Prologue:

It was the fourth year of Snow White's exile and her life before seemed like some sort of dream, or lie. Lie was probably a better description. A world of dresses and feather beds and servants. Now her hands were rough in a way that no ladies would be. Her skin tanned so not quite as white as Snow anymore. The winter was coming on and the first frost was laying across the ground as she stepped into the darkness and looked up at the sky. There was a single star there and she did as she had done before.

She closed her eyes and made a wish.

"You needn't repeat yourself Snow White," a voice came from behind her.

She jumped and turned to see a little woman in a purple dress smiling at her.

"Who are you?"

"Why a fairy of course. Come to grant your wish and help you find the place you belong."

Snow twisted her fingers together nervously, "You can do that."

The little fairy smiled magnanimously. "Of course I can. Pixie dust never lies. There is a place and a person in this world for everyone. A soulmate. Would you like to find them?"

Snow nodded, "Yes very much."

The little fairy looked serious for a moment, "You must understand though, Snow White, that sometimes our destinies are not what we expect."

Snow shrugged, "Nothing much has been what I expected out of life."

"Well then, let us find a new path for you."

She sprinkled the dust on Snow and a purple path of magic light formed through the woods. Snow smiled and nodded to the fairy, and began running along it. It took much of the night, and she started to feel like she recognized the landscape until she reached the edge of the woods and saw where the dust lead. It was leading her back to her childhood home.

"This can't be right." She looked in distress at the fairy. "The Evil Queen, she'll kill me."

The fairy did look concerned, "I don't know what the path means, child, but your soulmate is at the end of that path. It is up to you if you choose to follow."

Snow considered turning back, but the cold of the night and a longing for a possibility of a better life were tempting. The person she belonged with was in that castle, and maybe she could find them without running into Regina.

She steeled herself, "Hope involves risks. If that's where my soulmate is, I'll find them." She turned to the fairy, "You should stay back. The Queen is dangerous and may sense your magic. I don't want you to get hurt when you've helped me so much."

The fairy nodded and stayed behind in the woods as the bandit Snow White headed on alone towards the castle where her future lay waiting.

She didn't see behind her as the fairy disappeared in a cloud of purple smoke and was replaced by a grinning woman with crazy eyes.

"I've missed you too, Snow."


Snow crept along the castle hallways. Breaking into the castle was easy for someone who had grown up there, knowing every corner and passage. The first time she had hidden in the shadows as a pair of Black Knights past she thought they'd see the light of the purple pixie dust she was following, but they didn't appear to notice. Perhaps the spell only revealed itself to the person searching for their soulmate.

She felt her heart beating quickly, not unexpectedly given where she was, but also at the prospect of finding who she was meant to be with. She'd had dreams of romance and love for ... well... since she was ten years old. The dust lead to the castle library where she'd spent so much time as a teenager reading about the tales of romance and adventure and part of her appreciated the irony of that being the place she'd find it.

She crept inside. Like much of the castle Regina had redecorated, darkening the stone work, that was once gleaming white, but here she'd brought in a large wooden desk and map table. Snow ran her fingers along it, seeing the kingdom laid out with small wooden figures denoting she knew from her own experience the wealth of each town from the year's harvest. Her father had always trusted the village headman but she remembered one of the few times she'd seen Regina try to argue that the figures were patently nonsense.

She hadn't been at dinner that night. Or breakfast the next day. Only appearing again her face thick with makeup. She hadn't wanted to understand it at the time. And she didn't like to think about it now. Turning away from the table she looked for where the magic trail led and moved through the stacks until she heard someone and slid back into the shadows.

The Queen passed without seeing her, or seeming to, carrying a book she had retrieved from the maze of bookshelves, and bathed in purple magic.

Snow had to cover her mouth with her hands to avoid making a gasping sound and shaking her head. That was... not possible... her mind told her immediately. The Evil Queen had been trying to kill her for three years now, and while she certainly remembered a young girl's crush on her father's wife that was naiveté crushed by the realization that Regina hated her so.

She crept along the shadows to catch a glimpse of Regina. She had laid the book open on the big table with the map, checking some figures within. "If you are here to kill me Snow, you really should just get on with it."

Snow stepped out of the shadows, "I'd be lying if I said I hadn't thought about it. More than once. But that's not why I'm here."

Regina looked over at her and tilted her head, "A shame. You've made yourself quite the fighter. You should at least have the nobility of that death."

Regina's hand flew out and Snow's body flew back against a stone wall. Leather straps binding her arms to her sides. A wicked grin crossed the Queen's face and her eyes lit with the fire of her insanity. "Did you really think you could destroy me with fairy magic? You practically reek of it."

She reached up and stroked Snow's face with the back of two fingers. "A... a fairy promised me that she could help me find my soulmate. The dust trail lead..." Snow looked down into Regina's eyes in fear, desperation, and confusion. "It led to you."

Regina blinked and a moment of sadness took over the crazed anger. She turned away and with a wave of her hand Snow dropped to the ground the restraints gone.

"Regina..."

"It is late. Sleep the night in your old room, but be gone by morning lest I remember how much I want your head."

"Regina..."

"Fairies are cruel creatures Snow. You've never understood that and call this my small mercy for you. Don't test it."

Regina kept her face turned away from Snow when she really wanted to see the Queen's eyes. Still she inhaled and nodded, "Thank you." She slinked away, to cowardly to push, or aware of just how close she was to death. She found her old rooms pristine as maintained for her to come back at any moment. As she was. The only change was a portrait of her father which had been taken from the wall, but a small one of her mother remained near her bed and she touched the canvas for a moment before looking over at the feather bed.

She shouldn't stay she knew, but the prospect of a night in a real bed with how cold it was outside was too much and she crawled under the sheets. It was deep into the night when she heard the scream and woke with a start. Given this castle and Regina's darkness she knew she likely shouldn't investigate but the second scream was clearly Regina and Snow found herself slipping into her boots and running towards the voice.

Just as when she was a girl the Queen's bedchambers were just down the hall from hers and she slipped inside to see that Regina wasn't being threatened by an intruder but was turning violently in her bed and crying out in fear.

She should leave she knew. This intimate moment wasn't for her. But she bit her lip and stepped forward and sat gently on the bed. Regina's hair was loose and she looked, in that moment, like the young queen who first married her father. She stroked her hair for a moment and made a claiming shushing noise but whatever monster haunted monster's dreams was still at work. Snow wasn't sure what to do but instinctively she wrapped her arms around her. "Shhhhh... it's alright Regina. You're safe."

Regina woke and was still for a moment before curling more. She was crying and Snow brushed a tear from her cheek, "It's alright Regina. It was just a dream."

The Queen's eyes opened and looked right into Snow's a mix of anger and confusion and sadness. And something crazy occurred to Snow. She leaned in just another few inches and kissed Regina tentatively, not on the forehead or the cheek as she might have once, but softly on the lips. The Queen hesitated for a moment but equally tentatively kissed her back before breaking the contact.

Nothing was said. Nothing needed to be said. Speech in fact would have broken the spell over both of them. Snow curled up next to Regina and wrapped her arms around her and the troubled queen knew that she would protect her the rest of the night.

Regina slept soundly for the rest of the night in the arms of her enemy. In the morning Snow was gone and the queen readied herself to face the world. But when she arrived in the dining hall for her morning meal she found Snow sitting at the table waiting for her.

"I told you not to be here in the morning."

Snow shrugged. "You can kill me if you want. But this is where I'm supposed to be. Pixie dust doesn't lie."

Regina tilted her head, "But all magic comes with a price."

"Mine I'm sure will be steep."

Regina looked at her for a long moment, "Indeed it will." Still she sat down in her chair at the head of the table and made no effort to have Snow removed.