A/N: Yup. Here it is. Yet another Dark Hook fic from me, lol. I am very excited to share this with y'all, and can't thank the cssns mods enough for giving us another year of supernatural goodness. I originally intended for this to be a two parter, but I didn't quite get to the cut off point I wanted for part one, so… it's now an MC. My plan is to post every other week (on Sundays) until I am finished writing it, then I will update weekly.
Much love to zahara and kmomof4 for their fabulous beta work. Also much love and flails to artistic-writer and courtorderedcake, as well as all the ladies on the Discord for being such great cheerleaders. Love you all!
Chapter One
The Dark One pinched the bridge of his nose and let go a heavy sigh. How many more of these audiences must he endure? Peasants had come from far and wide to throw themselves on his mercy, though they had to know he possessed no such virtue.
It was all about the deal.
When Hook first became the Dark One, villagers would show up at all hours on any given day to plead their case of woe to him. Tired of inconvenient interruptions, he'd arranged these audiences. Three days each season when a person could avail themselves to his reception. A time that also allowed his servants to collect the taxes owed him as Lord of the lands. Not that he needed their paltry offerings, it was merely an exercise in social norms and customs. A way to keep the good people of his corner of the Dark Kingdom feeling secure in their little lives (and a way to keep the realm's queen off his back). They paid their taxes, they did not incur the Dark One's wrath, their crops, farms, and livelihoods went on being prosperous for another season, and they let him be within the confines of his castle's walls.
A win-win for all.
So long as they were able to pay.
"My Lord, the delinquent tenants are ready for your audience," his steward announced.
Hook gave the man a nod and shifted his position to give himself a more imposing posture. Finally, the last group of the last day. The poor unfortunate souls who found themselves unable to pay their taxes and now had to face the Dark One's judgment.
Watching the frightened peasants as they were herded into the great room, his eyes landed on a familiar face. He fought back against the sinister smile that tugged at the corners of his lips and began running his fingertips over the pad of his thumb in preparation of the Darkness he was about to unleash.
One by one, those indebted to him came forward. He allowed his steward to work out the details of their accounts based on what was still owed and what they might have to offer in the way of alternative forms of payment. Some merely needed more time in order to sell goods, or to collect for services. Others agreed to work off their debts in the service of the Dark One. Most of the cases were simple and straightforward, easily handled without his direct involvement.
That was, of course, until the last remaining tenant stood before him.
"Next, Mr. Neal Cassidy."
The man stepped forward, a tattered looking cap twisting nervously in his hands as he bowed before the dias the Dark One sat upon. "My Lord."
The Darkness swirled in giddy anticipation. The last in a long line of descendants begat from his old nemesis stood before him with a great sum owed. The various ways in which Hook could require repayment danced within his mind and tapped out a chorus of impatience from the tip of his hook against the armrest of his chair.
"Do you have any assets or services to provide his Lordship in the way of payment towards this debt?" the steward asked.
"I do, sir," Cassidy replied, clearing his throat awkwardly. "My wife."
Hook's brows shot up. "I beg your pardon?"
Cassidy's head snapped from the steward to the Dark One, his face growing pale as he stumbled through his explanation. "That is to say, her magic. I-I understand you… collect magic from those willing to part with it."
Hook was unaware any of his tenants possessed magic, and gave his steward a hard look over not having been appraised of such a fact. His steward, however, seemed just as surprised by the revelation. "We have no record of your wife being magical."
"Because I do not allow her the use of it," Cassidy explained. The disgust upon his face further stoked Hook's ire towards the man.
"You do not allow it?" Hook questioned, his tone causing the man to flinch.
"Certainly, you of all people could understand my distaste for it… My Lord."
Hook smirked. Indeed, he could. "And your wife, she is agreeable to the idea of trading her magic to relieve you of your debt?"
Cassidy's eyes shifted before answering, "Of course, my Lord."
Hook hummed in doubt then addressed his steward. "Did Mrs. Cassidy accompany her husband today?"
"She did, my Lord," the steward answered.
"Bring her to me."
"My Lord," Cassidy protested, "I don't think that will be nec-"
"Hold your tongue," Hook commanded, and with a wave of his hand red smoke swirled from the man's mouth down to his hand where his actual tongue now resided. He took great pleasure at the look of horror on the man's face as he tried in vain to remove it from his grasp.
"Mrs. Cassidy, My Lord," a guard announced from the doorway, pulling Hook's attention to the woman making her way into the Great Hall.
The self-satisfied smile adorning his face morphed into a stunned expression he had to quickly school. He hadn't expected a lass as gorgeous as the exquisite creature walking towards him to be saddled with a sorry excuse of a man such as Cassidy.
Long, golden tresses cascaded over her shoulders, falling near her delicate waist while framing her modestly displayed bosom. The creaminess of her skin shone in the soft streaks of sunlight filtering in from the room's high windows. Her dress, a deep green that highlighted the jade hue of her eyes, hung to her form in an enticing way while being completely proper to her status as a married woman. She carried herself with a strength even her obvious nerves could not negate, but above her beauty, it was the raw, wild power he felt radiating from her that affected Hook most.
"My Lord," she said with shaky reverence before bowing her head towards him then turning a questioning brow towards her husband. Her eyes widened when they caught sight of his distress, and seemingly out of instinct, she waved her hand causing a plume of white smoke to envelop the man's tongue and secure it once more in his mouth. "What is the meaning of this?" she demanded, her eyes flaring with indignation before she remembered herself and cast her gaze to the floor in contrition. "That is… um, I-"
"Your husband spoke out of turn," Hook informed her, his eyes reluctantly leaving her in order to settle a hard look upon Cassidy. "I trust, now that your wife has returned your tongue to you, it will not happen again."
Cassidy gave him a wary look, and a quick nod before Hook turned his attention back to the man's wife.
"Mrs. Cassidy, are you aware of your husband's debt in unpaid taxes to me?"
"I am."
"And are you aware of the manner in which he plans to pay that debt?"
The blonde beauty took in a deep breath and wet her lips, drawing in his focus so acutely he nearly missed her reply.
"With my magic."
Her answer surprised him. He'd felt certain Cassidy had been lying to him when he'd said she'd agree to trade away her magic. A certainty that proved itself accurate when she continued on.
"I know I am untrained, but now that Neal has agreed to let me use my gifts, I can possibly provide magical services to others, and earn us the necessary coin to repay our debt to you, just as soon as I find someone capable of teaching me."
Anger flared within Hook, his fist clenching into a ball while his hook dug into the wood of the armrest. "So, not only do you deprive your wife the freedom to explore an integral part of herself, you would have me take the essence of who she is without her consent?"
"What?" The woman spun around to face her husband, a look of pure fury marring her lovely features. "What did you offer him?"
"He can take your magic," Cassidy began in a futile effort to defend himself. "We wouldn't have to be burdened by it any longer. You'd be… normal."
"Normal? Burdened? Is that what you truly think?"
"Of course, it is what he thinks," Hook responded, standing from his seat and making his way down towards the quarreling couple. "Your husband's family has never been overly fond of magic."
"Because magic destroys everything," Cassidy seethed. "You may carry the curse of the Darkness now, but its effects still linger over my life with continual bad luck and misery. Why do you think I'm unable to pay the taxes I owe you?"
His wife scoffed and rolled her eyes. "Right, and your gambling had nothing to do with our current predicament." Cassidy blanched and gave her an incredulous look. "What? You thought I didn't know?" She crossed her arms over her chest and shook her head at him. "I'm not giving up my magic to clean up your mess."
"And I've grown bored of this entire conversation," Hook declared, though his focus stayed fixed on Cassidy's wife and the potency he felt pulsating beneath her surface. "Though I am grieved to hear such magnificence will not be mine," he murmured while slowly circling her. The radiance of her magic drew him in like a moth to a flame until he hovered over her, close enough to feel the rush of expelled breath from her lungs as she responded.
"M-magnificence?"
"Your magic, love," Hook clarified in a low tone, his eyes catching hold of her gaze as she craned her head up to look at him. "Though there is little about you I wouldn't consider striking."
She blinked several times before shaking her head and taking a step back to stand next to her husband. An action that caused his jaw to clench and his mood to darken as he wondered, not for the first time, how Cassidy had managed to find himself such a marvel of a wife.
"There is still the matter of the unpaid taxes, My Lord," the steward reminded, clearing his throat uncomfortably at the tension hanging in the air.
"Indeed," the Dark One responded, hooking his thumb in his belt and adjusting his stance as he gave the couple a look of benevolence. "I suppose I could allow you some additional time to become trained enough to earn the money you owe by offering the services of your magic." His expression then hardened, the Darkness dancing with glee once more. "Provided Mr. Cassidy spends that time occupying a cell within my dungeon."
The color drained from Cassidy's face. "Wha… why?"
"Why, to keep you from squandering your wife's income as you did my taxes," Hook answered with a flourishing gesticulation of his hand. "If you are secured in a cell you cannot gamble away her hard earned coin."
"H-how long would I have to stay locked up down there?"
Hook pursed his lips together and shrugged his shoulders as if giving the question serious consideration. "I suppose that is up to your lovely wife, seeing as it is her efforts that will be paying for your freedom." Hook took a swaggering step forward and leaned into the beauty's space once more. "Feel free to take all the time you need, love," he purred, offering her a wink before turning his back on them and signalling to his guard. "Take him away."
"Wait!"
"No! Stop!"
The pair protested, Cassidy's panic pulling a dark grin from Hook's lips. A grin that froze in cold contempt from the loud declaration of the man's next words.
"I'll give you my wife!"
"Neal?" the woman gasped, a look of utter betrayal settling over her entire being. "You can't mean th-"
"It's what you do, isn't it?" Cassidy said in an accusatory tone, ignoring his wife completely as he spewed venom towards the Dark One. "Take men's wives from them? Seduce them away from their husbands for your own companionship? It's what you did with her, isn't it? Rumplestiltskin's wife, Mil-"
The word cut off before it could fully form on his lips, stalled by the invisible grip Hook was applying to the man's throat. "Do not. Mention. Her name. To me," Hook snarled.
Cassidy's feet lifted off the floor, his hands around his throat as he struggled for breath. His wife attempted to come to his aid, but with a flick of his hook, she found herself frozen where she stood. Drawing his arm back, Hook pulled the man through the air until he dangled before the incensed Dark One.
"Your ancestor could not recognize true treasure when he had it, and it seems you have inherited the same foolish blindness." Cassidy's face purpled, his eyes rolling into the back of his head, and he might have let the man suffocate if not for the plea coming from the woman who called to him like a siren.
"Please. We'll agree to your terms, just don't… please don't kill him."
Grudgingly, Hook released his hold and Cassidy collapsed to the ground, coughing and sputtering as air rushed back into his lungs.
"No," Cassidy choked out. "I won't agree to spend God knows how long rotting in a dank cell. Not when we could settle the matter now. Let him have your magic, Emma."
Emma. The siren's name is Emma. What a lovely name.
"No," she responded with vehemence. "And I'm not going to agree to your disgusting alternative, either." Hook cocked a brow her way. Disgusting? "I'm your wife, Neal."
"A wife who forgets her place," Cassidy spat, picking himself up from the floor. "I won't see you corrupted by magic. I forbid it!"
"You forbid it?" she snapped back, her volume rising alongside the heat of anger coloring its way up her neck. "You won't risk me using my magic, but you'll offer me as a whore to your family's oldest enemy?"
"Better a whore than a witch!" The man advanced, rage roiling off him.
"Enough!" Hook shouted, rattling the walls around them. His mind was made up. "After careful consideration, I have decided to take the offer of your wife. You have a deal, Mr. Cassidy."
"Wait… what?" Emma exclaimed before a swirl of crimson surrounded her, transporting her from the Great Hall with an echo of No! reverberating off the walls.
Cassidy spun around, his eyes searching the room before he rounded on Hook. "Where is she?"
"My bedchamber," he answered coolly, making his way back up the dias to his chair and settling himself there.
The man swallowed awkwardly and was caught off guard by the steward's sudden approach. A quill, already dipped with ink, was held out towards him, and a length of parchment was unfurled in expectation.
"If you'll sign here, sir," the steward instructed, "that will conclude your business with his Lordship."
Cassidy took the quill and scratched out his name upon the contract. The Darkness coiled tightly in Hook's gut, hissing at him to end the buffoon; a man who would sign away the best thing he could ever hope to have, a radiant woman to shine a light into his miserable existence.
Once finished, Cassidy handed the quill back to the steward who then rolled the contract and bowed before the Dark One, taking his leave from the great hall without another word.
Cassidy shuffled his feet and looked around in uncertainty. "So, uh… do I just wait here until the two of you return?"
"Return?"
"Yeah. After you… you know."
Hook smirked and hummed in amused satisfaction. "Are you under the impression your wife will be returning to you?" Cassidy's brows furrowed in confusion, heightening the Dark One's delight. Hook stood and took swaggering steps towards the man. "You gave her to me. She's mine now."
"That's not… no. I didn't mean forever, I meant-"
"What you meant, and what you agreed to by signing that contract are two different things. Seems you made a deal you did not fully understand."
"You bastard," Neal growled, lunging at Hook who sent him flying across the room with a wave of his hand.
"I may be a bastard, but at least I'll have more than my hand to keep me company tonight. And every night here after," Hook needled before flinging open the doors with a loud bang. "Now get out."
He did not wait for Cassidy to comply before transporting himself out of the great hall and up to his bedchamber in a cloud of red smoke.
~/~
Emma spun around in a panic, surveying the room she'd just materialized in. Rich tapestries adorned the stone walls of the spacious room that was furnished with a few dark hued furniture pieces. A large, ornate wardrobe, a fine looking mahogany dressing table, a sleek writing desk littered with books and scrolls, and a grand four-post bed draped with blood red velvet curtains. Her anxiety spiked when her eyes landed on the bed and a flush of heated prickles swept over her skin.
Neal had traded her to the Dark One.
Angry tears burned in her eyes at the betrayal. She wasn't sure what she'd expected from the man. In recent months she'd come to see her husband for who he truly was; a liar and a cheat with a penchant for cards and dice, and no regard for her true happiness. Still. She was his wife.
And now she was the Dark One's.
Emma shuddered and swallowed heavily. She'd heard all sorts of tales whispered about the former pirate cursed with Darkness. Neal himself had countless stories about the man's foul nature before and after he became consumed by the Darkness that had once held his ancestor under its command. When she'd walked into his great hall and laid eyes on him for the first time, however, he hadn't been at all what she'd expected.
He was dark, yes. Dark and foreboding and radiating with a deep power, the likes of which she'd never felt before. The ominous nature of his magic beckoned at the hopeful qualities that made up her own; an attraction as potent and virile as the one she experienced from just his physical form. A form that had loomed over her in the design of a lean, strong physique, with chaotic hair nearly raven in color and piercing blue eyes that shone with an icy fire that simultaneously scorched her soul and chilled her spirit. The way those kohl rimmed eyes had appraised her under heavy expressive brows that spoke volumes as to the result of his assessment of her had left her flushed and breathless.
Almost as breathless as she found herself now simply reminiscing of him.
It wouldn't be long before he was sure to turn up, eager to take advantage of the deal he'd struck. Despite the way her body and magic seemed to wish to betray her as much as her fool husband, Emma wasn't about to give in to the man. Looking about, she searched for something she might use to defend herself against the Dark One, futile as it might be, considering he could easily overpower her with a flick of his wrist. That fact didn't stop her from wrenching open the doors of his wardrobe and unsheathing the sword she found hanging inside.
Armed with his cutlass, and not a moment too soon, she braced herself when red smoke began to swirl in the center of the room.
"I'll remove your other hand if you try to touch me," she threatened after he'd fully materialized.
An amused huff and raised brow preceded his pacification. "Calm yourself, love. I've never forced intimacies onto a woman, and I'll not start now."
"Yeah, well," She didn't buy that for a second. "I'd like to see you try it."
"If you insist."
He snapped his fingers and Emma found herself bound by the wrists and ankles to the four posts of his bed. A swirl of crimson hovered above her until it manifested into the Dark One, caging her with his hand and hook beside her head and his legs straddling her hips.
"Untie me!" she demanded, struggling against her bindings.
"Are you sure, love?" he murmured seductively, a hair's breadth from her lips, toying with her hair and twirling a section of it around his finger. "Any chance I could persuade you to remain right where you are and join me in more enjoyable activities this evening?"
"No," she snarled through clenched teeth.
"Pity," he sighed, pushing himself off of her and releasing the ropes with a flick of his wrist.
Emma scurried off the bed, surprised he'd agreed to let her go so easily. "You… you're really not going to make me…"
"Should there come a time when you warm my bed, it won't be due to force or trickery," he said as he shrugged off his great coat then proceeded to remove his boots, "it'll be because you want me."
Emma gave him a wary look before walking around to the front of the bed, closer to where he sat at his dressing table. "Why am I here then?"
"You would rather I hadn't accepted your husband's deal and let you leave still shackled to a man who would trade you away so easily?" he asked, his brow furrowed and head pointedly cocked to the side.
"Why do you care?"
His expression hardened and he was on his feet with an almost unnatural swiftness, making her take a few skittish steps back as he stalked towards her.
"I don't," he clipped harshly in her face when he stopped just inches from her. A shadow of something foreign, something that did not seem to belong to the essence of the man before her, shimmered through his menacing expression and sent a shiver up Emma's spine.
Wetting her lips, she shakily said, "Well, you must want something from me, otherwise you wouldn't have agreed to Neal's offer. Besides my body there isn't much else of interest or value about me."
The Dark One's jaw tightened and the muscle above flickered briefly before his expression relaxed and his gaze became much softer. "You shouldn't sell yourself short, love," he advised, twirling a section of her hair around his finger once more. "Fools have made you believe you have little else to offer, but I can see the power inside you… and I speak not of just your extraordinary magic."
Emma's thoughts were becoming muddled, his close proximity and the way his magic exuded a heady aura around them made her sway as she fought against its thrall.
"My magic," she muttered while shaking the fog from her head and stepping around him to put some space between them. "Is that what you're after? Because I already told you I won't give it up."
"I'm not asking you to give it up," he told her. "I'm asking for your assistance."
Emma's brows shot up. "My assistance? What possible assistance could my magic offer that yours cannot?"
"As the moniker suggests, Dark One magic is, well… dark," he explained with a tone of satire. "I require light magic for a certain object I wish to awaken to its purpose."
Emma crossed her arms over her chest and cast an accusatory look his way. "What object and purpose would that be?"
"Nothing nefarious, I assure you." Emma lifted a dubious brow which made the man sigh. "No one but myself will be impacted by it, and I will compensate you for your time." He strode forward, pressing into her personal space again. "Give me four months to train you so you can perform the necessary magic I need. Once our agreement is met, you can choose to return to your husband and lands, or…" He brushed her hair over her shoulder with his hook then rested his gaze back onto hers, "you can take your compensation to start a new life, free from that imbecile."
Emma pursed her lips and narrowed her eyes. "And what will become of that imbecile?"
A dark, feral grin broke wide over his face. "Leave that to me, love. Do we have a deal?"
Scrutinizing his words and the hand he extended towards her, Emma chewed on her lip and considered her options. Not that she had many. It was this, go back to Neal, or leave with nothing.
"Deal."