Ten

Tears flew from Casey's face, fear crushed her heart as reality set in like a ton of bricks. Magic; she had magic, but that seemed like child's play next to the theories Ingrid planted in her mind about Regina's motives. This couldn't be happening, not to Casey. She wasn't special, she'd never been out of the ordinary, she was just…just Casey. A ward of the state, cared for by the mayor of Storybrooke, an orphan from the Enchanted Forest.

Only seconds had turned her whole life around.

She had a mother, a very powerful mother who had magic, magic, it seemed, that had been passed down to Casey, latent for all these years. What triggered it? Was it stress? That couldn't be it; she'd had plenty of stress in life. No, it was meeting Ingrid, discovering the truth, feeling so overwhelmed with the heaviness of it all that she felt she would just explode.

And she had.

Ingrid wasn't chasing after her, but still, Casey ran. Down the path, across the creek, through the trees, unable to catch her breath or make sense of anything.

At the edge of the wood, near the town line, Casey stopped, sucked back a deep breath as her whole body trembled. She sank to the ground, leaned up against a tree, gasping for air. Her fingertips throbbed, felt as though they had been exposed to the cold for too long – a brutal reminder of what she'd just done. She had powers, a magic that lived inside of her and always had. Regina must have known that day she found Casey in the woods that it wasn't trace magic that made it snow, but magic coming from the baby itself.

The question was, why hadn't Regina told her?

All this time, all these years, not only had Regina lied about knowing who her mother was, but she'd lied about the magic too. What did she have to gain by lying?

Unless Ingrid was right; had Regina been posing as her guardian to keep her close all this time in Storybrooke, just to make sure she wouldn't develop any magic? Had she really been afraid that Casey's powers could overtake her?

Casey held her head in her hands and let the tears fall. Nothing made sense: how different would her life had been if Gerda hadn't trapped her own sister in that urn? Why had Gerda decided to hide the truth from an entire kingdom? And, the weirdest part, how could Casey be only 15, but Ingrid was trapped in that urn before Elsa and Anna were even born?

The truth was none of that really meant anything to Casey, not with the more important question pressing on her mind, her heart: why had Regina lied to her all this time? It was enough to shake her, rock her entire existence. She was so lost in her pain, so confused and so shaken that she didn't even realize she was no longer alone until she felt a light touch on her arm.

Casey jumped up, thinking for a split second that Ingrid had come after her, but instead she was met by a surprised Snow White.

"Hey, it's okay, it's just me!" Snow said, clasping Casey's arm to steady her. "What happened, are you okay?"

Casey didn't answer. How would she ever be okay again?

Before Snow could question her any further, another voice from down the ridge called out, "Over here, I found them!"

David.

Snow took one look at Casey, knew something wasn't right, and took her hand. "Whatever happened, it's going to be okay. Come on."

And she led Casey toward the sound of David's voice.

Casey pieced together that Snow and David must have come looking for the group of them, probably discovering the note Emma had left behind that described their plans to confront the Snow Queen in the woods. Clearly, Snow and David had deemed this a bad enough idea to follow them.

As Casey followed Snow down the ridge, she spotted David speaking with Emma, who looked pretty shaken. Casey's heart leapt as Elsa, and then Regina, came into view. They were okay; whatever the Snow Queen had hit them with, at least they were okay.

Casey knew she should care, but she didn't.

"Like I said, Casey went flying and the next thing I knew, a blast of something cold hit us. I guess we were out cold until you showed up," Emma said as Snow approached. Casey held back, but it didn't matter. Emma spotted her anyway.

"You're okay!" she cried with wide eyes.

That gained everybody's attention, including Regina, who breathed out loudly and raced toward her.

"Are you okay?" she asked as she reached out a hand to Casey's face, but Casey backed away, a storm brewing in her stomach. Regina stared, no doubt surprised by this sudden change of heart.

"Casey, it's me," Regina said, concern etched on her face. "What did she do to you?"

But Casey couldn't find her tongue, not even to lash out, to blame, to demand the truth. No, something was stopping her, though she couldn't say what it was. Maybe there was a part of her that wasn't ready to hear Regina admit what Ingrid claimed to be true. Maybe there was a small part of Casey that still wanted to cling to the belief that Regina was good.

She backed away from the group, aware they were all staring at her wide-eyed and confused. Let them think what they wanted; Casey couldn't take it, couldn't take a single second more of it.

For the second time that day, she turned on her heels and ran.

"Casey!" Regina called after her, but Casey ignored her, hoping she wouldn't decide to use her magic to pull her back. Casey had no idea how her own magic worked, but no matter how angry she was with Regina, she didn't want to hurt her. She'd already accidentally knocked her own mother back with an icy blast; what exactly was she capable of?

No magic came at her, though, so Casey kept on running, hardly knowing where she was going, except out of her mind.

And that was hardly a comfort.