Merlin imagines

Arthur- confess pt 2

"This isn't going to work." I whisper for the sixth time in the last thirty seconds.

"It will work." Merlin replied hooking a rope through the bars and lowering it down. A drugged guard lays sleeping on the floor, his belt holding the key to y/n cell and my happiness. Merlin lowers the hook until its position right above the guards belt, to hook the keys onto the makeshift rope. He misses, the hook hitting the guards face waking him from his slumber.

"This isn't going to work." I repeated as Merlin frantically tried to reel the rope back in and the guards eyes met mine.

"This isn't going to work." He finally gathered all the rope and we quickly sprinted back into my chambers. Hastily shutting the doors behind us I threw myself onto my bed in defeat.

"Well did it work?" Gwen emerged from behind the screen, hope filled in her features. Her face immediately fell as she took in our obvious failure, planted upon our features. "It didn't work did it?" Numbly I stared up at the ceiling, blocking out Merlin and Gwen's conversation. My thoughts were reeling out of control and I wanted nothing more than to shut them up. They were wondering into deep and dark spaces and I couldn't even imagine going there. At least not without y/n gripping my hand tightly to remind me what reality is.

"Arthur." Merlin's voice broke me off my trance and I sat upright to see a guard stationed formally by the door. Confused I turned my eyes to focus on Merlin, whose eyes were glistening with tears and their threat to spill. "The King has moved up her execution," I gulped, my heart thudding its way out of my chest. "It's now."

In a matter of seconds, I was running away from my chambers with Merlin shortly following behind. In that moment I had no care for the people I pushed out of the way, all that was on my mind was y/n and how if I didn't get to her in time she would be in dreadful danger.

I continued to run until I felt my feet pound against the hard uneven floor rather than the marbled castle flooring. I stopped dead in my tracks as my eyes found y/n standing amongst a pile of wood and hay, a guard next to her a torch alight in his hands. He slowly bent towards and her and she sucked in a breath holding her head high.

"This is what happens to those who practise in sorcery." My fathers voice rang throughout the courtyard and he nodded to the guard. The torch hit the podium where y/n stood and a strangled sob let loose from my body as I realised I was too late. Too numb to realise I screamed, I fell onto my knees as her eyes met mine. The flicker of the flame reflected in her orbs as she smiled softly at me, tears glistening in her cheek.

"Let this be a lesson to all." The Kings voice faded as I buried my face into my hands, my eyes hurting from watching the devouring flame. I screamed, sobbed and shouted as I felt everything good that has ever been in me leave my body all because I was watching the love of my life burn. Seconds, minutes or even hours later I lifted my head, my palms stained with my tears. Too numb to even cry I crawled my way over to what was once the podium but is now the ashes of wood and hay mixed with the ashes of my love.

I felt a presence from next to me and without even looking I knew who it was.

"She's gone." I croaked staring at the pile of ashes.

"I know son." I lifted my head and as I suspected there was the Kings standing above me. "Come inside now." He went to place a comforting hand in my shoulder but I shook it off, standing in protest.

"You don't touch me, not after what you did to her. To me." Tears freely falling I sprinted away, the shouts of my father fading away.