Quick warning: Prince Michael gets a little bit handsy with Emma in this chapter, so be aware if you find things like that triggering in any way.

and thanks to jcamy84 for the suggestion on a horse name!: "What about Amarillo, it means yellow in Spanish? Like her yellow bug..."

Chapter Eleven

"Princess Emma," The King mused, glancing at her as they walked. Regina felt Emma squeeze onto her hand tighter, and looked at her, confused, as the King continued. "Regina failed to inform me that you would be joining us as well, but I must say, it is a pleasant surprise. I know my son is pleased."

Emma chanced a look at Prince Michael who was, in fact, grinning his approval.

"Perhaps we should send the children off to play?" The King suggested, turning his attention to Regina. "They will be bored by our parlay, I am sure."

"Chaperoned, I assume?" Regina asked, to clarify. Prince Michael was seventeen and Regina had no intention of letting Emma anywhere alone with him.

"Of course," the King scoffed, as he signaled to two of his guards. "Guards, accompany Prince Michael and Princess Emma to the atrium."

Emma was about to protest, but Regina stopped her with one look. "Be a good girl and go down to the atrium with the prince. We won't be long, darling. Call me if you need me."

Emma gave Regina a confused look at the last statement, quite sure that she wouldn't hear her call all the way from the atrium if she did need her, but she reluctantly nodded and followed the prince and the guards anyway.

Regina turned and watched her go, utterly perplexed on why the princess suddenly clung to her, but she didn't get much of a chance to think on it, as the King immediately beckoned for her to follow into the meeting hall.

Something suddenly felt off to Regina, but she couldn't put her finger on just what. As the King had requested, she'd arrived with none of her dark knights - not that she thought she needed any as she could protect herself - but she was relieved that she'd already had several of her knights posted and laying in wait around the palace grounds, from the moment the King had first announced his intention of starting a war.

She just hoped the man wasn't as stupid as he appeared to be, because she just wasn't in the mood for a war these days.

Emma chewed on her lip nervously as she followed behind the prince and the two guards. Michael had a smug smirk on his face, that wasn't helping to calm Emma's nerves. She'd never been alone with him, and yet something in her gut told her something was very, very wrong.

Why couldn't Regina meet with the King when Emma was safe at home with her parents? Or, at least, why couldn't Regina have let her sit in on the meeting? Even there, she would have felt safer.

The irony that she felt safer in the presence of the Evil Queen than she did with her former betrothed wasn't lost on Emma as they continued to walk. They walked until they reached a room with large oak doors, which the guards pushed open for the prince. Emma stepped behind him and looked inside.

"This isn't an atrium," Emma observed, as what very clearly was a bedroom came into view.

Prince Michael turned to her and smirked. "My father is a very stupid man who thinks his guards are only obedient to him. Come inside Emma, there's something I want to show you."

Before Emma could react, Michael grabbed her arm and pulled her into the room. She turned and looked back at the guards, both of whom seemed completely oblivious as they stared at the walls in front of them. As soon as Emma was in the room, she heard the doors slam shut, and she knew the guards had shut them. For the first time in her life, she was alone in a room with a boy who wasn't her adopted brother, Seth.

And she was terrified.

"Emma," Michael drawled, "why do you look so nervous?"

"We shouldn't be in here unchaperoned," Emma stated, trying to keep her voice level and not betray how scared she was at the moment.

Michael let out a sharp laugh. "Unchaperoned? If it weren't for that evil witch Regina, we'd be married by now," Michael pointed out, though Emma was quite sure it wouldn't have happened so quickly. "Besides, we're not children anymore, are we? We're a man and a woman and a prince and a princess and no one can tell us what to do."

Emma swallowed hard. "Fine. Then I want to leave this room," Emma said, firmly.

Michael laughed again. "Oh, but I can still tell you what to do. Get used to that, Emma, as I expect my wife to be submissive to me. It's how these things go. You do know that, don't you?"

"I will never be your wife!" Emma spat at him.

Michael's eyes turned dark in an instant, and before Emma even knew what was happening, his hands were on her throat, choking her as he pushed her back against the wall. "The only reason you are not my wife is because your idiot parents made a deal with the sorceress. Once my father has her vanquished, you will be mine. Understand?"

Emma couldn't breathe, and she was starting to see black spots as the Prince choked the air out of her. Her survival instincts kicked in, and she nodded in agreement, in hopes that Michael would let her go.

He removed his hands from her throat as the smile returned to his lips. Emma gulped in air, gasping to try to refill her lungs, and was immediately aware of Michael's hands still on her.

"What are you doing?" she asked, in a pained whisper as she felt Michael lifting up her dress.

"Claiming you," he said, as his hands made their way to her bare thighs under the fabric of the skirt. "You're mine, Emma. You have been betrothed to me and I own you."

"No," Emma whispered, as tears started to roll down her cheeks. Michael removed one hand from under her dress, to press a finger to her lips.

"Don't talk," he said, sternly. "You're ruining the mood."

Emma panicked. Pressed up against the wall with Prince Michael's hand quickly travelling up her thigh, she didn't know what else to do, so she did the only thing she could think of. Regina had said to call if she needed her, and she certainly needed her now.

"Regina!" She screamed as loud as she could, before the Prince's hand clamped over her mouth.

"Stupid girl," he scoffed. "You really think the witch can hear you from here?"

Tears streamed down Emma's cheeks as the Prince's wandering hand travelled further up her body, under her dress. She tried to push him off, but he was much stronger than she was, and with her head now firmly held against the wall, there wasn't much she could do as his hand found it's way to her breast. She sobbed as he grabbed at her roughly, and willed Regina to come find her, and roast the Prince on the spot.

This couldn't have been her plan for tonight, could it?

Regina stiffened when she felt Emma's magic desperately calling out for her. They were barely into talks in the treaty, but the desperation Regina felt in Emma's magic could not be ignored.

"Where's Emma?" she asked, cutting the King off mid-sentence.

King Markus narrowed his eyes at Regina. "We're not done here," he pointed out, clearly not appreciating Regina's sudden change of topic.

Regina stood up and began to walk out of the room, trying to hone in on the direction of Emma's magic.

"Regina," the King called after her, calmly but firmly. "We are not finished. Please sit down."

Regina glanced at the King's knights who were already closing in on her, and with a wave of her hand, they were all frozen in place. She knew any chance to form any sort of treaty was likely out of the question now, but she didn't bring Emma here to be hurt, and she wasn't about to let it happen at the hands of a snivelling, entitled teenage boy.

She didn't bother with the King who was still calling to her to unfreeze his knights, and rather poofed herself to Emma, anchoring herself to Emma's magic.

Regina found herself standing in a hallway outside a closed door, with two guards standing before it, attempting to block her entry.

"Where is Emma?" she asked, calmly.

"No one is permitted to disturb the Prince," one guard said, curtly.

Regina gave an annoyed eye roll and formed a fireball in her hand. One slight toss, and the guard was incinerated. She turned to the other guard, unfazed. "May I enter?"

The second guard hesitated, and Regina let out an exasperated sigh. "Very well," she said, sounding almost bored, as she snapped his neck with a flick of her wrist, and stepped past him, blasting the door open with her magic.

Prince Michael spun around in shock when he heard the doors slam open, but not fast enough to hide the position he had Emma in. Regina saw her with his hand still firmly over her mouth, tears streaking down her cheeks, with her dress hiked up well over her hips and the Prince's hand still underneath.

It was all Regina could to to hold back the urge to snap the Prince's neck, too, but she knew that would result in an all out war, which would likely encompass all the surrounding kingdoms, and a fair bit of magic; far more than she would be able to take on, alone.

Sadly, she knew she would have to let the Prince live.

"Get your hands off of her," Regina growled. This was a new side of Regina that Emma hadn't yet witnessed, and suddenly, despite the predicament she was in, she was fascinated, once again, by her mysterious Queen.

The Prince, for his part, was rightly terrified, as he immediately removed his hands and jumped back from Emma, like she'd just burned him. Emma pushed her dress back down and ran to Regina, who caught her in both arms and wrapped her into a tight embrace. Regina held her so tight that Emma was nearly breathless, and yet Emma still pushed to try to get even closer to the woman.

"Tell your father," Regina said, coolly, her voice dripping with venom as she regarded the Prince with dark eyes. "If he wants a war, he shall have a war."

The Silver Kingdom, on its own, was no match for her magic, she was sure. In any event, she wasn't about to sign a treaty with a man whose son had just accosted her princess. Without another word, she waved a hand to poof herself and Emma back into her bedchambers at the Dark Palace.

Emma breathed a sigh of relief when she realized where she was. She'd never thought she'd be so happy to see Regina's bedroom.

Regina lifted her hands to Emma's cheeks, cupping her face as she moved back slightly to look in her fearful green eyes. "Are you alright, my little Swan?"

"I… I… don't know," Emma stammered. Regina seemed to accept that answer as she drew Emma close again, in another tight embrace.

"I'm sorry, my princess. You should know it wasn't my intention for you to be hurt," Regina said, as she stroked Emma's hair.

Emma nodded as she buried her head against Regina's shoulder. "Are we going to war?"

"We?" Regina repeated, surprised that Emma so quickly aligned herself on her side. "You do understand that your Kingdom will support the Silver Kingdom in this battle, yes?"

"Maybe not, if I tell my parents what the prince did," Emma suggested.

"Your parents will blame me for taking you there in the first place," Regina explained, as she reached to cup Emma's face in her hands again, so their eyes could meet. "But, that doesn't mean that the prince won't have an unfortunate, fatal accident, does it?"

To her surprise, Emma actually smiled. Regina already knew the girl had a little darkness in her, and a little bit of her innocence had been lost tonight, that was for sure.

"Princess," Regina sighed, "I must call a meeting of my guard, to prepare for the impending war. Why don't you go down to the stables and check on your horse, hmm? Perhaps by the time I am done, you will have a name for him?"

Emma nodded. She didn't really want to leave the Queen at the moment, but she felt strangely safe here, and she was sure she'd be safe with Regina's stable hands, as well. She knew that no one in the palace would dare disobey their Queen.

Regina walked Emma down to the stables, and left her with her horse, and the promise that she'd be back, the moment she was done briefing her knights.

"Spending time with the horses always improves my mood when I've had a difficult day," Regina explained, as she was leaving. "I hope your horse will do the same for you, my darling."

When the sun began to set, Regina headed out to the stables to collect Emma. She found the girl rhythmically brushing her colt's mane, with a faraway look in her eyes.

"Emma," Regina called, as she stepped closer. Emma's head snapped around, and she regarded Regina with an unreadable expression. "Are you feeling better?"

Emma nodded. "Yes," she said, as she put the brush down and stood, smoothing out her dress in the process. She stepped over to Regina, with one last glance back at her horse.

"Have you thought of a name?" Regina asked, raising her eyebrow.

Emma nodded. "Amarillo."

"Amarillo," Regina repeated. "Interesting choice."

Emma gave a cheeky grin, and Regina was actually relieved to see the expression, after the night they'd had. "Well," Emma said, playfully, "I didn't think you'd like Snowflake."

"Smart girl," Regina replied, impressed by Emma's boldness in making a joke like that. "What will his official registered name be?"

"Escarabajo Amarillo."

"Yellow Beetle?"

Emma shrugged. "I like it. You named your horse after the Devil," she pointed out.

"Touché."

Regina wrapped an arm around Emma's shoulders and led her up to the palace. She couldn't help but think everything was different now. Emma was still fifteen, but not as innocent as she was earlier that night. Part of Regina thought she should be happy about that, as it would make everything she had planned that much easier, but something deep inside of her wouldn't stop reminding her that she, herself, had been innocent once, too.

And that part of her suddenly felt fiercely protective over Emma. This change, in herself, she had not anticipated.