All mistakes are mine.

Chapter Nineteen
'Confessions'

-.-.-

Emma led Steven to her rooms after escaping the gardens. She walked down the halls stiffly, her legs gliding across the floor. Her pace lacked the normal percussion of her footsteps. If Steven looked close enough he might even think she was floating just above the ground.

They passed seldom few staff members, but when they did they found other places to be. None dared even stare after them as Steven followed, practically tripping over his feet, in haste to keep up with Emma. Gods only knew what the staff thought they were in a hurry for, especially as the rumors of their heated spats circulated through the masses.

Steven wished—in a completely platonic manner—that their haste would lead to half of anything the staff believed would take place once the doors were closed behind them. He was in a committed relationship, madly in love with a formidable woman, but he was also human. He could allow himself to imagine, for a moment, what it would be like to have Emma's fierce passion directed solely on him.

Then again…that might just put two enraged witches on his tail. That image—of Maleficent breathing fire at him in dragon form while Regina trapped in on the other side with a ball of raging fire in her palm meant for him—caused him to chase any inappropriate ideas/imaginations away right quick. He liked his body in one piece. Not in many scattered, charred, around the world for him to find.

As they reached Emma's rooms she looked up and down the hallway as if she could see someone he could not. It put him on edge. She closed the doors behind them after ushering him inside then locked them. Her suspicious behavior would have worried him if he weren't already at his wits end with worry and concern.

There was something beneath Emma's eyes that scared him. There was a fear he could not understand shinning there in their depths that slowly emanated through her entire body. She pulled into herself and seemed so small, smaller than Steven had ever seen her before.

Small and meek were not adjectives he would use to describe Emma. Nor was cowardly. But as he watched Emma stand in front of him, biting at her fingernail, they were all he could think about. That and how unlike Emma, his Emma, this behavior was.

Just over the cusp of eighteen she offered such a mature stature to everyone she met that Steven could and often did forget how very young Emma was. Seeing her now looking so lost, confused, he felt compelled to find her the answers she sought.

He took a seat on the edge of her bed.

"Emma, what's troubling you?"

Emma looked up at him, but only for a moment before her eyes fell to the floor again. Her hands squeezed tightly together and relaxed as if in reflex.

He stood from the bed. Emma saw the movement and put a hand up immediately. "Please, please stay there. I won't be able to do this if you, if you touch me."

Steven raised a single brow in question but sat back down slowly. He gripped tightly at the quilts beneath him. "You are starting to worry me."

"Uhh, I." Emma groaned. "I am sorry for that." She pulled at her hair before slapping her hands down at her sides. She forced herself to look up and meet Steven's eyes. "Before I say anything. I must have your word. Your promise…! That you will not tell anyone. Maleficent, she will find out from Regina, of that I am sure. But you mustn't tell anyone. Not another living soul Steven. I mean it!"

"Emma if this is about Regina…"

"It isn't." Just by the way Steven tilted his head to the side Emma relented. "Perhaps it is, but not in the way you might think."

"Oh, and in what way might I be thinking about this?" He challenged, wondering if Emma was as good at reading him as he was at her. Or if this would be the chance Emma needed to express herself, truthfully since they'd returned from Maleficent's fortress seven days ago.

"You think I have feelings for her." Steven said nothing, so Emma clarified. "For her…" Still nothing. "Regina. You think I have feelings for Regina."

He didn't move; he feared that if he moved a single muscle Emma might retract her admission. Because she was right. He did think she had feelings for Regina. He thought she wouldn't admit to them so easily though. It seemed the last few days gave Emma more time to weigh over her inner feelings then he'd thought.

He believed Regina had feelings for her as well. Maleficent was slow to admit it but she was not blind. There was literally a magical thrall between Emma and Regina that even Steven could physically see.

He didn't understand it. But he didn't begrudge them it; he wouldn't judge whatever it was that was between Emma and her witch. How could he? Emma had been so open and willing to help him gain back his own witch. He would never tell Emma not to peruse Regina, even if he did fear for Emma's heart in the long run. He would find time to warn Regina that any further disregard to Emma's feelings would be unwise.

"Which, I do." Emma cringed as she spoke the words. "I do have feelings for her." Emma breathed out the admission, suddenly beginning to pace back and forth as she did her fingers tingling. "But I don't know what they are." She waved her hands around to exemplify her point as if by doing so the air itself would reveal what her feelings towards Regina were specifically to them both. "Not yet. I just, I need time." Emma turned to Steven, eying him dangerously. "More time, on that before I can…admit to anything. Anything further." Her gaze softened. "Please, do not bring that up again."

"Not another word on it. Or on whatever it is you need me to never mention to a living person." Steven mimicked locking his lips, having not said anything since he'd posed his original question till now.

Emma sighed; she was making a spectacle out of this when it was a serious matter. She walked over to the bed and kneeled down in front of Steven so she had to look up into his eyes. She grasped both of his hands and held onto them tightly.

Steven swallowed thickly, his mind racing towards those inappropriate ideas but only for a moment. Then he focused; and felt his worry triple at Emma's gesture.

"You can't repeat these words again. Not even to yourself when you think you are alone."

"I swear it, Emma." He squeezed her hands, "Please, put the trust I have in you, in me."

Emma dropped her forehead down to his knees, "It is difficult."

Steven slipped one of his hands away from Emma's and ran it through his friend's hair. "I wish I could make it easier for you. If I could, I would."

"I know." Emma nodded her head as she rested her cheek on Steven's knee, and stared towards the closed balcony doors and how the sunlight was waning outside the glass. Nightfall would come soon. Emma did not need to look to Steven to know his sincerity. She could feel his honesty, his desire to make this easier on her as if it were as physical a touch as his hand in her hair was.

"I have kept this a secret for so long. Been sworn to it by magic. A magic contract that makes it…difficult to speak of." More like impossible to speak of, but she would get to that soon enough.

"By whom!? Over what?" Steven's eyes widened and he tried to make Emma look up at him but she held off.

Emma's eyelids squeezed closed as she breathed in as calmly and as deeply as she could. This would take a great deal of concentration and self-control.

She stood up and stepped several feet away from her friend. With eyes closed she lifted her hand and willed her magic to form in her palm.

A whitish blue flame flickered above her palm until it formed a large fire ball the size of a cannonball but weighed nothing. It hovered an inch above the skin of her open hand. It swirled around more like the great seas during a storm than a flickering flame.

Once she sustained the flame that generated not a single ounce of heat, she opened her eyes.

Steven had risen from the bed at some point and he was trembling at the display. His eyes looked nervously between the manifestation of her magic and her weary eyes.

He suddenly had more questions than Emma could answer with a mere look or expression.

"How…how long?" He croaked, eyes impossibly wide.

"The contract, Steven. The contract. I couldn't tell you."

Steven's jaw flexed, "That is not the answer to my question."

Emma bowed her head as she whispered, "Forever, Steven. I have always had magic."

Magic was merely a part of her being; had been a part of her since her birth. It was a hard kept secret that entailed even her parents swearing secrecy on the matter.

"Your visions." Steven whispered, as if piecing together a puzzle that had been in front of him for years but he was only just seeing for the first time.

"Yes, just like my visions."

Truthfully, her visions were a different matter altogether. Her visions were an advanced form of magic. The 'gift' of prophecy was rare even for magic folk. Not even the Blue Fairy knew how to teach her to control them. In the beginning her parents had sought the council of the other Kings and Queens looking for anyone who might assist Emma in controlling her foresight. Those that they found were ineligible for the tasks as most of them were mad or resided in the 'in-betweens' of time somewhere Emma was incapable of traveling—for now.

"For years I was unable to break the contract, but there is a clause not accounted for. It forbids me from telling anyone verbally. That does not mean I cannot show you. Once you know, I am free to speak with you about it. She wished me to sign a stricter contract when I was older but…"

"Who? Who wished for you to sign it Emma?" It was as if they were working from two separate books when Emma thought they were on the same page.

"Blue Fairy."

Emma hated that Blue Fairy was smart enough to forbid her from speaking about her magic to anyone that did not already know. As a child that left her with so few confidants her age. She spoke more with adults, with magic folk. She spent her time away from children and when she was with children she was shy, distant, and afraid that any miscalculation could inadvertently reveal her secret. The contract ostracized her before she knew how to do it on her own.

She had to learn at such an early age to control her emotions. She could not become unruly or throw tantrums without fear of setting her curtains on fire, breaking glass within a ten foot radius of her, or even injuring someone. As a child her magic was directly linked to her emotional expression. When she was four and was told she couldn't keep a frog she found she'd cried for an hour and inadvertently started a rain storm in her room.

She was forced to mature quickly; she did not have a choice. Her maturity forced her into isolation that even as an adult she still had trouble escaping. So she sought out adventures and caused a ruckus as often as she could manage, without magic. It was the only solace she could find and the only form of rebellion she could afford.

"The Blue Fairy!? She had you sign…" Steven held up his hand to stall Emma's response as the other rubbed angrily at his forehead. He reigned in his anger although it was a very difficult thing to do. "Can you," He gestured to the magic still ignited in Emma's hands.

"Oh, yes, I am, of, of course." Emma closed her fist and the white flames disappeared.

As soon as the flames disappeared, Steven relaxed. He kept his hand against his forehead, massaging his temple.

Emma's trek into the forbidden forest to Maleficent's fortress was just as much about adventure as it was about meeting a female witch. She wished to see the darker side of magic. The side that she was warned against by Blue Fairy, and all the fairies, and her parents, and the moral stories she'd been told all her life.

After confessing such a desire to her father as he rode with her upon his steed back to their castle, he contacted Glinda the Good. She was not the darker side of magic Emma sought but she was a female witch that helped her understand that magic is a drug for many and can turn the purest of souls dark with its temptation.

There was always something about the story Glinda told, how there was no wickedness in magic itself that most magic came from pure places of a person's soul. It was a lesson Blue Fairy taught her dozens of times, but it was only through Glinda's story that it really began to resonate deeply for Emma. To know that not all dark magic is evil, and not all dark casters are as they seem could now be applied directly to Emma's predicament with Regina. A predicament she could not afford to focus on at the moment.

To this day Emma's relationship with Glinda was sound and her relationship with the Blue Fairy was strained. The animosity between her and Blue was why it came as such a surprise to her when Blue, as well as Fauna, agreed with her during the council meeting so many months ago.

"When did she have you sign this contract?" Steven's voice pulled Emma away from her musings for a moment.

"I was younger than Penelope." Emma had to think about it for a moment. It was before Jamie was born. "Five, maybe six."

Steven did not respond verbally. Instead he began to pace in front of Emma's bed, mumbling under his breath. His face was flushed with anger. Emma shrank back with each violent jab of his finger in the air, imagining he was pointing it at her accusingly even though he had not even looked at since he began to move.

Emma was supposed to have signed a second contract when she was sixteen that forbade her from showing her magic unless the person knew already, the situation was dire, or Blue Fairy gave her permission.

Emma had refused to sign.

In retaliation for her refusal Blue Fairy stopped their lessons, a punishment. It was the only punishment the fairy was able and willing to doll out to Emma, who by that point had far greater power then the fairy matriarch.

Blue's refusal to teach her and command to stop any fairy from helping Emma left her on her own when it came to managing her magic and advancing it. Emma hadn't done much advancing since she'd left Blue Fairy's tutelage, which caused her to have second thoughts every once in a while, but only once in a while. [Like the time she was surrounded and got an undeserved beating, or the time Regina let her fall off the side of a cliff, or the time fires broke out all over the Kingdom and she could have called on rainstorms to stop them.]

On the one hand it would be good to have better understanding and control of her magic in a pinch. On the other Emma much preferred to win competitions and defeat opponents on her own merits without the advantage of magic.

In the end it was easy to put blame on the contract for why she'd kept this part of her a secret, but the reality of it was that Emma hadn't wanted to tell anyone. Not after a while.

In the beginning all she wanted to do was tell Alexandra. When she couldn't tell the Magical Kingdom Princess the one friendship Emma had with a child her own age was stilted. Alexandra was not stupid, neither were any of the other children. They knew Emma was being treated 'special' as her lessons differed from their own. She spent far too much time with the fairies while many of the other royal children only ever had one lesson a month with Blue Fairy or a 'lesser' fairy.

The special treatment caused envy and jealousy to sprout as well as distrust which left Emma lonely. Her loneliness pushed her towards excelling in everything, including sword fighting, mastery of the bow and arrow, several forms of hand to hand combat; to learn political policies, negotiation procedures, and laws of the land—her own and others. What else was she to do with all her spare time? Her excellence made her no more popular than her secret keeping did. It was the lesser of two evils.

By the time Emma was sixteen she no longer wished to continue with her lessons. She didn't want to keep any more secrets. She wanted so much more than that.

Simply, after a while Emma didn't want to be any more of a 'freak' then she already was. Having magic wasn't and still isn't viewed as a positive trait. Women who have magic are considered witches, and it is always bad witches that come to mind before any good ones do.

Emma had enough to handle as an independent woman. There were already rumors that she wasn't natural. Now with her developed feelings for Regina on top of her magical ability? It would be the proof the masses of dignitaries needed to condemn her; shun her further.

Commoners wouldn't shun her. They had the chance often and had never turned their back on her. They questioned her physical capabilities as they would anyone: male or female. Once she proved her worth she was accepted. It was so much simpler with many of them than with bureaucrats.

Thinking back, it wasn't until Emma saved a supply wagon from bandits while out riding one gloomy afternoon, that she found where she felt she could belong.

She found acceptance.
Friends.
Confidants.

With her riding cloak wrapped tightly around her and hood up against the drizzling rain she anonymously saved the traders from losing their goods from bandits with ill intent. She gained respect and instant camaraderie with strangers. Strangers, who were more willing to take her in, female or not, for the abilities others mocked her for. So she went to a pub with the grateful commoners. They showered her with drink after drink, shared stories of their plights, asked her questions but never pushed when she didn't answer. They respected her boundaries, her secrets.

They spoke of the difficulties they faced under the rule of the monarchs. Freely they expressed their distaste about how the Kingdoms were run; how they were taxed for selling their goods and taxed for using the safer trade routes. The inflations sometimes so high that they were forced to take less guarded paths—like the one Emma had found them upon—where bandits ran free and stole to their hearts content. They trusted her with their opinions because they saw her as 'one of them'. Such a feeling was alien to Emma until then.

By the end of the evening she'd consumed so much ale—far stronger than the wine and gin in the castle—she stumbled from the pub and back to her horse, lucky to even remember her name.

Returning to the castle had been 'easy' thanks to Destiny. The horse knew just how to get them home and Emma trusted her to get them there safely, even if she fell asleep at the reins. Waking up after Destiny strode into the stables and sneaking passed her worried parents had not been easy. The reaming she had received resulted in her being castle-ground bound for weeks afterwards.

It was during the weeks stuck on castle grounds that she created the bounty hunter identity she began living secretly whenever she could manage. By then she was an expert at keeping secrets and hiding things.

If it had not been for Blue Fairy and her parents teaching her to keep secrets, hide peculiarities, think quick on her feet, how to never outright lie: she never would have been able to live her double life. And since beginning to live her double life she hadn't been happier. Hadn't felt more complete, fulfilled.

That is until she'd started speaking with Regina during their breaks. How that woman could make her feel comfortable one moment and devastated the next was beyond her.

"Ste.."

Steven stopped moving but held up one single finger to stop Emma from speaking. She snapped her mouth shut and nervously played with her nails. Steven was her only true friend. Besides Graham he would be the only one to know everything about her, practically everything about her at least. If he turned away from her now she would be lost.

Steven was angry.
Livid!

He had every right to be mad at her. She had kept this from him. This, her magic, wasn't a small matter. She had magic.

Emma had magic. Powerful magic by the looks of it and Emma was aware of it for years.

Years!

And she never said a thing to him. Never mentioned it. Not once.

Maybe he could have understood her remaining quiet before; when they were younger. He probably wouldn't have known how to handle Emma revealing she also had magic back then. They didn't really get along much as children. Come to think of it they didn't really talk much unless forced as children. He was 'too old' to be bothered by her, especially when everyone else thought her odd.

That was then! He was a different person. He was no longer an ignorant boy, he was—what he liked to think—a wise man. His own man whose opinions and decisions were his own not his father's.

So after everything they had been through. Everything they had planned and told each other. After all of that…she still hadn't told him. Why didn't she tell him!?

There was a small part of him that was upset with himself. Disappointed.

He should have known she had magic. He'd witnessed physical magic develop and interact between Regina and Emma. It was right in front of him! He'd watched it with his own two eyes and still he'd never questioned it. He trusted Emma. In his mind there was nothing to question. If Emma had magic she would have told him. Or so he thought.

Or he thought, just maybe, she wasn't aware of what happened between her and Regina when they argued. That she was ignorant of it all. He'd thought it was because of Regina, because of Regina's magic. Not because Emma had her own power, her own store of magic!

Magic. Emma had magic!

He was wrong. She knew all along. It wasn't ignorance. It was subterfuge.

That begged the question for him. If he was wrong about this, wrong about Emma, what else was he wrong about? Could he really trust Emma now? Knowing that she'd lied to him for so long? Kept this hidden from him all this time? Would she have kept it a secret if Regina hadn't found out—however it is that she found out? Would she have kept him in the dark?

Steven finally turned to look at Emma, his movements slow, calculated. He saw how her shoulders were hunched, eyes downcast, and the way she twiddled her fingers. He wanted to be angry with her. He was, he was angry, but he wasn't sure that he could remain angry with her.

He was angry at the situation. He was angry with what she'd done and what she hadn't done.

But it was Emma.

She was still his Emma, and seeing her so lost and vulnerable tore at him, ripped apart any anger he held towards her to shreds leaving it in a pile to be handled at a later date.

"Emma…"

Steven cringed as he watched Emma flinch away from his hand as he reached out to touch her. He tried again. His intent was to just touch Emma's shoulder, coax her to look into his eyes.

He didn't expect Emma to throw herself into his chest the moment he touched her shoulder.

He groaned with the force of her body pressing tightly against his. He remained standing and only winced the tiniest bit when Emma squeezed her arms around his waist with all her strength. He wrapped his arms, loosely, around her shoulders as she nestled into him. Her body trembled with tears Steven hadn't even realized were in danger of falling.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. Truly I am. I'm sorry." Emma whispered, turning so her cheek rested against Steven's shoulder and she stared out into the vastness of her room. "I should have told you. I just, you and the other Princes think me so queer already with my…my ways. People think me odd and unnatural. There is nothing more unnatural than being gifted with magic."

"That is not true."

"Isn't it?" Emma peered into Steven's eyes. "People with magic are treated as lepers. Women considered witches, always evil. Men, sorcerers or wizards."

"But what of the Fae?" Steven questioned, trying to help prove his point, no matter how futile it seemed. "They are not considered unnatural."

"That is because they are not human, Steven. Not in the eyes of everyone else. They are their own race. A race born with magic. It is unnatural for their kind to be without magic. Just like it is for our kind to have magic."

"You are not unnatural." Steven insisted, understanding, at least a bit more, where Emma's fear had come from. Why she had never shared this secret with him as if she could have. Blue Fairy and her contracts; if he hadn't sworn to never mention this again he'd have a word with that Fairy. She was as bad as the imp Rumplestiltskin but at least he was not a wolf in sheep's clothing like the Fairy matriarch could be.

"Aren't I?" Emma questioned, hiding her face by looking away from him, her cheek resting on his shirt. "I am unlike any other high court woman. I value the talents and things men do; I do not long to find a husband. I…I long to find happiness with my family's darkest enemy."

Steven chuckled mirthlessly, "Welcome to my lonely club."

Emma couldn't help the smile the spread at Steven's dismal retort. "Not so lonely anymore."

Steven pressed his lips to the crown of Emma's hair. The tresses smelled like roses with a touch of citrus. "No, it would appear it is now a two ma—person club."

Emma relaxed into Steven's arms, thankful that he caught himself and auto-corrected his statement. She listened to Steven's heartbeat, each strong drum echoed in her ear.

"I am magically gifted." Emma admitted, verbally at last to her truest friend.

"With white magic."

"Yes, but that does not…"

"Doesn't it matter? Let them call you a witch. A manly woman. Let them say whatever they please Emma. None of it matters, none of it should matter to you. The only opinion you should hold true is your own. And you are not anything those numskulls peasants or bureaucratic puritans can think of. You are the opposite of it all." Steven stroked his hand down Emma's hair, his palm brushing past her ear as he slipped a few strands behind her earlobe.

"You are a strong woman, incredibly brave and intelligent. You possess the knowledge of ten men and the wit of a hundred. You are driven and dedicated. You strive to do your best, you excel at everything, and you are the kindest person I have ever met, Emma. Even surpassing my mother." Which was a compliment indeed as Aurora was known as one of the kindest and gentlest of rulers in the realm.

Emma soaked in Steven's words, absorbing them slowly, doing her best to take them to heart. It was hard. For so long she had allowed herself to be an outcast, had been subjected to it for so long it was all she knew. Hearing someone praise her for what other's found faults with was unusual. Outwardly she was a confident woman but on the inside she was just as vulnerable as anyone else. She just wished someone besides Steven saw that.

Someone…in particular.

"I am still angry." Steven admitted even as he gently caressed Emma's hair. Surprised at how soft it was.

Emma swallowed thickly, but accepted this. "I know." She would be mad at herself too if she were in Steven's position.

"Good. So long as you know." Steven had nothing more to say but he didn't remove himself from Emma's arms or ask Emma to release him.

It was some time before either of them spoke again, and it was Steven's voice the broke the silence.

"I will not tell anyone."

Emma turned and placed a kiss to his cheek. "Thank you."

Steven had the decency to blush, if only a bit, "Anything for you, your Highness."

Emma playfully pushed her hands against Steven, dislodging them from their embrace. Steven hadn't expected the shove and had trouble catching his balance. He grabbed onto Emma to keep himself but Emma was unable to brace both of their weight. They fell, Steven backwards with Emma following, with a laugh onto Emma's bed.

"Gods and Goddesses you are heavy." Steven playfully complained as Emma landed on top of him.

"Oh, shush." Emma rolled off of him, laughing as she stared up at the canopy above them.

Steven pushed his shoulder into Emma's jerking her to the side a bit. Emma frowned before she shoved her shoulder right back against his. Instead of pushing her away he wrapped an arm under her shoulders and pulled her against his side.

Emma refrained from commenting on their position as she lay on her side and rested her hand on Steven's chest feeling his heartbeat with her hand while simultaneously hearing it beat against her ear. It was soothing and chased away the demons that plagued her.

They were somewhere between wakefulness and sleep, content. Neither were sure how long they lay there taking comfort in each other.

It wasn't until the door was pounded against that they both rose, waking from the peaceful state they had succumbed to. The violent noise startled them enough that they both rose to sit and stare at the door. The voices outside the doors were muffled.

Steven rose from the bed first. Emma remained sitting on the edge of her bed her hair mussed and outfit wrinkled. Steven looked no better.

"Yes?" Steven's voice was as rough as gravel and his eyes bright with the promise of pain for being interrupted.

Emma was glad to see the guard that was outside their door hushed and bowed his head in apology as he noticed Steven's state and peeked in to see Emma perched on her bed. His face grew as red as a ripe tomato as he recited his message.

"My apologies your Highness. The King has called for you. There has been an attack on the city of Hoymel."

Emma rose from the bed at the news of an attack. "Hoymel, that's the city that borders the Dark Kingdom's new port city, is it not?" New city, meaning one that pledged alliance to Regina and took down their Primrose flags to do so.

The guard swallowed, shifting his weight with nerves. Steven was surprised Emma knew where Hoymel was, but then again he should have known better. Emma spent just as much time memorizing his kingdom as she had her own. She probably knew the names of all the border cities, new cities and villages, and their locations. Hell maybe she could even draw it from memory alone.

By the time Emma made it to Steven's side the guard had yet to answer her question. Emma looked through the corner of her eyes at Steven, wondering what this man's silence was about. Steven raised his shoulders the smallest bit in a shrug. He knew that his father was weary of giving Emma any information but as far as Steven knew there had not yet been a staff wide decree to keep her in the dark or ignore her queries on political matters.

"The Princess asked you a question." Steven's voice deepened and his body straightened to his full height in challenge, with authority.

"My apologies, my Prince. This message was for your ears only." He swallowed, his skin suddenly white, frightening both Emma and Steven with the swiftness of the change in pallor. "Yes, my lady, Hoymel is one of the few cities that borders the Dark Kingdom's new territory." He kept his head low as he addressed Steven. "The King wishes to see you immediately in the armory. The First Guard ride to Hoymel presently. Your father wishes for you to join them."

The royals shared a startled look, communicating with their eyes alone.

Steven needed to leave, now. She would follow after him.

The First Guard of Primrose were highly trained soldiers, the best offensive legion that Primrose had to offer. If they were being sent to Hoymel the King was expecting to be met with the Dark Queen's best as well. The ensuing battle would be bloody.

Steven left, brushing past the trembling guard leaving Emma to handle the frightened new recruit.

End Chapter Nineteen

Author's Note: I just wanted to thank you all for reading. I love seeing new followers, favorites, and reviews appear in my inbox. Makes my days a LOT brighter! :-D So I thank you all for those smiles. I hope that this chapter was enjoyed. It begins a newer arch for our lovely characters. That tension with King Phillip has finally reached it's max and Regina isn't going to take this one lying down. ESPECIALLY after her little tet-a-tet with Emma and Steven in the garden. ;-) The tension between Phillip, Regina and Maleficent will continue to play into the rest of the story as will story archs, themes, and allusions. The whole story has been mapped out from pretty much the 9th chapter but was re-worked a little recently to give many of you the Swan Queen interaction, scenes, love making, that you asked for a bit sooner then planned. ;-)

The chapters are shorter so that I can post them more frequently. Most seem to like that idea. I hope that you'll still be of that opinion because recently my laptop crashed and with it all the chapter work that I did post chapter 20. I had gotten up to 22 but at this moment I am unsure if that data has been or can be salvaged. :'-( So, keep your fingers crossed! I LIVE on my computer and will be devastated if I lose the data from it as it contains everything I've written for the last 8 years.

If I get good news about the computer I MAY be able to combine two chapters so that we get back to some lovely Swan Queen interaction quicker which I'm sure everyone will like. ;-D My friend once told me that she marveled at all the little details I have in store for this story. I hope that you'll agree with her and enjoy each and every 'little thing' that is to come. It's all up hill from here! Well, until it's downhill, but I'll give you fair warning before we get to THAT part, I promise!

Have a great day/evening/morning/afternoon/week!