Apologies that this took so long to get up, hopefully the next one will be faster. I'm diverging from canon quite a bit with Lily and a few other things [spoilers] that I'll explain in later chapters.
Huge thanks to Race and Wapwani for all their help and support. :)
When the dark moon finally arrived the second time, they were prepared. Mal wore her dark red pyjamas, and the top buttoned up to her elegant collarbones. Regina's were blue, and silky and it was almost funny to see her wearing them, because usually she went to bed with Emma naked. It was ridiculous really, how they both managed to look so put together, even with their hair down and makeup gone so that Emma wasn't sure she ever would, or could, look as regal as either Mal or Regina did in their pyjamas.
Henry sat with his laptop at Regina's desk, taking notes, with scanned files of the most delicate pages of the book they'd taken the spell from. He still wore jeans and a hoody but that was fine. He wasn't involved in the spell and if it was anything like the last time, he and Emma would have hours of watching Regina and Maleficent sit motionless while the spell took them away to that netherplace where they looked for Lily.
Lily. The name was almost too much. Emma's traitorous mind kept turning the name - and all the memories that came with it - over and over. Like worrying at a loose tooth or picking at a bandage it ached. She couldn't help but think of her Lily, and how she'd left her, so long ago. Maybe there was something in the name, poor lost little girls named Lily, or maybe she was just being foolish, recent events ripping open wounds that never had truly healed. Even now, decades later, the guilt was still fresh. With the eyes and experience of an adult Emma could see so clearly how much pain Lily had been in, how young and afraid they both had been.
And Emma had given in to that fear, until she'd pushed Lily away, right when the other girl had needed her most.
Maybe when this was all over she'd reach out to her contacts and start looking again. After all, if they could find one Lily, why not both? Emma wasn't the same person she'd been years ago, she'd been given a second and a third and a fourth chance.
Lily deserved the same.
Regina's hand reaching for hers scattered her thoughts and Emma squeezed her fingers, letting the warmth and strength of Regina's hand ground her. A little too warm. Emma tried not to frown but the knot in her stomach that had taken up residence since the first time she'd watched Regina go through this spell tightened. Maybe Dr. Whale had been right, and Regina had some kind of virus. Despite the warmth of her skin, even in the comfortable library, Regina had a sweater on over her pyjamas and Emma had seen her shiver earlier. This whole mess needed to be over soon. They needed to find Lily so Regina and Mal could stop exhausting themselves.
Regina's hand squeezed hers and dark eyes were knowing and gentle. Emma tried to smile in return but she knew she looked tired. They were all so damn tired. Leaning in, she kissed Regina's cheek. "You'll find her this time."
Whether she was talking to Regina or herself, Emma couldn't say.
"I hope so, I don't know if I can come up with enough blood to do this again." Regina was trying to smile but it only made the knot in Emma's stomach twist harder. They were playing with dangerous forces and it was only the knowledge that there was no way Mal or Regina would listen to her that made Emma bite her tongue and keep quiet.
"Realms in this world are far too large," Mal added, staring at the map and the cities they'd managed to cross off. "How does anyone rule a land this large?"
"It's not really one person," Emma said, hoping she could avoid an explanation of how the government worked in the outside world. "And it doesn't always work."
"If they tried in smaller realms, we wouldn't have to spend so much time looking for our daughter," Mal grumbled at the map hanging on the bookcase. She sat at the table, staring at the pile of names they still had to go through. They'd reached nearly the middle of the country now, Tennessee, Indiana, Illinois, then Wisconsin, and Minnesota. Emma had spent many years in Minnesota and it wouldn't make sense for Mal's Lily to be there, not when Emma's Lily had been. As strange as Emma's life had been, beyond the borders of Storybrooke there was no magic, and no great and powerful forces manipulating things. The Lily she had known - had hurt - had been nothing but another lost young woman who lacked a good support system and had acted out because of it. Just like Emma. Her Lily had made her own choices, just like Emma.
Regina gave Emma's hand one last reassuring squeeze, then moved to sit across from Mal at the table,, rolling her shoulders and taking a deep breath Emma now recognized as a centering exercise. Emma opened the plastic bags of blood, pouring first Regina's then Mal's into the same glass measuring cup they'd used last month. Henry wrinkled his nose at the rich metallic scent but didn't turn away, his expression far more interested than disgusted although the glances he kept throwing at Regina told Emma their son felt some of her uncertainty. Heart of the Truest Believer Henry might have had, but he had learned some very painful lessons in just how human his mothers were in the last year. Emma really really hoped this wasn't about to be another one.
Pushing her thoughts away from their dark direction, she concentrated on setting up the ritual, small help though it might be, it still made her feel slightly less useless. Emma desperately needed to not feel helpless right now.
The scent of Mal' blood had another note to it, sulfur and ash mixed in with the familiar rusty smell of human blood. Emma set the cup of blood next to the slightly smaller stack of papers.
Mal nodded to Regina, and they took each other's hands. They shut their eyes in unison, slipping into the joint trance that had let them work the spell last time. Their mingled blood sat still for a moment, then rose into the air, as it had last time, but it stopped before it touched the pages. Something was wrong and Emma felt it in the air like an electric current, or a chord gone sour.
Henry watched the blood hover in the air, not touching the paper before it broke and crashed back into the cup. It splashed, then bubbled and she and Henry shared a horrified look. Wrongness set all of Emma's senses alight, like sirens screaming in her ears. Even though they'd just sunk into the spell, sweat already coated Mal and Regina's faces, and tears ran from both of their eyelids, chasing down their cheeks. They both sat still as stone, but as their blood started to roll and boil in the cup in front of them, Regina's nose began to bleed. Fat drops of red fell to the table in front of her, and Emma jumped to put a tissue against her nose. She couldn't stop it, and what had been dripping, became a stream.
"What's happening?" Henry asked, worried, and Emma had no answer for him.
"Does the spellbook say anything about going wrong?" she asked, hoping to distract him with the pages, so he wouldn't watch Regina's nosebleed continue to worsen. Emma stole a glance at Mal, and like Regina, her nose had started to bleed. Her blood ran slower, and perhaps she was better at fighting whatever this was, but her skin was just as pale.
"It doesn't say anything about nosebleeds, but it's old. It's worded in a weird way," Henry replied, and for a moment his voice rose in pitch and he was a kid afraid for his mom again.
Emma looked from Regina to Maleficent and pulled back her hand. She slapped Mal, because her nose was bleeding less, and she was more likely to be able to break the spell. Her hand cracked across Mal's cheek, and her eyelids fluttered.
"Come on," Emma muttered, almost like a prayer. "Pull yourself out of it. Break it. I know you can do it."
"Interference!" Henry said suddenly, and he left the laptop to run to Emma and his mother. "The spell book says that some kinds of magic can interfere with the spell "
Emma couldn't think of any magic that Regina or Maleficent had been casting, unless it was the healing spell that she'd accidentally cast on Regina two days ago. She'd been so angry, and she couldn't funnel it anywhere. It had itched her hands, burned within her so hot that she'd had to use it, so she thought of Regina, and how much she loved her, and that heat had been more useful than fury. She'd healed Regina's anaemia, but that should not have carried over into this spell. Why would that matter?
Slapping Maleficent again, this time hard enough that her palm stung, Emma was finally rewarded when Mal forced her eyes open. The spell shivered around them, and the boiling of their blood stopped, as if it had never begun, but it still steamed. The discord that echoed through them, the wrongness and the way it made Emma's skin crawl stopped. Mal stumbled off of her chair, falling to the floor, shaking on hands and knees, and Regina crumpled against Emma's stomach, blood still pouring from her nose, hot as it soaked into Emma's clothing.
"Mom?" Henry yelled, his control shattering with the spell.
Emma didn't dare try to heal her, because she didn't know what was happening with the residual magic from the spell, but she held Regina close as her breathing started to return to normal. The tissues Emma held were already soaked, and she dropped them, using the hem of her shirt and stroking Regina's damp hair. "Regina?"
"Mom?" Henry repeated, this time his voice was softer. "Mal? You guys okay?"
"Yes," Regina whispered, meeting his eyes as she clung to Emma. "I'm fine."
Mal dragged herself back up to her feet, leaning heavily on the chair and wiping blood from her face onto her sleeve. "Something interfered," she said, looking up at Henry almost in apology. She panted and caught her breath. "We'll be fine, Regina's fine, she just can't cast the spell."
"What?" Regina asked, still clinging to Emma's bloodstained shirt. "Why? What are you talking about?"
"Too much magic," Mal explained, still struggling to catch her breath. Henry brought her a glass of water and she drank half of it in a rush, but blood trickled from her lips onto the rim of the glass, into the water, staining it pink. Frowning, she set it down and wiped her mouth on her already ruined sleeve. She took a moment, fighting to collect herself. "The spell's being torn in too many directions. There's too much magic."
"Too much?" Henry asked, trying to work it out now that he trusted his mom was going to be okay. "How can there be too much?"
Mal shook her head, and her long blonde hair fell heavy onto her shoulders. "It'll take too long to explain. We don't have much time. If we don't find her tonight, we'll have to cast this all over again and it still might not-" she broke off, looking at Regina. Her worry softened just for a moment, and she dragged herself to her feet. "I'll have to do it."
"No!" Henry said immediately. Regina's angry murmur of protest followed a moment later and Emma looked from one of them to the other. They all knew something she didn't.
"You can't cast it on your own," Henry said, bringing a towel to Mal so she could stop using her shirt. "This spell's meant to have at least two people. You have powerful magic, but casting a spell this big, over so much ground, you'll kill yourself trying."
"Mal-" Regina pleaded, and the softness in her voice cut into Emma's stomach like a knife. "You can't."
Mal buried her face in the towel, and when she brought it down, her eyes were hard and determined. "I have to find her. This is our only way."
"If Henry's right-" Regina began, leaving her chair to stand face to face with Maleficent.
"She's our daughter," Mal interrupted, reaching for Regina's shoulders. Her voice was almost apologetic, like she'd already begun to say her goodbyes. "I have to."
She couldn't watch them, she couldn't let Maleficent sacrifice herself. Not knowing what the spell did didn't matter, because she wasn't going to let Maleficent pay for what her parents had done. "What about me, could I do it?" Emma said, grabbing Henry's shoulder.
Henry shared a look with Maleficent, and once she nodded, he did as well. "You'll be in Maleficent's memories."
"Perhaps further in than you've ever wanted to be," Mal warned, but she smiled wearily, and gratitude shone in her eyes.
"What about interference?" Emma asked, coming to stand behind Regina. "Will the same thing happen to me?"
"No," Mal answered. She stroked Regina's cheek with her bloodstained hand, trying to make sure Regina wouldn't blame herself. "It's just Regina, and I'm sorry. I should have made sure that you could cast the spell with me before I let you try."
Emma started to wonder what Maleficent should have been looking for but stopped, because it didn't matter. Regina would be safe and the risk was Emma's; that was fine. Being the saviour had to be good for something.
"I shouldn't have healed you," Emma said, realising that she couldn't have stopped herself even if she wanted too. She'd been so angry with her parents that her choices had been to heal Regina or burn down the kitchen with her parents in it. She'd needed to spend the magic somehow, and she'd tried so hard to channel it. Of course she'd gotten that wrong, hurt both Mal and Regina, and now she had to go into the trance and Maleficent's memories.
"It's all right, Emma," Regina promised. She wiped the rest of the blood from her face with a towel, and it seemed the terrifying flow of blood had stopped. Hopefully Mal was right and she'd be okay now; she already looked better. "The spell itself is intense, and the parts of Mal's memories that you'll be in are very intimate."
Emma looked past Regina's soft, worried brown eyes and met Mal's gaze. "What do you mean?"
"The majority of the time I spent with my daughter was when I was pregnant. When Regina and I attempted this spell last month, it brought up many memories of that time in order to feed the spell." Mal looked down at her hands, then back up at Emma. "I don't care if the spell strips all of my secrets bare and lays them before you. We have to find her, but," she paused, "it might be unpleasant for you, and for that you have my apologies."
"That's okay," Emma said, nodding. She knew what that felt like: that desperation, that need to protect her child, so Emma sat down next to Maleficent. Regina's blood lay drying on the wood of the table in front of her and Emma shuddered as their bloodied hands reached for each other. They'd already lost some of the darkness and all the time was precious. Her stomach rolled with fear, because sharing her mind, or Mal's mind, terrified her to the core of her being, because she'd barely let Regina in, but this was for their daughter, and she'd finally be able to make what her parents had done right.
Mal took her hand, and they fell together, crashing over each other as the spell washed over them like a wave. It hummed now, harmonic and content, which Emma didn't understand, but she knew it was right. The spell fed on them both, tasting them, drawing on their strength. It offered up Maleficent's memories as a distraction, perhaps as a gift, and there was no way for Emma to be certain what was happening.
Then she lay in a bed, surrounded by silks and thick, heavy furs, and the bed stretched around her, huge and rounded, like a den. It was her den, her home, and she was safe, content and warm, because she loved Regina, every sense she possessed loved Regina and she was here and they were together. Yet Regina's kisses tasted bittersweet, because there was sadness deep in Mal's heart. Regina was sliding from her, slipping into darkness and Mal couldn't keep her from it. Regina's hands were on her, in her, and magic surged between them. It crested, rising between them, trembling with power, before it crashed within her. More than orgasm, there was suddenly something precious, some shard of Regina within her, and she couldn't understand it then, but she knew later what it was, what had happened. How some part of Regina had moved, taken root, growing, feeding, nestling into Mal's womb. She wouldn't have risked a child, if she'd had the choice, but Regina was too precious, too beautiful to be destroyed by her revenge. She had to save this part of her, keep her safe in the only way she could.
And she loved her. Loves her. Regina was hope and light and warmth when Maleficent had tried to drown herself in that cool misery of the sleeping curse. Regina brought her back, reminded her that life held so much beauty. Of course she fell for her, harder than she'd fallen for Briar Rose, but just like her, Regina wasn't meant to be Maleficent's. It's not Stefan who took Regina, not a man, not even anything human, but revenge: cold and hungry.
She cried after Regina fell asleep, again and again, her tears steaming on the blankets, because she knew that Regina was sliding away, fading, losing herself and Maleficent didn't know if she'd ever return, or if it would take all of Regina's light before her hatred was satiated. She couldn't save her and that was all the more terrible because Regina was the one who saved her from her own lethargy.
Time floated, flashed, and Emma was Maleficent and herself and then the dragon, strong and free and unstoppable. She'd never had such power, felt so liberated, but then her head (Mal's head, not hers) ached, she was always too cold, nauseated. Hungry but not hungry, and everything smelt wrong, touched with rot, pickled and strange. Even her own skin became foreign, unknown, unfamiliar and all she wanted was Regina and she was gone.
The last time she saw her, Regina bound her with leather straps, stole the dark curse, called Maleficent her only friend, and then she was gone. Dark Regina, Regina dressed in black, who wore her pain like armour, swallowed whole by her revenge, and Maleficent was pregnant.
Emma couldn't understand how a dragon even became pregnant, or what the magic involved, but she knew loss and abandonment, and Maleficent was just as much a prisoner in her castle than Emma had been of the state. She mourned Regina, whom she couldn't tell because Regina might turn from the darkness (or might not), might love her just as much and Maleficent couldn't risk that, because that agony could be worse. Loving Regina, taking her away from her revenge, having their little family, all of that risked a pain Maleficent couldn't face, because eventually Regina would die. Her daughter, and the child will be a daughter, will have her longevity, but Regina, her precious Regina is human, and even if Mal took her into her heart, she would die.
Mal won't risk that, and she carried that child alone. Ursula and Cruella flash through Emma's- Mal's- their shared consciousness and the warmth of loving that child, Regina's child, was almost enough to chase the cold, but she was afraid and tired, and there were always terrors coming. Dragon hunters, King Stefan seeking his revenge; Briar Rose, ready to take Maleficent's child because of the way Aurora had suffered. She'd done that to herself, made her own enemies, and she fled, taking the last people she could trust.
Pain overwhelmed them, not emotional anguish, not Regina as she'd been, but physical pain. Emma's labour with Henry was long, and full of regret, but this birth reached into the depths of Maleficent's reserves of strength.
Magical pregnancy was difficult. Magic had a cost and Maleficent paid in agony, including that of the body, which meant nothing to her, even though Cruella relished the suffering and the blood (and her eyes haunted Emma, even through memory). The birth must have fed her dark dreams for years, and Ursula was softer, gentler, and brought her through until she held the baby. Regina's baby, her baby, the baby she didn't dare want even though she wanted her so much. For half a moment, Emma shared her contentment, her love, the perfection of holding that child that not even missing Regina could mar with sorrow.
Then she was gone and it was like losing Henry all over again, and Emma couldn't be sure whose heartbreak they shared, or if it was them both and she didn't have time to ask, or words, because the spell had been fuelled.
And it burnt. They flew through faces, strange places in towns that Emma had never seen. Women walking, driving, brushing their teeth, getting coffee, sitting in offices: all their faces flew together and mesh together but they were wrong, all wrong. The wrongness continued, they kept rushing through lives, one after another, and these women were not the right one. Nothing fit.
It was like looking to each star in the sky, touching, tasting, and they were wrong. Not the right blood. Wrong, wrong, not theirs- not hers- not Regina's. All the searching started to burn, the running, longing, and being unable to breathe.
Then Mal was beside her, running with her, and it was easier, gentler because they weren't alone; Emma knew then that the spell would have killed Maleficent on her own, and she didn't care because it was for her daughter, but she was grateful and she protected Emma, loved her, and Emma finally began to understand what dragon fire had meant when it passed between them. She'd drank it, magnified it, made and shared life, and they were family now.
They shared that and the burning, aching, consuming love for Regina that lay in the past for Maleficent but owned Emma's heart. Regina was family, her mate, her partner, her complement and her love.
More faces flew past them. They tasted more women and they were all wrong. Too much time had passed and the sun had to be coming and there were so many faces that they blurred together and then-
Lily.
Maleficent's Lily, not Emma's, and she wanted to believe that all the familiarity came from Mal, not her, but they looked so much alike. They had the same deep, sad eyes that knew sorrow far beyond what anyone should. The face was right, and Maleficent's joy sung with the spell, with the light. The spell hummed, settling into a chord, because it was perfect.
Finally right.
They fell out of that instant of perfection, collapsing onto the table in front of them where blood had dried. Tears flowed down both of their faces and Emma wasn't sure which of them was sobbing, or perhaps they cried in unison. When she knew her body and her senses again, Regina held a piece of paper with a name that glowed in the darkness of the library and Henry grabbed Emma and hugged her close.
Lilith Page. Found abandoned, adopted at three weeks of age. June 16th, 1983. St. Paul, Minnesota.
Even though she brimmed with happiness, watching Regina and Maleficent hold each other and cry because they finally know where their daughter was, Emma's traitorous memory reminded her of the girl she'd known who looked so much like this woman. The girl Emma had pushed away and lost, even though she was her first and only friend until she'd come to Storybrooke. She held Henry, hugging him, then him and Regina together. Regina's kiss tasted like tears and salt. Then Mal kissed Emma's cheek and left a hint of smoke. Regina's blood had dried and turned Emma's shirt into a crackling mess, and sweat ran down her skin, dripping onto the floor.
She should have changed before they started because her jeans were so damp that they clung to her like a soggy denim second skin and all she wanted to do was shower, but that practicality was unimportant because they knew where Lily was. They found her.
Almost thirty-two years have passed since Lily was adopted and it was only a starting point, but now Emma knew her face because it had been etched into her memory like her Lily had been, but this will be turn out better. This time, she won't lose her. Mal kissed Emma again, the Regina and Henry before she exploded into smoke and fire and the dragon took off above Regina's house, with a whoosh of air beneath scaled wings, greeting the sunrise.
Henry smiled, then laughed. "Guess she's happy."
Regina and Emma held him, clinging to him because they needed to touch him. He put up with it because it must have scared him. Regina hadn't showered and she still reeked of blood, but it didn't matter. Hope carried them through all of those worries, and it won. This time, the happy ending seemed half-possible.
Henry went to bed, full of joy and relief. Emma and Regina stumbled into the shower, stripping off their filthy clothes and leaving them on the floor. Emma's skin was already so sweat-soaked that Regina's hands slid over her before the water even came on. Regina's lips tasted of hope and love; the water pressed them against the wall, or maybe that was Regina, and the falling water cleansed them both, taking the sweat and the dried blood. Regina's hands slipped between Emma's legs, and she remembered being taken as herself, and not herself, because her mind still remembered how Maleficent felt, how it felt to conceive Regina's child.
Emma's heart was too full not to share, and not touching Regina back would have been tragedy. They barely got the towels between them and the bed. Their hands were drunk with exhaustion, and the dark moon they'd waited so long for watched from the window as they fell, wet and wrapped in each other. Emma stopped them, holding Regina's face above hers until she was certain that she was here, in the present, with this Regina, her Regina, not a memory. Their hands roamed each other's damp skin, and she nibbled Regina's lips, then her neck, then Regina's fingers were within her and her touch brought Emma to the present, to that moment and herself. Her lips found Regina's skin, and her fingers ran down, dived inside of the warmth of her, which made Regina gasp and moan into her neck.
Emma forgot Maleficent's memories, put aside her own losses, and lived a span of moments for Regina's body, for her touch, for her breath against her lips. Afterwards, wrapped in Regina's arms, she trusted that it was going to be all right. They'd find Lily, bring her home, and work on their strange little family of dragons, a lost princess, a queen and their little prince.
Hugging Henry one more time didn't make it any easier to let him go. Regina held him again, then took a step back, towards the car. Emma stood by the passenger door, already set. Mal stood behind Henry and nodded to Regina. They could go. In their absence, Mulan would look after the infrastructure, David would run the sheriff's department, and Maleficent would handle magic. She'd stay in their house and keep an eye on Henry, and he'd visit his grandparents, and everything would be fine. Her stomach still twisted when she stepped up to the car. She didn't like leaving Henry, not when they didn't know what dark magic was bringing the beetles.
She had a task, so Regina grabbed the car door and opened it. Emma was happy to let Regina drive the Bug, as long as she didn't complain about it.
"The clutch is a little sensitive, and the brakes are harder than they'll be in the Mercedes." Emma said, tucking their bags into the trunk.
"Are you sure you don't want to drive first?" Regina asked, heading for the driver's seat.
"You wanna drive the easy part in Maine or the annoying part when the freeways go every direction?" Emma teased over the roof.
"Are you insinuating that you don't trust my driving?" Regina asked, raising an eyebrow.
Shrugging and smiling, Emma got into the car. "Not at all, I just thought it would be nice if we took turns." She stole a look back at Henry and Maleficent standing in front of their house. "You know she's going to let Henry have pop tarts and hot sauce for breakfast."
Regina frowned and put the keys in the ignition. She adjusted the mirrors, the seat and the steering wheel until she had them all the way she liked them. "Henry has better taste than that, and if that's what she wants to eat, that's her choice."
"So scrambled eggs and hot sauce then," Emma teased, and watching her smile made it so much easier to smile back.
Regina pushed in the clutch and started the car. Emma was right, it felt different than her Mercedes, less exact, somehow, which made it more like Emma. Henry and Mal watched them pull away. "And bacon, burnt, because Henry will let her burn it black."
"What's the fun of staying with your crazy dragon aunt while your parents are gone if you don't eat some ridiculous things?" Emma leaned back against the headrest and sighed. All of them knew that finding Lily would be a long road, and that it wasn't going to end in an immediate happy ending, but they knew where to start, and this was a good beginning.
Stealing a last look at Henry and Mal, Regina watched them head inside and wondered what they'd do with the day. Henry was so self-sufficient that Mal would barely need to do anything for him. He'd probably be more helpful making sure she ate on a regular schedule and didn't spend days in dragon form, circling the town and looking for more beetles to kill. Focusing on the road, she shifted into a higher gear and the bug leapt a little beneath them.
"Is it okay?" Regina asked, looking at the gauges.
"It's fine. It's an older car, so it'll jump a little. It's sturdy though." Emma settled in to her seat, getting comfortable with the map and the printed directions on her lap. "If you drive until we hit New Hampshire, we can swap there and get some coffee and then we'll get a hotel in New York, somewhere."
"Somewhere?" Regina asked, turning onto the road that led out of town. She'd only left Storybrooke a handful of times, and those were all about Henry. She'd meticulously planned each trip, but Emma didn't travel that way. "I thought New York was a city."
Emma settled the map and put her feet on the dash. It was her car, so Regina couldn't correct her. Maybe it was comfortable to sit like that. "It's a state too, kind of a big one. It's nice. Lots of trees."
"A state and a city?" Regina asked, shaking her head. "You'd think you'd have enough names that you wouldn't have to repeat them."
"The people who did a lot of the naming were lazy, lots of cities have the same names and cities that people came from," Emma said. "And we'll drive past plenty of cities with weird names, and repeated names."
"That must make administrating this realm rather difficult," Regina said. Talking to Emma was a pleasant distraction, but soon enough they reached the town line and she slowed the car. Only the spray painted line on the pavement showed anything was there, but they both knew it was.
Emma took her feet down from the dash and tilted her head towards Regina. "You're worried about the darkness that got in Maleficent, aren't you?"
"We used the town's border to destroy the Chernobog, which was a creature of pure darkness. There was enough of it left to infect her, and if you hadn't done, whatever you did, we might have lost her to that power. That was only shreds of it, remnants of what was. That much darkness must not just disappear." Regina put the Bug in neutral and stared past the line at the innocent trees lining the road. They had the Snow Queen's scroll to make sure they could cross back over, but it wouldn't protect them from any magical remnants of that foul creature still trapped in the town line.
"She was weakened from losing her magic," Emma began, "which we're also going to do when we cross the line."
Regina put her hand back on the gearshift. They'd most likely be fine. Maleficent was a magical creature, and her magic was integral to her being. It was something Emma and Regina had learned, a skill they could utilise, nothing more. "But we're human."
Emma smiled and put her feet back up on the dash. "Are you?"
"Last I checked," she replied. Regina checked her mirrors one more time, just in case. They were alone on the road and it stretched ahead of them, joining other roads in a long, unbroken asphalt path to Lily, the daughter she'd never met. She took a slow breath, forcing herself to count her exhaling, just to maintain control.
Emma reached across and rested a hand on her shoulder, just having the weight of it there made everything easier. "We'll be fine." Then she smiled, and she meant it in a way that nearly took away the knot of fear in the centre of Regina's stomach.
That knot had already been there for days, and she was certain that she'd been so nervous about this trip, her daughter, and leaving Henry that she'd given herself cramps. She'd done that before, years ago, when she couldn't please her mother. That or her anaemia was still affecting her, even though Emma had mostly healed it. She wasn't sure if it would return across the line, and she'd brought the iron pills Dr. Whale wanted her to take, even though she wasn't sure she trusted them any more than magic. Emma knew this world, and she had Emma, and they'd be fine.
The Bug cautiously crossed the line, and Emma chuckled when Regina let out her breath. "See? We're fine."
Neither of them had passed out, or started coughing up black soot. Her head tingled, as if something in the air was too thin, and she felt smaller, like her senses were dimmed. The magic was missing, and she'd grown so accustomed to it, reaching for it, that being without was strange, even empty, but it wasn't necessary for her existence. She's lived without magic before and it was only a few days.
"Feels like we're on top of a mountain, the air's so thin." Emma said, wrinkling her nose. "You okay?"
Taking another breath, Regina nodded and focused on driving. They'd be fine. It would pass, and they just needed a distraction. "Have you been there?"
"Where? Minnesota?" Emma waited for Regina to nod, then continued. "Yeah, lived there for a few years, a group home, then a foster family. Didn't work out."
"I'm sorry," Regina said, even though the words were empty and there was nothing she could say to make Emma's childhood any gentler.
"Wasn't the worst of it, and I survived." Emma took a moment, looking out the window at the trees as she remembered. "Not a bad place, really. Cold winters, but the summers were nice. People there go camping a lot. I've never been, not the go in the woods on purpose kind. You ever take Henry camping?"
Regina frowned, and the hint of wistful hope in Emma's voice made her wish she could say that she hadn't so they could experience it together. Maybe they could still all go, the three of them, before Henry grew too old to want to spend time with his moms. Was that coming? He was already so independent, so grown up. He'd push them both away some as he grew older, but it wouldn't be like before, when he thought she didn't love him. They'd come so far and she had to remind herself that their relationship was better now than it had been for years, maybe ever. "We went camping a few times, in the summers when he was younger. He loved it at first, then we spent less time together, and-"
"All that time we had to spend saving the town really took away from your free time," Emma finished, smiling so easily that Regina let the old hurt go. "I bet you're great at it. Everything all planned out perfectly, neat meal plans and pre-packed food, and you probably bring a coffee pot and everything."
"I don't think I'd want to see you in the morning without easy access to coffee," she teased, returning Emma's smile. "We should try it, if you want to, I mean, when the beetles are gone and we're sure that the woods are safe."
Emma touched her shoulder again, and her hand slid across towards Regina's neck. Her fingers were warm beneath Regina's hair, and she turned her eyes from the road just long enough to smile. There was hope behind the sorrow in Emma's eyes.
"I'd really like it if the first time I went camping was with you and Henry," she said, keeping her hand on Regina's neck. "We can even bring the pet dragon, but she sleeps outside the tent if she's going to be all scaley."
Henry set down the tedious novel that he'd been assigned to read (why teachers at his school thought that the literature of this new realm was more important than the stories of the world of his ancestors was beyond her) and looked up at her across the island in the kitchen. "Should I start dinner?"
Even though none of Regina's blood had gone into his making, Mal saw Regina all over his smile. "What are you going to make?"
"Well," Henry started, trying to remember what was in the fridge. "We have hot dogs, pasta, frozen pizza-"
She held up a hand to ask and he nodded before she even said the words.
"You can have jalapeños on your half, and hot sauce," he agreed. "But you have to use a different knife on your side. My side was too hot last time you ran the pizza cutter straight through."
They compromised eventually, and Henry promised to at least try a hot pepper or two. She owed Emma her thanks for explaining that such things existed, and for the collection of hot sauces she was starting to amass in Regina's fridge. Maleficent had her own refrigeration unit in her house, but she kept very little in it. She preferred her meat fresh, and didn't buy anything in advance because it was easy enough to walk to the butcher shop and get some pig or beef to blacken. Henry didn't approve of her cooking methods any more than Regina had, but she could cook some things slower, more patiently, and Henry liked watching her use fire in the backyard to cook. She liked Henry, not just his company, but his mind, and the easy conversations they got into that took most of the time he wasn't in school. He had so many questions, and seemed to absorb all the information she had, because there were always more questions after she'd answered.
Had she heard of his grandfather and his dragon-slaying? Had she known that dragon that he'd killed? Did she know what the book's tale about her was like? Did she have other names?
She hadn't known the book was so florid in its descriptions of Philip and Aurora's true love that she'd thwarted, or how unapologetically biased that book was towards Stefan and Briar Rose. It said nothing of what they'd done, or of Snow White and her prince's crimes. Of course, it wouldn't, because that damned author wasn't worth the ink he'd spilt on Cruella.
"Was it different before?" Henry asked over their pizza, starling her out of her thoughts.
"Was what different before?"
He toyed with the crust of the pizza on his plate. "You said the author changes, they retire, move on. Was it different before, when you had a different author?"
"A good author is a record keeper, a storyteller who might embellish a detail or two, make the ogres more frightening or change the colour of a dragon, but that author would never alter the story. The one before this dreadful individual was very fair and kept the story more balanced. She embellished when she thought it added artistic flair, or it might have made the children laugh, that I can forgive, because the hearts of the stories remained true." Maleficent explained over her glass. She set that down and picked up her pizza again, ignoring the pile of leaves on half of her plate, even though Henry had already eaten his salad and would shortly insist that she eat hers.
"And what's true?"
She smiled and poked at her leaves with her fork. "What do you think?"
"True would mean an accurate recording of events," he said. He refilled his glass with that fizzy stuff he drank instead of wine and waited for her to elaborate.
"What's accurate?" she asked, lifting her pizza. "The son of the saviour and the evil queen dined on slaughtered hog and the other fruits of his serf's labour."
"That's not," he started, then stopped, shaking his head. "The people who work at the grocery store aren't my serfs, they just work there, the way Emma's the sheriff."
"But Regina rules over them as their mayor," Maleficent said, toying with a jalapeno before she ate it. "This food is composed of the meat of a pig, that someone assembled with bread, sauce and cheese, so you could bake it. Your mother's position allowed you to acquire it. A skilled author would know the difference between you trading your mothers' work for goods in a fair exchange, while a tactless idiot hoping to further his own goals might write that your mother's wicked rule provides you with food you haven't earned, and that the peasants in the market fear your very approach."
"I think they were afraid of you-" he muttered.
"That makes you even more of a tyrant, you're a young prince who dares not walk amongst his subjects without the protection of the most vile of beasts," Mal teased, lifting up her wine. "A good author turns the dull truth into a story of hope and strength that inspires those who read it to better themselves and fight on. A subpar author writes for himself, which turns even the most mundane of tasks into an opera of misunderstandings and twisted emotions."
"Which is poor storytelling," Henry agreed, glancing at the book he was still making his way through. "Something that ought to be explained to the writers in this realm, even if they're not as famous as our author."
Mal nodded to him again and sipped from her glass. "Homework isn't going well then?"
Henry shrugged and idly played with his napkin. "It's dull."
"Reading is a skill worth maintaining," she assured him, then tried to think of something more supportive to add. Making sure Henry's homework went well was high on the list of things Regina had left her, but he seemed to have it in hand. He was trustworthy. "Are you prepared to stay with your grandparents for the weekend?"
He frowned. "Yeah, do I have to?" Henry picked up his empty plate and put it in the dishwasher. He left her own in front of her because he wouldn't take it until she'd eaten the salad, which meant she had to eat it, because she'd promised Regina and Emma to be a good example.
"No," she answered with a shrug. He was old enough to make his own choices, in some realms he'd be considered an adult. "Your mother did not think that you'd want to spend the next two days with me in the woods, hunting these damn beetles so she arranged for you to stay with them."
He returned to the table and sat across from her, still fidgeting with his napkin even as he looked at her. "And if I did?"
"I can't say that I blame you, I'm far better company than those two," she said dryly. Taking a bite of her salad, she forced herself to chew, swallow and not make too much of a face because he was watching.
"The beetles haven't attacked anyone," he said, trying to steer her into agreement. Henry spending the next two days with her in the woods rather than with his stuffy, self-righteous grandparents would annoy them greatly, so she was already on his side, but she'd have to discuss it with Regina and Emma, who might not want their son traipsing through the woods. "I wouldn't be in any danger."
"They haven't attacked anyone, yet," she reminded him. They paused while she forced herself to swallow more of the salad. The tomatoes weren't as bad as the lettuce and lettuce couldn't follow her into the woods, she'd be free from salad for the next few days. "The protection spells your mothers left around the town will keep the beetles away from all the stored food and they'll have to find something else. They might start hunting the animals of the forest, or any animals that happen to be in the forest."
"Would that include you?"
She shook her head and smiled, baring her teeth just a little. "Nothing but humans have ever tried to hunt me. Everything else knows better."
That gave him the in he wanted, and she should have known that he was planning to trap her. "So I'd be safe with you?"
Maleficent pushed her remaining salad across the table in front of him so he could eat it instead of her. "In theory, yes."
Henry returned her smile at ate the rest of her salad without complaining. He actually seemed to like the stuff. "There's ice cream in the freezer," he reminded her. "You could serve while I call my moms and tell them that we're going camping."
Camping was such a quaint little term for sleeping rough in the woods. Of course, she had magic and there were animals worth hunting nearby so it would be pleasant to be out, even if the weather continued to rain. This realm's eternal cloudy skies were obviously something that had fit into Regina's curse when the town had been formed. She nodded to him and tilted her head towards the phone. She cleared the rest of their dinner and took the ice cream out of the freezer. There were many things about food in this world that she found offensive, but ice cream almost made up for all the vegetables and tasteless bread. She gave him more than she did herself, because he was growing. Wondering if his father had been tall, she sat back down at the table, ice cream in front of her and waited for Henry to come sit.
He paced the living room before he sat down across from her, still on the phone. "Emma says hi," he repeated for his mom, digging his spoon into the rich chocolate chilli ice cream.
Maleficent licked her lips and wondered if that meant she should return her greetings. "Then I do as well," she said. "And to Regina."
"Mom's in their hotel room," Henry explained. "Emma's grabbing their dinner. They're in a hotel near Syracuse." That meant nothing to her, but Henry would be able to find it on a map and that should please him. Emma talked for awhile on the other end of the line and Henry smiled and answered her questions calmly. Mal finished her wine and lazily savoured her ice cream. She'd eat the whole container if she let herself, so it was good that she had Henry for company to eat the other half.
"Here you go," Henry said, passing across the phone and reaching for his spoon.
Reluctantly setting her spoon down, she accepted the phone.
"So you're taking him beetle hunting?" Emma asked on the end of the line.
"He expressed a desire to assist in the protection of the town, seeing as that is something both of his mothers are constantly engaged in, I thought it was prudent to take him with me. I assure you, he'll be safe." She waited for Emma to voice her objections, and perhaps it was because that letting him go with Mal kept her from having to talk to her parents that she gave in, either way, Mal nodded to Henry.
Across the table, Henry grinned back because he knew he'd won.