Chapter Two

Parlay

Snow walked numbly back to the dwarves, Red, Granny, and Ruth. The situation was worse than she could ever imagine. King George would have simply killed Charming, but Regina, what would Regina do? Snow's mind raced to torture, excruciating pain before the final release of death.

She had to get Charming back, no matter what.

"What happened?" Ruth asked. "Where's David?"

Snow shook her head. "Regina has him. I have to go to a parlay."

"No!" the group gave a collective gasp. Regina had been hunting Snow for so long, her vengeance so persistent, none of them imagined any mercy or fairness would wait for their princess.

Snow began removing her weapons. "I have to. She'll never let him go otherwise."

"You can't be going there with nothing," Grumpy said. "Come on, hide a dagger."

"I'm not taking any chances. Not while she has Charming." She removed the last knife from her boot.

"Let me go with you," Red stepped up, taking Snow's hands in hers.

"I have to go alone."

"I'll keep hidden, just until you need me."

"Regina has magic and spies. I won't let you risk your life, and Charming's life on top of that."

Snow turned around, and Charming's mother stood before her, fighting back tears. Her whole world relied upon Snow making the parlay work out, and yet she could do nothing. Snow embraced her, knowing the pain and sickening worry about Charming.

"I will do everything I can to get your son back," Snow said. "Everything."

Ruth hugged her closer. "I know, dear."

They pulled away, and Snow looked around her group of friends who had risked so much for her. She didn't deserve them, not for how much trouble she caused.

"Thank you," she said. "For everything."

Then she left to find her prince.

"She ripped his heart out!" Regina shouted. "Because of you! Because you couldn't listen to me!"

Finally, it all made sense. Why Regina had been so determined to ruin Snow's life. Among the regret and sorrow, however, Snow was simply tired. Tired of the chasing and the killings and the kidnappings. She wanted nothing more than for it to end, to leave it all behind them.

"You took my father. Haven't we both suffered enough?" Snow asked.

"No!" Regina said. She began rifling through her purse, and Snow knew whatever was in there would kill her.

"What's that?" Snow asked.

Regina removed it—an oblong, red, glowing shape that just fit in Regina's hand. "A heart. Your prince's heart."

Snow remembered Regina's story, how her mother had ripped out Daniel's heart and crushed it. Now Regina held Charming's heart, pulsing and vulnerable in her hands.

"No—please, Regina, anything." Tears formed in Snow's eyes. She couldn't be the cause of Charming's death. He'd done nothing wrong, he was blameless! She would rather die a thousand deaths than to see Charming die once.

"The benevolent stepmother I am," Regina said, lips curling, "I will give you a choice. Either you watch as I crush the prince's heart, or you eat this."

Regina removed something else from her purse: an apple.

"What will it do? Kill me?" Snow asked. She already knew she'd take the apple, but she wanted to know beforehand what would happen.

"Oh no, something far worse. You'll be asleep, tortured and trapped in nightmares of your regrets."

And Snow had plenty of those.

"And Charming? What will you do to him?" Snow asked.

"Keep him, of course. He's a strong, handsome young man who will be of use to me. Now, tell me honestly, how is he in bed?"

The agony of the parlay flashed into anger. "He wouldn't!"

"Well, I suppose not, if he had his heart. But he can't feel right now. Which means he doesn't love you. And if he disobeys me, then I will crush his heart and kill him. But, it'll be his choice."

Regina offered the apple to Snow. If she didn't take it, Charming would die, but she would walk free. If she did eat it, he might die anyway or else belong to Regina, and Snow would be stuck in nightmares.

But even if she didn't eat it, wouldn't she be living a nightmare every day anyway? At least now Charming had a chance of living, perhaps even escaping.

Snow took the apple. "Congratulations. You've won."

And then, she took a bite.

Charming sat in his cell, trying to get used to the sensation of not having a heart. He felt empty, like a house that had once had a large, laughing family, but had been abandoned, only a few broken dishes remaining inside. But Charming knew he loved Snow. Even if his heart didn't thrum when he thought of her, his love ran deeper than that. To his very core, every single fiber of him, knew he loved her. Snow and his mother, no matter what his heart had contained, they had spread through every part of him. He loved them still.

Which is why he knew something was wrong. Although his heart was away from his body, he felt it—as if Regina had squeezed down and was slowly killing him. But it wasn't him, it was Snow. He knew they were going to parlay, and he knew, just knew the Evil Queen had killed her.

He clutched the hole in his chest, groaning. "What did you do?! What did you do to her?!"

His guards looked down on him, startled, as he continued yelling, pounding the floor, and clutching his heart. It was the only way to release the pain he felt, the doom of a world without Snow in it.

"Oh, stop your yelling," Regina said as she walked down the dungeon steps.

Charming scrambled up and got as close as he could to the jail door in his chains. "What did you do to her?"

"Oh, that? I gave her a poisoned apple. She's dead." The last word rolled off of Regina's tongue like a pet, lovingly caressed by its owner.

Charming fell to the ground—although he'd felt something horribly wrong before, the confirmation of it, of Snow's death, drained him of any ounce of good feelings from him. What was the purpose of his life without her?

"Yes, I gave her the choice. Your life or hers. Enjoy knowing that she died for you." Regina smirked, watching Charming's strength puddle into nothing. "Now this is the life you can look forward to: obeying me. Or else, all I have to do is squeeze," She plucked Charming's heart from her purse and clenched it between her hands. Pain shot from his chest, a burning fire. "And you die."

For a moment, Charming lay on the ground, wondering if he should let her. Why bother? Snow had died, gone from him forever. But then his mother's face flashed before him, and he remembered Snow had given her life for his. He couldn't abandon what Snow had given him, not so long as his mother grieved and worried and lived. He had to keep going, for both of them.

"Now," Regina said. "You should feel honored. I'm giving you an elite position in my castle."

"And what would that be?" Charming asked, a mix of anger and exhaustion.

"A bedmate." She raised an eyebrow, waiting for his reaction. Charming's stomach retched. Lay with her? The witch who had killed his love? No, he couldn't, not that…

She gave his heart a little squeeze, and his chest cramped up. "Come along."

Regina flung the prison doors open and released Charming from his chains. He sat there on the floor, hands holding him up from collapsing completely.

"Please, not now, not after I found out," Charming said, his head bent over.

She took the heart and squeezed it. "What did I say? You will obey me, or you will die."

Charming writhed, hand over his chest, as if he could stop the pain from spreading if he only found it and stopped it. When the sensation subsided, he didn't know how he found the strength, but somehow he stood. He walked out. He waited as Regina put his heart locked away in a room lined with drawers, filled with what Charming could only assume were more hearts. He followed Regina to her bedchamber. The whole thing felt like someone else was controlling him, that his will and conscious had left his body, and now he was a puppet being forced to do as ordered.

In her bed, the only thing Charming continued to detach himself from what he was doing and who he was with, forget Snow was dead. But the Evil Queen wasn't satisfied. She said she'd kill him anyway if he didn't step things up. So Charming did the only thing he could do—he closed his eyes and thought of Snow. Imagined her alive, imagined he was with her. His fingers tangled in her hair, his lips were on her neck, and she sighed in that satisfied way of hers. And for a brief time, he could do it, he could make himself respond.

Then it was over, and he remembered she was dead.

It had been too long. They all agreed that parlay or no, they had to go after Snow. The moon came out, and so Red transformed into a wolf, covering the distance faster than the rest of them could. She followed Snow's scent to a hill, and when she lifted her head, Red knew something was wrong.

Red raced up the hill, and there she was: Snow, sprawled out, not moving. Red whined and nudged Snow with her nose, but she didn't stir. She put her cheek near Snow's face, but no breath tickled her fur.

She was dead. The Queen had killed her, broken the agreement of parlay, and Snow was gone. Red let out a howl of pain, of anger, but there was nothing to do except take Snow's body back to her friends.

Everyone there grieved, for the loss of Snow and Charming's continued imprisonment by the Queen. Granny and Ruth made Snow a beautiful dress, white and pure like her. The dwarves made a precious glass and gold coffin, enclosing her in it. The Blue Fairy enchanted the coffin so that Snow would never rot, but remain young and beautiful.

The group didn't know if they could trust for her to remain untouched with Regina's soldiers about, so each of the dwarves guarded her for one day a week. If anyone approached, they covered the coffin with bushes and kept their pick-axe handy if things went wrong.

Everyone agreed Snow White was as beautiful as she'd ever been, and it looked as if she just slept, peaceful and sweet. They didn't realize that she was sleeping, screaming in her nightmares that she couldn't wake from, and yearning for her Charming.