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"One day, this will all make sense to you."
Those were the last words I heard before sleep overtook me. The last thing I saw was Snow's face, her expression a combination of love, pity, and hardened determination. No, the last thing I saw was a tear slipping from those doe eyes of hers.
And then nothing.
Until a similar pair of mossy green eyes greeted me. Similar, yes, but with more flecks of blue and gold than brown. And long waves of golden blonde hair framing a lean face that lights up in a bright smile. A smile that looks very familiar, too.
"You're awake! It worked? Oh dear, it worked!"
"Wh--" Coughs overwhelm me when I try to speak and she moves to lift my head up.
"Just take small sips to start," she says softly as she holds a goblet to my lips. "It's only water, and I'm sure you're quite parched after all this time."
The water tastes like the sweetest wine, and I fight the urge to take great, drowning gulps of it. But more than that, her voice calls to me. When my stomach cramps at the intrusion of the water, I tilt my head back. She seems to understand and removes the goblet before gently stroking the hair back from my forehead.
"Who--? Where am I? What's happened that I'm awake? Where's Snow White?"
So many questions need answers, but these are the most pressing right now. I'm not even sure if I'm ready to know who my mysterious savior is, but that will come later.
"Snow White? You know my mother?"
"Your m-- Who are you?"
"Princess Emma." Confusion darkens that bright smile of hers, and I feel instant regret for causing it. "Mother has told me that she was put in charge of the sleeping lady until the Blue Fairy determined the danger had passed."
Of course, that damned Reul Ghorm is still running the lands in her guise as benevolent fairy. Her control over the White kingdom has been long and in desperate need of being broken.
"And this danger has passed then?"
At my words, her cheeks sprout bright red spots, the color then shifting to her whole face and down along the column of her throat. Before I realize I'm doing it, my hand reaches up to touch her cheek.
"Not exactly, no." She grins sheepishly when I quirk a brow at her. "I don't actually know what the danger is, but I've been spending all of my free time here with you for my whole life. Father and the Blue Fairy don't like it, but Mother tends to look the other way."
That's not much of a surprise. Even when she had every reason to hate me, Snow's sense of blind devotion to me never wavered.
"Wait. You're Snow's daughter? How old are you?"
"Today is my twenty-eighth birthday. I made a wish when I blew out the candles on my cake. In fact, it's the same wish I've made every year since I first found this room and you. And today it finally came true."
Curiosity gets the better of me. "And what did you wish?"
"That you'd wake up. You are the most beautiful person I've ever seen, and I know my parents are hiding something about you, but I can't figure it out. I have this sense for when people are lying to me. My father finds it very useful in negotiations with other kingdoms, but not when I train it on him. The Blue Fairy is…" She looks away then, biting at her bottom lip, until I cough slightly. "She gives me a weird feeling, but I have no one to talk to about it because everyone else in the kingdom thinks she's wonderful."
"She's the one who put me in here in the first place."
"She did?"
"What do you know of my story? What have they told you about me?"
"Just that there was a great danger to the kingdoms and that you were put in a sleeping spell until the danger had safely passed. I--" She sighs softly. "I don't even know your name."
"Regina. And how did I end up waking from the sleeping cu-- spell?" That delightful blush of hers returns even more, and I find myself tracing the color from her cheekbone to her exposed clavicle. "Emma? How did I wake up?"
She mumbles something and looks away briefly before taking a deep breath and meeting my gaze again to say, "I kissed you."
"But--" I stare at her in confusion. "No, that's not possible. That's not how I'm supposed to be awakened from the sleeping curse. I'm not supposed to have awakened from it at all."
"No! That's not possible. What is so terrible that they wouldn't want you to wake up?"
"Because--" I swallow thickly at the distress in her eyes, then softly say, "Because the danger was very great and could return at any time."
"But there's been no danger in my entire life." She squeezes my hand. "I'll go tell Mother that you're awake. She'll be so pleased that I was able to wake you. That's clearly a sign that the danger has passed."
She races from the room before I can stop her. No, the danger hasn't entirely passed. But I was awakened from this curse by the only way possible: True Love's Kiss.
Oh, won't that just throw Snow into a fit of vexation? How does one reconcile that her daughter is her greatest enemy's True Love? And how will I explain the circumstances of the sleeping curse to Emma?
More importantly, how can I accept that I actually have a True Love and a chance at a happy ending?
TBC?