A KIND OF MAGIC ↝ Killian Jones

⇒ CHAPTER FOUR

  EVER SINCE WILMA arrived in Storybrooke, her life had been full of twists and turns, and a lot of unexpected things had happened, things that she never in her wildest dreams imagined to come true. And one of those things, was without a doubt, the fact that Wilhelmina found herself punching a teenage boy in the face, not too hard, but enough to knock the brat off his feet. Wilma wanted to feel guilty, but in that moment, she was just too busy to do so — too busy with helping her friends survive the attack that Pan had ordered on them.

  Surprisingly, the Lost Boys were quite the opponent, and rather persistent too, determined to bring the heroes down one way or another. One of those pesky methods to mess with their heads was trying to poison Wilma and her friends, with Dreamshade, something that Killian had told them about earlier. And from what Wilma had heard, she had gathered that it was a nasty little thing, one that she intended to avoid with her life. But the same couldn't be said for everyone.

  Just as Wilma was giving a mean right hook to one of the boys, adrenaline driving her to a point where she just smacked him in the cheek — but fair enough, the kid was trying to kill her — David suddenly jumped in, knocking the woman down, which initially seemed like a clumsy accident, but turned out to be the very opposite. Frowning, Wilma turned over to Charming, but it was already too late when she realized that the prince had done it to save her life, save her from one of the Lost Boys, who had tried to shoot an arrow into the woman. Fortunately, she had been saved from such a fate. Less fortunately, those arrows were laced in Dreamshade, the very same poison that she had just silently vowed to keep a distance to, and as Wilma glanced at David to make sure he was okay, she could tell he had been grazed by the arrow.

  "You bloody idiot!", was her first reaction, as she jumped up and kicked down the boy that was already about to launch another arrow in their direction, before rushing over to David, but instead of allowing her to hover over and worry about his safety, the man brushed it off.

  "It's nothing, Wilma. It barely touched me", he claimed, and even though Wilma desperately wanted to have hope and believe the smile on his lips, she couldn't help but feel something bad gnawing at her heart, as if to warn her, making it impossible for her to forget about it. It was obvious that David wasn't as fine as he insisted on being, but Wilhelmina had no time to argue, when Pan had already intervened and caught their attention.

  After reminding Emma that the only way to get the map to show Henry's location was if she accepted who she truly was, Pan and his Lost Boys disappeared into the jungle, leaving behind an exhausted, beaten group of heroes and villains, who had tried their best to battle against them.

  And in some ways, they had succeeded, but Wilma still couldn't shake away the feeling that they had suffered more losses than gained victories.

———

  WILMA'S HEART BROKE into tiny bits and pieces of sympathy when she saw the way pain was twisting, not only Emma's, but Snow's face too, as the blonde admitted that she still, despite having her family right there, felt like an orphan. It was a moment of silence and misery, at least for Wilma, who couldn't help but feel their struggle — Emma had lived most of her life alone, always on the move, without too many people she could trust and confide in, whereas Snow had been torn from her child right after giving birth and then she was forced to live in oblivion as Mary Margaret. And even though Wilhelmina wasn't a mother, she could easily tell from the look on her face, that Snow felt as if she had failed somehow, but in Wilma's unspoken opinion, the princess had been incredibly brave. And the same went for Emma, who by now, had earned all the sympathy and understanding that Wilma could possibly feel for her.

  But if a flicker of light had to be dug out from the shadows of pain and regret, it was that the map finally showed itself to the group, confirming that the truth Emma needed to come to terms with was being an orphan. It was sad, and it almost made Wilma unwilling to follow the bloody map that was putting her friends through so much emotions, but eventually, Emma was able to wipe away her tears and feel stronger now that she had a way to get to Henry. And that was eventually what made Wilma smile, because even though it had been hard and painful, the map could now lead them to the boy, which was enough to encourage the whole group into continuing their journey on the island.