The Royal Scandal *Book Two*

I Don't Want to Die S2 E12

A/N

I am not even kidding, I literally sobbed as I was writing this and my mum came in looking seriously concerned for me. All I am going to say is... get tissues because I currently, as I am writing this little author's note, look like an absolute mess. I think I need therapy.

Sweat dripping down our foreheads, hands and knees shaking from just the effort of standing there, I pressed myself against the wooden doors, trying to stop them from opening and allowing the Knights to finish us off. Making sure that I had a secure hold on the door, Merlin then ran to go and help Arthur lift a wooden plank to then place across the door, effectively trapping us inside. No one would be coming in or out without our permission.

"Chels, look out," Arthur requested.

I pushed myself away from the door so that Arthur and Merlin could secure the plank onto the door. After they had done that, they leant up against the door while I sank down to the ground, collapsing onto my back and shutting my eyes for a moment.

"Are you okay?" Merlin's voice asked, closer this time as I heard him kneel down beside me.

Opening my eyes, I forced myself to give him a nod and a weak smile. I couldn't even bring myself to look over in Morgana's direction to see how she was holding up, not now that I knew what I did. Not now that I knew we had been betrayed by the person I thought would always be by my side.

"Morgana, we need that remedy that Gaius gave you," Arthur requested, remaining in his place by the door. Morgana didn't give a single response as I pushed myself off the ground, quickly finding myself leaning into Merlin's side for support. "Morgana?"

"I don't have it," Morgana answered nervously.

"I know that but you must remember what it was, what was in it. Come on, Morgana, we can't keep going much longer. Think!" Arthur instructed her desperately, walking over to her with shaking legs.

"I'm sorry," Morgana whimpered.

"Doesn't matter. We can't get it now anyway. We're trapped," Merlin said, resting his cheek against my hair.

"There has to be something we can do," Arthur said angrily, starting to pace around the room.

As my eyes started to flutter shut again, I heard someone else kneel down beside us.

"Chelsea? You need to keep your eyes open," Morgana requested. Forcing them open, I looked over to see her face filled with worry, as she clasped onto my hand. "You need to stay awake. Don't close your eyes. Please." My eyes connected with hers for a split second and with that my heart shattered into a million pieces. How could she say something like that when she had done what she had?

"Why... why didn't that knight kill you?" Merlin asked Morgana, his voice weak and barely more than a whisper.

"How do I know?" Morgana responded. "Because I'm a woman."

"Yeah. Maybe," Merlin muttered.

"Unless we can cure ourselves, I don't see how we're going to hold out," Arthur commented, coming back over to our group after his moment of pacing around.

"We have to destroy the source of the magic," I told Arthur, looking up at him.

"Which is?" Arthur asked.

My mind automatically went to the hand that held my own in comfort, to the pair of green eyes that was watching me closely and to the heart that had once been filled with compassion and adoration but was now twisted with nothing more than the desire to destroy those she loved. I could tell Arthur; I could tell him and make him believe me and then this would all be over. But the truth is, this was never going to be over. Not anytime soon at least. Morgana had started something that would forever haunt me, forever make me wonder what I did wrong to prevent the person who had been like my sister from stabbing us right in the back.