Regina's Rose

A Royal By Blood

Rose's POV

We arrive just as Cora and Hook are about to jump in the portal. Snow's arrow flies through the air and knocks the compass right out of Cora's hand.

"Emma, Snow, you get the compass, Mulan, you get Aurora's heart, Hook has the pouch." I say when Cora turns her head towards us.

"What about Cora?" Snow ask as Emma and Mulan look at me.

"She's mine."

As we go our separate ways Emma lingers for a second hoping that I'll look at her but I can't bring myself to, not right now. The truth is I don't know if I'll kill Cora, I haven't decided. And if Emma's lie detecting superpower is real, she knows that. I hear her take a deep breath as if she's about to say something but Snow speaks before her.

"Emma, we have to get the compass before Hook."

Emma glances at me one more time before she starts jogging to the area that the compass might have landed. I watch her go before I turn my attention to Cora.

"Come on dear, you don't really want to fight me." Cora says with her signature fake smile on her face.

"Actually I do." I say as I light a fireball in one hand and remove my dagger with my magic.

She starts to walk toward me and I make my fireball flare which stops her in her tracks. She then moves to circle me but I move with her causing us to circle each other. And for a second I wonder if this has given her the high ground in the battle.  We circle each other in silence, she's calm, not even looking at me, but I know better than to be that cocky. I don't take my eyes off her for a second.

"Dear, put the fire out if you're not gonna use it, you'll burn your energy." She says slightly annoyed.

"And give you the element of surprise, no thank you." I say through gritted teeth.

"Please, I have the element of surprise already but I don't want to use it. The daggers can stay but the fire will burn your energy." She says in a condescending tone. "Put it away dear."

"No, who were they." I say angrily.

"I'll tell you when you stop this childish and self destructive behavior." She says sounding annoyed.

"Oh I'm self destructive? Tell me, which one of us doesn't have a heart in their chest?" I say my expressive magic now showing my anger.

"Your magic doesn't appear much here does it?" She says completely changing the subject.

"Who we're they?" I say my anger growing.

"Obstacles in my plan" she says

"I don't care if they were your "obstacles", who were they."

"You know, even as a peasant you carried yourself as a royal. All you spent was a week with your parents but something in you knew that you were meant for more than a bastard father and a village full of idiots." She says with an almost genuine smile on her face.

"What?" I say my anger fading along with my fireball.

"Your parents were the rulers of Wonderland before me."

"No..."

"The people loved them and they put up quite the fight for their kingdom."

" Did they have magic?"

"Of course, your father had a specific strand of powerful telekinetic light magic and your mother had telepathic dark magic that she used for good. An insult to her power but she did give more of a fight than her husband."