Emma, Ruby, and Graham left for the Lucas home the next day, traveling rapidly by carriage. After a brief respite, Emma escaped the friendly hospitality of her friends and borrowed a horse to ride home.
When she rode up to Longbourn's gates, she was almost immediately met by Mary Margaret. "I was watching for you, Emma!" Mary Margaret called, her voice thick with emotion. Emma noticed immediately that tears had formed tracks of salt down her sister's beautiful cheeks.
She read the letter of ransom that Neal Wickham had sent for her little sister. "Zelena is barely more than a child!" Mary Margaret exclaimed. "I could not have believed him such a rogue as to steal so young a girl from her home in this way!"
Emma thought of Aurora Darcy, and she knew that he would. Her heart sinking within her chest, she flipped the letter over and ran her finger over the wax seal. St. Lazarus.
She turned to Mary Margaret, her eyes widening in swift realization. "I know where she is."
That night, just as she was about to leave for St. Lazarus', a knock sounded on the door of the catacomb beneath Longbourn. Emma stepped quickly to the door and peered through the peephole.
Lady Cora glared through the hole. "You have a very small estate here."
"And yet we endure it," Emma replied drily as she opened the door for the woman and a rather disturbingly large man. "I must leave at once. I have urgent business to attend to."
Lady Cora appeared to have gone temporarily deaf. "A report of a most scandalous nature has reached me. That you intend to be united with my nephew, Mr. Killian Darcy."
"I'm not," Emma replied after a pause. She intended that the woman wouldn't learn that not only had Killian proposed, but that she'd actually accept his proposal now, should he reiterate his words in a more polite fashion. If he asked her in a fashion like his letter, she would accept without a single thought.
"And will you promise me never to enter into such an engagement?" Lady Cora asked.
"I will make no such promise."
"Then I shall protect the dignity of the far superior man. Wilhelm?" Lady Cora motioned the large man forward.
Emma had only time for a startled glance between Wilhelm and Lady Cora before the huge man pushed Emma into a wall without any prelude whatsoever and lifted her up by the neck. Emma tried in vain to push his hands away, but to no avail. She tried to kick her legs and hit him, but she was losing oxygen quickly enough that it wasn't working.
"Do you still refuse to oblige me?" Lady Cora asked airily.
She loved Killian Darcy, and she loved her pride yet more. "I do!"
Emma thrust her hand up and tore her fingernails down Wilhelm's face. He dropped her, whether from surprise or pain she couldn't tell, but she had the upper hand, finally. Emma kicked Wilhelm and he grunted, and then he threw her into the wall. Emma winced as she stood, trying to convince Wilhelm that she was tiring. Wilhelm showed the first bit of emotion he had all evening and smiled slightly, which was Emma's loophole. She kicked Wilhelm hard enough that the man was sent flying through the air into a column, which quickly collapsed and caused part of the roof to fall on top of him.
Emma winced, for real this time. Her parents were going to kill her.
He moved for a moment and then was still. Emma stared down at him in slight dismay. Then she couldn't pay attention to the man she'd accidentally killed, for there was a sword at either side of her throat, pressing hard enough that she didn't dare move for cutting herself. Lady Cora stared at her, the swords not moving against the brick beside her head.
Finally she spoke. "I do not know which I admire more, Emma Bennet. Your skill as a warrior, or your resolve as a woman."
Suddenly voices descended into the catacombs and Lady Cora moved the swords silently, sheathing them with care, and stepped into the shadows. "I must go—"
"Papa, you cannot go!"
"Zelena's honor is at stake!" George Bennet blustered.
Emma interjected quickly. Mary Margaret was right; her father could not be allowed to go after Neal and Zelena. "I shall go, Papa. I know where she is."
"I will go with you," Mary Margaret put in.
"You cannot go," Emma protested. "You have to stay and protect the rest of the family."
"Go, both of you," Lady Cora said quietly. Judging by the hurriedly stifled gasps from her sister and father, Emma decided they hadn't noticed the fearsome lady in the shadows. "I shall take the rest of your family with me to Rosings. There is no safer place in all of Maine."
Emma did not take the time to wonder why Lady Cora de Bourgh was giving this kindness to her family, but she nodded to the lady and took Mary Margaret's hand.
In what felt like no time at all, the two sisters had passed through the land connecting them to the In-Between and they arrived at Hingham Bridge. A soldier called out before they could cross. "Do not cross into the In-Between! All of the remaining explosives in the colony are attached to it, ready to explode the bridge come first light."
Mary Margaret's hands tightened around her waist. Emma looked down at the soldier and then across the bridge. "Nevertheless, we must cross over." She dug her heels into the sides of their horse and they galloped over the bridge.
On the crossing, Mary Margaret's breath caught. "Look. It's David."
Emma glanced over to see David Bingley holding a grenade and stepping over to what was no doubt a pile of zombie body parts. A white piece of cloth dangled from his neck as he dropped the grenade. "His scarf, one of the zombies is going to catch it," she realized just as the very thing happened. She slowed down just enough that Mary Margaret could jump down and run over to the man she loved.
As she stopped the horse on the In-Between side of the bridge, she heard the grenade explode and Mary Margaret tackle David into the ground. Emma knew they would be okay; Mary Margaret got to him on time. Then she saw a sight that made her heart stop.
Killian Darcy stood in a muddy field, his leather jacket nearly brushing the ground. His katana thrust through the arm of an unmentionable, but as he tried to take a step, a hand sprung from the ground and grabbed his ankle. Emma ran over to him and threw her axe into another risen zombie's skull. She sighed as hands took hold of her own feet.
"Miss Bennet," Killian breathed.
Emma allowed herself one moment to revel in the sparkle in his eyes and the fact that she'd just saved his life. "Potter's field."
"Aye." Killian looked down at the hands grabbing their feet, then back up at her. "What?"
"What we're standing in. It's an unmarked zombie graveyard."
"Of course," Killian said. Then, as if one body, the two of them thrust their swords into the ground, aiming for the brains of the zombies below them.
Several minutes later, they were free from the potter's field and stood once more on solid ground. "Miss Bennet, what are you and your sister doing here in the In-Between?" Killian asked.
Emma looked across the barren landscape, searching for something he couldn't see. "Neal Wickham, he's taken Zelena. They've run off together, to St. Lazarus' church in the In-Between. Mary Margaret and I have come to fetch her."
Killian's eyes widened. Even though she had rejected him and his love, he could not let her return to that accursed church. Begging forgiveness for what he was about to say, he spoke. "St. Lazarus?" Emma nodded. "I know it well. I saw it razed to the ground five days ago. There is no way your sister could have survived."
Emma took a small step back, her chest heaving. Her eyes widened and filled with tears, and she didn't speak. It was the look he'd had when he watched his mother die, he knew. She tried to speak but couldn't. "I'm truly sorry, Emma." For the first time since his letter, he dared to use her given name. "Stay here with my men, please," he requested.
And he left her alone as dusk fell. His mind raced on how to retrieve the foolish child. His eyes fell on the body of a fallen soldier, the poor man's skull still intact, and his mind sparked a plan.
That night, Emma wandered throughout the camp, the faces of Zelena and Neal flitting through her sight. How could she have abandoned Zelena in such a way, that she would leave with the horrid man? Mary Margaret had reacted similarly to her response when Killian told her of Zelena's death and hadn't spoken in several hours.
Suddenly she saw David Bingley several feet away. He glanced down at his watch, then peered into the In-Between. She stepped over to him and he smiled faintly at her approach. "London is over there," she motioned, "and Hingham Bridge is over there. What are you looking for, Mr. Bingley?"
She realized suddenly that Mr. Darcy had disappeared soon after telling her of St. Lazarus' burning. If she remembered correctly—"St. Lazarus'. He lied."
"To protect you," Bingley rushed to cover himself and his friend. "He would risk anything for you, Miss Bennet."
As she jumped astride her horse, her only thought was Killian.
Emma rode closer to the church, her heart clenching in panic for her sister and for the man she loved. She heard the roar of zombies before she saw the black horse approaching, the red of her sister's hair shining in the near morning. "Zelena!" she screamed, but the child was too focused on riding away from the monsters to notice her.
The rise of the church appeared in the distance, but she could no longer pay attention to the church itself. As the crowd of zombies grew thicker, Emma sliced off the heads of several of the monsters, looking for Killian. Finally she found him fighting Neal.
Neal, who had a sword emerging from his chest. Neal Wickham, who was clearly a zombie. Neal, who had his wretched fingers clasped around Killian's neck.
She heard him scream "I'm the one they've been looking for! I'm their savior!" but the rest of his words were silenced by roaring waves in her ear, waves of assurance that he would not kill his quarry today. Killian's eyes widened as she rode up to the grappling pair, and she trampled Neal Wickham under her horse's hooves.
Emma reached her hand down for Killian, and he took it, swinging onto the valiant horse's back with ease. They rode through the swarm of zombies, Killian slashing through the pack whenever they became too thick to quickly pass through. As he leaned down to attack the zombies, his grasp on her hip grew stronger, but Emma welcomed the slight pain, the realization that she had arrived in time, that he was alive.
"Hurry, Emma," were the first words he spoke when he straightened behind her. "Bingley is to blow up the bridge at first light." The light of the morning shone over the hills, and Emma spurred the horse on faster. There was no reason to fear; either they would make it in time, or they would have to find a way across the Great Canal. Either way, they would be together.
Emma's only sight across Hingham Bridge before it exploded around her was Mary Margaret's horrified scream.
Emma awoke in a pile of rubble, every muscle aching. Her head hurt so badly she longed to just lie back down and sleep for a year, but she had to do something. She had to find—Killian. She lifted her head and looked around, searching for Killian among the scraps of stone and bridge.
There, a few feet in front of her, rested a man on his side, blood splattered around him, his leather coat covering him. She lifted herself onto her elbows and dragged himself to Killian's side. Feeling herself suddenly overwhelmed with emotions—agony, fear, love—she turned Killian over onto his back and tried to brush the dirt off of his face. With growing panic and a few sobs, she tried to find Killian's breath, and finally she felt the warm exhale against her ear.
Tears fell down her cheeks as relief overcame her. She clasped his face in either hand, then leaned down, almost touching foreheads, and whispered. "From the first moment I saw you, my heart was irrevocably gone." She brushed her lips against his, and she held him tightly, waiting to be found.
