Double Trouble 67
Chapter 67 'Sleeping beauty'
As a clumsy person Astrid was well-acquainted with the ground. When the fairy opened her eyes and tried to sit up her head began to spin. It felt as though her brain was jostling about in her skull. Each movement, even looking around, made it worse so she limited herself to moving only in small slow stages and keeping her head at the same altitude.
The green paddocks and smell of horse manure testified that she was still at the stables. The last thing she remembered was a massive surge of magic within her before she blacked out.
Regina's wish...
Astrid's magic wand was lying in the grass a few feet away. It was no longer sparkling and had lost its pink colour, instead it looked grey as if the magic had been drained out of it. Her head protested in pain when she leaned over to grasp it. The effort drained her. She stopped to rest and close her eyes. The wand was cool to the touch and lay dead in her fingers.
"Are you alright there, miss?"
A middle-aged man with greying blond hair and a kind face full of weather lines stooped down to give her a hand up off of the ground. He pulled her to her feet with a groan. "There we go. Up y'get. Oops, don't fall now."
Astrid wobbled a bit on her feet and steadied herself on his arm. "Thank you, Sir. You're very kind."
The man tipped his hat to her. "Mike Meadows, co-owner of Storybrooke's Fable Stables, at your service. Are you ill?"
"No, I must've fainted," said Astrid, by way of explanation for her ending up lying unconscious on the ground. She slid her wand into its special pocket of her jeans, though it hardly mattered anymore if anyone saw it. It looked more like a stick than anything magical now.
"If there's anything I can do please don't hesitate to ask."
"Yes, there is actually," said Astrid, as the image filled her mind. "There was a young man working here. Tall with brown hair, maybe 20 years old or late teens. The stable boy. I need to speak with him. Where is he?"
Mike's grey eyebrows knitted into a frown. "There must be some mistake, miss. All the grooms and riding instructors here happen to be women at the moment. I have a few gents come in for equine therapy group but not one of them's spry enough to be called a boy."
Hearing that the stable boy possibly never existed only added to Astrid's confusion. Whoever the young man was he had no official connection to the stables though he certainly acted as though he was employed there. But why? The only clue was that he knew Regina. He said he knew her.
He also said his name was Daniel. Wasn't that the name of THE stable boy? The one from the other land who had worked on the Mills family estate? The one who, in the original narrative, had been the young Regina's first love and had been killed to make way for her to marry the King, Snow White's father?
Throughout the Evil Queen's reign little was known to her subjects of her past and the hows and whys of how she ended up darkening the throne. Certain people in Storybrooke were now privy to some of it. No matter the other factors and manipulators who were involved in engineering Regina's fate, it was an unarguable fact that Daniel's death had been a catalysing moment in her life.
Maybe someone was playing a cruel prank on Astrid's young charge, Ri, and pretending to be Daniel. If so it was very cruel indeed.
How else could a boy from the older Regina's past turn up in the younger one's future? Astrid felt she was sending her brain round in circles trying to figure this out. It left her uneasy to consider other possibilities though. The kind that involved something higher than the fairy magic she was just beginning to understand. Something very strange was happening in Storybrooke.
"Do you want me to call someone for you?" said Mike. "You're welcome to go wait up at the house until you're feeling better. My partner, Peter, is in the kitchen renovating."
"I'm fine, but I have to go."
Astrid thanked Mike the stables owner again and said goodbye. She set a brisk pace up the gravel driveway towards the main road that edged past the property. Her earlier dizziness on top of ever-present clumsiness meant she slipped about five times in the process of it. She ended up puffing the whole way, lamenting her own lack of fitness.
Someone was waiting for her at the end of the drive, the scariest figure of her former life as an initiate and her new life as a trainee Fairy Godmother. That someone was wearing a dour navy outfit, a gold cross and a frown.
The lady bowed a formal greeting. "Pink."
"Blue!" Astrid said in shock. "Wh-what are you doing here?"
"You failed."
"But I - … I fulfilled Regina's wish."
"You sent someone back to the past. Was it the princess? Did you send her home like I instructed you to?"
"I tried-"
"I know full well you did not do what I asked, even if the Charmings weren't currently trying to hide her. I can tell you did not adequately ground yourself for the level of magic required to fulfill a wish like this. The stench of magical incompetence is hanging in the air like a bad cooking smell. In any case this is about more than just a Royal wish. Returning only one of the travelers back does not ensure the future of Storybrooke."
Astrid was confused. "I sent young Regina back with no memories except to remember that she must cast the curse - that's what she wished for. Storybrooke will exist."
"No. I meant the real princess. Not Regina, the daughter of a disgraced prince and an evil sorceress who ought to have been sent back anyway. This has gone beyond trying to prevent her from taking to the throne. It had to have been both of them returned or neither. That's why I told you to send Princess Emma home too."
"Wha-?"
"There can be no future without the Saviour, Pink!" said Blue, about to lose her patience. "Right now in the past the Evil Queen is creating this town for the family she doesn't remember; the only thing she knows is that the Dark Curse will bring her a happy ending. But she has no family on the way - not yet. Not unless the younger Emma Swan goes back to where she came from. Otherwise her son Henry will never be born. If Henry is never born there will be no-one to bring his mothers together in the first place, there will be no reason for the Queen to reform herself and no Savior to help. Don't you see? The Storybrooke under our feet will exist without ever having existed. The past and the future are the same. Do you have any idea what happens when a time paradox is created?"
"N-no?" Astrid squeaked.
"I'm taking you offline until your performance can be evaluated. I must go now and clean up your mess. Otherwise the consequences could be catastrophic."
"There's something else I need to tell you. There was a-"
"It can wait." The Blue Fairy cut her off. "If you try to warn the Royals or contact them about what we've discussed I'll have your wings for it. Permanently."
Mary Margaret's apartment
Storybrooke's lone Deputy Sheriff raced up the creaky wooden stairs to the loft's second floor. His wife was calling from the bedroom where their teenage daughter was supposed to have been sleeping. That alone caused him to leap into action.
"David, it's Em. Look," said a worried Mary Margaret as soon as he entered. She was leaning over the sleeping form of a blonde teenager on the bed. Em was still wearing her clothes from yesterday. Her small body was tangled up in the patchwork blanket as if she'd been tossing and turning. She was still sleeping despite their talking at normal volume in the room.
"She won't wake up."
David went to her and laid a hand on Em's head. She looked truly angelic when asleep, there was no hint of how much trouble she could cause when awake. "Is she alright?"
"I think she's just knocked out. I found these." Mary Margaret picked up a foil pill packet from the side table. "Sleeping tablets."
David snatched the packet and noted that there were two pills missing. "Where did she get these?"
Mary Margaret sighed. "From me." At David's look of shock she explained. "I didn't give them to her! I think she took them from my medicine cabinet. Do you remember when the girls first arrived and Emma warned us about Em, she said not to let her near any drugs. I thought she was exaggerating."
"Damn," David exhaled and assessed his daughter again. "She's only taken two?"
"Yes, I think so. The packet was from an old prescription of mine that I got while I was volunteering night shift at the hospital and having trouble sleeping. But I never took any. There's only two popped out. She's breathing ok and seems fine so I don't think it's an overdose. But it was probably too much for her little body."
"Is it safe for ... you know, the baby?"
"I don't know, I don't know!" Mary Margaret's fears were starting to get the best of her. "Oh, my poor girl. This is all my fault. Why would she do this, David? If she was having trouble sleeping last night why didn't she come to me?"
"Mary, we'll figure that out later. First she needs to be checked out. Call Dr Whale. Tell him to meet me."
His wife already had her phone in her hand, scrolling through her contacts list. "Where will you be?"
"I'm going to take her to the Station until she recovers. The Blue Fairy wants to confront Em and accuse her of the assault. We can't let that woman see her in this state."
"Yes," Mary Margaret nodded. "You have to take her. David, you have to take our baby."
David started wrapping Em up like she was a burrito. He tucked her long blonde hair into the blanket and left her silver Converse shoes poking out of the bottom. Even the motion and jostling didn't wake her. If only keeping her protected from the world was as easy as keeping her warm.
He lifted her into his arms as though she weighed no more than she had the day she was born.
David bent to give his wife a quick kiss and then Mary Margaret leaned over to place a kiss on her daughter's pale forehead. She picked up Em's thick black-framed glasses from the side table, folded them, and then tucked them inside the pocket of the teenager's shirt.
"Goodbye, Em," she whispered. "See you soon."
Storybrooke General Hospital
It took the kids about half an hour to ride to the hospital. Once there, Jenna jumped off her bike, motioned for Henry to do likewise, and then she locked both bikes together next to a steel sign that warned: 'No parking. Ambulance Only'.
Henry looked ahead at the automatic doors and the red-and-white sign above that indicated the way to the Emergency Department. He had a strange feeling about it. The last time he'd been here was when he'd nearly died. One of his mothers had accidentally poisoned him and the other had unknowingly saved him. That day the curse was not broken but damaged.
Both Emma and Regina had professed their love for him that day. The latter had declared it tearfully before fleeing (she must've expected to be lynched on the spot) and the former had said the words for the first time. It had been surreal. The doctors came and pronounced him alive and likely to remain that way, a nurse brought him his clothes, and they'd let Henry leave with his birth mother out of the very doors he was in front of now.
"Let's go," said Jenna, squaring her shoulders as the two pre-teens entered the hospital. It was a daunting place.
Inside Henry pointed to the overhead signage. "We need to go that way. Mrs Gander will be in ICU." The same as I was.
But unlike Henry's time in hospital, Mrs Gander was suffering from a known non-magical affliction and was under the care of doctors who were expert at treating such things.
The ICU was quieter than the rest of the hospital. More solemn. Henry stepped ahead of Jenna and went up to the Ward Nurses' station. He waited patiently until the nurse there finished what she was writing down in a medical chart and noticed him.
"Can I help you?" The nurse's smile was drawn and bland.
"We're looking for someone," said Henry. "Which room is Mrs Lucy Gander in, please."
The nurse checked her clipboard and then sized up the ages of the kids, who were still in their green and black school uniforms. "Are you relatives? Her other grandchildren?"
Henry shook his head. "No, we're students. Mrs Gander is our school principal. We wanted to see if she's alright."
"I'm sorry. But it's family only."
"Oh."
Jenna piped up. "You said 'other grandchildren'. Is her granddaughter here?"
The nurse shook her head with condescending sympathy. "I can't give out that information, hun."
The kids made sure the unhelpful nurse saw them leave down the corridor. When safely out of sight Jenna grabbed Henry's shirt sleeve and they ducked into a common area that was set up with tables and chairs and a coffee machine. No doubt it was where anxious family members passed time during visiting hours when they needed a break from the endless watching and waiting for loved ones to recover.
"We should go back and try to sneak past that nurse," whispered Jenna.
Henry protested. "We can't do that! We don't even know where to go."
"Well, if you had said we were family they might've let us in."
"But we're not." He frowned in disapproval. "It's ICU. The people here are really sick."
"I bet she is here somewhere," said Jenna, more stubborn than he'd ever heard her. It sounded like she wasn't talking about the Principal and reminded him that they were here to find some mystery person.
"Are you going to tell me who you're looking for?"
Before Jenna could explain she was interrupted by a friendly familiar voice. "Hey, what are you guys doing here?"
Henry jumped in surprise, afraid of getting in trouble at first. He relaxed when he saw it was Jess Meadows, his friend's older cousin whom he'd met once before. She looked like a grownup version of Jenna but with her blonde hair cut short. Pinned to her polo shirt was the same sort of hospital volunteer badge that Mary Margaret used to wear. There was a bouquet of white lilies wrapped in clear cellophane in her hand.
Hopefully she wouldn't tell anyone they had run off during a school day to come here.
"Jess!" said Jenna. "You're here!"
Jess put a finger to her lips. "Shh. A bit softer, Jen."
"Oops, sorry," said Jenna, lowering her voice to a sheepish whisper. "Is she here? Have you seen Lea yet?"
"No, I haven't," sighed Jess. "I just finished my shift. What are you two doing sneaking around? You shouldn't be here, guys. Henry, I take it you got dragged here by my little cousin."
"Er, not really-" Henry glanced at his accomplice.
"Actually he wouldn't let me come by myself," Jenna said, matter-of-factly. "I wanted to come find Lea and tell her that you're really sorry about what happened. She needs to talk to you. I figured that she'd come to see her grandma in hospital and I could convince her to give you another chance. You're sad all the time."
Jess groaned under her breath. "Jen, she doesn't-… It's been longer than you think. It's complicated ok?"
"No, it isn't. It's obvious you still love her."
"That's not why we don't talk anymore."
There was no stopping innocent curiosity so Jenna persisted with her stubborn questioning. "Then why?"
"I'd like to know that too," said a new voice.
Jess composed her face before turning around. Her former unrequited love (crush? almost girlfriend?) Lea Gander, granddaughter of the ailing Principal Lucy Gander, was standing right behind her with her arms crossed.
As usual she was dressed in black jeans and a flannel over a band t-shirt. Jess hadn't seen her in almost a year - ever since the curse had broken and they'd had what was arguably their worst fight- but nothing had changed. Lea's chestnut hair was still cut in the same fashion: shaved short low on one side and the rest styled across in waves.
"Lea," mumbled Jess, stuffing her hands in her pockets. "You ok?"
"Do I look ok?" said Lea.
"Of course you're not, I should've realised-… Can we talk?"
"We're talking now. I can't believe you'd come here at a time like this. You told me you didn't want to see me again and now you turn up?"
"I know. But I wanted to check if you're alright. I'm sorry about your Gran-"
"I'm not sorry," Lea's whisper was harsh. "I hated her! She made my life hell, as you well know, and then kicked me out of home knowing I had no money and nowhere else to go. She wouldn't even let me see my little brother. She told me being gay was a sin and it was all in my head. She said you were a bad influence so many times I started to believe it."
"None of which was my fault and was no excuse for treating me like shi-" Jess stopped, suddenly remembering that her young cousin and friend were in earshot. "You broke my heart."
The quiet of the ward swallowed her anger and reminded her this was hardly the place or the time to continue an old fight. It definitely wasn't why she'd come here. The cellophane of the bouquet in her hand crinkled. She'd intended to lead their first meeting in so long with a gift and an apology. The words "I'm sorry" were ready at her lips several times.
"She's dead, Jessie." Lea's face crumpled into her hands and her voice choked up. "The stupid old cow is dead."
"Come here."
It took three seconds for Jess to offer her arms and Lea didn't protest the embrace, she sank into it. Despite the fact that Lea was both heavier and taller than her, they fit well together and Jess relished being able to provide some physical comfort at least. Lea was now free of her grandmother's hate but she'd also lost the only adult relative and carer she'd ever had.
Meanwhile, Henry was watching the interaction off to the side.
"Hey, look," Jenna whispered to Henry. "It worked!"
"Yeah." Henry smiled. "The happy endings are coming back! Now all we have to do is get Lea and Ethan together. Mrs Gander must have been keeping them apart. Maybe he won't be such a bully at school to us anymore."
Henry checked his watch. It was nearing the end of the school day and his parents would be expecting him soon. He said as much to Jenna and told her he'd make his own way home. She was going to stay and catch a ride home with Jess so Henry reminded her not to forget the bikes. Luckily she didn't think to ask how he was going to get home, meaning he didn't have to make up an excuse for the real answer (which was either 'magic' or 'call Moms', one of the two).
"I gotta go," said Henry. "See you at school?"
Jenna smiled. "Thanks, Henry. See you at lunch."
Henry grinned to himself, buoyed by the warmth of gratitude, as he headed out of the hospital with a bounce in his step. Jenna's matchmaking plan had paid off and he'd been able to help. The schoolgirl may have lost her memories but hope for their friendship hadn't been completely lost.
This was exactly why Emma was so important to the town in her roles as the Saviour, the Sheriff, the founder of KidSpace, and the partner of the Mayor. She was bringing back the happy endings by example and by her no-nonsense attitude to intolerance. Maybe nothing could have changed Lucy Gander's mind about the importance of love and family, but Lea wasn't a lost cause and neither was her little brother Ethan.
As for the state of Storybrooke and the town's happy endings, Henry wondered if his Moms had made any progress today. He was keen to find out.
He hadn't even made it out of the hospital grounds before someone grabbed his arm from behind and whirled the boy around. It happened so fast he didn't have time to jar in shock. An elderly man who looked both sick and crazy gripped both of the eleven-year-old's shoulders in a vice-like grip stronger than he ought to have been capable of.
"Are you the boy?" the old man shouted hoarsely in his face. "ARE YOU THE BOY?"
"I… I don't know," stammered Henry. "Sir, do you need help?"
"We all need help. They will die. THEY'RE GOING TO DIE."
"Who?"
The old man's watery blue eyes widened but his grip remained tight. He rasped. "The boy's mothers are going to die. Only one comes back. It will be your choice."
Henry's jaw dropped. "What do you mean? How do you know I have two mothers?"
"Mr Howard! There you are." A hospital nurse wearing blue scrubs appeared and gently pried the old man's hands from Henry's arms. The nurse put her arm around the old man and rubbed his shoulder. He didn't give any sign of recognising her; he only stared ahead. It was then that Henry noticed that the old man was wearing hospital-issue pyjamas, slippers, and a white name tag around his wrist.
"I'm sorry." The nurse gave Henry a kind smile. "I hope he didn't scare you. Mr Howard and I were on a walk when he slipped away from me."
"No, it's okay," said Henry, pulling at his sleeves to straighten them. "But he did say something strange to me… um, what's wrong with him?"
"He's just old, honey. Sometimes he gets himself a bit confused."
After the nurse walked away with her patient Henry said to himself, "He's not the only one."
Neither age nor senility explained the old man's ramblings. How could he have known that Henry had two mothers? It was possible that he had seen his photo with the Mayor or Sheriff in the newspaper but that still didn't explain what he'd said. It sounded like a warning from the future. The fact that Storybrooke had already received two time-travelers implied that it was impossible to rule it out.
What if it's true? Henry thought to himself. What if his mothers were in danger somehow? What if he could only help bring one of them back? Losing one of them wasn't an option. They had only just been united as a family, something he'd wished for his whole life, and there was no way he was willing to give up either of them.
I have to make sure it doesn't come to that!
I have to warn them.
Henry knew he wasn't supposed to use magic anymore but this was no time for rules. Not when the universe itself seemed to be breaking the laws of time and space. Henry looked around to see if he was in anyone's eyesight and then cast the spell. A tornado of purple smoke of his own making began to twirl around his feet and climbed higher and higher.
One second he was standing there in the hospital grounds, the next he was gone.
Sheriff's Station
Dr Whale was already waiting at the front door of the station when David arrived carrying an unconscious Em. He looked rumpled and bleary-eyed, likely from working night shift at the hospital.
David shifted the weight of his precious cargo in his arms and tossed the keys to Whale who let them both in. He headed straight for the main office and navigated his way around the spare desks to the back room where there were two cells. The bars that formed the doors were ajar so he pushed his way through the leftmost cell and laid his daughter on the bed.
He moved out of the way so that Whale could crouch down beside her.
"Mary Margaret said she'd been unconscious for approximately five hours?" said Whale as he was examining the teenager's vitals and checking for any symptoms of danger.
"Yes," said David. "She was awake at some point early this morning feeling sick. Mary Margaret gave her some crackers to settle her stomach. We're not sure what time it was but she took these."
He handed over the packet of pills and Whale took the foil packet to read. "Benzodiazepam, ten milligrams. Were there only two missing?"
"We assume so, yes."
"She should be fine," the doctor declared. "Keep an eye on her until the sedative wears off. It can affect people differently but she will likely wake sometime in the next few hours. Tell Em that in future if she wants to take something for morning sickness she needs to visit a doctor and to never self-prescribe with someone else's medication. She shouldn't be taking anything while pregnant without discussing it with a doctor."
David agreed with a nod. "We'll talk to her. She doesn't think to ask for help but we'll make sure she knows how important this is. Thank you, Dr Whale."
Whale offered his hand and David was too much a gentleman (and too much the former Prince Charming) to refuse it. Especially after the man had just dropped everything to provide free medical advice on the sly. Inside though he had to grit his teeth and ignore the part of his brain that knew this letch had not only slept with his wife but loved to remind him of it at every opportunity.
"Em's a good kid," said Whale. "It's a shame she had such a rough start. What with the curse, growing up an orphan, and being the Saviour and all that."
"Emma is fine," said David, raising his eyebrows to make his point.
"True." Whale's smile turned into a leer. "Besides, from what I hear Regina is making it up to her these days."
At David's glare the doctor held up his hands in surrender. "Alright, I'm going! Call me if anything changes or take her straight to A&E."
Just when he ought to have been gone, Whale came back down the hall to toss one more question the former Prince's way. He had been the one to warn the Charmings that the Mother Superior was suspicious of Em's involvement in Mrs Gander's attack and was gunning for her arrest. At least there was someone on their side outside the family.
"Oh, and David?" said Whale with a creased brow. "Why did you bring her to the Sheriff's Station?"
David gave his answer in a grim voice. "Because if you were looking for someone on the run a jail cell is the last place you'd look. Trusting the Blue Fairy is how we lost Em the first time."
108 Mifflin Street
Henry re-appeared in a swirl of purple smoke outside the front gate of his family home. He flung the cast-iron gate open and ran up the porch to the front door, all the way tugging the zip of the front pocket of his backpack where he kept his house key (but it wouldn't budge). Neither of his Moms' cars were parked in the driveway but he knocked on the door anyway just in case they were home.
He was too impatient to wait for an answer so he unlocked the door magically and entered while calling out for them.
"Mom, Mom! Are you home? Moms, where are you?" Henry poked his head into the lounge room and Regina's office first before venturing towards the kitchen and dining room.
Maybe they're still out, he thought.
There was a clink of glass that sounded like someone tinkering with Regina's chemistry set. His Mom had been up half the night brewing the perfect solution to the town's problem, her and Emma's True Love potion. Regina had showed the completed version to him before rushing him off to school that morning. That reminded him - he had tons of questions for her about magical chemistry and how she'd managed to get it to work.
Maybe his Mom was still working hard on it but she hadn't heard him come in. He was a little early after all and she'd be expecting him to catch the school bus home. Hopefully she wouldn't figure out that he and Jenna had given themselves the afternoon off from school.
"Hey, Mom?-" Henry stopped dead in his tracks in the archway. Regina's chemistry set was still set up but it wasn't his mother who was standing there.
It was Mr Gold. He was holding the small flask of purple potion up to the light to examine it this way and that. Thankfully it had a tiny rubber stopper in the neck of the flask to prevent the loss of even a drop of the precious liquid.
"Henry." Mr Gold smiled, unfazed that he'd been discovered. "I was waiting for you."
"How did you get in here?" said Henry.
Gold flicked his wrist to produce his empty palm with a flourish. "Magic of course. The same as you."
The cane which he'd previously been holding stayed upright in mid-air all by itself. With his other hand he held the potion bottle by the neck with two fingers.
Henry shifted from foot to foot. The pawnshop broker was a powerful, he must've sensed the use of magic nearby. It was unnerving to contemplate the extent of his power, knowing full well that the imp likely held back the totality of his abilities from his students.
"What do you want?" said Henry carefully, trying not to be too combative.
"I came to see how you were getting along. I thought perhaps you might need my assistance with the instructions but I see that I may have underestimated two of my favourite students of dark magic. You and your mother are quite the team."
Henry raised his chin. "My Mom did most of it. She didn't have to resort to dark magic either."
"Oh, I know that, my dear boy. As soon as it is activated this little potion will be the most powerful substance of good magic in all the realms. Rather impressive for an Evil Queen. I had no idea she had it in her."
Henry frowned. "Huh? You gave her the instructions for the Love Potion you made for Snow White and Prince Charming. But Mom had to improvise for hers and Emma's. You didn't think she could do it did you. You thought she'd fail."
The corner of Gold's mouth turned upwards. "You're a smart boy, Henry."
Mr Gold tossed the little flask a few inches into the air and when it landed in his palm again it disappeared. To a non-magical person it would have looked like a sleight-of-hand trick, but this had been real magic that had sent the precious object into hiding.
"Hey!" Henry objected angrily. "What are you doing? Give that back!"
The boy raised his own hands to cast a spell but Gold was too quick. There was a puff of purple smoke. A second later, a pair of black crocodile-skin gloves covered Henry's hands. The boy tried to pull them off but they were stuck somehow. Magicking them off didn't work either.
"My hands," cried Henry. "What've you done to me?
"That's enough magic for now," said Gold.
"No, please! You can't have the potion. My Moms need it to save Storybrooke."
"That's the least of their worries," tutted Gold, as the tendrils of purple smoke began to curl around his feet. "Pretty soon Storybrooke won't even exist. Neither will you, Henry, and if you don't exist you cannot be my downfall."
Henry ran forward to try to get to Gold before he disappeared. There was a scuffle. The boy only just managed to grab hold of the pawnbroker's suit jacket but it wasn't good enough to prevent the man from leaving. Gold shrugged away from the small crocodilian-clad hands and became engulfed in a swire of smoke.
The Dark One was gone and he'd taken the potion with him.