Chapter 4.

"My name is Emma, Crown Princess of Misthaven, and I am here to make a deal with you Dark One."

She tried to keep the tremble out of her voice, keep the pain she was in from slipping through, but her reaction to his proximity was something she could not master. He seemed to be at odds with his very nature. For as his cold blue eyes widened, they seemed to match the shade of the most comforting of summer days, and his dark beauty seemed designed to shield the demon beneath. But the feature that brought the most terror to her was the gleam of curving silver, an item that possessed such a graceful composition. She had heard tales of the deeds it performed, and bleakly wondered how such smooth curves could cut such harsh lines as stories told.

He continued to stare at her, his face blank, not responding to her pronouncement, and fear began to get the better of her trembling limbs. Her breaths became shorter and her already hazy vision grew even more indistinct. And still he continued to remain silent, his face impassive and unreadable. He wasn't going to help her, she realized. This was all in vain. He was going to dismiss her and she would have nowhere left to turn. Her parents... Henry…. would die and her kingdom would be ravaged by The Evil Queen's cruelty. And there would be nothing she could do but watch as all she loved was taken from her.

The thought forced tears from her eyes, rolling down her cheeks, and she could no more stop them than the tides that pulled at the shore beside her. She only had enough wherewithal to keep herself upright, swaying slightly as she drowned in her despair. But through blurry eyes, she watched his brows furrow momentarily. His throat worked hard as his eyes gleamed with a curious light, lips tight in an expression she couldn't place.

"What's wrong with you?" he barked out suddenly, his voice harsh and low. Another odd contradiction, for there was a gentle melody to the way his tongue caressed the words, but his tone bit them out, making them cruel and ragged.

At his tone, she startled, giving a small yelp of fright at his direct question, trying to sort out the words through the fog of fear that clouded her mind. Trying to overcome the trembling enough to get the desperately needed words to be said.

"I...My pare...My king- peop...They.. We...-"

"SPIT IT OUT LASS," he snarled. She instinctively stumbled back from his raised voice, thudding into the solid mass of horse flesh behind her.

The horse let low a warning wicker, swinging his head around to rest next to his liege lady's. He sent a withering glare at the demon who had so coarsely raised his voice at the sweet child. The demon gave him a black look, and all the instincts of his forebears told him to take his lady and get as far from the creature as his legs would carry them. But his lady had come here for a reason, and until her goal had been reached, he would remain steadfast by her side.

She felt the warmth of the beast behind her, so different from the cold that the man before her seemed to radiate. The cold that seemed to leech the strength from her bones and make all her aches throb, despite trying to keep Henry's smile at the forefront of her mind. And she could not find the courage to say what needed to be said. As she realized this, that she had failed her family, her kingdom, her son, her knees crumbled under her and she felt into a heap on the sand, sobbing as sheer hopelessness overwhelmed her.

"What the bloody hell is wrong with you?" His sharp rebuke had her cowering further into the sand, afraid of what wrath he might unleash now that she had summoned him to a fruitless endeavour.

"Oh for the love of all the gods," came an exasperated sigh. She was suddenly being gripped by a hand with the strength of iron, being lifted bodily from the ground before being set on her feet roughly, feeling his fingers bruise her as he squeezed and drawing another yelp from her. She tried to shy away, sure that her heart was going to beat out of her chest in her terror, but the hand remained tight around her upper arm until she stilled, sobbing violently afresh at the latest terror.

"Bloody woman..." she heard before the hand left her arm to reappear on her chin, forcing her face upward with a might that would not be refused, and before she could compose herself even marginally, she was staring into his red-rimmed blue eyes.

She would have startled at his proximity but his eye froze her in place, like a snake ensnaring a bird. He looked so weary, circles carved deeply beneath his eyes, and behind the anger, she saw an unquenchable sorrow and the shadow of regret. The look of a thing being torn apart by its own mind. But as swift as the observations came to her, they fled in the storm that she watched darken his brow.

"You blood summoned me here princess, so bloody well spit it out before I get back on my damn ship and leave you here sobbing in the mud."

"No," she whispered in horror. His words somehow calmed her more than anything else could. He had not refused her. He hadn't left. She could not allow him to leave. He was her last hope. He was the only one who could save her family. Who could save Henry. "No."

She watched a black eyebrow crawl upward as he sneered, "Then bloody well get on with it."

She took a deep breath, trying to steady her legs beneath her as they throbbed painfully. She stepped back, trying to ignore the tears still cascading down her face, for she knew there was no stopping them, and tried to piece together her request. For Henry, she reminded herself, trying to pull any royal decorum she had left to straighten her aching spine and raise her trembling chin. With her movement, he allowed the hand that had been roughly grasping her chin to fall to his belt buckle, his hooked arm lying oh so neatly against the hilt of his sword, and he simply waited, a mocking expression on his face.

For Henry. "I need to save my kingdom," she managed in a whisper. The mocking sneer was suddenly gone, a stone cold expression taking its place. She took hope that it was a good sign and that he was listening. That he no longer found humor in her fear.

She continued, "The Ev-The Evil Queen has taken my parents and..." her voice faded as some small strength in her suddenly violently wished to withhold information about Henry from the creature. He started briefly, a tiny flinch, before his eyes narrowed. She summoned up that small shred of strength that had so viscerally made itself known and continued. "A- and I need your help to get them back."

His head tilted to the side as he regarded her concluding words. Her heart fluttered as quickly as a bird's wing in her chest, hope in this final recourse rising and falling just as quickly, so that the moment seemed to stretch onward for far too long.

Then a slow smile crept upon his lips as his hand came up to playfully curl about the hair of his beard. Sending a considering look upward, fingers dancing before a single ringed digit ended up tapping his chin and his eyes returned to hers, "Aye, and what can you offer?"

A rush of relief overwhelmed her, in spite of the continued fear that his eyes instilled in her. She scrambled to reply, to lay everything at his feet so he would be willing to accept something.

"Whatever you desire. I have the keys to the kingdom, any title you wish, any amount of gold, anything." Anything to help her family. Anything to save Henry.

But as she spoke she noticed the smile fade into a look of disdain, "What the bloody hell would I want with any of that? "

Her whole world froze. He wanted none of it. Nothing she offered had even tempted him into accepting. No, she had come too far, and this was all she had left, there had to be some-

Her blood froze as her mind suddenly landed on the thing she possessed that was of greatest value to a man like him.

For Henry.

"Me." It came out as a ghost of a whisper, but his eyes sharpened as his whole face transformed into a mask of steel yet again.

"What did you say lass?" his voice was low, modulated, like he was sure he hadn't heard her right. His blue eyes seemed for a moment to shimmer with something and she felt a small glimmer of hope.

"You can have me. Anything you want from me, so long as you save my family."

His eyes blazed and she felt her hope burn away in their fury.

"Who the bloody hell do you take me for?!" he snarled. His wrath was completely unexpected and she again jerked back in horror and fear, her foolish notion quickly erased. "I am not some bloody slaver, nor will I allow such a thing to be practiced. NO. Go find someone else to help you. I am finished with y-"

She was still reeling in shock from his outburst when she was thrown yet again by his abrupt halt in speech, watching as he snapped around to glare at something in the same direction as his ship, which was creaking noisily in the wind. His hand tightened into a fist and suddenly the air around her seemed to vanish, making it impossible to breath, making her skin feel as if it had somehow become pulled away from the flesh beneath. The sensation continued to get more and more intense as he continued to glare at the ship

Suddenly, one of the sails of his ship snapped violently and he flinched again, ever so slightly. And just as quickly as it had come, the sensation vanished, the air returned, and his hand relaxed by his side as he turned back to face her. His eyes were empty. She had failed.

Henry.

"Aye, lass, for your willing soul, I'll save your family."