Hadn't tried Snow's POV before, but it seemed to work. Posting this shorter chapter in hopes that it helps me get over my stress and move towards the climax. (which we're on the road too now!). Thanks for your patience.
Ursula dragged the leogryff beneath the water with little effort. It only took two tentacles and she sighed from the water. Emma stood above it, on the pier, watching the big stupid cat sink beneath the dark sea. She shouldn't feel sorry for it. It killed Whale and Spencer, but it's eyes weren't evil. It had big, round gold eyes that stared at her in panic as it struggled to breathe and began to fail.
It's dumb. It's a thrashing, brainless beast and it fought against the tentacles Emma knew were like iron. Its heavy feathers dragged it down and those bright, stupid eyes met Emma's.
"Stop."
Cruella raised her eyebrows. "It's almost over, dear."
"It's stupid, isn't it?"
"Dreadfully so," Cruella agreed, studying her nails. "Didn't stop it from killing."
Emma looked to Ursula, because she'll understand. "It's not inherently evil though, right? Like the beetles, and the harpies."
Ursula and the huge, wet, stupid cat with wings teleported out of the sea and land on the pier next to Cruella and Emma. Ursula held the cat tight and it shivered instead of fighting to escape. It's thick wings must be too heavy for it to fly and its eyes flit from one point to another in panic. She held it tight and it wasn't going anywhere, but Emma wanted to let it go.
"It's not an inherently evil creature, no," Ursula clarified for her. "The beatles are cursed things, harpies too. This, anyone could summon."
"Inherently evil?" Emma repeated, rubbing the headache starting to form in her forehead.
"Harpies and devouring beatles take a certain amount of talent, an unknown quantity of-" Cruella paused, grinning, "well, evil, darling. Someone who knew how to have a good time with their own darkness brought those two into existence. This- this is a stupid beast that killed those two men because someone controlled it. It's embarrassingly easy to do so. You could probably get into its head."
Emma's head throbbed in response and she let the last comment go. "Why would someone who summoned the first two plagues of Storybrooke summon this thing?"
As if it knew that it wasn't going to be killed, the big wet cat stopped struggling and Ursula's grip relaxed so that its breath isn't labored. It doesn't deserve this death.
Ursula shrugged and the tip of one of her tentacle moved thoughtfully. She was fidgeting and Emma got that, but it's still a tentacle and she had to repress a shudder again, because-
"They could have run out of their power source," Ursula said after a moment, saving Emma from her thoughts. "I don't know how much you've been told about the so-called balance between good and evil."
Emma sighed, because somehow between Peter Pan, the Snow Queen, Maleficent nearly dying and trying to find Lily and Regina being feverish and throwing up and- "Not a lot," Emma admitted. She should check in. Regina was probably still at the office, not home, and she'd need to be reminded to go home.
Cruella grinned at that, and finally put the cat-thing out of its misery. "Sleep, beast."
Its eyes closed and Emma's stomach stopped lurching into her throat.
Ursula pulled back her tentacles and they disappear beneath her dress. "Good, on the most basic level, is altruistic, unselfish; putting others before yourself. Save a dog from drowning, that's good. 'Good' magic is similar. Healing magic, protective magic, magic that builds cities and roads: all good. Animals are simpler, because they're driven by instinct and what keeps them alive. "
"Which keeps them from being as dreadfully dull as heroes," Cruella muttered, stroking her fur coat. She paced the pier, and Emma couldn't help wondering if she's disappointed that she won't get a lion skin coat.
"Humans and other creatures with intelligence have a choice, most fall in the middle. A few things are truly evil, because they've been made to cause pain, or they feed on suffering. The beetles are the embodiment of taking more than your share, fear of running out, kind of an old world famine thing. They eat, everything, and when you come from a place that doesn't have double cluck combos, that's about as evil as you can get." Ursula looked out over the sea for a moment, then back to Emma. "Harpies cause pain and suffering, they take what isn't theirs, and they're fireproof, which is why our summoner must have brought them when she failed with the beetles."
"But this thing-"
"Is a big dumb beast who's no more evil than Pongo," Cruella finished for Emma. She fluffed her coat on her shoulders and sniffed. "They smell about the same."
Ursula took more time, mulling it over while she stared out at the sea. "The only thing that I can think of is that summoning the beetles, and the harpies, would have required darkness. Some like you, for example, can't just bring them into this world. You'd need a focus, something dark."
"The Dark One's dagger is locked away," Emma said. She shifted her weight, the heavy summer air damp around her.
"Not like that, more like-" Ursula broke off, shaking her head. "A sacrifice, an evil act, I don't know."
And the unspoken truth that Maleficent would know went unsaid, as if all three of them had agreed. Even Cruella seemed to miss her, in her own, unique way.
"I can command the feline to stay away from town, if you're still set and keeping it alive."
"Please," Emma asked, and the weight slipped from her shoulders. She couldn't kill it, and that was okay. "Thanks."
"You owe me a coat," Cruella said, blowing her magic across the sleeping creature. "Maybe two."
"Done," Emma agreed. Maybe Cruella could learn to like fabrics that weren't exotic leather.
Ursula's eyes were still out over the ocean and Emma had already thanked her and started to think of Regina before she whipped her head around to look at Emma.
"It's a protector."
Emma's feet had already started to turn to smoke and she stopped, almost stumbling even though she hadn't moved. "What?"
"The leogryff. It's a lion and an eagle, it's supposed to be a protector. Whoever summoned it must have told it that Whale and Spencer were dangerous, and I suppose, maybe, they were."
"They were rude, entitled-" Emma stopped, because what they were to Regina didn't matter, even though it did, because of Regina.
"Yes, yes, but that's not-" Ursula's gaze was so intense that Emma was almost sure it burned. "If she, he, whoever our summoner is, ran out of whatever power let them summon the beetles and the harpies, she could have gotten the leogryff easier, because it's a protective creature. Anyone can get those. They're kind of good, that way. Not in an intelligent way, of course, but-"
"Good, I got it," Emma agreed. "Okay, so that means?"
"I don't know," Ursula finished with a shrug. "I am sorry."
"No, no, that's, it's helpful, it's not like anyone else knows any more, and you came out in the middle of the night to help me not kill the leogryff, and that was-"
"We miss her too," Cruella cut Emma off. For once, there was no bite to her tone, no hidden sarcasm.
Emma smiled, weary, spent, and grateful. She nodded to them both. "We'll get them back." Then she teleported away to Regina.
Regina wasn't at her desk, and if the lights had been off, Emma almost could have believed that she'd gone home, but old books still covered her desk. Regina would have put them away, so she wasn't home yet. Emma lingered behind her desk, looking at the ancient etchings, committed to paper. The wastebasket by Regina's feet was filled with tissues and Emma only had to open one drawer to find the nearly empty box they'd come from.
Where had she gone? Outside? Talking to Mal and Lily sometimes made her feel better, sometimes worse because No matter how much she loved her daughter, no kiss would wake her.
Emma's phone buzzed and she took it from her pocket.
Henry, ever responsible, announced that he was going to bed and they should to, especially considering that both of them had to work tomorrow, while he did not have school. Smirking at her phone, Emma headed out of Regina's office, because maybe she'd just stepped to the bathroom, or gone outside to talk to Mal and Lily. She talked to them often, because she missed them both, and her guilt weighed on her. True love was an esoteric, obnoxious thing that only worked when it wanted to, and there was no realm in existence where Regina did not love Mal and Lily, but it wasn't enough.
And that hurt. She knew how Regina felt. Not being good enough haunted them both. They were family, and that was supposed to be enough. It had been enough with Henry, and Emma hadn't known him that long. Not really. She'd known of him, but that seemed an unfair requirement, because Regina hadn't known about Lily, and if she had-
Emma nearly walked past the bathroom on autopilot, but the doorknob turned, and the hinges creaked. Emma's feet stopped on the smooth floor. Regina emerged from behind the door, wrapped in a thick cardigan, not her suit coat. Her eyes were reddened, and her nose, and when she looked at Emma, her chin trembled, even though she must have retreated to the bathroom to stop crying.
"Hey-" Emma began, and then Regina was in her arms, warm against her. "Hey," Emma repeated, rubbing her shoulders. All the things she could have said were stupid. It wasn't okay, of course and she'd had another awful day, like yesterday, and the day before, where she knew her daughter and Maleficent were out there and she couldn't save either of them.
The sleeping curse seemed stable for the last weeks, but Henry had been only asleep until he started to die. Mal and Lily were dragons, and maybe that made them stronger, but every time she watched past them she couldn't breathe until she was sure that they were still breathing.
"I missed you," Emma whispered, because that was true without being some kind of empty platitude. Even if it sounded stupid.
Regina didn't seem to think so, because she almost nodded, holding Emma just a little closer, barely moving her head on Emma's shoulder. Between them, the strange, soft-hard roundness of her belly pressed against Emma's own. She smiled, just a little, because in the middle of all of the never-ending chaos and peril that was their lives, they had hope.
"I've been here." Regina's voice was muffled by Emma's neck and Emma could have taken them home right that second, but Regina would want the books put away.
"I know," Emma replied, and she kissed Regina's cheek when she lifted her face. Her head throbbed again, her headache threatening to drill its way forward from the back of her skull. She tried to shake it off, because maybe it wasn't hers. If Regina's head hurt this much, they were going home immediately, books be damned. "Does your head hurt?"
"A little," Regina admitted, and her warm fingertips brushed across Emma's temple. She studied Emma for a moment, then she wrinkled her nose, just a little. "But I doubt my headache is bothering you."
Kissing her again, Emma nodded. "Must be my turn." What had been an annoying sort of twingeing, now vibrated with the brighter lights of the office.
Regina closed and arranged her books with quick hands, then returned to Emma, reaching for her fingers. "The leogryff?"
"Banished," Emma said. Regina started to speak, and she teleported them back mid-thought because she wasn't about to have this discussion in the office. It was time to be home.
"Not dead?" Regina asked when they stood in the entryway. She put her hands on her hips, but the gentleness on her face made that sweet, rather than confrontation. "Not that I think either of them was any real loss, but it did kill Whale, and King George, so it could be dangerous. What made you change your mind?"
Emma slipped off her boots, then retreated to the study. Whiskey wasn't the traditional headache treatment, but this one had all the ridiculous escalation of pain of a magic-related headache, and those didn't follow any of the rules. She hadn't even used any powerful magic. She'd only needed to be bait for Ursula and Cruella, who'd done all the heavy lifting. She'd stood on a pier and decided not to kill a big, stupid cat with feathers. She held the whiskey in her mouth so it could sting her tongue, then swallowed it.
Regina stood over her for a moment, then sat beside her on the sofa, her hand on Emma's arm. "Are you okay?"
"It was just this big dumb cat thing. I'm not even a cat person, but when we finally caught it, Ursula dragged it down so it could drown, and it's stupid eyes were so-"
"Most of the griffin hybrids aren't known for their intelligence," Regina agreed. She patted her arm, and her hand rested on Emma's bare skin. "Any ideas who was controlling it?"
Emma shook her head and finished her whiskey, swallowing it quickly this time. She poured some more and stared into her glass, even though there weren't any answers in the amber liquid. "Ursula said something strange, about how summoning the leogryff must have been easier."
"It's a protective creature, anyone could have summoned spell's not demanding, provided you're in danger of some kind." Regina stared towards the window, lost in thought. Emma rested the glass against her forehead and watched Regina's other hand stroke her belly. She was so careful in public, as if her pregnancy was some gift that she didn't deserve, but at home, things were different.
"Same muscle?" Emma asked, drawing Regina's attention back.
"It changes places," Regina said, confusion and wonder taking her expression. "I can't figure out-" and she trailed off. "Did Ursula mention the cost of summing the dark creatures? The beetles and the harpies?"
Nodding made the pain in her head spike, but Emma realised that after she moved. Which figured. Whiskey would start to take the edges off in a moment. There wasn't some kind of miracle cure for these kinds of headaches; even migraine meds didn't help. They had something to do with magic, but Emma had barely touched hers, neither had Regina. So this was unfair and kind out of the blue, which made her more resentful.
"She said they had a dark cost, so some kind of sacrifice, or pain, whatever our mysterious summoner decided to use."
Regina's fingers ran up the back of Emma's neck, warm against her skin and it helped ease the rushing in her head, at least until Emma recognized how warm her hands must have been to feel like that. Setting down her whiskey, she turned, taking Regina's hands into her own and kissing them.
"I'm okay," Regina insisted, before Emma could say anything. "It's just the same old fever."
"Which should have gone away," Emma muttered, staring at their hands instead of Regina's all-too-dark eyes. "That was the whole point of binding."
"It's better than it was," Regina said, coaxing a smile out of her. "So much better. I can handle a little fever. The vomiting and exhaustion were much worse. You made those go away."
Emma started to complain that time, not her had made those symptoms fade, but there was no way of knowing that was true. Regina kissed her this time, and her mouth left a hot spot on Emma's cheek.
"I'm all right," she promised and the sincerity of it made Emma's heart ache. "I'd rather have my fever than your headache."
Rubbing her temples, Emma smirked. Somehow the pain had gotten all the way down into her teeth. Was something coming? Was she just sick? Now would not be the time, but she ached. "Good choice."
"You should drink water," Regina said, leaving Emma on the sofa.
"I don't like it when the whiskey gets diluted," Emma quipped to herself. She finished the glass before Regina returned to force water into her.
"Drink this, then we're going to bed."
Resting her chin in her hands, Emma looked up, then accepted the glass. Regina had one for herself, which meant she'd be up in a few hours, but she'd read enough articles about pregnancy to be serious about staying hydrated, and she always snuggled closer when she came back to bed. Water had that funny aftertaste where it seemed too sweet and too wet after the bite of the whiskey.
Rubbing her shoulder, Regina sat back down next to her and Emma could worry no more about dark sacrifices, or protecting beasts. Her head hurt, and all she wanted was their bed, and Regina.
David's breath echoed in her ears, slow and even, and Neal snored just a little in his bed, almost like a puppy. Both of their breathing quieted, faded, and for half a moment, quiet darkness took her, then it opened into the familiar, ashen underworld.
Lily jumped when she appeared, she often did, and Mal's hand moved quickly to touch her, reassuring her. How many dreams had become with that same set of motions?
Snow held up her hands, smiling to help Lily relax. "Just me."
"Sorry," Lily muttered, but it had so much less bitterness than Snow deserved.
"I always feel like I'm invading when I come here," Snow confessed, half-joking. She did disturb the peace of whatever they were talking about each time she appeared. Did it bother them? How did time pass when you were here with someone else? She remembered her own time in the burning hell that this room had been as unending, but if she'd had Emma, would she have minded?
Mal barely had to touch Lily to get her to calm. She smiled back at Snow's weak joke, and then Lily smiled, and that nagging sensation that they had something Snow and Emma hadn't been able to work out tugged at her chest. Lily had nothing to forgive Maleficent for. Her mother had fought for her, clung to her and looked for her with all of her strength. She hadn't just sent her away.
"We don't mind the company," Mal said, and her smile had the warmth of a cat in the sunshine. "Do we, dear?"
"She will run out of stories, eventually," Lily said. Her own smile held to her lips like the last hints of fog in the morning, ready to burn away in a moment. "But so far, I've learned so much about my history that I'm running out of wall space."
"Wall space?" Snow repeated, turning around. The heavy glass bricks behind her had been scratched, covered with intricate names in a script she didn't recognize. At least, not until she walked closer. She had seen those kind of scratches melding into words. "This is dragon script, isn't it?"
"It's crude," Mal said, crossing her arms as she stood behind Snow. "The cursed walls of this place are remarkably resilient, but some things we bring with us are above the magic of this netherworld." She took something small and white from her pocket and turned it over in her fingers. "It seems dragons teeth leave a mark anywhere."
Snow peered closer to her mouth, wondering perversely if Mal had pulled one of her own teeth.
Lily smirked behind her head and Mal chuckled. She opened her mouth and showed Snow a space on the bottom left of her jaw. Her teeth looked normal, human, but the one in her hand was as sharp as the shark's tooth they had in the school library.
"When I'm out of here, it'll grow back," Mal explained. "And we couldn't keep it all straight without writing it down."
Snow didn't ask how she'd gotten it out of her mouth, and maybe she didn't want to know. Self-mutilation had occurred to her while she'd been trapped, and a few times she'd pushed the flames until she'd burned herself, just to feel something. because time did not pass in this place).
Instead of speculating further about the handkerchief Mal tucked into her pocket and that the blood on it was still fresh (and likely to remain so, forever), Snow forced that out of her mind.
"There was writing like this in one of Cora's books. I saw it in her room."
Mal's eyes widened, and even Lily's face lit in surprise.
"Cora, Regina's mother. The one who-"
"Did all you've heard, and worse," Snow replied with a shudder. "She had this book, and I knew I wasn't supposed to touch any of her things, but I loved to read, and she had so many books. That one had the strangest leather. It almost sparkled, and whenever I touched it-"
Mal put both of her hands firmly in her pockets and her lips thinned. "It was warm."
Something cold crawled down Snow's neck. "What was it?"
"Dragonhide never loses its warmth, even when it has been long separated from its owner." Mal didn't look away. Lily made a noise of disgust and stared at the floor, but Mal held Snow's eyes. Snow expected anger, even loathing, but instead she saw sorrow.
"Cora didn't, I mean she couldn't have-"
Taking her hand from her pocket, Mal fidgeted with her crumpled handkerchief. It left blood on her fingers, but she did not seem to notice. "Cora did not kill a dragon; she would have been far more powerful if she had. She had the book of a dragonslayer, and that would have been written in our script, because it's the only true way to record our names."
"Why did she have it?" Lily asked, and Mal turned to her.
She shrugged, still toying with her handkerchief. "Cora wanted power, and killing a dragon is a very good way to achieve power, beyond what most can dream about. The heart of a dragon-"
Maleficent stopped, as if someone, or something, had taken hold of her. She jerked where she stood, shaking as if she'd been grabbed by a huge hand. Lily's cry of alarm cut through Snow's ears as if she were her own daughter crying out in pain. Light, so pale blue that it glowed sick and hungry, erupted from Maleficent's chest, reaching out with grasping fingers. That light wrapped around her body, sealing her away, and then she was gone.
Snow's ears rang from the sudden change in pressure, and she stared at Lily's horrified face.
"What happened? Is she awake? Is she free?" Lily paced, then advanced on Snow, staring her down with her eyes starting to glow. She probably couldn't be a dragon here, not in this place, but the force of her presence weighed on Snow, as if Lily were many times larger than she was. "Where's my mother?"
She didn't know magic, and Lily probably only knew a fraction of what Emma and Regina did. Curses didn't end like that. That had been wrong. She didn't know how, or why, but the sudden violence of Mal's departure had none of the warmth of true love. Snow took a step towards Lily and her bare foot stood on something sharp and sticky. Cursing, she hopped, lifting her foot. Maleficent's tooth lay wrapped in her handkerchief on the floor, dropped when she vanished. Kneeling to pick it up, Snow had only an eternity for Lily's terrified face to burn into her memory before she was gone.
"Snow-" David repeated, shaking her awake. "You screamed."
"Lily," Snow said, unable to concentrate on him. "She's all alone." Her pyjamas clung to her skin, sticky with sweat. Something stung her hand. She sat up, reaching for the light with her other hand.
"You were dreaming."
"I was in the netherworld, I saw Lily, and Maleficent, and something- David, something bad happened to her. There was a light, and-"
Beside their bed, both of their phones buzzed angrily. David turned to them and Snow looked at her hand, because whatever hurt now throbbed, like a red hot coal against her palm.
"It's-"
"Emma," Snow finished for him. It had been real. Henry must have felt it, because he'd been to the Netherworld, and Emma, and Regina- They had to get to her. "We have to go."
"It's the middle of the night."
Shoving the blankets away, Snow pushed herself off the bed and the forgotten sharpness against her palm went slick with blood. Staring at her unharmed palm, she finally recognised the handkerchief, and the blood that filled it. Wrapped in Maleficent's handkerchief, her tooth rested in Snow's hand, warm, even separated from her body. Lifting it up, Snow stared at the razor's edge on the tooth.
David tried to shake sleep from himself, dragging his body up to a sitting position. "What's that?"
"A dragon's tooth," Snow answered, carefully wrapping it in the bloody handkerchief, which too was warm. "It's complicated. David, we have to help them."
Nodding, he grabbed a t-shirt, then pulled it on. "I'll grab Neal's diaper bag. Hopefully he'll sleep in the car seat."
She didn't reply to him, and instead grabbed her phone to read what Emma had sent.
Mal's body gone. Emergency. Meet at the house.
Emma knew. Regina must have had some kind of spell or perhaps they had been able to feel what had happened. Whatever it was, this was bad. She knew that in the pit of her stomach, and the hard heat of Mal's tooth in her hand only magnified her feeling of dread.