Chapter 28

Killian had often travelled alone, but the knowledge that the wraith could return at any moment meant that he felt uneasier than usual. He still believed that leaving the others had been the right choice, but soon after walking away, there was a nagging doubt haunting him, that maybe it would have been better to stay.

He supposed he could go back to them, but every time he caught a glimpse of the rising sun through the forest canopy, he remembered how little time he had left to retrieve the compass and he steeled himself to keep going.

There were also times he paused because he heard a suspicious rustling behind him, although he never took the opportunity to investigate the noise. If it was Cora following him, he'd rather pretend he hadn't noticed, and if it was anything else, then it was even more unlikely he'd want to interact with them. The Enchanted Forest had too many dangers for him to turn around and rifle through the bushes in search of his pursuer.

When he neared the border of the forest, he heard a stumble and he turned to see Emma, clearly having just tripped on a tree branch, her arms outstretched to balance herself.

"For god's sake, are you deaf?" she snapped, yawning halfway through the question. "I've been following you for hours!"

Killian blinked at her. He hadn't expected Emma to follow him, he hadn't wanted her to. "What are you doing?"

"Following you?" she repeated, straightening up and brushing dirt off her clothes, making him wonder just how many times she'd tripped as they walked through the dark woods. "And by the way, we had sex on the deck of your ship one time."

He swallowed at the memory, his mouth going dry, and then narrowed his eyes at her, even more confused. "I remember. Does that have something to do with why you're here?"

"No, but unless you told Cora about that night, that should prove that I'm me." She hissed. "Now, where the hell are you going? I guess I didn't have to wait too long for you to up and leave."

It hadn't even crossed his mind that Emma could have been Cora, but that was hardly the most important thing he needed to think about. Emma was furious, her arms folded and her eyebrows furrowed, and all Killian wanted to do was make her understand. "I was going to return to you." He insisted, but Emma simply scoffed. "I thought it would be quicker if I reached the compass alone, and it's not like you didn't need the rest. If I intended to leave, I would not have waited for you at the camp. Trust me, Emma, abandoning you would be much easier if you thought I was dead."

"Rest? As if I could get rest with you and the wraith making all that noise!" She spat. "For a centuries old pirate, you're a clumsy fighter."

"I do only have one working arm." He replied quickly, shrugging his injured shoulder pointedly and then wincing.

"And yet you think you can climb a beanstalk? You could barely climb over a wall with that sling on, never mind up that ridiculous plant!" She said, her voice louder than before. "Why couldn't you just have waited? Why did you walk away?"

Her voice cracked and she swallowed, visibly forcing away whatever emotions were about to be written clearly across her face. If he hadn't been so certain she'd step away if he reached out for her, he would have attempted to comfort her somehow, but instead, all that happened was that he realised just how stupid his decision to leave had truly been.

"I wanted to get you home." He swore earnestly. "And I wanted to keep you safe."

Emma laughed bitterly, storming past him and starting to stomp towards the beanstalk. He hurried after her. "I don't need you to keep me safe. And that lie about getting me home, well, back at the Safe Haven, you said that you needed to get home. Nothing to do with me."

"I was in a hurry. I wasn't thinking." He said quickly. He didn't remember exactly what he said the day before, but he had no reason to doubt Emma. "I know you think everything has changed, but can you at least try and trust that I'm still doing everything for you?"

"Still? The entire time we've known one another, all you've done is hide things. When did you ever, really, do anything for me?"

Killian shook his head. Her stubbornness might have amused him if he had been able to think of a response, but instead, all he could do was wonder if he even had an answer to the question. His feelings for Emma had motivated him for such a long time, but perhaps he was as selfish as he'd always been.

"Well, that was a really insightful answer." She mumbled angrily, huffing loudly when he hurried to catch up with her. "Just… we'll climb this beanstalk, get back to Storybrooke and figure things out when we're back there. I don't have the time to think about this, about you, right now. Can't you just make things a bit easier?"

"That's what I was trying to do."

"It's not easier with you gone." She stated. Killian turned to gape at her, but it was clear that she had spoken without thinking, as she quickly turned away, a closed expression hiding even her anger from him. "Think about that the next time you want to walk away."

He sighed, but decided not to attempt to explain what thoughts had led to his, admittedly impulsive, departure. Instead, they walked silently towards the beanstalk, although the vine seemed unending no matter how much distance they covered.

The idea of climbing it was a daunting one, and Killian felt an unpleasant twinge in his collarbone as he considered the climb ahead of him.

He supposed he'd have to take his sling off, as climbing one-handed wasn't likely to get him very far up the beanstalk. However, Killian had experienced plenty of anguish in his life, and climbing a beanstalk with an aching shoulder was unlikely to compare to the drawn-out and recurring phantom pains that had haunted him after the loss of his hand.

Those thoughts weren't ones he wanted to dwell on and so, despite Emma's apparent determination to reach the base of the plant in silence, he finally spoke up.

"What's your father going to think when he wakes to find us both gone?" He asked. "That we've run off together or that I've stolen you away for some nefarious plan?"

"My fa… right, David." She stammered, grimacing at his words. "Still not used to that. I woke him before I left and told him that I was following you. As for a nefarious plan, I don't know what he thinks except that he knows you left. I doubt he thinks you did that for any morally upstanding reasons."

"Yet he isn't running after us and clamouring about your virtue?"

"I don't think David wants to know any more about my 'virtue'. Between me and Mary-Margaret, he probably knows more than enough." She laughed for only a second, drawing her lips together into a tight line and then looking away from him. "No, he… I told him to stay with the others and meet us at the bottom of the beanstalk later. After we've found the compass."

"We?"

"You're not going up that thing alone."


Standing at the base of the beanstalk, it still looked unending. Emma sat at the base of it, the magical cuff clipped around her wrist, as Killian attempted to undo the tight knot holding his sling in place.

He had considered telling Emma that he only had the one magic cuff, forcing her to remain behind as he climbed, but he felt certain that such an attempt to protect her would ultimately end up hurting her more. Emma was a capable woman, more than capable, and although he wanted to keep her safe, there was a difference between trying to keep her distanced from Cora and actively denying her the opportunity to do something.

Besides, she'd know if he lied to her about it and, even if she went along with the story he might give her, he refused to damage the trust between them any more than he already had.

Emma grew impatient, standing up and striding over to him. She grabbed his arm and tugged him towards her, fingers pulling at the knotted fabric until the sling fell off his arm. "That better?"

He grunted in response, rolling his shoulder in an attempt to loosen the joint, his arm stiff after days of not moving it. The motion ached, sharp shocks of pain shooting from his collarbone and down his arm, and when he raised his arm up, the ache in his shoulder almost made him drop it back down to his side.

"If it's too much for you, I can go alone." Emma suggested, her narrowed eyes fixed on his shoulder.

"No."

Emma rolled her eyes, but didn't say anything more. Instead, she turned to the beanstalk and began to climb.

The first several metres were painful, but once he was high enough that the fall would kill him, it was as if adrenaline was keeping the agony away. It was hard work, and it wasn't helped by the silence between him and Emma.

It felt like hours had passed before anything happened other than their silent ascent, his shoulder giving way as soon as he tried to put his weight on it. He slipped, gripping tightly to the beanstalk with his hand and pulling himself close to the stem, his feet scrambling for purchase against the smooth surface.

"Killian?"

He took a deep breath, resting his forehead against the cool stem of the beanstalk. "Give me a moment, Swan."

He glanced up at her, noticing concern flickering across her face. He tried to smile reassuringly, and then continued determinedly scaling the beanstalk. He could feel her gaze on him as he crossed the space between them and once they were level, he heard her take a deep breath and then she just started talking.

For a while, she just spoke of Henry, of interesting little stories he had told her before the curse broke. Her words were a pleasant distraction, nulling the pain as he continued to climb, although it became clear very quickly that although what she was saying was helping him, the thoughts of Henry and how things had been before the curse were a bit too difficult for Emma.

"So… have you seen your Disney film?"

From the way Emma had faltered before, Killian had believed the conversation over, but when he paused to breathe and glance over at her, her mouth was thin and determined and he was hit by a wave of surprise. Emma was going to talk to him until they reached the top, until he could put his arm back to his side and keep it unmoving.

He smiled at her, his heart pounding at the realisation that no matter how difficult it was for Emma, she was going to keep talking and distracting him until they reached the top.

"My what?" He asked, heaving himself a few inches further up the beanstalk.

"Your Disney film." She repeated. "You know, Peter Pan."

Killian grimaced. "I've seen it. In its box at the library." He informed her, taken aback by her short giggle in response. "I'm rather disinclined to watch anything with that demon's name as its title."

"Oh." She said shortly. "I suppose I was just going to say that you don't exactly look like the Hook that everyone imagines. Less… well, ridiculous. And with better hair. Did they get Peter Pan as wrong as they got you? I don't think most people would describe him as a demon, even if the whole 'Stealing children away' thing isn't a great thing to do."

"He's the worst villain I've ever faced." He told her, moving even further up the plant. "A person as cruel as Pan is dangerous enough, but one that can inspire such loyalty in others, well, that's far worse. The Lost Boys will do what he orders without question. For a long time, I did the same. He knew exactly what to say to get me to do his bidding."

"You worked for Pan? I wasn't expecting that."

"I had only one purpose back then. Before Storybrooke, before you." He explained, fixing his gaze on the stem of the beanstalk instead of meeting Emma's stare. He was tempted to look down, ashamed at the truth he was admitting to her, but the sight of the ground so far below them was one he didn't want to see. Not that he needed to look at Emma to judge her reaction to his words. He'd said similar things before and she always acted the same - a sharp intake of breath and a flutter of her eyelashes, disbelief plain in her eyes - and he could hear that this time was no different. "I would have done anything for anyone if led me to my revenge."

She didn't say anything for a long while, possibly even hours, although it felt like time had lost its meaning during the monotony of the climb.

The clouds actually seemed nearby when she finally spoke again, her voice a low whisper. "I've only seen it once. The film." Killian paused to look at her. She'd stopped climbing too, one arm hooked around a vine to keep her in place, the other hand tapping against the thick stem. "One of my foster homes had it on video. For months after I saw it, I would wish every night that Peter Pan would come and take me away from everything. Neverland seemed far better than the places I was in. Not that I thought I had enough happy thoughts to fly there anyway."

Killian swallowed, uncertain how to respond. He hadn't her expected to confide anything like that to him, not when their relationship was so unclear and difficult. It had been enough of a surprise that she'd opened up to him the day before the curse broke, when she was in his arms and they'd just shared lunch sat on the floor of the pawn shop.

"Do you have enough happy thoughts now?" He asked nervously and she turned her head sharply to frown at him, her eyes rimmed with red.

"Well, I don't really want to go to Neverland any more." She murmured, her knuckles white as she held even tighter to the plant. "But yeah, maybe. I mean, I have Henry now, and I have… had, well…" She met her gaze for only a moment, her expression softening almost imperceptibly and he felt his heart beating furiously when he realised what she had intended to say. "Look, we're nearly there. We should just keep moving, right?"

He smiled softly, unable to even try and mask the tenderness that he knew was clear on his face. "Right."

After that, it took them less than an hour to break through the clouds and find themselves in the towering kingdom of the giants.

They clambered off the beanstalk in unison. Killian felt his legs shake on the solid ground, his arms aching painfully and despite the grinding feeling, he rolled both his shoulders and stretched out his arms. The climb had been unpleasant, but Killian was already thinking that the return trip would be even worse.

Emma hadn't moved. "What happened here?" she asked, and he followed her gaze to a giant skeleton, even the smallest bone at least as big as Killian's leg. "It's… they're all dead."

He had been too focused on his pained limbs to take in the devastation that surrounded them, clear signs of a battle years previously strewn across the cobbled floor. "This must be where the final battle was."

"That makes things easier, right?" she asked. "If all the giants are gone."

"One still remains. The fiercest of all the giants." He pointed out, watching her step further into the centre of the courtyard, his gaze catching on her hand. It was red with blood, although he wasn't certain if Emma had even noticed. "Swan, your hand?"

"My what?" She murmured, turning her hand palm up to look at the deep line scratched along it. "Crap."

"Give it here." He ordered softly. Despite rolling her eyes, she offered him her hand to examine it. It was deeper than he would have liked, but it was barely bleeding, something she clearly obtained earlier in their climb. "Does it hurt?"

"It does now that I know it's there." She told him with a bitter laugh.

He wished that he had his flask of rum with him, or anything he could use to clean the injury, but his flask was back in the cabin of the Jolly Roger, and he hadn't thought to have it on him as the others tried to help him escape the wraith.

Instead, he held her wrist with his hook and used his hand to rummage through his pocket for the scarf he had used as a sling.

"Hook, if you use that for this, I'm going to kill you." she warned, but he didn't listen, starting to carefully wrap the fabric around her hand. "You need that for your arm."

He shook his head. His shoulder ached, that was true, but it was a less pressing issue than Emma's bleeding hand.

"I have to climb back down the beanstalk in a few hours. There's no point retying it, especially when it'll be difficult to undo it with you gone." He explained, a brief smirk crossing his face when he bent to take the edge of the fabric between his teeth and pull the knot tight, Emma's breath audibly catching as his eyes never left her own. "Now, the plan is that we wait until the giant falls asleep. When he does, we'll sneak past him into his cave. That's where the treasures are - where the compass lies."

"And then?" Emma asked breathlessly, her eyelashes fluttering when she met his gaze.

"And then you run like hell."

He pressed a kiss to her palm, just above the make-shift bandage, and she quickly pulled her hand away. "Me? What will you be doing?"

"Waiting." Killian stated, leading Emma across the courtyard to a small alcove in the palace walls, somewhere that they could hide. "You need to get back before Cora gets close, and Cora needs to see me returning from this land. She needs to have no doubt that I did what she wanted."

Emma swallowed, the soft expression that had graced her face since he tended to her hand fading away into a hard, unreadable one. "You're still set on us splitting up then?"

"There's no other way."

They waited for a while in the small alcove, each minute that passed reminding Killian that despite needing to wait for the giant to be unaware, they didn't have unlimited time to wait. They had no way of knowing what the giant was doing, and he had to wonder if the giant was already sleeping. After all, there had been no suggestions of movement since their arrival.

"So what was this battle about then?" Emma asked. She'd spent the time waiting by fidgeting nervously with the bandage around her hand and glancing, open-mouthed, around the massive courtyard, but clearly the silence between them had finally drawn out too long for Emma. "In all the stories I know, there's never even more than two giants anyway."

"I'm hardly an expert on the subject, love. I wasn't in this realm at the time." He told her, shrugging painfully. "However, everyone knew the giants were the only ones who grew magic beans. I know enough of your realm's stories to know that magic beans aren't like the ones in your tales. Here, they open portals. The giants used them to travel between realms and spread destruction and devastation to everything they encountered. I assume that was why man attacked."

"So no magic cow or magic harp then?"

"Not that I'm aware of."

"So, Hook, if these magic beans can open portals, why are you so set on sticking to Cora's plan? We get one of them and we don't have to split up." Emma suggested, and Killian sighed exasperatedly. He truly wished there was another way, but he knew magic beans were almost impossible to find. "Couldn't we do that?"

"It's well-known that the giants destroyed all the beans once they realised they were under attack." He explained. "If I thought we could find one and use that, believe me, we'd be doing exactly that. Unfortunately, they're all gone."

Emma didn't believe him, he could tell that much, but Killian was growing aware that each time he insisted the plan required going their separate ways, her trust in him was breaking just a bit more.

He didn't know how to convince her that he really was just trying to get her home. He thought he sounded desperate when he told her just that.

"If all you want to do is get me back … to Storybrooke," she snapped, and he noticed how she avoided calling it 'home'. "Then why did you walk away without a word? Why didn't you say that before you left?" She didn't give him a chance to say anything in response. "Let's move. If he's already asleep, we don't want to hang around until he wakes up again."


The inside of the giants lair was filled with piles of treasure, glinting golden objects catching Killian's eye no matter which direction he faced. He couldn't quell a smirk, wandering between the various piles and examining the objects.

Emma was more focussed, reminding Killian often that they were only up the beanstalk for one thing, and that they hardly had the time to waste looking at the different items. Even her words weren't enough to stop him from getting waylaid by a mass of golden coins.

They were heavier than they looked, and his grin widened as he tapped his finger against the solid metal and then rolled the coin between his fingers. "So, Swan, how much treasure do you think we could carry down the beanstalk?" She spun around to face him, one eyebrow raised. "In addition to the compass, of course."

To his surprise, she smiled. "You know, I can see the whole pirate-thing now." she said, gesturing towards him. "I guess you're more like a pirate than I thought."

His smile faded slightly, his fist clenching around the gold coin. "Yes, well, I suppose I have stolen more than my fair share of gold in my time."

"You know, I used to do that." She admitted quietly, stepping towards him and trailing a finger across the coins. "Tap things and stuff before I took them. I never managed to get any gold, but I got what I needed."

"Before prison?"

"Yeah, before." She murmured. "And a few times after. Before I got a job. But I'm not going to steal if I don't need to."

He nodded, rolling the coin between his fingers once more and then he held it towards her. "For you?"

She glanced from him to the coin, and then shook her head. "We're here to find the compass. Not to be the next Jack and the Beanstalk."

"I don't think that story goes how you think it does." He told her, reaching out to press the coin into her uninjured hand. "Look. You should keep it. For luck."

She met his gaze, swallowed, and then he watched her close her fingers around the coin, holding it tightly for a moment before putting it in the pocket of her jacket. She muttered something as she did that, but Killian wasn't sure he had heard correctly.

He thought she had said that she might as well keep something to remember him by.

"Swan, you won't need to remember me." From the way her gaze shot back to his, he figured he'd heard correctly. "Why do you think I'll leave you? Neal?"

She swallowed. "I didn't think you'd remember his name. It's been months since I mentioned it."

"Why would I forget something important that you told me?"

Emma took a deep breath, bit her lip as though readying herself to say something, and then just walked away. "Now isn't the time to chat." she called back towards him, her voice low so as not to wake the giant, wherever it was. "Hurry up."

He followed her silently through the rest of the giant's home, neither of them stopping until they reached a skeleton strewn across the floor, sword in its hand. Even then, he said only a few words, telling her that the body was the Jack of legend and the sword was more powerful than it looked.

If she didn't want to talk, he wasn't going to try otherwise.

He didn't expect to feel her hand close around his wrist and tug him back, towards her, and he raised his arms instinctively to wrap them around her as he crashed into her. She exhaled heavily in response, her hands resting against his back. Despite being certain that Emma hadn't suddenly desired an embrace, he relaxed for a second and revelled in the feeling of her against him.

It had only been days, but Killian had missed such closeness.

"Swan?"

"There's a trip wire." She breathed, her grip tightening on his leather jacket for a moment before she wriggled out of his grip. "You're lucky that at least I was watching where you were going. This giant has quite a security system."

Killian noticed her glance up at the ceiling and he copied the motion, his eyes widening when he saw the giant-sized cage hanging above them. "Yes, that does seem rather more effective than the alarm outside the pawn shop."

Emma rolled her eyes and then waved her hand towards the wire. "After you."

"Of course. I do enjoy having you watch my back." He said with a chuckle, carefully taking a big step over the wire. "Be careful, love."

"Why do I even bother?" He heard Emma mutter, although from the small smile, he had managed to amuse her with his comment. "Maybe next time, I'll just let you wander into whatever's in your way. You'll be less smug with a cage around you."

"If you want to imprison me again, Swan, I'd be more than happy to relive our last prison cell encounter." He shot back, enjoying the playful tone her voice had taken on since she'd saved him. "From what I recall, it was quite pleasant."

"I don't remember that ending particularly well." Emma pointed out, her mood already back to the distant one she seemed to be affecting whenever he wasn't in danger. "What with all the questions you refused to answer."

He knew Emma was aware that he couldn't have answered any of her questions satisfactorily, but if she wanted to try and use the way he had avoided the truth as a reason to run, he wasn't going to fight the decision.

He just hoped that, as had happened last time, she couldn't deny whatever she felt for too long.

As Emma had said, however, it was hardly the time to dwell on possibilities. Instead, they continued weaving through the mounds of treasure and precariously stacked furniture, rifling through each pile in an attempt to find the compass.

He even held Emma up so she could search through various objects perched on the top of a small cage, groaning at the pain that shot through him once her feet were balanced on his shoulders.

"Crap." She hissed, and he took that as a signal that she was ready to come down, bending his knees slightly so she could easily step back to the floor. "I'm pretty sure we've searched everywhere and we haven't found this stupid compass!"

"Well, we haven't searched everywhere." He pointed out. "This room, certainly, but the giant's somewhere we have yet to find."


The giant had been sleeping in one of the rooms just off the large hall they had been exploring, his snores so loud they made the room shake, and Killian wasn't sure how they'd managed to remain oblivious to his location for so long.

Although the compass hadn't been visible on the giant's person, Killian had scoured the surroundings to no avail, and it had soon become clear to both he and Emma that one of them was going to have to search through the giant's pockets in a final attempt to locate the object they needed.

Killian had volunteered, Emma fetching Jack's sword and standing guard as he began to carefully search the giant. His moves had been slow and measured, but after a while, he'd withdrawn from the creature with a shrunken magic bean that the giant had worn on a chain around his neck, as well as the compass that had been hidden in the giant's human-sized pocket.

Hopefully, when the giant awoke, it would take a while for him to realise that he was missing a couple of things.

They'd run back through the lair, back out to the courtyard, before he had the opportunity to show Emma either of his acquisitions.

"I'm guessing you got it." she asked breathlessly, and he nodded, a grin splitting his face. "Can I see?"

The compass was a masterpiece, crafted from gold with an ornate design on the face, the needle wobbling only slightly as it pointed towards Emma. "It's more beautiful than legend." He murmured, watching Emma trail her fingers over the face before he tucked it back into the inside of his jacket.

He considered showing her the bean as well, which was already hanging off one of his own necklaces and tucked under his shirt, but he doubted she'd even care that he'd taken a useless trinket as a memory of their adventure.

"I suppose it's time for you to head back down then." He said quietly, wishing he could accompany her back down if only to make sure she made it to the ground safely. "We spent longer here than I intended and I don't how long we have until Cora meets me at the base. You have to be back with David before then."

"So you haven't reconsidered?" She asked, her eyes narrowed and locked on his. "You're still set on staying behind?"

Killian inhaled deeply, the tremor in Emma's voice making him regret ever coming up with the convoluted plan that he'd forced the others into. He had no choice now, though, except to follow it all through. Emma wouldn't get home otherwise.

"Good luck on the climb down." He stated anxiously, peering past Emma to look at the massive drop behind her. "I really do wish I could accompany you."

She turned back to look at him, her face hard and her fists clenched. "You could. If you really wanted to."

"Emma…"

She shook her head and exhaled in frustration. "I guess this is goodbye then, Hook."

"Only for now." He promised. Emma sighed, her eyes roaming from his face to the pocket where he'd stored the compass, and although he knew he was sincere, he wasn't sure if Emma was allowing herself to believe it. "We'll be back together as soon as I am able to return to you."

Emma blinked, her eyes red-rimmed, as though she was about to cry, and then she bit her lip and nodded. Killian tilted his head in question, wondering what had led to such a decisive action.

He wasn't prepared for her to surge towards him, her lips crashing onto his. His surprised grunt was muffled by her kiss, his mind going blank when she pulled herself even closer to him. It had been too long since they'd shared such passion, and he responded eagerly, slipping his arms around her, his hand tangled in the ends of her hair and his hook pressed to the small of her back.

Killian deepened the kiss, tugging gently at her hair until her head was tilted back. She clawed at his shoulders and then her hands were everywhere, combing through his hair, running down his chest, inside his leather jacket and flattening against his stomach.

Then she slowed the kiss, her hands withdrawing completely from him, and when she pulled away, Killian chased her lips, wanting to stay in the haze of happiness that came from being surrounded by Emma.

"That was…" he breathed, his eyes roaming over Emma's flushed cheeks. She swallowed, rubbed her eyes and then ran her hands over his jacket, smoothing it down.

"That was a goodbye."

She kissed him again, a brief brush of her lips over his, and then she turned and began to climb down the beanstalk. Killian watched until she was out of sight, and then he retreated to the alcove they had hidden in upon arrival.

All he had to do now was wait.


The few hours he had spent hiding in the alcove had left his entire body stiff, but he was thankful that it did at least seem as though the realm of giants was a bit too high for the wraith to access. He thought he could hear the very distant cries of the stolen souls, although he wasn't entirely sure if the sound was there or if he was just expecting it to be.

Either way, he couldn't wait any longer, not with the giant bound to be waking up soon and Cora probably waiting at the bottom of the beanstalk.

The climb down was exhausting, each carefully-judged step causing his arms to ache and his shoulder to throb, although the distance between him and the ground was enough motivation to keep his grip steady.

He hadn't thought that he could be grateful to Rumplestiltskin for injuring his already crippled arm, but he dreaded to think what things would have been like if it had been his full arm that he now struggled to move.

As soon as he could jump down safely, he pushed off the beanstalk, his knees jarring slightly when he landed on the ground. He took a moment to breathe in, closing his eyes and enjoying the cool breeze and light rain against his face, relieved that it seemed to be nearing dawn and that he'd managed to avoid the wraith for another night.

"My dear Captain." He started at the noise, turning quickly to see Cora standing before him, a parasol guarding her from the mist of rain. "Have you had quite an adventure?"

"Indeed." He answered, rolling his shoulder and grimacing at the strange grinding sensation he felt at the movement. "It's quite an experience, to see a giant."

"The compass?"

"Impatient, are we?" He asked, ignoring Cora's scoff. "Don't worry, I…"

He trailed off, scowling when he reached into his jacket and found nothing. He hadn't touched the compass after securing it, but it was definitely gone. For a second, he panicked, glancing up at Cora with wide eyes and a strained smile, unsure what would happen to him once she found it.

"Yes?"

He swallowed and composed himself, forcing a cold, unaffected smirk across his lips before meeting her gaze. He knew exactly what had happened. Emma's kiss had been more than a goodbye. It had been one final display of distrust before leaving him behind, her hands roaming not because she wanted him, but because she wanted the one thing she knew could get her home.

He allowed himself a brief moment to wonder if Emma had even considered the consequences of what she had done, an unfamiliar anger filling him at the realisation that all his reassurances had truly meant nothing.

"Unfortunately, your Majesty, it appears the Swan girl has bested me."


Well... I hope you enjoyed the chapter. (And I'm sorry!) Updates might be slower at the moment - I'm job-hunting and learning to code and many other things, so I have much less time to write. (I'll still aim for updates at least every two weeks though). Thank you so much for the reviews/favourites/story alerts!

Thank you to BlackDragon733 for editing this with me!