𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐒𝐄𝐃 ★ 𝐨𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐮𝐩𝐨𝐧 𝐚 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞 ⁵

•Chapter 17: Darkness•

It's been a day since the birth of Robin's daughter and Sam, Katherine, and I find ourselves sitting in our usual booth at Granny's, eating breakfast with Henry. When he looks to his phone after receiving a text, he drops his fork before leaving the diner without saying a word.

"What do you think's going on?" Sam asks.

"With that kid. Anything," I state.

"He looked worried though," Katherine says.

"It was probably a text from Violet," Sam smirks as the rest of us laugh.

As I take another bite of my pancake, my phone goes off and I look to see a text from Killian.

Hey Kid. Sorry about what happened yesterday. Meet me at the docks so we can talk about it. On the Jolly Roger.

"Hey, I'm going to meet up with Hook at the docks," I announce to my group, "meet up for a movie in my room later?"

"Only if it's Now You See Me," Sam responds.

"Deal!" I shout as I exit the diner.

As soon as I make it to the docks, I find the Jolly Roger with ease and make my way onto the empty deck.

"Killian!" I call when he doesn't make himself known, "Killian!"

I walk farther onto the deck and look around a bit more then check my phone to make sure I read the text right. As I'm putting my phone away, I receive another text. This one from Sam.

Henry just got back to the diner and told us that Killian is a Dark One now. Get back here. Now!

My eyes widen as I hear footsteps approaching and I quickly turn to see Killian walking towards me with a smirk on his face. Before I could do anything, he places one of those stupid cuffs on my wrists to prevent me from using my magic. As I stare into his eyes, I try to convince myself that he would never hurt me, only me to second guess myself when his smirk grows.

***

After finding out that Killian became another Dark One, we followed Merlin to the Chamber of the Dark One where he bent down and began to examine it.

"There's nothing we can do," Merlin told us, "it's too late. The vault already forged Hook as its new Dark One."

We all stared at the vault in silence until Mary Margaret began to walk in the other direction.

"He went this way!" she exclaimed as we followed her down a path until she came to a stop, "and then the tracks disappear."

"We should split up," David stated, "search the woods."

"He's a Dark One," Regina told them, "he can transport himself anywhere. So can Emma."

"We've got to start looking somewhere," David responded.

"There's no time," Merlin explained, "of all the paths I foresaw for your daughter, I'm afraid this was the darkest."

We all looked to one another then back to Merlin.

"We should return back to Granny's," he continued, "even without my magic, I still have enough ingredients to make preparations."

"I don't care how bad things get," David replied, "Emma wouldn't hurt us."

"Maybe. But this new Dark One, we need as many allies as we can get."

***

"Killian," I calmly say as I back up, "what are you doing?"

"Something that you'll try to stop," he hisses, "well, you and your little friends."

"You better not lay a hand on them!"

"I wouldn't dream of it but, like you, they'll get in the way. So I need to make sure that doesn't happen."

"What are you going to do to me? To them?"

"I'm just going to put you somewhere that will keep you safe until this is all over and that will keep you out of my way."

"Killian-"

I am cut off by him sending me somewhere I've never seen before but I still knew where I was. One of the cells of the Jolly Roger. As panic begins to fill my head, I run my hands through my hair at the thought of Killian going after Sam and Katherine. Then I heard a familiar beeping noise and sigh as I pull out my phone to see a message from Katherine.

Where are you? Sam is freaking out.

I quickly type my response to warn them.

Killian got to me first. He's coming after all of you. You need to-

I'm stop typing when I sense the new presence in my cell and I quickly turn around to see Sam and Katherine with shocked expressions staring back at me.

"What happened?" Sam questions.

"What's going on?" Katherine asks.

"Killian's planning something. I don't know what it is but he wanted us out of the way" I tell them, "now get this cuff off of me so I can get us out of here."

As soon as the words finish leaving my mouth, Sam reaches for the cuff on my wrist, only for it to glow a bright orange before Sam quickly pulls his hand back with a hiss.

"It's hot," he tells me, "he must have done something to it so I can't get it off."

"Why? Why are we the only ones he wants out of the way?" Katherine says.

"Because he would never hurt his family," Sam realizes as he sits down on one of the crates.

As he runs his hands over his face, my brain focuses on the fact he isn't wearing a cuff before a thought consumes me.

"Where's your cuff?" I ask Sam, causing him to lift his eyebrow at me in confusion as I gesture to mine to show him what I'm talking about.

"Sam doesn't have magic," Katherine answers, "why would he need a cuff?"

"He's the son of Cruella De Vil and the Author," I explain, "he should have magic."

"I should?" Sam question.

"Two magical beings. You should have something...I think."

As the information sinks into his head, he gets up and mock stretches then shakes out his hands and smiles.

"Let's find out."