"This is your fault and you know it."
The words were spoken in a low, level tone, one Snow knew all too well. It was every bit the Queen, and it sent a thrill through her that she hadn't felt in a very long time.
Mary Margaret hadn't wanted Regina, had been almost too naïve to do so. And since the curse broke, Snow had been so focused on her reunited family that she hadn't given herself time to think about the past.
She hadn't felt this since she'd stayed Regina's execution all those years ago, since she'd set the older woman free and been thrown up against the wall, able to feel the sharp point of the knife against her gut even though the blade couldn't reach her.
Now, they were down in the hold of the Jolly Roger, Snow with her back up against a stack of crates, Regina's sneer mere inches away. The older woman wasn't touching her, restraining her, keeping her from shouting for the husband who would come crashing down to save her no matter what.
It didn't matter. Regina and Snow both knew that no one was going anywhere.
"I know better than to trust you." Snow could feel the words on her lips, Regina almost close enough to taste. "But I thought Henry was at last something we could agree on. Someone we both loved." Regina's dark eyes were hard and cold, darting around Snow's face as they always had, as if she couldn't decide what she wanted to devour first.
"Regina," Snow whispered. "It was an accident."
Regina's eyes settled firmly on Snow's. "It's always an accident with you, princess," she hissed. "Nothing's ever your fault. You're too snow white." She leaned in closer, hands flat against the crates on either side of Snow's head. "So perfect, and yet you couldn't keep my son safe for five minutes."
"He's not your-" Snow started, her only possible defense. Also the best way to provoke Regina into action.
It worked. There was a wave of Regina's hand, some sort of magic, although Snow couldn't see what she'd done. And then she felt it, when Regina grabbed a fistful of thick brown hair and pulled Snow sharply to the side.
The younger woman raised a hand to feel it, her old hair, just one of the million things Regina's curse had taken from her.
"I never should have cut off all your hair," Regina said in a low voice, holding Snow's neck at a painful angle. "I always so enjoyed playing with it."
That was where all of this had started. Sharp pulls to Snow's hair while Regina dutifully braided or brushed it during her first few years as stepmother. They were passed off as mistakes, but Snow could see the way Regina's eyes changed in the mirror when it happened. How deliberate it was. The pain spiked through her, awakening things she couldn't identify, things she wouldn't know until her father was gone and she crept into Regina's bed for the first time.
"I wanted you ugly and weak," Regina continued. "But this is your weakness, isn't it? I bet Charming never hurts you like I did." She pulled harder, until Snow's eyes watered. "I bet he's gentle. I bet you're never satisfied."
"You're the one who made me this way."
Regina shook her head, giving Snow a predatory smile. "You were always this way, princess. You wanted me when you were a still a child. I never wanted you. I still don't."
She pulled Snow's mouth into hers hard, almost painful, and Snow's hands automatically went to Regina's back and grabbed at her jacket. Regina kept a hold on her hair while working the other hand effortlessly into her pants, slamming into her like it hadn't been thirty years since they'd touched last.
"Are you going to cry my name, Snow?" Regina broke the kiss and brought her mouth to Snow's ear. "The way you used to? Let your precious husband and daughter know that I'm the only one you've ever wanted?"
"They'll kill you," Snow said weakly, not sure if she was trying to talk Regina into continuing or stopping. She whimpered at the rough thrusts of too many fingers.
"Oh, don't worry. You can live with that." Regina drew back so that Snow could see her smile, as slightly maniacal as it had been that day on the mayor's porch with Snow's heart between them. As it had been in Regina's cell with the knife between them. "Just another accident," Regina said before biting down hard on Snow's bottom lip, moving into a kiss to muffle the younger woman's cry as she came.
No one heard it, but Snow knew it was Regina's name.