"Emma, are you sure about this? Mary Margaret asked, brows furrowed.
Emma stopped pacing and stared at her mother. Truth be told she wasn't sure about anything, hadn't been, well, really since Henry knocked on her door back in Boston, but especially since she pulled the "blacksmith" out from under the pile of bodies. It was the strangest and most exhilarating thing she had ever experienced, a shoot of pure, unadulterated electricity running through her entire body as soon as she touched his hand. For one moment, one singular moment, everything came into focus, like a camera zooming in on its target. It was like she'd suddenly found something that she didn't even know she was missing, like in one blinding flash of light, everything in her entire insane life just made sense.
She'd blinked, let go of his hand and stepped back. The spell was broken. She'd felt something else, too, when she'd looked into his eyes as he sat at the table, accepting the drink they'd brought him. She'd felt her superpower kick into high gear. Whoever the hell this man was, he wasn't a cowardly blacksmith who'd hidden under a pile of bodies to escape murder at Cora's hands.
"I'm sure," Emma said, her eyes hard. "He's lying. There's no doubt about it. We can't trust him, anymore than we can trust Cora. Mulan. Tie him to that tree until we can get him to talk."
The man protested weakly as Mulan complied, pulling him roughly with her, slamming him against the tree and binding his hand and stump behind his back. The other princess, Aurora, Emma thought it was, looked troubled, wringing her hands and shooting the man pitying looks.
Snow pulled her aside and tried one more time. "Emma, I know Cora. I know what she's capable of. If this man is her victim, maybe we can use that to our advantage."
Emma glanced over at the man again, saw the look of cowardice leave his eyes and a look of defiance take its place. Her heart began racing again as her stomach swooped. She hadn't felt anything remotely like this since Neil, and she knew very well how that had ended up. In the space of a moment, Emma built up the walls around her heart thicker and higher and more unscalable than they'd ever been. Never again would she let herself be hurt like that period never again would a man destroy her like Neil had.
"Whether he's her victim or her coconspirator, he's going to give us answers, and he's going to give them right now."
Ruthlessly shoving the feelings this man inspired into a deep, dark, secret closet of her heart and then padlocking it, Emma clenched her fists and stomped over to him. She was getting those answers and she was getting them now. Then she was going home, far far away from piercing blue eyes and a devilishly handsome face.