AllFreeNovel
Share Us
This he said while he held Wolfe’s gaze.
The other man simply stared back unblinkingly, that muscle ticking wildly in his jaw.
“It contained my life force and my love. I should have made two. I should have given one to you, my…Wolfe.”
Wolfe said nothing, jaw still ticking.
The two men stared wordlessly at each other, perhaps locked in a silent communication through their mind link. Being father and son Beasts, their link would be strong, Lancelot knew.
“I should have kept it instead of burying it with her,” Wolfe finally said, his voice gritty with barely-checked emotion.
“Perhaps it would have soothed the bitterness and dulled the hate and disappointment. And reminded me of how we were. Of how…you loved us.”
Merlin was shaking now. Annie held him tightly, squeezing herself into his side, one hand covering the place on his chest where his regrown heart resided. His eyes were wet, his thick lashes spiked with tears. One large drop overflowed the outer corner and trailed down his cheek and jaw.
Lancelot was fascinated to witness this. He’d seen grown men cry before, but never someone like Merlin. Someone so strong and seemingly impenetrable. Indestructible.
He’d never seen Arthur cry either. And he himself had never felt the burn of tears, not even when he yawned.
“I…” Merlin rasped.
Another tear leaked out. He swallowed thickly and tried again.
“I have many regrets. The worst of them is not protecting you. Wolfe. I wish…if I could…I…”
“I regret too,” Wolfe said, surprising Merlin, by the look on his face.
“I never tried to understand, only taking what I saw at face value. I know now why you left us. And why you never returned. I do not blame you anymore.”
He took a deep breath as if bracing himself. His lips quivered beneath his beard.
“I loved you, father,” he said in a low voice, though they heard him clearly, as if he’d shouted the words.
“You were a god among men to me. I wanted to be just like you. Perhaps that is why I hated you just as fiercely.”
Merlin was completely broken down by now, his head bowed, tousled locks shielding his face from view, boulder-like shoulders shaking uncontrollably.
Wolfe’s eyes were wet too. Rui calmly held his hand, but Lancelot could see where he was white-knuckled beneath the table, gripping her slim fingers like a lifeline.
They were all silent after that. Until Merlin gradually stopped shaking. Until Wolfe’s eyes stopped wavering through a sheen of tears.
Annie cleared her throat and said, “Well, that settles it. We’ll find your old home and, no matter what, we’ll find that amulet and recover that lost piece of Red’s heart.”
Finally in control of himself again, though his eyes still shone with a watery brightness, Merlin looked up and said, “It should have retained its magic. My life force.”
He eyes shifted to Arthur and stayed.
“Why had I not thought of it before? We can make you whole with its magic, Arthur. I think it will be enough. You will no longer depend on another. You and Lancelot could be individuals again.”
Arthur stiffened next to him as Lancelot’s own heart skipped a beat.
Could it be true? If it were, he didn’t know how to feel. On the one hand, he rejoiced for Arthur’s sake. On the other…
He feared for what Arthur’s independence might mean for them. How it would change them. How he might lose Arthur because of it.
He feared.
And then, his heart stopped entirely. For Arthur said:
