Questions to Answer:
Is Baelfire/Neal Henry's dad? He certainly is. Nothing changed that, and he'll be coming to Storybrooke sooner than anyone expects.
Why didn't Cora kill Regina already? Cora wants her daughter to be like her. She's not immortal, and she wants to leave a mark on the world, and that includes a powerful daughter who can step into her shoes. Unfortunately, Regina's proving less and less likely to do that, which does put her in danger.
When will Leroy be back? Good question. I'm not sure, but I'll try to make it soon.
Chapter Twenty-One—"Players and Pawns"
The instructions Cora gave him were explicit, but Killian didn't like them one bit. Still, the Evil Queen must have seen the frown on his face, because she cocked her head at him and asked: "Is there a problem, Captain?"
"Oh, of course not," Killian growled. "Arson's one of my favorite hobbies, love."
"You're a pirate," Cora sneered. "Stop complaining and do as you're told."
The threat in her voice was impossible to miss, and Killian had learned not to cross Cora the hard way. Several times, as a matter of fact. No matter how many times he tried to hedge his bets, Killian knew that he was stuck. He spoke stiffly: "And I think that we both know I am always at your service, Your Majesty."
"I was beginning to wonder if you'd forgotten," she replied, her tone deceptively mild. But Killian could hear the threat there, too, and he had no desire to repeat the lessons in loyalty that Cora had taught him. Once, he'd thought that retaining his memories while no one else did would give him an advantage. Now he was beginning to understand that was a curse in itself.
"I would never do such a thing," he reassured the Evil Queen, and that was no lie. His brother had not raised him to be a fool, and Killian could always tell which way the wind blew. A downright tempest, favoring her.
"Excellent. Then you will obey my commands, of course?"
In private, Cora rarely bothered with the fiction that she was the mayor requesting a favor from a friend. No, in private she was the queen and he her servant; no threadbare or even imaginary freedoms existed for Killian Jones—or Cyril O'Malley—in this supposedly free world. He had never expected it to be like this, but it wasn't as though Killian hadn't known he was allying with the villain of the piece. But life had taught him that villains won, which was why he'd chosen to abandon honor and become a pirate in the first place. Honor had brought him nothing but pain, and Killian wanted victory and revenge. Perhaps then he might chase some sort of happy ending, but these days only the villains got those, too, so he was on the right track.
"Has the library offended you in some way?" he had to ask. "You do realize that you might burn down that entire side of the street before the fire department gets there."
Cora shrugged. "It can be rebuilt. Just be certain to block the exits and light the fire when I have specified."
"Of course," Killian promised, ignoring the way his stomach rolled in disgust. He didn't ask her who she planned to burn to death inside the library. He didn't want to know. "Four o'clock tomorrow afternoon. It will be done."
"I am always glad to have you on my side, Captain," Cora said with another of her dangerous smiles, and Killian got out of her presence as soon as good manners would let him. Cora had seemed so much less terrifying in the beginning. What had he gotten himself into?
6 Months Before the Curse
It had started off so simply. Who better than a pirate to find a lost treasure? When the then-powerful Evil Queen had sent Captain Hook after the lost treasure of Oak Island, a mythical place that some called Treasure Island, he had thought that the reward was more than worth the work. He'd find the treasure for her, get the mythical sword she promised him, and then finally be able to take his revenge against the Dark One. The job had been anything but simple—hundreds of pirates had died trying to reach Oak Island, but he was Captain Hook. His crew had survived nearly three centuries in Neverland, and his ship was the fastest pirate ship on the seven seas. Anything they couldn't outrun, they could outfight, and he would pit his crew against any two pirate ships you cared to name. They had only been back in the Enchanted Forest a few years, but the Jolly Roger was already a legend. Queen Cora had been right to call upon them to do the impossible.
The Jolly Roger wasn't the first ship Cora had hired, rumors said, but the others fell prey to various dangers along the way. But Hook's crew wasn't just any pirate crew, and they knew how to get a job done, despite attacks from two different sea monsters, a trio of sirens, storms that would have ripped a less magical ship apart, and a myriad of other dangers. They made it through, battered and damaged, only to face a prolonged battle with Long John Silver himself. Impossible, other pirate captains had called this quest, and that was the exact word that Silver used to describe his own defeat. Hook had enjoyed proving him wrong.
Unfortunately for Hook, he hadn't expected the impossible to take a bit under two years, and by the time the Jolly Roger made port again in Cora's kingdom, the entire political landscape had changed. Now her hated stepdaughter was in power, and Killian was smart enough to guess that Queen Snow and King James were not in the market for the same sort of magical trinkets that an evil sorceress was. He and his mates spent several long days debating just what they should do with the treasure in the Jolly Roger's hold, and many of the crew were in favor of selling it themselves without ever speaking to the now-exiled queen. But none of them were terribly serious in that respect; they all had too much experience with Pan. Sorcerers of any type were dangerous and vindictive, and that meant that breaking their end of the deal was unwise. Cora had paid well for their services, after all, and they were owed still more gold in addition to their share of the treasure. So, Hook set out to find Cora in her isolated fortress, certain that a sorceress-queen would not be utterly without resources.
Besides, he needed the Sword of Peleus, and how was he to differentiate the lone magical sword in the lot from the other two dozen included with the treasure? He needed Cora to do that, because the Sword of Peleus didn't just make its bearer victorious in battle (an edge any pirate worth his sails coveted); it would also slay all matter of demons, and Hook had just the demon in mind to test that legend out.
"Captain," a familiar voice purred as he cooled his heels in a posh sitting room. Exiled or no, the Evil Queen seemed to be doing quite well for herself. Hook spun to face her, bowing as one would to a ruling queen and not an exile. After all, it never paid to antagonize a sorceress when you didn't need to. "I was beginning to wonder if you were ever going to return."
There was an edge in her voice that Hook did not appreciate. He straightened. "Given how no one else you sent after that treasure returned at all, I would appreciate a little more in the way of thanks."
Dark eyes flashed, and was it his imagination, or had the temperature in the room dropped a few degrees?
"Have you the treasure, then, or are you here to report your failure?" Cora snapped.
"Oh, I've the treasure, love. Safe and sound, as requested." He met her eyes boldly, and saw a slight smile work its way onto the Evil Queen's face. She was a woman, after all, and one with a reputation for enjoying handsome men at that.
"Excellent. Where is it?"
"On my ship, where your, uh, stepdaughter's customs inspectors will never find it," Hook replied, watching rage flicker across her expression before being suppressed. Oh, that's a sore spot, isn't it?
"You've done well, Captain," the Evil Queen said more congenially, stepping forward to close the distance between them.
Hook studied her contemplatively in the silence. She was a handsome woman, despite being (physically, anyway), old enough to be his mother. Very well put together, and very self-assured for someone who had been defeated by her stepdaughter and a rag-tag army of dwarves, fairies, and peasants. Cora was obviously doing well in her exile, too; Hook was quite certain that the young Queen Snow would not be happy to know that there was a small but professional army gathering on the grounds of her stepmother's castle. Defeated or not, Cora was clearly still a power to be reckoned with, and Hook was willing to bet that she had a plan of some sort. She didn't strike him as the type of woman who ever stopped plotting.
"And our deal?" he asked when she said nothing else.
Cora smiled. "I will help you identify this magical weapon you seek, as we agreed upon," she replied airily. "Provided, of course, it is not the one piece of the treasure that I seek."
"And what's that?" Hook asked warily.
"Oh, it's hardly something that would interest a pirate," she said with an air of exaggerated innocence, and Hook started to worry.
"What is it?" he pressed.
Cora cocked her head at him, and then finally answered: "The chain of Gleipnir, of course. I doubt you've heard of it."
"The only chain in any world that can bind any magical being or creature, forged by the dwarves of old out of six impossible things and utterly unbreakable?" he countered immediately, flashing her a smile. "I'm rather more educated than your average pirate, love."
"Indeed you are." She sounded pleased, and Hook wasn't certain if that should worry him or not. Still, it was best to grab this bull by the horns, because sooner or later Cora would find out for herself.
"It's not there."
"I beg your pardon?" That seemed to bring her up short, and the queen blinked in surprise.
"I would have noticed. It's not there," he said bluntly.
Her eyes narrowed ominously. "And why would you have noticed?" she snarled.
"Because I've been looking for something like that for centuries." Hook shrugged. "I've more interesting enemies than your average pirate as well."
"I can see that." Was that approval in Cora's voice? It was so very hard to tell. Then she pursed her lips contemplatively. "Would this enemy be Rumplestiltskin?"
Had she struck him with magic, Hook could not have been more shocked. Just hearing the name of the demon who had killed Milah was enough to make his temper roar in his ears, and he felt his one fist clench in rage. Three centuries in Neverland had not been enough to erase the pain; nothing ever would. Even revenge would never be enough, but he owed Milah that much, and more.
"How did you know that?" he demanded, taking a step towards her. His hook came up without so much as a thought, but Cora only smiled and pushed it away with one manicured finger before he could really threaten her.
"I was his student once," she admitted. "He told me a great many things."
"Is that so?" The words grated out of him like cold iron.
Cora laughed. "Oh, relax, Captain. Rumplestiltskin and I are hardly friends these days. In fact, I might be able to help you with your quest for vengeance."
"How?"
"I think more cookies might be bad for you," the ten year old told the three year old seriously as Lacey rolled a ladder over to one of the nearby shelves. Renee, of course, gave Henry a dubious look, which made the library's sole patron glance up at Lacey.
"Henry's right, angel," she replied, climbing the ladder with her arms full of books. Lacey didn't bother looking down, and balancing on precariously high heels never bothered her one bit, either. She'd been working in the library for practically forever, and Lacey had never once fallen. This was just a part of her everyday life, just like keeping one eye on her toddler and the other eye on her books was. The mayor could complain all day long about Lacey bringing her daughter to work, but there was nothing in her contract that expressly forbade Lacey from doing so, and besides, daycare was expensive.
"One more?" Renee pleaded, and Lacey managed not to laugh.
"They're all gone," Henry pointed out practically, and Renee sniffled in the pouty way only a three year old could.
"And we're not going upstairs to get more, either," she told her daughter, starting to put books back on the shelves. The high schoolers who had departed a half an hour earlier had left a bit of a mess in their wake, which meant there were plenty of heavy reference books to put away. "That'll spoil your dinner," she told her daughter over a volume of the Encyclopædia Britannica.
"Poo," was Renee's response, and now Lacey really had to hold back a giggle. She was supposed to be the firm parent here, and she couldn't laugh when her three year old used words she wasn't supposed to. Henry, however, did not manage the same kind of decorum, and he snickered.
"Renee," Lacey chided her daughter. "No using those words."
"Poo!" the three year old replied cheerfully, and now Henry was shaking with laughter. Lacey twisted to point a finger at him.
"You're not helping!" she told the ten year old sternly. "Aren't you supposed to be working on a school project?"
At least Henry had the good grace to look a little ashamed. "Renee's helping me?" the boy tried for an excuse.
"Oh, I bet she is," Lacey replied dryly, rolling her eyes. Not that she wasn't grateful that Henry was happy to sit on the floor and play with Renee when he was between research topics, but she didn't want the spirited boy encouraging Renee too much. Or at least not to say words like "poo." Overall, Henry was a really good kid, and Lacey figured that Renee could have a lot worse role models.
Like Henry's horrible grandmother, she thought to herself, putting the last volume of the encyclopedia on the shelf with a grimace. The mayor hadn't been by the library since she'd tried to threaten Lacey for giving Henry a book, but she still gave Lacey the creeps. And even Gold was afraid of her—Gold, who wasn't afraid of anyone or anything. Cora Mills was not the sort of woman that Lacey wanted her little girl to grow into, and she was always glad to see that Henry seemed to take more after his adopted father than his adopted grandmother.
"Do you mind if I take this book home, Miss French?" Henry asked, turning an innocent look on her that Lacey knew he hadn't learned from anyone in his adopted family. "I think that my dad would like it."
Stepping off the ladder, Lacey peered around the circulation desk to look at the book in Henry's hands. It was a book on swordsmanship and the history of swords—obviously the kind of book that would interest a ten year old, though not really the type that David Nolan would be in to. "Sure, Henry," she replied with a smile, deciding not to call him on the white lie. "As long as you check it out properly and bring it back in two weeks."
"Can I fill out the checkout sheet?" The boy hopped to his feet with a grin.
"Go ahead. Just don't let Renee write on it, please."
"Awesome!"
Throwing one more glance at her daughter—who was engrossed in her blocks again and had already forgotten that she wanted another cookie—Lacey headed over to fetch the next stack of books that needed filing. Meanwhile, Henry bent over the circulation desk and started filling out the details from the front flap of the book. Grabbing the next stack of reference books, most of which were additional heavy volumes of the Encyclopædia Britannica, Lacey didn't bother to give Henry more than a glance. He always liked checking his own books out like this, and she'd been letting him do it for several months. Henry's handwriting might have been that of a ten year old, but—
"What's that smell?" Henry asked suddenly, and Lacey paused on the first step of the ladder.
"What smell?" she asked reflexively, before she had even drawn a deep breath.
"It smells like smoke!"
He'd be damned if he was going to do this in any way that would point fingers in his direction. Killian might be stuck following Cora's orders—and even with Graham out of commission, he knew there was no escaping her, lest she decide to use her curse against him to make his life even more miserable—but he certainly wasn't going to go play the part of her fall guy. Cora was welcome to pin this one someone else. Killian was going to make sure he had a solid alibi.
It had been depressingly easy to lock the doors of the library from the outside. Cora's skeleton keys were useful for that, and while he'd contemplated bribing one of the departing high school students to do it—as a prank, of course—Killian had decided to do the job himself in the end. Instead, he'd tasked one of the kids with starting a small scuffle in the street, which had kept anyone from noticing the way a certain marina owner quietly locked the library doors and flipped the sign to closed. Cora wanted whoever was inside to stay inside, and he didn't want anyone else to wander into the conflagration he was about to cause. So, Killian used the kids, two of which worked for him at the marina after school, to stage a bit of an argument in the street in front of Storybrooke Coffee. That pulled all eyes away from the library, and when Doctor Hopper came down to break it up, everyone started paying attention to him.
He waited until the crowd dissipated to duck around the library and light the old-fashioned fuse he'd laid the night before. Doing so had made Killian lose more sleep than he might have liked, but he'd used the skeleton keys to get into the library and to place a few oil-soaked rags in strategic locations, mostly behind bookshelves. He'd been particularly careful to put one line of fuses near the doors and windows; Cora was particular about not wanting anyone to escape this fire, so Hook planned for the fire to start in multiple places. After all, there was plenty of fuel for the fire, and once it got started…
Still, he wasn't an idiot, and using an old fashioned fuse that he'd cut himself meant two things. Firstly, Hook knew the material used in the fuse would burn up with the library. Secondly—and far more important—he knew that he had exactly five minutes from lighting it to when the sparks reached the first bunch of rags. That gave him enough time to get down the street to Granny's, and just enough time to have an order in before people started noticing. Ruby obligingly came over right away, and Hook shot her a sultry smile as he ordered the daily special, ignoring any pangs of his conscience.
He didn't care who was inside. Really, he didn't.
He couldn't afford to.
Regina hadn't meant to run into the man whose child she had saved several weeks earlier, but once little Jamie Forrester waved at her, she was done for. The cute little boy pointed her out to his father, who promptly hefted Jamie in his arms and crossed the street—looking out for Deputy Law's truck as he did so, undoubtedly—with a smile on his face.
"Jamie wanted to say hi," he said by way of greeting, and the grin the child turned on Regina could make any mother melt.
"Well, hello then," she replied with a smile of her own to Jamie. Regina didn't mean to meet Errol Forrester's eyes after doing so, but something inside her fluttered when she did so. The distinct feeling of something clicking into place echoed through her soul. Something she hadn't felt in a long time.
No. She had to ignore this feeling, whatever it was. Regina knew that—it was why she'd refused to ask Rumplestiltskin who this handsome firefighter really was. She had work to do, a niece to protect, and a curse to break. Anything else could wait until later. The last thing she wanted to do right now was get involved with someone who didn't know who they were! No matter how drawn to him she was, she had to stay away. It was the only sensible thing to do, and besides, she couldn't afford the distraction.
"Jamie and I were about to go get some ice cream," Errol told her, oblivious to Regina's internal conflict. "Would you like to join us?"
"I shouldn't…" But she wanted to. Oh, Regina wanted to.
"C'mon. It's just ice cream," Errol goaded her with a grin. "I'm hardly going to endanger your virtue with my four year old along."
The blunt words startled a laugh out of Regina; she'd always liked straightforward men, and Errol seemed honest to a fault. She knew she shouldn't, but her mouth was open to accept the invitation when someone cried out from further down the street. The Forresters had caught Regina in front of Standard Clocks while she was on her way to pick up Henry from the library, but now as she looked across the street, smoke billowed out of that very same library, black and already thick enough already to obscure the clock tower.
"What the…?" Errol started to whisper, but words utterly escaped Regina. All she could do was stare in growing horror, with her mother's words echoing through her mind.
"Ah, but that doesn't protect Henry, now, does it?" Cora had said oh so coldly, and even as Regina stared blankly at now-burning library, she knew that this was her punishment. This was her mother's way of reminding Regina that those she loved would never be safe, not if she dared move against Cora in any way. Errol was saying something to her, but Regina stood numbly and stupidly, coldness seeping into her bones and making her as immobile as a statue. But then realization hit hard, and Regina had never been the type of woman who sat still and waited for someone else to save her. And I won't let Mother hurt Henry without a fight, either! She started forward without even thinking, until a hard hand on her arm jerked her up short.
"Regina!" Errol finally reached out to shake her with one hand, and she turned to look at him with wide eyes.
"Let go of me!"
"What the hell do you think you're doing?" he demanded, his grip on her arm hard enough to hurt. Regina didn't notice.
"Henry's in there!" she retorted, panic making her voice go high.
Horror crossed Errol's face, and he nodded grimly. "Then take Jamie. Please."
"What—why?" She was about to go into a fire. Why would he want her to take his child?
"Because this is my job," the man she barely knew answered bluntly. "Keep my son safe for me while I go rescue yours."
"I—"
Errol shoved Jamie into her arms before Regina could say more, and sprinted towards the library. There wasn't a fire truck in sight, and Regina could barely hear sirens coming towards them in the distance, but she suddenly understood that Errol Forrester wasn't the type to care about that. He saw people in danger, and he rushed in to rescue them. Wooden legs carried Regina forward as a crowd started to gather around her; Jamie Forrester was strangely quiet in her arms, but her numbness was wearing off. He was trusting her, Regina realized, this man who had met her all of twice. He was trusting her to keep Jamie safe while he rushed into a burning building. And she didn't even know who he really was.
"The doors are locked!" someone shouted from closer to the library. Was that Ruby, the young werewolf who Snow and Charming had befriended so long ago?
"Get me an axe, wet blankets, anything you've got!" Errol ordered several other people, snagging a baseball bat from a passing student. He stepped up to one of the windows while the student yelped, smashing the baseball bat into the glass.
The window gave with a loud crash, and flames leapt out.
"The back door is locked, too!"
Lacey pushed her way through two bookshelves, coughing as the smoke grew thicker and thicker. She'd shoved Henry and Renee down behind the circulation desk and told them to stay low, knowing that keeping them near the front door was the safest place for them. But the fire had spread to the front of the library with terrifying speed, and now nowhere at all was safe. She'd braved the flames—and gotten her left hand burned in the process—to try the back door, but no matter how hard she'd pushed, it had refused to budge. Someone had locked it from the outside, and Lacey had no chance of breaking it down before smoke overcame her. So, she rushed her way back to the front of the library, blinking in the thick and stinging smoke, hoping against hope that someone would have gotten the front doors open by the time she got there.
But the doors were still shut, and Henry was trying bravely to shield a crying Renee from the worst of the smoke. The flames hadn't reached behind the desk yet, but they were getting closer, and Lacey knew there wasn't time to waste. Not when Henry was starting to look at her with panicked eyes, too. She had two children to protect, and almost no way to keep them safe. There were too many flames between her and the windows; even if Lacey had some way to break them, she couldn't think of a way to get the children through. But there was one place—
"What do we do?" Henry coughed.
"This way!" Lacey made the decision even as the words came out, leaning down to wrap one arm around Renee and take hold of Henry with the other hand. The ten year old followed her willingly to the only place that seemed even remotely safe: the broken elevator that was blocked off by a small bookshelf that was thankfully only smoldering, not burning yet.
Shoving the bookshelf out of the way, Lacey shoved Henry into the elevator before ducking in herself. The small compartment was thankfully smoke free, although it was growing awfully hot. Lacey knew that the last place you were supposed to go during a fire was an elevator, but where else could she go? There was nowhere else in the library that was even remotely safe, and Lacey was out of options. So, she held her crying daughter against her chest with one arm and pulled Henry close with the other, her mind and heart racing.
"Where does this go?" Henry, always curious, asked over the roar of the fire outside.
"I don't know," Lacey admitted. "It's been broken for as long as I remember."
"Anywhere's better than here," the boy pointed out reasonably, pushing buttons at random.
Nothing happened, and Lacey swallowed. "I think it only works from the outside," she said quietly.
Henry grimaced; neither of them wanted to go back out there. The roar of the fire was only getting louder, and the walls of the elevator were getting hotter. Together, they backed away from the door and the rising heat, and several seconds ticked by in tense silence. Renee wheezed and cried in fear against Lacey's shoulder, and although her right arm was starting to get numb from holding Renee like this, she wasn't about to let go of either of them.
"It'll be okay, sweetie," she tried to soothe her little girl. Tried to soothe all of them. "The fire fighters will come. We just have to wait."
"Won't the fire burn through the cables?" Henry asked around a cough.
"I hope not," Lacey said more quietly than she wanted to. She hadn't thought of that, but Henry was right. Soon enough, the fire was bound to burn through the elevator's cables and drop them to the bottom…wherever that was.
The idea started to form in her mind then, with terrifying clarity, and Lacey sucked in a deep breath before saying more.
A crowd was starting to gather already, which gave Killian the chance to join the growing mob outside the library. The foolish chief of the firefighters was trying to get in through a burning window, and several other well-meaning citizens rushed over to try to pry the doors open while he climbed through. The poor bastard was probably going to roast himself for his efforts, but he seemed not to notice that. Killian had done a very good job of making sure that no one could get in without sufficient protective equipment, which Forrester was definitely not wearing. His jeans and t-shirt would do him no good, and Killian felt a pang of compassion for him. Unlucky bloke is only doing his job. Pity he had to be so close by when the fire started.
"Going to lend a hand, Mr. O'Malley?" a smooth voice purred from beside him, and Killian turned to look at Cora.
"I'd only be in the way," he answered for any audience they might have. "My expertise is on the water, love, not in fires."
She smiled thinly, her eyes still on the raging fire. "Of course it is."
Sirens grew louder, and the crowd parted to let the first fire truck through. Meleville Anzo leapt down off the truck immediately and started yelling orders, but Killian could tell from the tone of his voice that the deputy fire chief knew that it was too late to save the library. He was taking actions to preserve the surrounding buildings, and that meant Cora should be well-satisfied.
Sneaking a look at her face, Killian decided that the queen seemed rather happy. Oh, her expression was hard to read, but there was a glimmer of pleasure in her eyes that made his stomach roll. You don't want to know, mate, the pirate told himself for the hundredth time. Don't ask. Just do your job and leave the rest on her non-existent conscience. Still, he didn't want to look at the fire anymore. He'd completed his part, and now Killian just wanted to figure out a way to leave without drawing attention to himself, particularly from the blonde sheriff who had run up to stand next to the mayor's daughter, her pretty features tight and marred by horror.
"It's a pity that our little librarian and her brat were probably caught in the fire," Cora mused, sounding almost sorry, but not enough to fool Killian.
"What?" the word tore out of him in surprise, and his stare grew horrified.
Cora just shrugged. "Well, it is the library. I imagine they were both inside."
"You—you—"
She cut him off with a hand on his arm, and Killian pulled away as if the touch burned him. Lacey French had never done anything to him, and her little daughter was little. She was what, three years old? Even on his worst days as a pirate, Killian didn't make war on children, and he certainly wasn't a child killer! How could Cora have made him set this up, knowing there might be a child inside? And how could she look so satisfied knowing that an innocent little girl might be dying right now?
"I'm sure Mr. Gold will be devastated to know that his little doxy has burned to death," Cora mused emotionlessly, and those words jerked Killian up short.
"Lacey and Gold?" he echoed, turning back to stare at the fire.
"Not anymore," Cora chuckled softly, and then she leaned in close to speak so quietly that only he could hear: "I did say that I would help you get your revenge, Captain. I never break my word."
"The child…"
"An unfortunate accident. Hopefully, she is elsewhere. The child means nothing to me," the Evil Queen replied with a shrug. "As for the rest…"
She trailed off meaningfully, not needing to say more. And no, Killian would not mourn for Rumplestiltskin's lover if she died in the fire. Not after the demon had taken Milah from him so callously—he deserved to know that grief, that world-ending pain. Even if it was only his cursed self, the bastard deserved every bit of agony that Cora could dole out on him, and Killian would not mourn for a woman who had foolishly chosen Gold.
It's not her fault, the voice of his conscience whispered. She's cursed, just like everyone else. But the voice fell immediately silent as Killian happened to turn and see Gold stepping out of his shop across the street, horror etched into his normally impassive features.
"Take Renee," Lacey told Henry, turning to hand her precious daughter to the ten year old. Smoke was starting to seep into the elevator, now, and soon their small compartment of safety would turn into an oven. There wasn't any time, and she had to do something.
"Why?" the boy asked in confusion, although he took the crying child without hesitation.
"The elevator works from the outside," she explained, trying not to let her voice shake. "I'll go out and send you both down."
"What? No! You can't! If you do that, you'll die!" Henry objected, and Lacey squared her shoulders.
Do the brave thing, and bravery will follow, she told herself firmly. "It's your only chance," she said firmly. "And Renee's. So don't argue with me, Henry. Please."
"I'll take care of her," Henry promised, his eyes wide with horror, and Lacey opened the doors and stepped out of the elevator.
A/N: What do you think will happen to Lacey as she steps out with the fire raging? And do you feel bad for Hook, or do you think he's too irredeemable a villain to have regrets?
Next up is Chapter Twenty-Two: "True Love Wins Out," where the fire continues to rage, Emma and Cora have another spat, and Gold does something dangerous. Back in the past, Belle wonders why Rumplestiltskin actually missed with that arrow, and Gabrielle is born.
Also, feel free to check out my Freeze on the Stones Cheat Sheet, which includes a list of who is who out of cursed characters whose name you might not recognize. Also, if you're interested in a in-order timeline of the Enchanted Forest flashbacks, let me know in your review.