Chapter Twenty Two.
A week had passed and Freya found herself in Rumple's shop, looking for something in particular.
"Miss Klay. What can I do for you?" He asked from behind his counter.
"I'm looking for some jewellery - something that holds a particular stone." She replied, looking around the shop.
"What stone would that be, dearie?"
"It's called Lapis Lazuli. It's the same one in my ring." She showed the ring on her left index finger, allowing Rumple to see the navy blue tones and gold flakes.
"I see. I may have something. Is it a ring you're looking for or anything, so long as it has the stone?" Rumple asked, looking to a display unit to his left.
"It's the stone that's important. It just needs to be something my daughter can wear." Freya replied.
Rumple looked around his shop for a little while, examining every piece of jewellery he had until he came across a necklace.
"I think I may have found what you're looking for." He finally said.
He pulled out the necklace and laid it over his knuckles for Freya to see.
The stone was oval and set in silver. Decorating the stone was a silver tree, which reminded Freya of her Viking upbringing. It looked just like the World's tree; Yggdrasil.
"It's beautiful. I'll take it." Freya smiled. "What shall I repay you with?"
Rumple sighed, handing her a jewellery box to put it in.
"Nothing. I feel like I owe you for effectively killing Astrid. So the least I can do is ensure she can carry out a relatively normal life in the sun."
"How did you know this can protect her from the sun?" Freya frowned, putting the box in the pocket of her leather jacket.
"It wasn't difficult to piece together. You have one, you were searching for one for Astrid, your sire and his brother had one when they visited and Lance has one too." Rumple gave a half smile.
Freya chuckled. "Well thank you, Rumple. This will do perfectly."
Back at the house, Freya went up to Astrid's room.
"Hi mum. What's up?" She greeted the Heretic with a bright smile.
"I have something for you."
"Oh?" Astrid frowned, moving over to her desk where Freya had placed the jewellery box.
"I didn't want you losing your mind being cooped up all day." Freya chuckled, watching as Astrid opened the box.
"Is this what I think it is?" She gasped, looking up to her mother.
"Yes, sweetie. It's a Daylight amulet. I've spelled it already, so all that's left is for you to put it on." Freya smiled.
Astrid beamed with genuine excitement, something the Heretic hadn't seen for longer than she could bare, as she pulled the necklace from the box and handed it to her.
Astrid turned around where she stood and held up her hair, allowing Freya to slip it round her neck and fasten the clasp.
"There. It looks beautiful on you." Freya clapped her hands together in delight.
"Thank you, mother. This means the world to me." Astrid wrapped her arms around Freya's middle, squeezing her tightly, but minding her bump.
"You're most welcome, my dar-" Freya's smile faltered as she felt a stabbing pain on the right side of her abdomen.
She instantly grabbed for it and crouched down, her legs threatening to give way.
"Mother?" Astrid gasped, concern written across her face as she placed a hand on Freya's back.
"I'm fine." Freya winced. But another shot of pain ripped through her, causing a loud groan to exit the Heretic's lips.
"No you're not." Astrid shook her head. "Killian!" She shouted.
The Captain ran up the stairs and saw his love hunched over Astrid's desk. He immediately ran to her side.
"What's the matter, love?" He asked, a sense of desperation in his voice.
"I don't know. Something's wrong." She gasped as yet another shot of pain raced toward her spine.
At the hospital, the three waited for Doctor Whale to come back with some test results.
"You're just over nineteen weeks pregnant, aren't you, Miss Klay?" He asked when he eventually appeared, not looking up from the charts.
"Yes. That's right." Freya nodded, clutching her stomach protectively.
"Well, everything seems to be normal on your blood samples and your baby feels okay. So I would diagnose this as a simple case of Round Ligament Pain."
"What the bloody Hell is that?" Killian frowned, gripping the Heretic's hand, tightly.
"Nothing to be particularly worried about. It's perfectly normal for this stage in the pregnancy." The Doctor turned to look at Freya. "It's basically your muscles moving around, adjusting and stretching so that your body can accommodate the growing girl you've got in there." He smiled. "My guess as to why it's particularly painful for you would most likely have something to do with the fact that you're technically dead and this whole thing shouldn't be possible."
"But my baby is safe, yeah?" Freya pressed.
"As far as I can tell, yes. I think part of your pregnancy deal is that your magic is also protecting your baby. I shouldn't worry about it." Doctor Whale gave the three a reassuring smile as they took a sigh of relief. "However, do let me know if the pain persists. For now, just remain on bed rest and drink plenty of fluids - whether that be water or blood is up to you."
"Thank you, doctor. I don't know what we'd do without you." Freya breathed a chuckle.
"It's what I'm here for. Have a good day." He gave a small bow of his head and walked away.
On the way back from the hospital, Astrid noticed that there was a cloud of dust coming from the Sheriff's office, so the three went to investigate.
Round the alley to the side of the building, there stood a very scared looking Emma and a hole in the wall to her left.
"Emma?" Freya called to her, getting out of the car just as David and Mary Margaret showed up.
"What happened here?" Mary Margaret asked, approaching her daughter.
"Wait, no!" Emma cried. "Stay back, I don't want to hurt any of you!"
"Swan, love. Tell us what's wrong." Killian's eyebrows knitted together with concern.
"My magic is out of control. You have to stay away." She told them, out stretching an arm as a warning.
But it was more than she bargained for. Her magic disconnected one of the street lamps, which almost crushed Killian if David hadn't thrown himself in the way, injuring his shoulder in the process.
"Emma!" Mary Margaret shouted in a mixture of anger for her daughter and concern for her husband. But as soon as she realised her tone, she instantly felt terrible. "Emma..." She repeated, quieter.
"Emma, calm down. I need you to calm down for me." Freya put herself in the way of Emma and everyone else, holding out her hands.
"No, you have to stay away. I don't want to accidentally hurt the baby." A salty tear slipped down the blonde's cheek.
"You won't. I know you won't." Freya gave her a reassuring smile.
But Emma lost control once more, resulting in all the electricity in the block to turn haywire.
To distract Emma, Freya cast a spell in her mind as her hand came crashing down onto the floor, causing Emma's magic to falter and her stumble backwards a few paces.
"See? You're fine. You can't hurt me." The Heretic said.
Emma looked to David, who was nursing his injured shoulder, then to Killian who seemed to be mentally recovering from the fact that he was almost crushed to death by a lamp post. Then she glanced to Astrid, Mary Margaret, and the small group of townsfolk who had gathered around the alleyway.
"I need to get out of here." She eventually said, making a run for her car.
But Freya used her Vamp speed and got in the way of the driver's door.
"You're not going anywhere, kid. Not without me, at least." She told her sternly.
Emma had no choice but to comply and Freya got in the passenger side.
Emma thought that the forest was going to be her best option, so drove there.
The pair sat on the ground at the root of a tree and relaxed.
"What's been going on?" Freya eventually asked.
"A lot..." Emma sighed, hugging her knees. "Did you watch that movie last year, Frozen?"
Freya nodded. "That Princess who has ice magic and her sister. Yeah, I saw it."
"Well, they're here. In Storybrooke. Or at least Elsa is. She's looking for Anna. But instead, we've found this woman, Ingrid. She's invested some special interest in Elsa and me, but we had no idea why. But yesterday, I found a box of my childhood things. There was a camcorder. There was this video on it of me when I was a teenager and Ingrid. We knew each other way back when and I don't remember a single thing about it." Emma frowned as she thought back on the video.
Freya looked at the ground, wracking her brain about where she'd heard the name before.
"By the Gods..." She whispered as soon as she realised.
"What is it?" Emma asked.
"I think I know who she is."
Back at the house, Freya immediately went upstairs to the library, shortly followed by Emma.
As soon as she was in the room, Freya walked over to a particular shelf on a particular book shelf, instantly grabbing the thing she was looking for - Emma's foster care file.
"Is that what I think it is?" Emma raised an eyebrow as the Heretic set the file on the desk, opening it up.
"Your file. I got it pretty much as soon as I got back from the Enchanted Forest all those years ago. When I went to find you. This is how I knew you were in Minnesota - how I was able to find you and check on you." Freya told her, flicking through the pages until she found the right one. When she did, she pointed to a name. "You were with Ingrid."
"Hold on, so Emma was fostered by the Snow Queen and now she wants you to become one of her sisters to replace the ones she lost?" Mary Margaret clarified an hour later as she, Freya, Emma, David, Killian, Lance, Astrid and Elsa sat around Freya's dining table.
"Pretty much, yeah." Emma shrugged. "She's placing doubt in my mind that I can't control my magic. She wants me to come to her so that she can help me."
"You all know that if you'd included me in this sooner, you'd all be way ahead of her by now, right?" Freya raised an eyebrow, looking less than impressed. "Not to mention that none of this would've happened."
"We didn't want to put you or the baby in harm's way, love." Killian sighed.
"No." Freya snapped. "You don't talk to me. You kept this from me."
Killian bowed his head with his tail between his legs.
"Freya, don't blame Hook. I told him not to tell you about this." Mary Margaret piped up.
Freya scoffed, tipping her head back in disbelief.
"And look where that got all of you. Killian almost died, David got hurt and Emma feels like she's losing control and hurting the ones she loves." She got up, practically throwing her chair back under the table. "I don't know why I bother sometimes. So you guys have fun doing this without me. Be sure not to come knocking when one of you ends up dead."
With that, she stormed upstairs, slamming the bedroom door as hard as she could, only to rip it off its hinges, which only angered Freya more. She let out a scream of anger and frustration.