Preview: In The Shadows Of My Heart by christinchen
Title: In The Shadows Of My Heart
Author: christinchen
Pairing/Characters: Arthur / Merlin
Rating/Category: NC - 17 /Alternate Universe
Warnings: AU, angst, hurt/comfort, public sex
Summary: When the cure to magic is found, Uther Pendragon makes it his personal goal to treat every last sorcerer. But then his son Arthur gets captured by sorcerers trying to fight for their freedom with questionable methods. One of them is Merlin, who first turns Arthur's world upside down and then the rest of the world against them.
In The Shadows Of My Heart
Excerpt:
Arthur blinked, slowly opening his eyes. Bright sunlight filtered through a window, barely lighting the room but enough to cause Arthur to groan in pain and close his eyes again.
He tried carefully to move, first his arms, then his legs; but when he tried to turn around, he felt a heavy pain all over the right side of his body. His head hurt and he was having trouble breathing.
When he was able to take better stock of his surroundings, he found that he was lying on his back on something that was not the floor but not a whole lot more comfortable.
"Fuck" Arthur flung an arm over his face, trying to block the brightness completely in the hopes of lessening the pounding headache that was beginning to build.
On his first attempt to sit up, he felt a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, forcing him to lie down again. He took a few deep, calming breaths before he tried again, this time more successfully.
When he had slowly struggled into a sitting position, he discovered a makeshift bandage all the way around his chest, spotting blood strains where he had felt the pain in his side earlier.
Arthur took a look around him, trying to figure out where he could be. The room he was in was small, it seemed to be part of a cottage, maybe. The wallpaper was hanging off the walls for the most part and the brown paint was starting to peel off on the small wooden windows close to the ceiling, and on the low doorway.
The room was empty but for the narrow bed he was sitting on, with a thin, worn out mattress and an itchy pillow and blanket. He was dressed down to his boxers and after a quick search, he discovered the rest of his clothes neatly folded on a chair nearby.
He had no hope that his gun would still be inside the coat he had been wearing, let alone the small vial with the Cure.
The Cure was his only chance against a sorcerer; one injection was enough for a sorcerer to loose his abilities forever. Over the last few years Gaius had perfected this Cure, after he had found the DNA mutation causing the sorcerer's special abilities. His first attempts had managed to block the use of magic for a few hours but this was a new formula. It could permanently destroy the chromosome necessary to access magic, and most importantly, it was irreversible.
He and his father had been working with Governments all over Europe to find every last sorcerer and have them cured.
In the beginning most people, magical and not alike, had been relieved to have the remedy and treated the Cure as what it was: a remedy for society's problems. A way to live without magical discrimination and a chance for everyone to live a normal life. Most magical people were relieved to be free of their abnormality, only the insane world domination craving types had ever wanted to keep their abilities. And everyone had quickly agreed that it was better if they didn't.
Only in the last few years that some voices had gotten loud and claimed that by using the Cure, they were violating human rights.
Didn't they see that it was for their own good?
Just as it was for the good of everyone, that Arthur got out of whatever room he was being held in and did his job in securing and injecting these sorcerers.
Arthur took a deep breath, steeling himself for the pain to come and pushed his body up. Pain ripped through his body, taking his breath. Arthur took a few wobbly steps in the general direction of the door. If there was a way out he had to find it before his captors came back.
He suddenly heard a rattle on the door and it opened only a few moments later. Arthur turned around quickly to see who was entering and if necessary defend himself. The movement was too quick for his injuries, making his head feel woozy. He only saw a flash of dark hair before his legs gave out and he went down.
Read the Story here
Author: christinchen
Pairing/Characters: Arthur / Merlin
Rating/Category: NC - 17 /Alternate Universe
Warnings: AU, angst, hurt/comfort, public sex
Summary: When the cure to magic is found, Uther Pendragon makes it his personal goal to treat every last sorcerer. But then his son Arthur gets captured by sorcerers trying to fight for their freedom with questionable methods. One of them is Merlin, who first turns Arthur's world upside down and then the rest of the world against them.
In The Shadows Of My Heart
Excerpt:
Arthur blinked, slowly opening his eyes. Bright sunlight filtered through a window, barely lighting the room but enough to cause Arthur to groan in pain and close his eyes again.
He tried carefully to move, first his arms, then his legs; but when he tried to turn around, he felt a heavy pain all over the right side of his body. His head hurt and he was having trouble breathing.
When he was able to take better stock of his surroundings, he found that he was lying on his back on something that was not the floor but not a whole lot more comfortable.
"Fuck" Arthur flung an arm over his face, trying to block the brightness completely in the hopes of lessening the pounding headache that was beginning to build.
On his first attempt to sit up, he felt a wave of dizziness and nausea hit him, forcing him to lie down again. He took a few deep, calming breaths before he tried again, this time more successfully.
When he had slowly struggled into a sitting position, he discovered a makeshift bandage all the way around his chest, spotting blood strains where he had felt the pain in his side earlier.
Arthur took a look around him, trying to figure out where he could be. The room he was in was small, it seemed to be part of a cottage, maybe. The wallpaper was hanging off the walls for the most part and the brown paint was starting to peel off on the small wooden windows close to the ceiling, and on the low doorway.
The room was empty but for the narrow bed he was sitting on, with a thin, worn out mattress and an itchy pillow and blanket. He was dressed down to his boxers and after a quick search, he discovered the rest of his clothes neatly folded on a chair nearby.
He had no hope that his gun would still be inside the coat he had been wearing, let alone the small vial with the Cure.
The Cure was his only chance against a sorcerer; one injection was enough for a sorcerer to loose his abilities forever. Over the last few years Gaius had perfected this Cure, after he had found the DNA mutation causing the sorcerer's special abilities. His first attempts had managed to block the use of magic for a few hours but this was a new formula. It could permanently destroy the chromosome necessary to access magic, and most importantly, it was irreversible.
He and his father had been working with Governments all over Europe to find every last sorcerer and have them cured.
In the beginning most people, magical and not alike, had been relieved to have the remedy and treated the Cure as what it was: a remedy for society's problems. A way to live without magical discrimination and a chance for everyone to live a normal life. Most magical people were relieved to be free of their abnormality, only the insane world domination craving types had ever wanted to keep their abilities. And everyone had quickly agreed that it was better if they didn't.
Only in the last few years that some voices had gotten loud and claimed that by using the Cure, they were violating human rights.
Didn't they see that it was for their own good?
Just as it was for the good of everyone, that Arthur got out of whatever room he was being held in and did his job in securing and injecting these sorcerers.
Arthur took a deep breath, steeling himself for the pain to come and pushed his body up. Pain ripped through his body, taking his breath. Arthur took a few wobbly steps in the general direction of the door. If there was a way out he had to find it before his captors came back.
He suddenly heard a rattle on the door and it opened only a few moments later. Arthur turned around quickly to see who was entering and if necessary defend himself. The movement was too quick for his injuries, making his head feel woozy. He only saw a flash of dark hair before his legs gave out and he went down.
Read the Story here