I don't own OUAT

Cora rolled over, gazing at her sleeping fiance. His chest rose and fell at an even pace, so at ease with the world around him. She brushed an errant piece of hair away from his face. It had slipped over his closed eyes, and obstructed her view of his face. She smiled softly, satisfied with this peaceful moment. Her body was sore from their night's loving. As she was about to wake him, she heard the sound of a door creaking open nearby. She rose up on one shoulder as Kryssi entered the room.

"Ma'am, I brought you three new-" Her eyes widened and she dropped the gowns that were in her arms as she caught sight of who was in the bed. "Oh, pardon me. I... I should go!" She ran out the door, leaving the gowns on the ground. "Oh, no, I should..." She ran back into the room, reaching for the dresses when her hand touched another's. Cora had gotten out of bed to gather the dresses on her own. She stared at the woman for a moment. "Ma'am, you're not dressed yet." Cora chuckled.

"That is because my servant just threw my dresses at the ground." Kryssi flushed, her pale skin turning bright red.

"Yes, of course. My apologies, Ma'am!" Cora smiled at the woman.

"It is perfectly alright, my dear." She lifted the dresses herself. Kryssi quickly took them from her, the man in Cora's bed quickly forgotten. "Would you help me dress?" Kryssi nodded quickly, almost dropping the dresses again. Cora caught them once again, steadying the shaky girl. She held the dresses up for Cora's inspection.

These new gowns were more fitting to her, and much better than the previous. Cora grinned, selecting an emerald green dress with black sequins decorating it. It was made of a delicate satin, and changed shades in the flickering light. Cora took a black corset out of the wardrobe, wrapping it around her chest.

"Kryssi?" The girl hurried to her side, tying the corset tightly. She then gently pulled the dress onto Cora, looking at it carefully.

"You look beautiful, Ma'am." For once, Cora agreed. She gazed into her looking glass, smiling at the woman looking back at her. She finally looked like a royal. Perhaps this new look would gain her more respect from the other occupants of the castle. She sat down, looking over her minimal collection of jewelry, pulling her mother's old locket over her head. Her mother had died giving birth to her, and it was the one gift her father had ever given her. It was the only thing that truly mattered to her.

"Thank you, Kryssi. You may go now." She was beginning to develop a soft spot for the girl. It was worrying. She was here to gain power, not grow soft over a servant girl and foolish Prince. She walked out of the bedroom, assuring herself before she left that Henry was still asleep. She heard the door shut as Kryssi left her chambers.

"Sending away your little family, dearie?" She turned around quickly towards the voice that she had not expected to hear so soon. He came up to her, a quick kiss all that he would give her for the moment. She waited for him to continue, but he moved on quickly.

"Whatever do you mean?" He glanced at her irritably, sending her a knowing gaze.

"Leaving your prince in your bed was too messy for you, Cora. I expected better from you in the way of hiding him from me." She looked shocked and outraged, staring at him in astonishment.

"I was with my fiance! The only thing I did wrong was not wait for marriage, but we both know I would hardly have been pure at my wedding regardless. You made certain of that" He gripped her wrist tightly in his hand, his taloned fingernails digging into her wrists. She cried out in pain, trying to pull away from him.

"You ungrateful girl!" He tossed her to the ground. "I taught you how to please a man. Not how to please an old tired dog! Your foolish prince should have been your stepping stone, not a chance at 'true love'" He said the ending mockingly, as he so often did when speaking on the matter. His words were cruel, but his actions were worse. While she was on the ground, he sent orbs of glowing dark energy through her body. She screamed, and he stuffed her mouth with a pillow he had stolen from her room. "Wouldn't want to wake your precious Henry, would we, dearie?" Her body continued to writhe in pain, her cries muffled but not silenced by the pillow. He gripped her shoulder tightly, disappearing in a puff of purple smoke.

They reappeared in the bedroom of his castle. It was a barren room, with only a hard bed in the center of the room and a spinning wheel in the corner. Had it been under different circumstances, perhaps she would have questioned him on it. Instead, she found herself chained to the bed, her arms held over her head, and ankles chained to the posts of the bed. The brand new gown she had just dressed in was tattered, the bottom ripped off, and the top slipping lower than intended. He had temporary let up on her torture, allowing the pain from his prior spells seep through her as all traces of shock vanished, and she was hit with the abrupt reality of the situation. She was at his mercy. And in that moment, she was not quite sure whether or not she would make it out alive.

"Do you want to see what I do to little girls who betray me, dearie?" He reached into a leather bag that had appeared out of thin air and pulled out a long whip. He ran it through his fist, cracking it as it went through. She tried pulling at her restraints, but she found that all that came from it was raw wrists. Teeth sunk into her lips. She was not willing to give him the pleasure of hearing her pain. She held true to the defiance he had once found so pleasing.

He stood beside her, whip in hand, just watching her for a moment. And then, raising his arm, he flung the whip down across her chest, her dress and flesh tearing where the whip laid into her. She did not make a sound. He cried out, letting his anger spill out of him as he laid into her with the whip, her skin falling to tatters. Still, she kept silent, biting through her lip and clenching her eyes shut as the pain ran through her body. She could not give him that satisfaction. He stopped, panting from the effort, and tossed the whip down.

He leaned over her body, kissing her with all the anger he had just put into tearing her apart. Her blood was on her lips, a familiar taste that was almost a drug for him. It was addictive, essential to his continued existence. He licked it from her lips until it was all gone before turning to the war zone he had made of her body. After sending away the tatters of her gown, he began to kiss his way along the markings made by the whip, tasting her blood once again on his lips. It was now, when his eyes had changed from dark with fury to a whole new shade, a color clouded by lust, that she writhed, trying, once again, to free herself from the beast. But the bonds stayed firm, as she knew they would. He was the Dark One. If he wanted her to say chained to that bed for the rest of her life, that was how it would be.

"Are you going to behave now, Cora?" She spit at him, a mixture of blood and saliva hitting his cheek. He wiped it off with a cruel laugh. "I guess I've got your answer!" He raised his hands over her naked and mangled body, once again summoning the dark energy to seep in through the cuts in her skin. Her body twisted and contorted as the energy tore through her, tearing apart her organs, burning through her veins. Her blood boiled, and her heart was pierced repeatedly by his dark magic. She finally gave in, no longer able to hold in the gut-wrenching, animalistic screech that tore through her broken body. A few more minutes of a torture, and it seemed her scream would be never ending. Finally, he moved his hands from her, releasing her from her torture.

Her broken body was not a safe place for her now irrevocably damaged mind to return to. Sobs tore through her, from the pain she had felt in both body and mind, and the betrayal of the man she had thought loved her. She gazed up at him, watching as he wiped off the whip that was drenched in her blood. He did it painstakingly, as though he cared more for the cleanliness of his whip than he did of her rapidly fading life.

"Please.." she begged. "Please. Save me." He turned to her, a cold expression on his face full of anger, disappointment, and a hint of pain. Perhaps she deluded herself with the latter, believing that some part of him truly did care for her. It was a stupid idea, but quite possibly the one thread keeping her from allowing her mind to go rampant for the moments she had left of life. She needed to think that he still loved her. It was the only reason for her to keep trying to push air in and out of her destroyed lungs.

"I did not teach you magic so that you could be a simple house wife! I want a powerful apprentice, Cora. One who will go far, surpass any who stands in her way." She nodded, tears still pouring out of her eyes.

"Yes. I will, I promise" Her voice was thin, so very soft that she was not sure that he had heard her at all. She learned he had when he continued.

"An apprentice who will call me Master." He glared at her, daring her to question him.

"I will. Please... Save me, Master." She went into a coughing fit, blood shooting out across her already blood-stained chest. He came up to her, brushing her hair back gently, as he had done so many times before, stroking it gently. He combed his fingers through the tangles and clumps of blood that had dried and hardened in her hair. As he did so, a pink glow emanated from his palm, healing all her wounds. However, she was still naked, tied down to the bed. "Release me, please." He looked at her curiously for a moment, before yanking her locket off of her neck, releasing her bondage at the same moment.

"It looks like you've finally learned your lesson, dearie."