Weeping Heartstrings

(Daniella's POV)

His kiss caught me off guard. Although I could feel it within my bones that our feelings were mutual, I never imagined that I would receive my first kiss this way. No sooner had I flinched back upon impulse, I reddened, for I feared the kind of message that it might send. My gaze immediately snapped onto Rhys'. In the pools of his pupils, my reflection looked back at me in a questioning and confused gaze. I didn't know what to say, but I knew if I looked down or turned away, he might have taken the wrong meaning.

Slowly, I wrapped my arms around him, burying my head into his chest. I could feel his arms tightening around me, but I was able to raise my hand and gently place it on his chest where his heart was. I could feel the hammering pump of the organ just beneath my fingertips. It raced with an energy I hadn't felt before. Sure, the rhythm of his heartbeats were just as fast as that of a terrified peasant, but there was a warmth to Rhys' beats; a lively, passionate spirit thump.

I looked up from my hand and murmured, "I don't understand."

Rhys chuckled and said, "Can you blame me? I just took my chances at the fairest girl in all the lands."

I mulled over his words in my head but I couldn't think of a reply. "Why me?" I finally murmured in between shaking breaths.

"I think I might need more time for that."

A smirk lifted the corners of my lips. "I'd like to believe that you've thought things out before leaning over to kiss the Evil Queen's daughter."

"I had to take my chances, even if it means I might get blown up into a million pieces."

I raised an eyebrow. He caught my expression and asked reciprocally, "You know, I could ask the same for you."

I chuckled and replied, "If I remember correctly, Mr soon-to-be-knight-of-the-round-table, you kissed me first." When the shock of receiving the kiss started to subside, it occurred to me what this meant. "Is it alright if we keep this as a secret for now?" I could feel my voice quicken as I tried to explain, "Everyone is really stressed and busy at the moment, and I'm not sure how my mother, or even father for the matter, would react."

"Yeah that's fine." It took him another moment before he asked, "You're not promised to anyone are you?"

I widened my eyes and swiftly replied as I shook my head, "Oh no, definitely not! Well, there has been some efforts by neighbouring kingdoms to pair up their princes with me, but mother had declined all of them before I could even hear about any potential matches."

"Has any of the choices ever interested you though?"

"Of course not! Although I'm sure not all princes are inherently bad, an arranged match would still be orchestrated by something other than love. If everything goes well, it would strengthen ties between our kingdoms but if not, it would turn sour very quickly. Besides, many princes are born to be rather dominant and they could easily forget their place."

"As consort you mean."

I nodded. Something seemed to twist and turn in Rhys' mind so I prompted gently, "Hey, what is it?"

He gave me a smile before laughing it off and saying lightly, "I wonder what your mother would think of me."

I squeezed his hand and said quietly, "She wouldn't judge, given who my father is. I know that coming from me, it might not be entirely assuring, but she's not as scary as you might imagine. Besides, your family is on our side right?" I added after a moment of silence, "Don't worry, when the time comes, we'll tell her, ok?"

Rhys gently placed a kiss on my cheek.

(Regina's POV) *The next day

The spell to free Merlin was more complicated than I thought. Whilst his tower definitely contained most of the ingredients needed for the process, some had to be made from scratch which took more time than I expected. I asked Daniella to help me out, but inexplicably, she had been adamant that she should spend more time with Aurelie.

I sucked in my breath as I focused on pouring the contents of the tiny vial of potion I had in my hands into another flask. According to the spell book, it was supposed to turn a blue, but instead, I watched with dismay as a pinkish shade of purple emerged. Having already done this step unsuccessfully multiple times, I growled and threw the flask across the room. At that very moment, the door to the room creaked open and although I was expecting to have to explain my actions to Daniella, it was not her who showed up.

I waved my hand and the mess of broken glass on the floor against the wall disappeared. As my hand came back down calmly by my side, I turned back to my work and ignored the person who had entered the tower in silence. Self-consciously, I scoured through the page again to figure out what I had done wrong when he asked in a manner that completely contradicted both the jittering feeling in my stomach and the anger from my failure in making the potion. "Are you ok?"

I gritted, "Fine." After a moment of silence, I slammed my hands down on the book that rested on the table and asked with a slight glare, "Daniel, what are you doing here?"

In the most calm manner, he replied if there was nothing wrong, "I just thought you could use some company. Daniella told me that you were alone and working on some spells up here."

"She voluntarily told you that?" I questioned.

"I asked her."

Sniffling and looking back down past my nose, I replied, "Shouldn't you be with your wife?"

"She's catching up with Hilda. My sister said she wished to discuss something with Lena."

I raised my eyebrow at that statement as I contemplated whether I should tell him that Hilda was partly aware of who I was. Still, it surprised me that she hadn't gone to her brother first. Well, perhaps Hilda might think that I've bewitched Daniel and confiding with him wouldn't lead anywhere. Cutting into my thoughts, Daniel asked, "I thought Daniella would be here with you."

"She's with Aurelie. Besides, she came back to the castle quite late last night so she was a little slow in the morning today."

"She was outside alone at night? In Camelot?"

Softening my tone slightly, I replied not without a small tinge of pride, "Yes, as any responsible parent should, I was worried but I also know that she's capable of taking care of herself now. She has always liked taking time for herself, away from other people. I believe she went down to the stables and took one of the horses out for a ride."

"She sounds a bit like you." Before I could reply to his bold comment, Daniel asked nonchalantly in the most neutral tone, "So is there anything I could do to help?"

Sucking in my breath, I gave him a look and felt sarcasm roll off my tongue before I could restrain it, "Not unless you can read old elvish."

Whilst returning to the vials of potion and magical ingredients laid out upon the workbench, I caught the corner of his mouth twitch into a smirk. I held my breath, hearing the blood pump past my ears as he moved closer to where I was standing and replied, "As a matter of fact, I cannot. Though I can help with whatever you're making there."

I could feel my voice tighten as I quickly explained, "It's one of the key components in the spell that will free Merlin from his cursed form. And I haven't been successful in replicating it."

"That much I can tell, yes."

I gave him a glare in return. Then, I sighed and turned back to the spell book. "Please leave me alone if you're not going to help."

"I'm helping by making sure that you don't accidentally set yourself on fire," he said. I looked up and was about to remark rather angrily when he continued, "What I mean is that you haven't given yourself time to rest. You're just going to tire yourself out if you push yourself too hard in order to make this potion."

I rolled my eyes and replied, "In case you haven't noticed, Snow and David suspect that Arthur is not a man of his words, and I find myself agreeing with them on the matter. If Arthur intends to be rid of us soon, we may as well devote all our energy to completing our quest, free Merlin, use him to get the darkness out of Emma and get the hell out of here." After a pause, I muttered quietly, "Since when did you care about my wellbeing anyway?"

A short pause followed before Daniel began, "Regina, I'm sorry about what happened at dinner last night."

I shrugged, still unwilling to meet his gaze. After a sigh, he stated, "I just had a talk with my sister." Oh, so you did talk to her.

"What did she say?" I asked quietly. Whilst I couldn't give a fig for what that creature thought about me, Hilda was Daniel's blood and would have been my sister in law if things hadn't gone south so many years ago.

"She didn't have much to say."

"That's better than having too much to say," I replied. After that, we fell back into silence as I continued making the potion. To the best of my ability, I ignored his presence and concentrated on the task before my eyes. I was nearly done with the fifth try at attempting to produce the intended blue shade of potion when I felt a breath down my neck. Though I instantaneously flinched, I felt myself freeze and unable to move away.

The low voice behind me whispered in a hopeful tone, "Did it work?"

I set the vial down, knowing perfectly why the potion worked now, and not during my previous attempts. I could feel my nose twitch as I gritted my teeth. When I headed towards the door however, Daniel grabbed me by the arm and made me spin around and face him. "You dare-"

He ignored my angry glare and pushed, "It did, didn't it?"

I shook off his grip firmly and huffed, "Let go of me! You're weakening my magic."

"On the contrary, I think both you and I know that I'm strengthening it."

I raised an eyebrow and snarled to conceal my pleasure in hearing his sarcasm, "By doing what? By pretending that you love me so that my light magic would come back?"

"Regina, you know better than anyone that you can't fool the laws of magic. The feelings that fuel dark of light magic has to be mutual."

I felt my chest rise and fall in violent breaths as I contemplated what to say in response. Although many thoughts flew to my mind, no words came out of my open mouth.

"Regina..."

My eyes snapped up to meet Daniel's gaze and I immediately noticed how tired he looked. I almost wanted to reach out and take his face into my hands but I refrained from doing so and clenched my fists instead. Although I schooled my expression, I felt the corners of my eye water as I bit out slowly, "You can't do this. A vow's a vow. You exchanged them with your wife and she gave you hers."

There was silence, followed by the quiet words, "Those aren't your words."

I rolled my eyes and huffed, "Of course they are. They just came out of my mouth."

"No, not you. Its the Queen who said those words."

I narrowed my eyes and said, "I am the Queen. An evil one apparently, if you'd like to be specific."

"No you aren't, or at least, you weren't when you made that potion work just a minute ago."

I sighed and stated, "This is why it will never work out. Daniel, you always expect me to be the person I once was...but that was many, many years ago. It might not be so for you, but it was for me. If you'll only accept that part of me, you might as well only think of me as a memory."

Daniel shook his head and came closer until he was standing over me. Though it did exaggerate our height difference, I remained stuck in the position. Finally, his deep blue eyes met mine. I scoured them for deceit, for anything that could tell me that this was all wrong, but I was unable to find fault. Finally, he began, "You might not have realised, but for me, fourteen years have passed since you banished me from your kingdom in the Enchanted Forest." I broke his gaze and swallowed as I looked to the side. He continued, "I know my actions aren't excusable, but I was young back then."

I immediately wanted to remind him of all the damage that Snow had done as a 10 year old spoiled brat, but I forced myself to remain silent. I clenched my jaw and allowed him to continue explaining, "Time had completely stopped for me once your mother ripped my heart out and crushed it. When I was brought back to life again, I was twenty years old and my last memory, my character, my life experience, was only that of a stableboy's. After coming back to life, I was absolutely stunned by the fact that so many years have gone by that it all didn't feel right; it was as if I was living through a haze, a fantasy if you like. The changes that had occurred whilst I was supposedly dead just didn't make any sense to me. Firstly, I just couldn't fathom how...well..."

"How I became the person I am," I finished quietly, feeling a familiar burn behind my eyelids intensify. I held my breath until he said after a deep breath, "It angered me that I wasn't there to prevent those things from happening to you. But I didn't know how to approach you, especially when the threat of Zelena came around and you started seeing your mother again. As I look back at those events now, I realise that regardless of how isolated I felt, your response and hesitancy to be around me was for the good of everyone...for the good of the kingdom." Daniel's voice dropped to a low volume as he added slowly as if he wanted to avoid saying something, "Who knows what would happen if Zelena had survived."

He looked reluctant to say what he was thinking so I whispered his name gently. "Daniel..."

Although he swallowed and set his jaw in place whilst holding his head up a little higher, he choked upon the words that came out from his dry mouth afterwards. "Regina, I'm sorry...it was a mistake, all of it. And Lena...what do I-"

He bowed his shaking head as his body was overcome with shudders uncharacteristic of him. I couldn't make out what Daniel was murmuring to himself, but I instinctively reached out to calm him, shushing his self-insults as his body shook. As I looked up briefly, the open spellbook on the table caught my gaze. I made a small vial appear in my hand and pressed it against his face to collect the tears streaming down Daniel's face. Once I was satisfied with the amount of liquid sloshing inside the glass, I corked it and pocketed it in the folds of my robe. Amidst my actions though, it was Daniel's assault of self-berating words that catapulted a cannon into the wall around my heart. "Daniel, look at me."

His head only turned away. Quietly, I repeated, with a bit more firmness in my voice, "Daniel. Look at me."

Sighing, I raised my hand and gently turned his face towards mine. Then, I leaned in closer and said, "Listen to me." When his eyes finally snapped onto mine, I began shakily, "Daniel, don't do this to yourself. You were and you are stronger than I am, because you've never let go of who you really are."

"Regina, can't you see what kind of man am I?"

"You're-"

"A failure. I've merely shown everyone just how pathetic I am for straying away from what fate already arranged so perfectly-"

I sighed and with a raised eyebrow to lift the spirits, replied, "At least you haven't physically harmed anybody in the process. Now, this doesn't come naturally to me, so I'll just say it once; but what you said was correct. I've learned to put on a mask, a persona, a façade if you would like, because despite everything, I don't think I'll ever be good enough. I love and despise the Evil Queen at the same time. I'm two people, but only because I'm not strong enough to let people see the real me."

Daniel then replied, "But you never waver, not like me."

I chuckled, "No dear, nothing has changed since you met me when we were teenagers. I do fall, but when I get up again, I'm the Queen because it's someone I have to be. My mother thrust the crown upon my head when I was eighteen, and though I was merely an ornament beside Leopold, it's been my only identity since then. Ironically, the very thing that I despise has become my anchorage for so many years because without it, I have no purpose, no meaning...at least, well..." I paused, biting my lip nervously. As I dipped my head, I reiterated, "No meaning without you."

"Regina...why are you saying this?"

I frowned. "What do you mean?"

Daniel couldn't meet my gaze directly. "You have every reason to hate me. I've been unfaithful to you when you've given up so much for me."

I reached up to cup his cheek with my hand before whispering, "You know what I've done; the pain I've caused, the lives I've inflicted misery upon...even ended at times. Daniel, I know you. You would never express what you've just mentioned in front of another. Am I right in assuming that even your sister isn't aware of some of these things?"

He nodded so I swallowed and murmured as I stroked his cheek, "How could I hate the only one who loves me back? My true love?"

Daniel pulled me into him shakily and our heartbeats synced into one. Whilst I would like to say that nothing but happy thoughts filled my head, it was not the case. After my happy smile subsided, everything came crashing back like a wave against a rocky cliff. "How about...her?"

Daniel sighed and replied, "I think she's known for some time now, that's why she does what she does."

"How long have you known?" I murmured.

"That my heart has always belonged to you?" There was a long pause, but he answered just as I was about to shake off the question, "I realised after I arrived in New York, but I was forced to focus on Aurelie; to give her a life she deserves. I understand you'll never forgive me for what happened back then in the Enchanted Forest, but I assure you, Lena and I didn't see each other the same after that."

I frowned, feeling a sudden knot in my throat. He continued, "Lena and I never got married."

"What?!" I exclaimed as I lifted my head from his chest to look at him. Daniel merely laughed sadly, "You do realise, that when we went to New York with Aurelie, we were on our own? There was no one from our land with us and after a while, I just kept putting it off because it didn't feel right. I told myself that moving to the Land Without Magic was for Aurelie as I didn't know how to make things right other than do what's best for her. I guess I thought it meant raising her in an environment where she doesn't have to know all of this."

I bit my upper lip and nodded with thoughts seeping into my mind like a plague. What if this was your fault, Regina? Have I gone too far back then? What if I hadn't banished him from the kingdom? Is it too late to turn back now?

He finished quietly, "But as for now, I really don't know...I mean...well, I've put you both through so much trouble."

Forcing myself to give him a little smile for comfort even amidst the truth, I replied, "You have."

"Though, I think your sister was a reason why Aurelie came into the world, why Lena was able to conceive her."

My heart dropped at the mention of that incident, and I could already feel the Evil Queen side of me plotting her murder already. It was almost as if Daniel could see into my mind for when I caught his gaze again, I immediately had to look away. He said sternly, "She's the mother of Aurelie."

"I know," I replied automatically behind gritted teeth that barely concealed my annoyance. If only there was a way to clean up this mess too... "So where does that leave us?" I asked in a small voice.

Daniel looked up, as if he was surprised at the question. Indeed, his expression displayed puzzlement as he clarified, "You mean..."

I blushed. Did I interpret this entire conversation incorrectly? Feeling foolish, I readied myself to part from Daniel's arms when his soft voice echoed in my ear, "You're still my fiancée, Regina."

I snapped around and looked into his eyes, searching those guilt-ridden orbs. Then, he took my hand into his and began, "I really meant what I said before. I really do regret those decisions I've made in the past. I was young and foolish but after my departure from the Enchanted Forest, from you, I realised instantly that I haven't listened to my heart. Except..." his voice dropped an octave as he managed to finish in a quiet voice, "Except every time I told myself I needed to come back, I was reminded of two things. One; that I have a duty towards Aurelie and, I know you may not like it; but for a while, Lena too. Two; I know how much I had upset you, and besides, I felt so...so ashamed." He paused, as if he was waiting for a response, but I was unable to give him one as I was conflicted myself.

Unwilling to meet his gaze, I murmured, "Did you ever love her?"

Daniel sighed and began, "I thought I could seek comfort with her. She was a friend to me, but I think she had always mistakenly seen our relationship as something different. As in, before I left home to work on your family's estate. I was too caught up in my own headspace after we arrived back to the Enchanted Forest to realise the real meaning of her actions. Though... I suppose it is my fault that I've dragged her into all this mess too...god I'm such a manipulative person," he finished as he put his fists through his hair in agony. Upon catching my gaze however, he slowly brought his hands up to my face and stroked my cheek with his thumb. He whispered, "Regina, you're the only one I've ever loved."

I felt tears cloud my vision when I registered what he was saying. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. In a volume that was barely above a whisper, he murmured, "Will you forgive me?"

(Daniella's POV)

I met up with Rhys in the morning, but as anybody could see us together whilst we were in the castle, we had to keep our interactions brief. After spending a few minutes with him, I went to look for my sister. We went out in the afternoon to explore the royal gardens but when we arrived back inside, a servant hurriedly scuttled over and told Aurelie that Hilda and Lena wanted to see her so she was led away, leaving me to make my way back to our apartments by myself. As I was now most accustomed to travelling my magic when I was by myself, I wasted no time in teleporting to the stairwell within the tower that lead to Merlin's workroom. When I knocked on the door, I could hear a quick scuffle followed by a shout that seemed to conceal an underlying tone of panic. "Who is it?"

"Mama, it's just me," I replied with a frown as I pushed upon the door. Upon entering, I figured out why she had to ask. Father was standing with an odd expression on his face whilst mother was smoothing out the creases in her dress. Oh.

I didn't know whether it was a blessing or a curse that mother was the first to respond. Blatantly, she schooled her expression and said to me, "Pull your head out of the gutter young lady; your father and I just had a talk."

I didn't need to reach out to touch the back of my bare neck to know that a flush of heat was creeping up. When I saw how my parents glanced at each other however, I could tell that there was something different between them even though they still stood a considerable distance away from each other.

I felt a grin tug at the corners of my mouth as I inquired, "A talk?"

Although mother replied immediately, "Yes. A talk," father added, "A rather constructive one, if I may say so myself."

Mother narrowed her eyes at him, but both of us knew that it wasn't intended to be a hostile glare. Then, she turned to me and said sternly, "That is all you need to know. Now, why don't you tell Emma that she can meet me at the tree where Merlin is imprisoned very soon? This potion is almost finished. I just need to gather everything together." As she held up a small flask of sapphire coloured liquid, she added, "The most arduous step was creating this little number here."

"Indeed," father replied with a wink, which only made me raise my eyebrow in puzzlement. I ignored father's comment as I turned to mother and said, "Umm ok, I'll see you down there at the tree then. Its a good thing that the sun is beginning to set, hopefully we can release Merlin before Arthur's forces come charging at us."

I lingered for a moment to watch as mother nodded in consent. Then, I waved my hand and teleported to Snow and David's chambers. I was told that Emma needed some time to herself and normally, only her parents and Hook knew where she was. Thankfully, I didn't give them too much of a fright when I appeared before them. However, it was the fact that Hilda was there, which made my smile fade. The recollection of yesterday's incident still tainted my memory, and the fear of rejection had been lingering ever since. I squared my shoulders and turned to Snow, asking, "Have you seen Emma? The potion is almost done so we should be able to free Merlin."

Snow's eyes lit up as she exclaimed, "I'm so glad to hear that you're making progress on your part. I believe Emma is already on the grounds near the tree. She wanted to observe the area for a while so that she could catch the pattern of the guards' posting rotations."

I nodded in thanks but before I could turn away and exit, Snow asked, "Tell your mother that I'm grateful she agreed to provide the final ingredient to the spell."

I frowned in confusion, "You mean the blue vial of liquid?"

"No, uh...ah nevermind. I hope it wasn't too painful."

Though I was now more confused than ever, I exited the room to look for Emma. It didn't take me long to find her as Snow described. "Hi Dani," she greeted as she came over to me.

"Mother told me to let you know that we could wait by the tree now," I replied as I used my head to incline towards the direction where the tree was located. Once we started walking, we fell into silence for we weren't entirely that close with each other. Though, I tried to make small talk by asking, "How are you feeling?"

"Better. Hook took me for a ride through the forest today and we had a nice conversation. Makes me wonder why I don't do things like this so often back in the Enchanted forest."

When we arrived at the spot where the large weeping willow tree entrapped Camelot's famous wizard, I was surprised to find that mother was already there, setting up the various parts of the spell. She nodded to us and started pouring some vials of liquid into a mini brass cauldron. Emma spoke up as we approached, "Thanks for agreeing to do this."

Without averting her eyes from the contraptions before her, mother replied, "You know we can't risk unleashing your magic only to find it surge out of control-"

Emma cut in and said, "No, I meant the tear."

The tear? When I thought back about Snow's words, it suddenly clicked into place. The spell required a tear. As if her actions corresponded to my thoughts, mother fished out a tiny vial from the folds of her dress and uncorked the bottle. Then, she handed it to Emma with a frown of worry upon her forehead. Emma took the vial without noticing her expression and uncorked the bottle before slowly tipping it into the cauldron. Immediately, a puff of rustic green smoke billowed out from the contents inside the brass vessel, but no sooner had it risen to the height of our heads, it subsided and fell right back into the potion. There was a momentary pause before mother stated firmly, "It should have worked."

I held my breath as Emma answered, lips barely moving, "It's simple. Your heartbreak wasn't strong enough."

When we both looked at mother however, she bit her lip gently and gave me a conflicted expression. Then, she slowly explained, "It wasn't my tear. I used Daniel's."

Emma's eyes widened before she stammered nervously, with glances darting between mother and I, "I don't mean to break this to you Regina, but...maybe its because he's gotten through what had happened. He's happy with Lena now."

Mother shook her head and after a moment of contemplation, she exhaled and replied simply, "You're right, he's no longer heartbroken." Knowing she wanted to change the subject as soon as possible, I cut in and asked in a small voice, "Well then whose tear do we use?"

Almost as if fate were listening to our worries, we heard approaching footsteps, though it wasn't the thunderous thump of Camelot's knights or Arthur himself. We looked up and found Henry walking gingerly towards us. Against the moonlit shadows that the tree cast upon us, I wasn't able to observe Henry's expression very clearly, but the sloppiness of his posture was evident. Upon seeing his droopy eyes, my heart fell. I was the first to ask, "Hey, are you ok?"

My brother straightened himself up and replied without looking any of us in the eye, "Yeah. I'm fine."

Mother then cut in and said, "No, you're not. What happened?"

When his voice cracked upon mentioning Violet's name, I crossed my arms. After he explained to us what had happened, from her hesitancy and how Violet's father treated him, I felt a anger surge through my body. My brother murmured as his gaze swept all of us, "I'm not like you, I don't have magic...I'm useless."

Upon seeing the tears that were coming to his eyes, I immediately wrapped my arms around him in a tight hug. Though I was about to reassure him that he was not useless, mother already beat me to it. "Henry, not having magic can often be a blessing. Besides, you're a hero. Because of you, we can free Merlin."

Confused, I let go of him to see mother press a vial against his tears. Emma then murmured, "This will work. Henry, thank you."

(Hilda's POV)

"This can't go on," Lena exclaimed between tears. I immediately put my arm around my childhood friend and moved closer to her on the bench. Upon Lena's request, I had brought her to the servants' quarters of the castle so that we could make sense of the mess that we were caught in. Lena continued in hoarse and distraught exclamations, "She bewitched him! Its the only reason why he would want to be with her. And Daniella too- that girl didn't just rip out my daughter's heart, she did something else to her! Enchanted her so that she..so that..."

I embraced Lena as she was overcome with her thoughts. "Hilda, I need your help," she finally whispered. "I need you to help me find a way to convince everyone, including my husband and my daughter, that they aren't who they say they are."

My heart hammered as I shuddered at the very idea of where this was going, so I responded, "But how? I mean, they both have magic!"

Lena then pushed herself gently from my arms and attempted to compose herself. As she squared her shoulders, she hastily wiped away the tears in her eyes and stated without looking at me in the eye, "We need to frame her."

My eyebrows shot to the top of my forehead. "You want to frame the Evil Queen AND get away with it?" I caught Lena's determined stare and immediately continued in a low voice before she could justify her thoughts, "I agree with you that something must be done, but do you really want to take action directly against a woman who has levelled her own kingdom to ruins because she hated her own stepdaughter?"

Lena glared at me, making my heart drop as she bared her teeth in a way that scared me a little and seethed, "Are you on my side or hers?"

After recovering from her tone, I frowned and replied, "Lena, firstly if you want me to help you, you have to view me as a friend, not an enemy. Secondly, how could anyone in their right mind be on her side?"

Lena sighed and replied, "We have to somehow get Queen Snow and everyone else to turn against that woman."

I thought for a moment before reasoning slowly, "Lena, you're trying to kill multiple birds with one stone here." She regarded me for a moment with imploring eyes so I explained carefully, "We have to take it step by step. With my brother, it will take some time if it's true that the Evil Queen has him under some spell. With Aurelie however..."

Lena suddenly cut in and exclaimed, "We just need to get Daniella to demonstrate her dark powers in front of Aurelie! That way, Aurelie will doubt the things that her sister has said to her." I bit my lip as I thought about both of my nieces but Lena continued, "I think it's pretty obvious to everyone that the Princess is extremely close with her mother. If she hears of a plot against the Queen, she will definitely take steps by herself to seek out the responsible conspirators."

I frowned and replied breathlessly, "Lena, I don't follow."

Lena looked at me in the eye and said, "Like you said, we shouldn't frame the Evil Queen. Instead, we should frame someone else so that it appears that they were conspiring to hurt her or something. If we can make sure that Daniella finds out, and that Aurelie is there to witness her sister's reaction..."

"Then she would be appalled at Daniella's behaviour," I finished in a whisper.

"Exactly." After a short pause, she continued, "When I was a laundress in that woman's palace, I found out that a local witch had been responsible for delivering various magical ingredients to the Queen, including poisons and other toxic substances. Do you know who is in charge of those items here in Camelot?"

I thought for a moment and replied slowly, "We don't have a witch here, but I know of a squire who is often tasked with bringing back medicinal herbs for the healer's collection. They figured out that he often goes into the forest in his spare time, and wanted to make use of it."

A smile crept up my friend's expression as she asked, "What's the name of this squire?"

I murmured, "I believe the boy is called Rhys."

"He'll be perfect."

I swallowed upon seeing the mad grin on Lena's face. Although I nodded to show my support, I was afraid. I thought I knew Lena, but I don't think I know the woman sitting opposite me.

Author's note:

I'm actually really anxious to receive your comments for this update. Do you like how the story is going? Do you hate it?

This is a bit random but I was wondering if any of you follow me on my regular social media accounts? (Instagram/Twitter: ink_of_twilight). I occasionally post fanart and I've painted some artworks related to my fanfics too; one of which is related to a future chapter!

Thanks for reading and I hope you've enjoyed this instalment! Remember to leave a review! :D

Coming up next: 'Poison Reveals All'