Emma's week at the White Palace passed unbearably slow. She'd never truly realized how caged in she felt within these walls until she'd spent time with Regina, and she just couldn't wait to get back.
A small part of her resented that she felt that way, since she knew her parents adored her, but she was fifteen years old now, not a child anymore, and she was ready to escape - even if escape came in the form of her parents literally escorting her to her destination.
She tried not to let her excitement show as they neared the Dark Palace. She knew she had been more than just a little apprehensive on her last two treks here, and though she didn't want her parents to worry about what sort of things went on when she was with Regina, she also didn't want to hurt them by letting them think she was eager to get away from them, either.
So she sat and stared out the window of the carriage, not grinning when she saw Regina's palace come into view, no matter how badly she wanted to.
As always, Regina was waiting just inside her invisible magical barrier, smiling widely, her eyes only on Emma as Emma stepped out of the carriage. As always, both of her parents accompanied her on the short walk from the carriage to the edge of the barrier.
This time, however, Regina wasted no time reaching for Emma's hand and pulling her safely through the shield, and into her warm embrace, right in front of Emma's parents. Emma heard her mother gasp from behind her, but she didn't care. Regina's arms felt like home to her now.
"When can we bring her home?" Emma heard her father ask.
Regina shrugged. "I don't know just when I'll be ready to part with my princess," she said, running her fingers through Emma's hair. "I'll send word when you may come and fetch her."
"Regina, that's not fair!" This time it was Snow, and Emma turned her head to look at her, after hearing the desperation in her mother's voice.
"It's alright, Mama," Emma said, offering her mother a reassuring smile. "I'll be fine."
"See Snow? She'll be fine. She doesn't need her mother hovering, do you Little Swan?" Regina asked, turning her attention to Snow and then back to Emma, as though Snow had just disappeared.
Emma gaped for a moment, unsure of how to answer that question in a way that would appease Regina and not hurt her mother. "I'll… be fine," she said again, less self-assured than she had been the first time.
"Yes, now, come along. I have so much planned for us," Regina said, with a dismissive wave towards Snow and Charming, as she turned to lead Emma back towards the palace.
"My parents didn't align with the Silver Kingdom," Emma said, as soon as she knew they were out of earshot.
Regina sighed. "You know I have no interest in what your parents do."
"But, I thought-"
"Emma. The war is practically over before it even begins," Regina said, as if it had suddenly become a non-issue. Emma had noticed that they didn't pass a single one of the Silver Kingdom's knights on the ride over, but something in Regina's demeanor told Emma that the former Queen was being less than truthful. This was not the first time she'd suspected Regina was lying to her, but she couldn't figure out why she would lie about something as important as a war. Especially not when she'd promised to keep Emma safe.
Emma couldn't help the uneasy feeling washing over her as she followed Regina into the large atrium near the centre of the palace. She'd barely been there ten minutes, and Regina was insisting they get down to magic lessons right away.
Emma couldn't help but feel that something was off with Regina, from the moment she stepped foot in the palace. The Queen always took magic lessons seriously, but Emma had never seen this degree of intense focus from her. Regina wasn't an overly patient woman, but Emma had liked to think she was patient with her, at least.
Today, that wasn't the case.
"Emma!" Regina barked. "Focus!"
"I'm trying!" Emma insisted. The spell Regina was trying to teach her was complicated, and, truthfully, Emma wasn't exactly in the mood for magic lessons today in the first place. She'd missed Regina dearly and she wanted to spend time being with her, not being yelled at by her.
"You're not! This beginner stuff and you're not concentrating!"
"Stop yelling at me!" Emma snapped, her green eyes turning fiery.
Regina raised an eyebrow. "My my, someone's grown bold. Have you forgotten your place here, dear?"
Emma couldn't help the hurt look that passed over her face. It was evident that the Queen was not herself today. At least, she was not the version of herself that Emma had grown accustomed to, and even fond of, and it was unsettling, to say the least.
"No," Emma said, quieter this time. "I just don't like when you yell at me."
Regina stepped over to her, cupping Emma face in both of her hands. "And I don't like when you waste my time. Start again."
Emma let out an exasperated sigh and started over on the spell. It took at least thirteen more tries to get it right, and when she finally did, Regina acted like she didn't even care. Emma knew she should know better than the poke the bear, but she couldn't imagine spending an indefinite amount of time at the Dark Palace if Regina was going to be this way. She had to figure out what was going on.
"Regina," Emma said, softly. "I'm not trying to anger you, but I… I'd hoped that you would be happy to see me again. I've been looking forward to returning."
With that, Regina's eyes softened, ever so slightly. Anyone else might not have even noticed, but Emma had grown aware of the slightest changes in the Queen's moods, and she'd become more able to read her.
"Little Swan," Regina said, cupping her face in one hand again. "It's not really your fault that I'm angry. But you are distracted and it is frustrating me."
Emma looked down at the ground for a moment, hesitating before speaking again. "I know you don't like when I talk about them, but my parents said something troubling to me."
Regina fought the urge to roll her eyes. "What did they say?"
"They said that you're not as invincible as you think you are. And that they can't trust you to send me home if I'm in danger here."
"Do you think I would allow harm to come to you?"
Emma shrugged. "I didn't think you would yell at me."
"Emma!" Regina threw her arms up in exasperation. "You're reminding me a lot of your mother right now, and I don't like it. You're not a child anymore, and it's time to stop acting like one. You think being a princess entitles you to special treatment."
"No I don't!" Emma insisted. "I just… thought…"
Regina shook her head, quite clearly done with this conversation. "Go out and tend to your horse. You may return for dinner."
Emma left the palace in a huff, stomping and kicking the ground the entire way to the stables. She knew that was childish, but she wasn't sure what else to do. She was trapped in the confusing state of being treated like a child at home, and being expected to behave as an adult at the Dark Palace, and she was lost somewhere in the middle of those two things.
She dodged Diablo's stall as she entered the stable. He was huge and dark and domineering compared to her little foal. Amarillo had grown a little since she'd been there last, but he was still small and bright and full of energy and life.
Emma stepped over to the wall to grab a brush before entering Amarillo's stall. Along the way, she passed the empty stall with the embossed metal plaque reading ROCINANTE. She'd never worked up the nerve to ask Regina what happened to Rocinante, but she never missed the longing look in her dark eyes whenever she passed that door.
But now was not the time to wonder about such things. Regina had sent her to tend to her horse, and that's what she intended to do. She sat down on the stool in Amarillo's stall and began to brush the foal, hoping that when she finally returned to the palace for dinner, she'd find the Queen in a more agreeable mood.
"At least you seem yourself," she muttered to Amarillo, and jumped as Diablo let out an unexpectedly loud snort. She stared up at the huge black stallion, wondering for a moment if they horse had understood her and was responding.
"That's crazy," she whispered to herself, but finished brushing Amarillo in silence, none the less.
She quickly grew bored of tending to her horse, and she could tell by the sun that there was still quite a bit of time until dinner. She supposed Regina hadn't explicitly said to only tend to the horse until dinner, and she guessed it might be alright to go out and wander the palace grounds. She decided she wouldn't go far, and she wouldn't stay out long, and everything would be fine.
She walked around the back of the paddock where some of the other horses were still outside. Soon they would all be in their stalls, but the stable boys seemed to be behind on their duties today. Emma paid no mind to the horses as she rounded the back of the paddock.
Emma bristled at an unfamiliar sound behind her, like a twig breaking in the distance. She turned, but all she saw was the woods behind her. She knew she was near the perimeter of Regina's magical barrier, and she didn't fear anything beyond that invisible wall of magic, but that didn't particularly sound like the rustling of an animal behind her. She took a few steps closer to the barrier, and heard another small sound to her right.
Her head immediately snapped to the direction of the sound, but again, she saw nothing. Her senses were on high alert as she backed away from the invisible wall, as she was quite sure these noises were out of place. She turned, and from the corner of her eye spotted the faintest hint of movement in the woods, before a flurry of flaming arrows came at the barrier in rapid succession.
They couldn't get through, Emma knew, and she stared with wide eyes trying to catch sight of who was shooting them. They didn't seem to be shooting at her, specifically, but the arrows were hitting the barrier all around her and bouncing back, before hitting the ground.
Something was odd about the way the fire glowed on the ground as the arrows fell. It didn't seem to spread, but rather burned bright orange around the base of the barrier, mapping out a distinct curved line.
She didn't have time to think hard about what was happening though, as she heard one of the horses whinny behind her, and spun around to find one of the large grey stallions up on his hind legs, quite clearly spooked by the fire. She didn't even have time to react before the horse was down again, on four feet, and taking off in a gallop, barreling straight into the wooden fence, and then straight into Emma, knocking her to the ground.
She groaned and rolled onto her side, covering her head weakly with her hand as the horse took off, as though that might have protected her had he decided to stomp on her.
She hadn't been trampled but she felt like she had been as she tried to ease herself back onto her feet. The horse had managed to throw her a few yards, and she quickly found standing again wasn't going to be an option.
She fell back to her knees just as she heard Regina's panicked voice telling her not to move.
Out of the corner of her eye, she watched Regina magically freeze the remaining horses, all of whom looked like they were about to take off in the same direction the stallion just had, and Emma was aware that she might well have just been trampled completely.
Emma squinted in confusion as she realized the fence around the paddock had somehow caught fire. She watched as Regina extinguished it with the flick of her wrist, and then turned to observe the fire at the base of her magical barrier. She leaned forward, and looked as though she were about to blow out the flame on a birthday candle. Instead, she blew the bright orange flames back at the source they were coming from, and Emma watched in absolute awe as the forest before her lit up bright orange, before the flames turned purple and then burned out completely.
Regina stepped forward to her barrier, putting her hands on it, and it lit up in a bright purple flash. She held her hands there for several moments, before gasping and dropping her hands, taking several steps back, looking as though she were suddenly exhausted.
Emma had managed to pull herself back up into a standing position, on shaky legs, by the time Regina turned her attention back to her.
"Regina… what…"
"Shhh," Regina soothed her, putting a hand protectively on the back of Emma's head before poofing them back to her bedchambers in a cloud of purple smoke.
"Hilda!" Regina snapped at the servant girl who was busy cleaning the floors in her bedchambers when they reappeared. "Find Graham and tell him to send the army on a sweep of the woods. And there's a stallion on the loose on the palace grounds."
Hilda bowed her head to her Queen before scurrying off to do what she was told, as Regina gently urged Emma to lie down on the bed.
"What part of tend to your horse did you not understand?" Regina asked, as she ran her hands over Emma's head and face. Emma could feel Regina's magic healing her, and breathed a sigh of relief.
"I did," Emma insisted, although halfheartedly.
"You don't listen and you put yourself in danger," Regina lectured, as she worked her healing magic down Emma's body.
"I'm sorry," Emma whispered. She really didn't have another excuse, she reasoned.
"I'm sure you are, now that you've been injured," Regina said, her voice only mildly scolding now.
"How did the fire get in?" Emma asked, opting to change the subject instead.
"What?"
"The fire… how did it get through your barrier?"
"It didn't," Regina said, not looking at Emma's eyes.
"It did! I saw the fence on fire. You put it out!"
"You must have hit your head. I did no such thing."
"Why are you lying?"
"I'm not. Now, I must meet with my guard. You're to go to the dining room and eat, understand?"
"Alone?"
"Emma, I swear!"
"Alright!" Emma said, throwing her hands up in surrender as she sat up in Regina's bed. "I'll go."
Regina nodded and stood as Emma left the room quickly. Emma padded down the hallway, her mind still hyper alert to any sound around her, though she was sure Regina had just taken care of whatever threat was outside.
She wondered if that attack had anything to do with why Regina had been so apprehensive and short tempered today. She wondered if Regina had known that it - or something, at least - was coming. Emma was sure she couldn't have known there would be an attack near the stables, or she never would have sent her there, but something was definitely very wrong.
Regina had been lying to her since the moment she'd returned to the castle, that much Emma was sure of. She was lying about the war being over and she was absolutely lying about the fire that had penetrated the magical barrier.
For the first time, Emma suddenly wondered if her parents were right. Could they trust Regina to make the right call when it came to Emma's safety? Could she trust Regina?
She wasn't sure. All she knew was that she hoped that by tomorrow, the Regina she'd grown used to and adored would be back, and the tension of today could be long forgotten.