Guinevere's Rules

Rule ten: Never Trust a Thousand-Year-Old Spirit Witch

I dedicated this chapter to my first active reader in this book, @almostpretentious. Thank you for the comments and the support darling! I absolutely love reading your feedback. Sorry, this part is late, it totally slipped my mind to post on Saturday. 

"I knew that she was only after him for his power, didn't I tell you guys she was only after Arthur for his power?" Gawaine said after Arthur had left us in the hallway. Immediately I felt guilty, which was stupid because it was Guinevere that betrayed his trust, not me.

All of the knights and Merlin stared at Gawaine, "What? It's true." 

"We all knew it, but Arthur didn't. Now he feels betrayed by the person he loved." Merlin reminded Gawaine softly. 

I wrung my hands nervously. "I didn't know. I'm sorry, I thought that it would have been obvious, that's why Guinevere was there. I didn't mean to hurt him." 

"It's not your fault, Gwen. If anything, it's Guinevere's fault." Lancelot assured me, "Merlin, will you and Gawaine stay with Gwen, the rest of us need to go after Arthur and make sure he doesn't do something stupid." 

"Of course, come on Gwen, let's get some food in you," Merlin told me, helping me to my feet. 

Slowly, we wandered to the mess hall, Merlin and Gawaine mindlessly chattering to fill the silence. Halfway through eating yet another strange creature that I knew from myths only, an alarm sounded. 

The soldiers in the room all stood up immediately and started rushing about. "Gwen, we need to go, follow the citizens and they'll get you to safety. Wait there until we come to get you. Do not leave safety." Merlin ordered me quickly, pulling me to my feet as Gawaine took control of the soldiers and lead them to battle. 

"What's happening?" I asked in concern. 

"Just an attack, nothing to be concerned about, it won't take us long to handle this. Go with the citizens now." He told me, shoving me towards the disappearing group of people.

I really did try to run after the citizens, but once we were out of the mess hall, I was met with a mass of soldiers rushing towards the battle. Deciding it was more dangerous to fight against the flow of people, I ducked into a random door, trying to find a place to hide and wait it out. 

I left one hallway and entered another. I was on one of the bridges connecting the central tower to the smaller ones around it. I looked out and saw magik flying everywhere, destroying things. A bridge was definitely not where I wanted to be. 

"Shit, shit, shit, shit!" I murmured to myself, running across the bridge to the other tower. Once I was in, I started trying for doors to find a place to hide or when I lost awareness. 

My eyes snapped open, and I cursed in my mind. This was not the time for a flashback. In fact, I think Guinevere just won the award for worst timing of the century. Things were blowing up around her, I looked down and realized that Guinevere was out of her usual dress and was in a pair of leather trousers and a tunic. Gold light glowed from her hands. 

"Déan tine a thoghairm!" She shouted. Fire lept from her hands, and I realized I knew exactly how she did that. I felt every step of the spell and was confident I could reproduce it if I needed.

The enemy soldiers in front of her were thrown back or burned by her spell, allowing the Queen to run. As we ran, she found Arthur, who was collapsed on the ground with wounds that looked quite fatal to me. "No, no, no. No, not him." She muttered, kneeling next to the King. 

I felt worse now for telling Arthur why Guinevere started their relationship, it became clear to me that whatever her reason was for starting their connection, didn't lessen the love she had for him. I made the mistake of disrespecting her feelings for her husband and knew I had to make it right when I had the chance.