I'm not even sure what this is. But hot men does strange things to my mind.
"Walk with me?" he held out his hand to her, giving her a slight smile. Not the mocking one he seemed to direct towards everyone else but one that she couldn't quite figure out.
Emma stared at the hand extended to her. One part of her was screaming at her to take the lifeline he was offering, this "savior" of hers. The other called for her to run away as fast as she could or to destroy him.
"Emma" he said softly and she slowly looked up into his face, not knowing what she was searching for. He lowered his hand at the same time she sucked up her courage and reached out for his.
Too late. Seeing her gesture, the smile returned. This time with a tinge of sadness and mockery. This one she was able to read.
Before things could get even more awkward than they already were, he turned around and headed towards the wood. She picked up her skirt and followed in his wake as if they were drawn together like magnets from the opposite ends of the earth. Dark and light, light and dark.
They came to a stop in the woods, with a well interrupting the monotony of trees. Flicking his wrist he held out the dagger to her.
"You're giving it to me?"
"I want you to see something with it. Step up to the well with the dagger and focus."
She did as he asked but hesitated, "Focus on what?"
"On whatever you want."
She rolled her eyes at him. "Care to elaborate oh wise old one?" she said sarcastically. "What the hell is it that I'm supposed to see."
He opened his mouth to reply but before he could get a sound out she interrupted him, "And if you say whatever you want one more time I'll kick your ass!"
He laughed at that and oh it felt so good. He hadn't laughed in centuries. Although being a tree didn't exactly lend itself to laughter. The branches shaking in the wind didn't count.
"Well then I won't say anything at all. You know what to do. In your heart. You know."
Emma sighed. Trying to get anything out of him was like trying to talk to a….well tree. She smirked at her pun and snuck an amused glance at him. Seeing amusement reflected back at her, in his face, quickly sobered her. She hadn't said it out loud. Could he read her mind?
Turning back to the well, she held up the dagger and emptied her head of all thoughts and worries. She focused on an image of Merlin's face in her mind and then she saw it, her parents' wedding. Lancelot was there and so was her grandmother? She smiled. Her grandmother hadn't been in the storybook. This was a treat. But then her brows furrowed. She opened her eyes and turned back to face Merlin. "I don't understand. My mom was cursed with infertility? And the water cured her? So that I could be?"
"Not just any water Emma, Lake Nostos." He cocked his head back towards the well to indicate that she should continue.
Sighing in exasperation, she looked into the dagger again. This time, she saw the Blue Fairy in Camelot. She chanted something and waved her wand. Emma's eyes popped open in surprise and quickly pivoted around. She looked him up and down a couple of times. "Wait a second, none of your limbs or parts are missing."
He laughed again. "None that you could see" he quipped.
Emma cocked her head to the side. No way! He couldn't be implying what she thinks he's implying could he? This old stick in the mud? Tell a joke? "No no no. Emma get your head out of the gutter" she screamed at herself internally. She could feel her face heating up. Quickly changing the topic she blurted out "It was your tree that saved me? Or part of your tree? Or the wood part of it anyway." Emma cringed at the last statement. Hello foot in mouth but she kept her face straight. The guy couldn't possibly understand modern slang even if he could read her mind. But damn it, he was smirking.
He indicated back towards the well. She growled her frustration at him but did as he asked once more. This time she saw something completely different. Not something from the past but this time something from the future. She dropped the dagger as if it burned her and stumbled back from the well.
"Emma?" Merlin asked with great worry. She glared at him before rushing away.
"No! Let go of me!" she yelled at him when he grabbed both her arms to turn her around to face him.
"What did you see Emma?"
She shook her head and averted her eyes.
He gave her a gentle shake and repeated "What did you see?"
"Don't you already know?" she spat at him. "I'll never do it! Never!"
"What won't you do?" he asked her in frustration.
"You know! If you think I'm going to agree to it then you can go to hell. Or back to being a bloody tree! I won't sacrifice Killian!" Emma tried to push Merlin away from her but he only tightened his grip.
With a flick of his wrist, he retrieved the dropped dagger. Emma went to go grab it from him but when her hand touched the blade and his hand on it at the same time, a wave of images rushed at her.
After, she crumbled to the ground clutching her head.
"Emma! What's wrong?" Merlin scooped her up onto his lap and tried to pry her hands from her head and wipe the tears running down her cheeks. No no this wasn't supposed to happen. Everything was going wrong and he had no clue why.
Emma felt as if her head was going to explode. She gasped out "I saw her. You couldn't kill her."
Merlin paused. She wasn't supposed to see that. Not yet.
"I don't understand" she whispered in pain. "You loved her? The Dark One?"
"No Emma, I love her" he corrected looking straight into her eyes.
"She was trying to save you. You broke the rule and she saved you" Emma repeated in a mixture of confusion and pain.
He hugged her close. "Yes. She paid the ultimate price for my folly. And I was supposed to destroy her for it" he told her in anger at the universe. The universe that let him meet her only to curse for them to never be able to be together.
They both looked up at the sound of footsteps heading their way.
"Emma!" Hook called out. He paused at the sight before him. Merlin and Emma on the ground. She was encased in his arms and he could see tear tracks on her face.
He glared at Merlin, "What the bloody hell did you do to her?"
Emma pushed away from Merlin and ran to Killian. He grabbed her to him in a hug. "What happened my love?"
Emma looked back towards Merlin, now back on his feet, his face with that stupid mocking grin on it again. Then she saw the dagger in his hand and remembered what she saw. She quickly stepped back from Killian and waved her hand over his chest with intense concentration.
Hook grabbed her hand, "Emma what are you doing love?"
Emma ignored him and once more faced Merlin. "There! What will be done to his heart will also be done to mine" she spat at Merlin. If it wasn't childish she would've stuck her tongue out at him too. Now they would be bound together. To destroy him would also destroy her.
"My heart?" he asked in confusion. "Emma what the bloody hell is going on?" He tensed and pointed his hook at Merlin, ready to fight him to protect Emma, most powerful wizard be damned.
Merlin raised the dagger, "Nimue, return to me!"
Emma disappeared in a cloud of smoke only to reappear next to Merlin. She held her shaky hands out in front of her as if to ward him off.
"Nimue?" Emma whispered.
"Who the bloody hell is Nimue?" Hook asked in his booming voice. He wanted to run to Emma and snatch her back but his feet seemed to be glued to the earth.
"You know Emma. In your heart" Merlin repeated to her.
She closed her eyes and she saw it. Merlin trying to cheat the gods by taking Nimue's soul and bound it to this earth by their love and their darkness. The Darkness had taken her heart but he had her soul.
The lake, the tree, the dagger, her magic, it was all connected.
"Lake Nostos" she said.
Merlin looked at her in pain. "Returns what once was lost."