The one she thought was lost

Chapter 8: The Queen's castle

Regina briefly thought about bringing Daniella with her so the girl wouldn't have to run into to one of the Merry Men or him. But she decided against it. It was too dangerous and if Daniella got hurt, she would never forgive herself nor would Robin. Though they had been able to ignore him the whole day, Regina still felt the thief's stare. He cared about Daniella, that much was clear. The only thing that bothered her is even though he cared deeply for the girl (probably loved her as a daughter), he still reacted as if Daniella'd betrayed him in the worst way possible. Like she had been the one to hurt Roland, which made no sense because Regina could see Daniella loved the little boy. "Who doesn't", Regina then thought to herself. The boy was absolutely adorable. Big brown eyes, a mop of curly brown hair on his head and dimples to die for. He reminded her so much of Henry it hurt. Her little prince had had the same amount of energy and curiousity at that age. Always wanted to meet new people, explore places. It was excausting, but Regina loved every second of it. It appeared Daniella loved it to even though she was forced to watch from a distance. She could see the girl was hurt, had felt the same when Henry pulled away from her, and she really hoped the Outlaw would start using his brain and would allow Daniella to see Roland again soon. Otherwise she was going to make him, she wouldn't hurt him (she had promised Henry to be a better person and she wasn't going to dissapoint him, even though she would probably never see her precious son again), but she was going to knock some sense into him if he didn't start doing something soon.

Daniella didn't think she could another minute of Snow's talking. The princess could not close her mouth, she just kept talking. And talking. And talking. Daniella had to refrain herself multiple times from rolling her eyes. The princess was way to optimistic for her liking. Oh sure, Daniella knew Regina could handle herself and defend herself if neccesary, but the princess believed that it wouldn't take long until they'd defeat this person behind the attacks. And Daniella just wasn't that sure. From what she'd seen, this person, this witch was extremely powerful and her power could match the Queen's easily. Which is what made Daniella so uncomfortable. She trusted Regina, more than she should after only knowing her for a few days, but if the witch would confront Regina, she knew it would be a very difficult battle for the Queen to win. And if she was being honest with herself, Daniella didn't think she was ready for Regina to risk her life like that. Not now, not ever.
Little did she know, the Queen was doing that exact thing right now, only not in a confrontation with a witch, but in a confrontation with herself.

When the Outlaw had come with her, she didn't think he'd have the nerve to throw insults at her like that. It both unnerved and irritated her. Nobody had ever had the nerve to throw insults back at her and Regina didn't like it one bit. Especially because it was the thief. He had no right. And so when he'd interrupted her when she was making her sleeping curse, she didn't hesitate to use her magic. But the Outlaw had already knicked an arrow in his damn bow at pointed it at her.
"Even if you choke the life out of me, this arrow will still leave my bow, and trust me. I never miss", he choked out," Now what matter of dark potion are you making?" With a sigh Regina released the grip she had on the man's throat and said: "A sleeping curse." "The kind you used on Snow White?" Regina was getting tired of the thief's questions but answered: "That spell was from Maleficent, I finally learned to make one of my own." "That spell, this is why you wanted to come to the castle," he concluded, the pieces coming together. While mixing the ingredients together, she said: "Ingredients like these are hard to come by, especially when you have a Snow White breathing down your neck every minute of the day. Just ask Daniella." Regina couldn't help saying that and hearing the Outlaw's hard intake of breath, her comment affected him, which made her feel a little satisfied. He quickly recovered though and asked: "And why would I ask her?" "Because one, I'm not going to tell you and two she's spending time with little Snowflake right now." He seemed surprised hearing this, probably because he didn't expect her to know where she was. And sure enough, not a second later he asked how she knew where 'Danny' was.
"Because Daniella and I are a lot more alike then you think", Regina rolled her eyes at his worried expression," Relax, I'm not going to teach her dark magic if that's what you think. I gave her a choice, but she wanted to ask your opinion before she made a decision that could change her entire life. You just didn't think it was necessesary to listen to her story." He hung his head in shame of his actions and started to speak. "I..." "No. I hope for Daniella's sake you're going to start using that brain of yours soon, because you're not only hurting Daniella. You're also hurting yourself and your son." His head snapped back up wheen she mentioned his son, his eyes blazed with anger. "How would you know? How do you know what's good for my son?" Regina supressed a shiver. She'd never seen him so angry, but frankly she didn't care. At least that's what she told herself. "I've noticed the looks you gave Daniella during the day and I heard your son ask about her. If the relationship between Daniella and your son is as strong as she says it is, your son is never going to give up. He'll want to see her. At first you can make a few excuses about why he can't see her, but that's not going to last and you know it." That seemed to shut him up. "And that was a good thing", Regina reminded herself. But know that he was quiet, Regina took a good look at the man and honestly, he didn't look good. He had bags under is eyes and the light in those beautiful eyes had faded. He hadn't had much sleep, that much was clear, but he looked sad. It made it all the more clearer to Regina that he really cared about Daniella. Which made it more difficult for her to believe he'd do such a thing to the girl, unless he had a really good reason.
WAIT, she was really going soft. Regina shood these thoughts out of her head and presumed making the sleeping curse.
"Who do you intend to use it on?", he asked, his tone becoming slightly suspicious again. "Don't worry, no one you'll miss. No one anyone will miss" Regina waved her hand and pulled one of the hairpins that pinned her hair up, out of her hair and dipped it in the potion.
"This is about your son, isn't it?", the thief asked and Regina felt a stab of pain at the thought of her beloved son," I can't let you do this." Regina felt the little sympathy she had for the man disappear and being replaced by anger. This man had no right to tell her what to do. No one would ever tell her what to do. Not after all the years she'd felt trapped in her own home and later in this very same castle. Rumple's magic lesson's made her feel like she had control about at least one thing in her life. So she kept following them, letting the Dark One corrupt her. Letting him darken her heart, her soul. And she practically let him, did nothing to stop him. And she'd payed the prise. She'd killed her father because she was driven by revenge, her son pulled away from her because she was the Evil Queen. And all of her attempts to make him love her again, had only driven him further away from her. And after finally winning him back, she had to let him go.
So the man had no right. And if he thought he did, she was going to make it clear that he didn't.
"Well, it's a good thing you don't have a say in the matter." She froze his feet to the ground and turned away from him, fighting back the urge to kill him. He'd said enough, she was tired of him trying to convince her to not use the curse. She was tired of pushing away her tears every time someone mentioned Henry's name. She was tired of fighting. She was tired of everything. Her daughter was dead, her son was lost to her forever with no way of getting him back. She was going through with this, and there was no way to stop her.
"I know how you feel, Regina." "I doubt that." There was no way the Outlaw knew how she felt. She knew he'd lost his wife, he'd told her just a few minutes ago, but he hadn't lost his son. "See, I lost Henry. And Daniella. I already lost everything I care about. This is an eternal middle, this curse can be broken, by the only true love in my life. And the only reason I would even want to wake. My son." With that she turned away to leave, but was stopped when he started talking again: "Regina, this is a mistake." "Don't worry, I'll lower the protection spell so that Snow and Charming can be victorious. But then... then I go to sleep." After that she turned around again and walked out of her room, planning to quickly lower the spell. The faster she'd done that, the faster she could go to sleep. She could finally sleep. While people say she has the most resilient heart, she's tired of fighting. She's tired of being resilient. And after a few moments, she wouldn't have to anymore.

*A/N: I hope you enjoyed reading this chapter as much as I enjoyed writing it!! Please tell me what you think about it in the comments!! And I'll try to update as fast as I can with all my homework I still have to do 😁😊