The grounds of the castle Regina had once worked at flashed before her eyes in the most familiar way possible. She was a nomad; it'd been the closest place she'd had to a home. Here she was, returned. Her life terribly empty. Devoid of people who loved her.
It wasn't a life worth living for, she had to admit wryly. She wanted to be loved—she needed love more than this vast empty sham of a life.
She would never be loved, she thought as her eyes combed over the autumn leaves clotting the almost artificial grass. Brown, green, and yellow reminders that even the cleanest home would have some form of spontaneity encroaching upon it.
Freezing for a second, she pondered with a quavering chin how she could go on. She must. She had to be brave. For her purple magic had rescued her from death's door more times than she knew how to count. She couldn't give up and lay down, waiting for the Grim Reaper.
But as she thought of all the things in life she yearned for, which she would never know, her brown eyes shone with tears. The suicide wish of the century billowed in her mind.
She brushed it off as if it were a speck of dirt on her bandit outfit. Swallowing hard, she willed the tears away. Clutched the knowledge she was wanted for a lie. She didn't view what she was determined to do to the Evil Queen as revenge but as trying to help the truth come to the light.
Her fingers looped through the chain around her neck. She wasn't a jewelry person and normally hated being bound by it, but something about this dark fairy dust necklace made her feel so comfortable she didn't mind it at all. Someone who'd become her enemy had suggested a long time ago she might be allergic to jewelry. When her reaction to a simple gift was to wrench the chain off her neck and hurl it into a river.
Now, she scanned the large trees between her and the castle grounds for booby traps. There were several subtle ones easily sidestepped if one paused long enough to search for them. But one vague one had only a glimmer of telltale sunlight to make its existence known. Regina was sure that was the most deadly one. In fact, as she studied it, she saw a tourist couple waltz up to that very spot and prove her right. The woman half of the couple got walloped good by a falling tree trunk that had previously been invisible. Her nose dripped blood, and a jagged slash formed on her forehead as a result as she and her beau both cried out.
He caught Regina staring and yelled an accusation of her bringing cursed magic on his lover.
Regina didn't bother to defend herself. Had he been a native, he'd know the land was properly booby-trapped by nature itself. Nobody had to do manual work for this. It wasn't even Queen Snow's doing. But Regina had witnessed other people trying to explain the land to foreigners, and it never ended well.
Thus, she quickly said, "I'm sorry, I was trying to lift that trunk. I didn't mean…" She rushed over to the woman and pulled a salve out of her bandit bag. She rubbed it on the jagged mark on the woman's face. "Get her to the nearest wise woman. I promise, she'll save your lady's life better than arguing with me will."
The man didn't seem agitated anymore. Regina didn't know if it was because she hadn't denied it, had apologized, rushed to help, or all three, but he patted her on the shoulder then carried his wounded love off with a tip of his hat. Leaving Regina to survey the rest of the booby traps with neck cranes and wide eyes.
There was a very red ruby dangling from the woman's ear. As her beau carried her away, the sunlight streamed behind it and shot a dot of red in Regina's vision. It didn't last long, but it took Regina half a second of warily eyeing it to realize it wasn't an air dot of poison.
Thinning her lips, feeling her scar prickle (it always did so when the air was damp), she sneakily followed broad tree trunks (leaning against them then running to the next when she was sure no people were around) up to the large, smooth, and brown back doors of the castle.
Where the washing maids were dunking sheets in buckets of water. The new ones gave themselves away because they were either shaking over being so close to the Evil Queen or they had a fearless, extremely pampered, look about them. The fearless ones didn't believe the queen was evil; the shaking ones believed Queen Snow murdered everyone for standing wrong (which wouldn't make any sense, as even the most pristine maid was still a human and might sneeze at the wrong moment. If Queen Snow killed staff for every little error, she'd have no experienced staff who'd been on her team for countless years of dedicated service).
As Regina slipped deftly inside the castle, hiding along a dark wall, she wondered who would rule if she were successful in her quest to turn the queen into a bug. She also wondered if she should squash Snow or let someone else do the honors.
She wasn't sure she was upset enough at Snow to whack her tiny body dead. After all, it did horrify her that she had accidentally caused James to die. But James was an evil man. There'd been skeletons found…James and Queen Snow had done some clandestine, evil things to people before Reul Ghorm had killed him. So Regina wasn't quite sure why exactly she mourned that her actions had led to James' death. David, at least, wasn't evil. If Snow didn't have his heart and didn't control him, he probably would be Regina's soulmate. She didn't know.
Right as she had this thought, a lone guard brushed by her. Spear in hand, he immediately set out to slash her throat, but she wrestled the spear out of his grip and brought the side of the sharp end down on his helmeted head. His eyes rolled back in his head, and he staggered to his knees. Blacking out, he cooed out a drunken song before falling backwards with his knees still bent.
Aquiver from the confrontation, Regina continued on her way through the castle. Attempting to stay on the rugs in the center of the floor but wanting to walk along the walls. The floors beside the walls creaked if you walked along them, which was intentional to thwart people from walking in that area. So she tried to walk through abandoned corridors to avoid anyone recognizing her…but the hallways took ten minutes to finish. And she needed to climb a few sets of stairs. And she was only guessing where Snow was. She couldn't tap a maid's shoulder and ask offhandedly. But she did peer in every opened door (which was only about seven out of a hundred) as she made her way where she assumed the Queen was, just in case.
Anxiety was seizing her face. There was no mischievousness or glee. She realized she had to succeed on her quest less to get the truth out and more so she could stop being wanted and relax in invisibility for the remainder of her life.
She was tired of being tried for a murderess when she hadn't known Reul Ghorm's intent was for James to die. She was exhausted worrying people would recognize her face. Nothing good came of being recognized, not since Snow decided Regina was her worst enemy.
Overhearing a gaggle of maids whispering something about a child and a shadow, she had no interest in learning what they were muttering about. She was grateful they were huddled together and failed to look at her face, for as she passed by, her heart thudded extra hard with the fear one might look up and bellow, "IT'S REGINA!"
Regina was sick to her stomach when she finally cornered the queen in her room. Not alone. A maid was fussing with Snow's very short hair. The maid had the expression of one wondering precisely how she was supposed to use a dagger in a sword fight.
Regina waited about ten minutes, hoping the maid would leave the queen by herself, but her anxiety refused to let her wait any longer. Launching herself forward, she twisted the lid off the vial and hurled the dark fairy dust at the queen.
It hit the maid instead. The maid's finger was twirled in the queen's black hair when the dust hit her. Queen Snow laughed evilly then whacked her ex-maid with a curling iron, killing her on impact.
"We meet again," the queen trilled. "Murderess!" Her eyes were full of triumph. Through clenched teeth, she rasped, "Today is the day I avenge James' death!" Her arm launched backward on the vanity table it rested upon, swiping a few objects to the floor.
Regina wanted to tell her to grow up but didn't say anything. She knew Queen Snow was a lost cause. Also, Snow was nine years Regina's senior, and Regina was not Snow's therapist. She would get no coin for trying to nail some reason into that head of Snow's.
The thing was Snow wasn't stupid. Giving the queen a speech about how she'd been a child and she hadn't known Reul Ghorm had hired her so she could spy on Snow and kill an "unworthy" lover would do neither of them any good. Might make Regina feel like a wet blanket.
Why waste words on someone who made the adult decision to despise her? Regina wasn't naïve enough to believe anything she said would have the power to move a mountain…or move Queen Snow into releasing her vendetta.
"Anything to say for yourself?" Queen Snow asked with a cruel grin, grabbing her scepter and stroking the jewel at the top.
Regina raised her brow in response. Keeping her mouth closed and relaxed.
Setting her jaw, the Queen froze Regina with magic. Clucking her tongue, she said, "Now, you have already murdered James. And," she moved so she was behind Regina and hissed nastily, gleefully into Regina's ear while pushing the scepter jewel hard against where the back of Regina's head connected with the back of her neck, "now you've come to make an attempt on my life?"
Briefly, she gripped Regina's arms right above the elbows while clutching her scepter. "Hmm?" she asked as if daring to Regina to defy the claim. But she gave her no time to answer. Moving away in the way of a panther, Snow marveled, "I think we should tie you to a stake and let you die by ten arrows tonight. No…in an hour! Yes, that's precisely what justice is." A mad gleam in her eyes was accompanied by a guffaw.
Well, Regina thought wryly, I guess my misery is about to come to an end. But what on earth will this depraved queen find to do with her mind with her favorite punching bag exterminated? Where will she channel all her hatred?
The whole country had heard the news a mite too fast, though word hadn't reached other countries (such as Thomas'; the Ogre Slayer was in a third country fighting ogres on a steed and never heard the news). Thus, people were rushing to watch the Queen's number one nemesis die.
Robin Hood was perhaps the only person in the nation who didn't hear the news, and it was because that wound in his head had led him to consistently napping for three hours in early afternoon. Thus, he was passed out cold during the time in which Regina was to be killed.
Nobody felt any sympathy for Regina; she had never known anyone who might be sympathetic to her (but she had never met Robin Hood, who did respect and admire her for everything he'd heard about her). Everyone in the country was eager to watch her die. To see the Evil Queen victorious.
Little did she know had Robin heard of her capture and sentence, he'd be ready to rescue her if he saw an opportunity to weasel her away. She had no idea how livid he'd become when he'd heard Will Scarlet had betrayed her.
All she knew was animosity. Feeling alone and unloved. An unwanted ant biting at ankles.
Tied to the stake in a dress composed of rags, she was a fish on a hook in shallow water. Flopping desperately for freedom, she did what she could, knowing it was useless. Still, she held her head erect, a fire in her eyes. Go down, she would if she must, but she would not lower her eyes in shame. She refused to be meek. Perhaps because she knew that's what her adversaries wanted, for her to cower and give up her fight so they could feel they'd beaten her.
Her spirit wasn't that easy to destroy, or she would have been a Lost Girl with no hope to stumble on her way up the mountain. She never would have attempted to best the queen with dark fairy dust.
Staring the queen in the eyes, Regina smugly remembered the vampire giving her the fairy dust. She recalled how exciting it was to hold it around her neck and contemplate using it on Snow. In her mind, she daydreamed about flinging it at Snow right now and hitting her square in the eye.
Her imagination took an involuntary dip. Instead of seeing all of the evil queen morph into an ugly bug, Regina saw a bug fly out of the socket of her eye. The eye transformed, but the rest of Snow untouched. That made the smile on Regina's mouth dip, so she glanced down.
She'd misplaced her smugness, so eye contact was difficult. She wrenched through her soul, groping for the smugness. When she found it, she returned her gaze to Snow's eyes.
A bluebird perched on Regina's shoulder as a phoenix burst its flame-infused body overhead. Snow had amplified her voice, so she called, "It is time."
Ten military archers aimed their bows at various spots on Regina. Mostly her heart, two at her head. A couple aimed for her side. Regina was ready to flop around when they loosed their arrows, though she knew there was no way they'd miss, not with these tight ropes.
The arrows were loosed. They were about to nick her skin when Regina felt a familiar sensation in her midriff.
Purple smoke made her vanish. All ten arrows buried themselves in her vacant stake as Queen Snow gnashed her bottom teeth so hard against her upper teeth that she loosened one.
"Egads! I should've slit her throat when I had the chance! Her stupid magic outsmarted me again!" Gritting her teeth, she snarled, "I will have that woman's head at the center of my dining table if it's the last thing I do!"
