Chapter thirteen

"How did you find this?" Emma asked.

"Grampa has a lot of books, I thought they were fiction so I just read a few," Henry said rather defensively.

Emma looked up from the counter that Henry had placed the spell book on and shot Gold a warning look, "you left him alone with magical items?"

Gold looked over at Cora who offered no reaction, he was just glad that the other two Charmings had decided to stay home and look after Tamsin, he wasn't in the mood to deal with three withering looks, though, he knew that the look from his own daughter would have been the only one that would have made him feel even slightly guilty.

"I didn't leave anything dangerous, it's just a book," he pointed out.

Emma rolled her eyes and looked back down at the spell, "you could have mentioned that there was a spell to look into someone's memories," she scowled.

"In my defence, I am not very well versed in light magic, Miss Swan," he shot back.

Emma rolled her eyes and continued to read the spell, biting her lip in concentration, she considered whether she would be able to perform something so complicated.

"Well neither am I," she sighed.

Cora came over to the counter and peered down at the text, "you just need to memorise the spell," she assured, "and not get a single word wrong."

The blonde paled and asked, "why?"

"It's very similar to some darker spells that I have come across in the past, there is a very real possibility of making things one hundred times worse."

"You can do it then."

Cora smiled sadly and shook her head, "I am afraid that I am just as adept at light magic as Rumple."

"You can do it ma," Henry said quite excitedly, "you can find out what happened and then fix it."

Emma nodded and picked up the book, "I guess I have some studying to do."

Regina stared at the child sleeping happily in the crib and sighed deeply.

Her sister had warned her what was about to happen and despite her best efforts, she was powerless to stop her. It soon became clear that it took light magic to so much as harm the witch, something that their little band of heroes were ironically lacking.

A crashing could be heard in the background as the guards fought against the flying monkeys, but they were no match against the enemy's mistress, who crashed straight through the door to the nursery.

Tamsin began to wail wildly as the sound woke her up, and Regina felt anger consume her. She knew that she should be mad about many other things, like missing her girlfriend and her son, but for some reason, Tamsin's sleep being interrupted was the last straw.

"You shouldn't have done that," she growled as she stood from her position next to the crib.

Zelena smirked and walked towards her younger sister, "and what are you going to do about it, Gina?" she asked mockingly, "you are powerless against me."

Regina clenched her fists, and then she seemed to suddenly realise that the older woman was right, and allowed the tension to slightly fall away, though her anger still remained.

"If you harm my child, it will be the last thing you ever do," she replied in a threatening, eerily Evil Queen-like growl.

Zelena, however, was completely unaffected by the empty threat, she was completely sure that there was nothing the younger woman could do to stop her plan.

"Trust me, when I carry out my plan, you will no longer be able to protect your child."

Regina furrowed her brow in confusion, which caused Zelena to laugh manically.

"You won't be able to protect little Thomasina if neither of you are ever born, I simply need to go back in time and ensure that mother keeps me. She will never meet your father, and I can give her everything she wanted from a daughter."

Regina ignored the second part of Zelena's little speech and instead laughed, "you plan to go back in time? How could you ever hope to break the laws of magic?"

With a wave of her hand, a broken sword appeared in her hand, "the essence of dear Charming's courage, all I need is a symbol of love and innocence, I believe your heart and child will suffice."

Regina looked at the sword and tried not to roll her eyes, she never understood why Charming felt the need to 'quest' alone, she distinctly remembered him coming running back to the castle in a frenzy complaining about being attacked by Zelena, at least she now knew why it had happened.

"You will never get to Tamsin," she replied.

"Once I have your heart, you won't have much of a choice, dear little sister," Zelena glowered.

Regina looked over at the crib that contained the wailing child, she knew that Tamsin was the most important thing in this moment. There was nothing she could do to stop Zelena from carrying out her plan, expect…

Frantic footsteps could be heard in the hallway, and Regina instantly decided that this was the only plan that could protect her child, she just hoped that her parents and the two idiots could find a way for Tamsin to have at least one mother.

With a deep breath she said, "you won't have access to what you need," before Zelena could question, Regina sank her hand into her own chest, and with a ragged breath ripped out her own heart.

The older woman stared at the blackened beating organ for a moment, completely mesmerised.

In that moment, she failed to realise what was about to happen, until Regina let out a grunt of pain, "No!" the witch shouted as the ingredient she needed turned to dust.

Regina collapsed to the floor, and Zelena stood completely shocked, she couldn't believe that the Evil Queen would do that for her child. Deciding that she could easily find another symbol of love, she walked over to the crib and reached down to pick up the child. However, as her hands came close to the innocent girl, she was instantly thrown back by a force field.

After hitting the wall, she look over at the girl who was still crying uncontrollably, "impossible," she whispered.

At the same moment, Rumple and Cora ran through the door and they each took a moment to stare at their unmoving daughter.

Cora turned to look at her other child, but Zelena quickly disappeared in a cloud of green smoke.

The woman blinked a few times, but then quickly followed Rumple's lead and fell down next to Regina, "what happened?" she choked out.

Rumple looked over at the pile of dust on the floor, and Cora followed his line of sight, instantly recognising what it was, "no…" she whispered.

Rumple swallowed hard and nodded to tell her he was thinking the same thing, whispering a few spells a glow surrounded his daughter's body, preserving her in the same way that Daniel had been.

"We need to get back to Emma," he replied.

"Did it work?" Cora asked, once the faraway look had left Emma's eyes.

The saviour blinked out of the images she had just worked. In this moment, she began to wish that the spell hadn't worked, but still nodded.

"It did," she replied in a hoarse voice.

"And…" Henry prompted.

"She has no heart."

A/N Hope you guys enjoyed, I should probably admit that the part where she went flying back was inspired by Harry Potter haha

Anyway, I would love to hear what you thought of the chapter XD