Scarlet

Your Sacred Sin

"You are doing very well."

"I have not accomplished anything." Emma stood in the middle of the training yard, the Queen standing beside her as she stared down the wooden dummy placed before them.

"If you are going to keep your attitude as such, perhaps I will not waste my valuable time on you," Regina replied crossly. "So long as you are concentrated on complaining about not making any progress, your mind is not concentrated on what we are supposed to be doing. So concentrate."

The blonde flinched at the ferocity in the Evil Queen's tone and quickly nodded, eyes falling to the very woman. She felt her face grow warm when she met the dark gaze in return and quickly let her attention be guided back to the wooden dummy, response lost on her tongue.

"Now, remember what I had told you?" Regina spoke in the blonde's silence and Emma nodded, reciting the earlier lessons.

"To take what I had felt at the time and concentrate on that very emotion?"

"Correct," she hummed, leaving the training sorceress to flush in delight. "Magic is generally rooted to raw emotion, and sometimes, like what had occurred with you, it will come out when it is at its strongest. For now, though, we will try to coax it out with a smaller fraction of emotion. What did you feel when it happened?"

"It was powerful," Emma murmured softly, linking herself back to that day several moons ago. "It was... I can only describe it as the feeling of a climax, only more intense."

There was a smirk on the queen's face and the blonde found herself overcome by an unpleasant tingle. "I do suppose you are not wrong. Only when it is so raw it feels so good. You will only get a sample of that flavor using practical magic, but worry not, you will experience it again."

Emma's breath was sucked out of her lungs at the statement and, if not for the twinkle in the older woman's fiery eyes, she would have passed it off as just part of the magic lesson. "Will I?"

"Only if you wish to utilize your magic again." The twinkle was gone, but her smirk remained. "Now, you did not answer my question correctly. I meant what emotion did you feel?"

"O-Oh!" Heat crept up her neck and she ducked her head, fingers curling into the palms of her hands. "I-I suppose I felt... anger. Toward the imp. Toward my parents. They were... they were just hurting you and I..." She shook her head.

"Anger," she echoed, her voice taking on a darker tone. Emma caught the brief approval that seemed to flit through her eyes and she wondered what the enchantress was thinking. "That is an emotion best used for magic, I believe, especially for more... powerful spells. Of course, for now, I want you to think back to that time and let yourself feel that anger; let it take over you."

"Then what do I do?" Emma inquired hesitantly and brought her hands closer to her sides.

"Then you will see where that will take you, Emma," she said, eyes falling to her hands before lifting to meet the blonde's widening gaze. "And direct it to the wooden dummy. Think of fire, perhaps. Something to form the magic."

The blonde flexed her fingers and nodded, inhaling sharply, allowing herself to fall back on the anger that dwelt deep within her. But she felt nothing, even as she willed whatever magic that was harbored within her to show itself.

"Breathe," Regina coaxed beside her and it wasn't until then that she had realized she had been holding her breath. She released it and immediately felt light headed, her heart pumping furiously in her chest. "You look as if your head is about to explode. Do not think, Emma. Feel."