd bundled it all up in his arms he headed back to the police tape. A few steps down the corridor and he froze.

Arthur was talking with Gaius. They spotted him and promptly killed their conversation. He pressed his lips together and kept walking forward, handed the covers to a Uniform and took his coat back.

'What happened to you in there?' Gaius asked quietly. Merlin made sure to stay on the other side of the tape, investing a profound amount of security in the thin strip of plastic film, as he drew the coat back on.

'Gaius says you collapsed,' Arthur added.

'Almost,' Merlin corrected, eyes focused on getting the coat arranged comfortably over his jumper. 'I didn't collapse. Anyway, none of the evidence was corrupted. I just got caught up.'

'With what?'

'Her murder,' Merlin said and looked up. His voice was hard, aggressive, and Arthur flinched imperceptibly. This was the first time they'd spoken in over a week. The first time since the argument in his flat. While he almost vented at Arthur then and there he swallowed it all down, too aware of where they were, and Susanne's words grounded him in a gruesome way. Think this through. 'All I can tell you is that the killer's male and had her at point-blank. Probably had some personal motive for killing her.'

'Why personal?'

Merlin fought an urge to press his hand over his right ear and keep that stranger's hot breath away. 'He whispered into her ear when he pulled the trigger. To be that close to the gun when it went off, to be that close to her when it did, it was probably personal. There's nothing else so I'll go talk to some of the employees and check if there are's any CCTV.'

'Hang on a second, Merlin.'

He kept walking back towards the main foyer. 'I don't have time, Arthur.'

'Hey,' Arthur said and grabbed his arm. 'You almost fainted in the middle of an active crime scene. That never happened in the cases we worked before Aredian came along. Something's changed.'

Merlin turned around and scoffed. 'It has, has it?'

'You're angry with me.'

'It doesn't matter,' he said and tried to leave again. Arthur's grip tightened and pulled him to the side of the corridor when forensic examiners passed. Merlin shrugged out his hold.

'If it interferes with a criminal investigation it matters, Merlin, and clearly it's interfering,' Arthur told him. 'I'm the one who gets to be angry right now, not you.'

'Why can't I be angry?'

Arthur frowned at him and leaned in. The motion brought his peppermint breath closer, made his anger clearer and took apart the controlled expression. Arthur was intimidating him, accidentally or not, and it made his heart rate pick up. 'Because you lied to me about who you are for almost a year. Because you lied to me for years back in Camelot and because you did what we had? It was a lie, Merlin. I get to be angry because you made it all a lie.'

I don't want you to change. I want you to always be you.

You're the most beautiful man I've ever known.

His voice was just above a whisper when he said, 'Not all of it was.'

'It's hard to believe that at this point. It's hard to believe you at all. Two lives and in both I trusted you. I thought I knew you.'

Merlin pressed his lips together. His body still partly believed he'd just been shot in the head and now his chest was aching with Arthur's words. Heartbreak and murder were two things he'd experienced before. This, whatever it was, cut him deeper than both of those things ever had.

'Why didn't you tell me when we met? If you'd shown me months ago I could have stopped Morgana from killing my father. I could have stopped Mordred from hurting you. I could have stopped Morgana from going to save him. This? All of this shit? This is on you, Merlin. You're a liar. Past and present. So, I get to be angry and you sure as hell don't get to take this out on me.'

Merlin wanted to climb back into the bed with Mordred, go back to the morning, go back even further to the morning he'd decided to write that stupid letter, the morning he decided he'd die again if it meant saving Arthur. He wanted to crawl back under the covers with Arthur and tell him he loved him, never leave him, never hurt him. He wished he'd kept on lying, that Arthur could have accepted the truth.

Arthur sighed. 'We have an investigation to get on with. Let's play nice and do our jobs, alright?'

Merlin's eyelids felt heavier and he forced his lips into a smile. 'Yes, sire.'

Arthur's tired expression snapped and he leaned in so close their noses touched. 'You know what? We don't even have to play nice and you can be as angry as you like cause if you get to act all pissy I get to admit that a part of me wishes I had never even met you.'

A sickening rush of cold blood rolled through him.

'I'm sorry,' he breathed. It was breaking, their bond was breaking, and he didn't know how to stop it. He didn't know if it could be saved, if it should be saved. 'I didn't choose my destiny. I don't want to believe fate even exists but here we are. You're the Once and Future fucking King and I was born to serve you. Don't worry yourself too much, Arthur. After this case I'm transferring to a different team. You won't have to look at me unless you're in some kind of danger.'

Arthur stepped back. 'You're being reassigned?'

Merlin wanted to tell him he'd worked hard to get where he was, that he'd wanted to be a detective years before they met, long before he remembered his past life. Arthur's confused look made him hope that he still cared, and that made him angry, so he decided against continuing the conversation. 'I'm sorry about Morgana.'

Once he'd said that he turned around and raced down the curved staircase into the main crowd. All the conversations and echoing sounds dimmed and Merlin's steps slowed down, his hands numb again like Susanne's had been.

Emrys.

The voice dove into his head and pushed out every thought, emotion, physical sensation. Merlin stopped and stood suspended. Everything stopped just as he did. Sounds, movements, the flow of air all grew low and heavy and thick like fog. That voice had pasted and licked itself all over the inside of his head, coated him in something simultaneously cold and hot as fire, just as wild, just as hard.

A hand touched his shoulder and he whipped around.

'Woah, it's just me,' Percy said and smiled at him. 'I checked the security tapes and I think the killer's on them but we never see his face. Looks like he knew where all the cameras were.'

'Get the tapes taken over to the Met analysts. See if they can catch him out,' Merlin said, heart still racing. The world was working properly again only this time he had a headache.

'DS Emrys?'

Merlin looked at the Uniform who'd interrupted. 'Yes?'

'Someone leaked news of the murder to the press. They're outside and they know you're here, too,' she said.

He puffed out a breath. 'Shit.'

'Thank you, constable. Percy,' Arthur walked up to them and dismissed her then Percival, who nodded to them both before heading off. 'I'll handle it, Merlin. Susanne Chambers was advising Peterson Global Investors on the implementation and impact of Dodd-Frank. You should go check them out. I'll text you their address. What's your number?'

Merlin hated how he hadn't known that about her and how Arthur acted like they hadn't just had the conversation they had. He was getting caught up in too small a part of the murder and his personal life. Motive, reason, actually investigating, that was what he was supposed to be focused on. Not how she felt when she died, not what he'd seen when Aredian had attacked him, not strange voices calling out his name, not Arthur.

'Merlin? Number?'

His stomach twisted. 'I'm still using your old phone.'

'You are?' Arthur asked, eyebrows lifted. Something passed over his face then he frowned and nodded. 'Okay, well I'll text the details over in a bit. You should go there on foot.'

'I only used magic to get here because you left without me, Arthur,' Merlin told him. One of the suits shot him an odd stare. He'd said it a bit too loudly. Arthur didn't shush him, though, just looked at him in that strange reserved, angry, unknown-feelings kind of way that Merlin hated. He could use magic to figure out exactly what Arthur felt, could even try to get into his head, but he wouldn't that. Not to anyone and especially not to Arthur. He hated it even more because he knew he could understand it if he had to. He didn't have to, though, so he didn't.

'Come on,' Arthur said after the pause and they headed back towards the main glass doors. Merlin studied how their bodies were reflected faintly in the glass. Arthur's bulkier shape was countered by his slimmer build, blonde hair by dark, blue eyes by gold. Merlin's steps faltered. Golden and inhuman eyes cut through by black slitted pupils stared back at him.

Emrys.