From Knight to Night

Chapter 13: Magic

"Regina? Henry...? What are you two doing here at this hour? Regina, why are you dressed like a hunter?" Cora approached them both, her dress sweeping the floor with each move of her hips as she walked. Both Henry and Regina stiffened, turning to face Cora as she approached.

"Mother," Regina spoke, her eyes turning stern and protective. Henry reacted much the same way. "If you must know, I am preparing for a journey that requires my immediate attention, hence my attire."

"I see. And what might that be that requires your immediate attention?" Cora inquired, turning her head to the side as she looked upon her daughter with a watchful gaze.

"I'm afraid that I am not at liberty to say," Regina responded, holding her mother's gaze. "Royal secrecy," she continued, narrowing her eyes at her mother. Cora immediately fumed on the spot, turning her gaze to Henry.

"But you are at liberty to tell your father?" Cora spat, the anger dripping from her words.

"Yes," Regina spoke, a hint of smile spreading across her lips. "I am." Cora's anger only seemed to rise, not one for allowing herself to be left out, especially when it came to her husband and daughter, the only two she had been able to control in her lifetime. But then her composure shifted.

"Ah, no mind. I'll just consult with Leopold regarding the matter. He will tell me." Cora's evil smile appeared then, and Regina felt a shiver run up her spine. But she stayed firm.

"He may not, mother," Regina replied. "Even he has secrets he keeps from you." Regina felt her father's hand on her shoulder, gripping it tightly, and as she looked over at him, worried that he was going to tell her to back down, she was greeted with a narrowed grin on her father's face as he stared at Cora, seeming to relish in watching his wife be put in her place. Regina smiled until her mother spoke again.

"He has no secrets from me, I have always made sure of that," Cora growled, her voice hitting Regina like a searing white hot bolt of anger. She spun to face her mother, and her blood suddenly ran ice cold. Her defenses dropped immediately, and she reached for her father's waistcoat, desperate to cling to something as those words flew into the air. And suddenly, without anything more than just that sentence her mother had spoken, a revelation dawned on Regina that could not be mistaken, could not be imagined, could not just be a coincidence. As her brain swelled with how each piece of the puzzle fit together based on this new information, Regina became more and more afraid, the fear in her heart penetrating her every sense.

When Regina grabbed her father's waistcoat in a tight grip, he took notice and looked down at his daughter's clenched fist, the whites of her knuckles accentuated against the dark navy of his clothing. His face flew up to look straight at Regina, and he saw a fear etched in her face that he had not seen since the day of the royal wedding, the day he had given Regina to Leopold against his own heart's protests.

"Regina...?" But Henry was caught off by Regina's own inquiry directed at her mother.

"Mother...," Regina started slowly. "How was it that you came to knowing about Leopold's first wife's passing? We were not citizens of this kingdom at the time," Regina asked. Cora raised her eyebrow at her, wondering where on earth a question like that could have come from.

"I heard of it from others in our village, Regina. Just like everyone else." At this point, Henry internalized the developing information set before him, and realized how it had become of some importance to Regina. As the words cleared in Henry's mind, he suddenly realized what he had heard, and felt compelled to speak, seeing as he had caught Cora in a lie.

"But you were the one to tell everybody in the village, Cora. You were the one who brought the news with you when you returned from the journey you had taken just prior. You remember," Henry began to explain. "The one where you returned with news that the Queen of Misthaven had passed, the same journey where you brought us news that you had found someone for Regina to..." But Henry cut his words off there, unable to finish his sentence as the realization hit him. His eyes grew wide and he felt his heart clench in his chest as he stared at his wife, her gaze penetrating his with an evil glare.