With a puff of smoke, Regina appeared inside the kitchen, startling Belle and nearly causing her to drop the loaves of bread she held
"Traveling spell?" Belle asked.
"Yes," Regina smiled. "I have the power to go anywhere now."
"And where do you want to go?" Belle asked. She saw the smile disappear from Regina's face quickly.
"Nowhere. I am content to be here and work on my magic," she said.
"Well I know I would miss you if you left," Belle smiled.
"You don't have to worry about that," Regina said snatching a piece of bread from the tray. "I am not going anywhere until I master all the magic I can."
With a wave of her hand, Regina poofed away. Belle would indeed miss Regina if she did leave. Even though Regina spent most of her spare time studying, she still made time to sit and talk with Belle and that meant a lot to her. It felt good to have a friend, even one she worried about as much as Regina. She knew Regina was not over the hurt caused by Emma's betrayal and the more powerful she became with magic the more Belle wondered what she intended to do with that magic once she mastered it.
She shook the thought from her mind. Regina was a good person who ended up in a bad situation but it didn't mean she would do anything bad.
Regina had been more cheerful these last couple of days. She had been eating her meals – well most of them – and Belle had seen her smile a few more times than she had been.
Regina had told her all about her uncle and how it caused a rift between her mother and Queen Snow. She started to tell her about what Rumple wanted from her but stopped until Belle assured that she knew about his search for his son. She admitted she didn't know all the details but she did know that he missed his son very much.
As much as Belle would miss Regina when she eventually left she couldn't help but wish Regina would leave to clear things up with Emma. She still didn't believe that Emma could be that intentionally cruel. No, she didn't know Emma, but she knew Regina's love for Emma which is why she found it unbelievable. If it wasn't the truth though, what was?
She didn't want to think about the one thing that had crept into her mind during all this – that Rumple could have something to do with it.
She wasn't naïve, she knew he was the Dark One, but she also knew he was capable of kindness, of humanity, and for those reasons, she was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.
Still, Regina needed to talk to Emma, find out for herself if Emma's love for her was real.
….
Once she had mastered the traveling spell, Regina had moved on to more magic. She was studying one of the spell books at her desk in her room when a noise in the courtyard caught her attention. It was well after midnight which is why she let it take her attention from her studies. She moved closer to the window and looked down. Several horses and riders had galloped into the courtyard. She recognized some of the Rumple's men, the same ones who escorted her here.
But she also recognized who they had with them now.
Rushing out of the room, having never changed into bedclothes she was suitably dressed, she ran down the stairs and into the courtyard where the Dark One was facing his newest guests.
"Regina!" Cora said running forward and hugging her daughter.
"Mother?" Regina asked in confusion and then looked up at the other rider who had been with her. "Daniel?"
"Are you unharmed?" Daniel asked, coming up to stand next to her mother. "Has he hurt you in any way?"
Regina glanced over at Rumplestiltskin who looked like he was bored.
"What? No," Regina said shaking her head. "I am perfectly well. What are you doing here?"
"Once Daniel told me you were a captive of him, I came at once. We have ridden from our homestead with nary a stop to get here," Cora said. She turned to Rumplestiltskin. "Release my daughter."
Rumplestiltskin made an exaggerated yawn. "I assume you will be staying the night; I will have beds made up for you."
He turned to leave. "We aren't staying. I am taking my daughter and leaving now," Cora said grabbing Regina's wrist.
Regina pulled away. "I am not going anywhere," she said. "I am not his captive. I am here by my own choice." It wasn't entirely true given the circumstances by which she ended up here, but she didn't see any reason to explain that to her mother. Although she had to wonder how Daniel knew she was here, and the only reason she could come up with was Emma.
"What have you done to my daughter?" Cora demanded.
"Seriously, I am going to have beds made up for you and your young companion there. If you choose to leave you are free to do just as you always have been Cora. Or you can sleep in the stables with your horses if staying under my roof is that distasteful to you. As for Regina, as she has pointed out she is not my captive. She too is free to leave whenever," he said. The entire time he was grinning.
This time he did go inside.
"Take their horses to the stable," Regina ordered the stable hands. "You two look like you could use a rest so why don't you take the offered hospitality of your host. We can speak in the morning."
"Regina," Cora said. "Tell me he hasn't asked you to do any magic."
Regina laughed and she called up a fireball into her hand. Cora watched as the firelight lit up her daughter's face and she saw the expression on Regina's face as she studied the ball of flames before extinguishing it.
"Like I said we can speak in the morning. Perhaps at that time, you will explain why you never told me I had this power," she said.
She made her way inside and Daniel looked to Cora, who merely nodded her head to say they should follow. Once inside Cora saw Regina speaking to another young woman before returning to them. "Belle has made sure there are rooms available for you. She will see you to them. I will see you both at breakfast."
Belle directed both of them upstairs while Regina disappeared through another door.
"Where is my daughter's room?" Cora asked.
"On the floor above the one you will be in," Belle answered.
"Is it possible for me to be put on the same floor as her?" she asked.
Belle paused. "Sorry, but I think you should stay in the room that is being set aside for you. You will see Regina in the morning."
Cora knew it wasn't this woman's fault so she kept her anger in check. She didn't imagine she would be getting much sleep tonight being back in this castle. She needed to think about what to say to Regina in the morning as it was clear to her that the Dark One already had his hooks into her. She thought about the way Regina had looked at that fireball and she knew that once upon a time she too had that same look on her face – the look that said I have power now so watch out.
….
Emma was worried when Daniel hadn't returned to see her after going to the Mills estate. When a messenger arrived with a letter from him to her, she didn't feel any better about it. Daniel said he was accompanying Cora Mills to the Dark One's castle to get Regina back. She was not surprised Daniel would do something like this – he did after all have feelings for Regina and he was very brave, but she worried about him confronting the Dark One.
At the same time, she had a bit of hope that he would succeed and bring Regina back. But even that hope was washed away because she didn't know if Regina would be happy to see her or not. It was her fault that Regina was even there. She shouldn't have made that deal with him but she was desperate for her and Regina to be together.
Even as the ball approached she had barely exchanged words with her mother unless it was necessary. Her father tried to talk to her about it, but she started to give him the silent treatment too. Why couldn't they see that she only wanted to be with the woman she loved? She didn't care about Regina's social standing or who her mother was; she only cared about being with her.
They were holding their ground though in forcing her into a marriage with Killian.
She had found Killian pleasant enough before but now that she was being forced into a relationship with him she found she couldn't stand being around him. It wasn't his fault, it was only that he wasn't Regina.
She had gone as far as telling Killian she didn't love him and never would because she loved another. He shrugged it off saying she would learn to love him in time.
She knew if Daniel returned without Regina or if anything had happened to Regina while she was a prisoner of the Dark One, she would never forgive herself.
It's just she didn't think he could break a deal and the deal had been that he would help her and Regina be together by sending them someplace where who they were and who their parents were wouldn't matter. They would be free to be together if that is what they wished, he had said. All he wanted was to ask Regina a question.
She should have pressed him more on what he wanted to ask Regina because she feared that it was at the heart of why he had not sent for her so she could rejoin her lady love.
Regina had been scared as the riders took her away and that look of fear and uncertainty was now etched in Emma's brain forever.
She swore to herself that if Daniel returned with Regina she would do whatever it took to be with her. She would renounce her title if that is what it would take. She wouldn't be forced into some marriage with Killian, she would tell the world that Regina was her love and she fully intended on marrying her. She should have stood up to her mother from the beginning and it would never have gotten this far.
She realized she had behaved very selfishly up to this point – asking Regina to run away when the risk would be solely on her and her family, making this deal with the Dark One – but she swore if she got another chance she would put Regina ahead of everything else.
…
Cora left her room early the next morning, but she didn't go upstairs to Regina's instead she went to where she knew she would find Rumplestiltskin – in his study.
"Good morning Cora, I hope you slept well," he said when she entered without bothering to knock.
"She is my daughter!" Cora said. "How dare you."
"How dare I what?"
"Don't play games with me. I am not someone who is afraid of you, or someone too young and innocent not to know the dangers you pose," she spat back. "You will release Regina today, this morning."
"As I said and she said last night, I am not holding her captive. She is here of her own free will," he said getting up from behind his desk and approaching her. "She has chosen to stay and learn from me. Perhaps if you had shared your talents with her, she wouldn't see the need to have me as her teacher."
She narrowed her eyes at him. "You are manipulating her. She is a child."
"Really because she seems like an adult to me, of marrying age if I am not mistaken. Don't worry, I am not in the market for a wife," he laughed.
"I know how you got her here, I know about the deal you made with Princess Emma. Yet where is your end of the bargain? It's said you can't break a deal yet I don't see you doing anything to bring Emma and Regina together."
"I didn't realize you were in favor of such a union," he smirked.
"I am not," she said. "But that is not the point so tell me what is your plan here?"
"My plan is to fulfill my end of the bargain of course."
"Tell me then, what exactly was the deal? How exactly did you word it because I know that you left a loophole in there and Emma being young and naïve and apparently love-struck wouldn't have caught it," she said.
"Now, now Cora you of all people should know I don't go around telling the details of my deals," he said.
"Then I will ask Regina," she said turning.
"Tut, tut, tut," he said. "I haven't made any deals with Regina so what makes you think she has the answer you are looking for? My deal was with Princess Emma, so she is the only one I have to fulfill my part of the bargain with."
"You are messing with the lives of two young girls, and for what?" Cora said. "If you think Regina is going to cast that spell – because you are a fool if you don't think I know that is why she here – then you are insane. I am taking my daughter home."
"If you had simply cast it all those years ago then perhaps your daughter wouldn't be here now."
"Have you even told her yet? Have you told her of this spell and what it does?"
"Regina is extremely talented, perhaps even more so than you my dear Cora, because she wants it more. You turned your back on your gift so don't complain to me when your daughter who shares that gift wants to explore it."
"I didn't turn my back on anything. I fell in love. I chose love over a life where power was the only thing that mattered," she said. "Regina too is in love as misguided as that may be and the moment she is gone from this place she will gravitate to that love and not toward this twisted path you seek to put her on."
"Do you really think so?" he said.
"Yes, because true love is the strongest magic of them all," she said walking out.