Chapter 24

"Bae, what the hell do you know?" Emma's voice wasn't loud, but it was firm and it was cold.

"Not everything." Baelfire took a retreating step backward, as though afraid she would strike. "But I still have some ears in my father's palace and they picked up a bit. About six months ago, the Queen showed up and had some kind tantrum over someone breaking into her vaults. I guess all of them were locked with blood magic and should have been impenetrable, so she was trying to demand answers from my dad. Until she could find the culprit, she wasn't going to trust the security of the vaults, so she was going to have to put valuable items into the care of servants - ones she took hearts from so she can control them. Then one of those servants got robbed, and she assumed it was the same person going after her stuff. I guess that's why she's willing to pay so much for you. She thinks you're breaking her blood magic seals."

"W-what?" She stammered. "That's impossible. I don't even have a family, let alone magic. How the hell would I break anybody's blood magic seal?"

"Well, I know that." Baelfire threw his hands up defensively. "That's why I didn't think your bounty was related. Personally, I've got no clue why she doesn't suspect her mom. That's definitely where my money would be."

"It would make a lot more sense than me doing it, that's for damn sure." Emma wrinkled her nose. "But she banished her mother to another realm a couple decades ago, didn't she? It was before I was born, but that's always what I've heard."

Baelfire shrugged off the complication. "It'd be far from the first time someone got out of whatever world they were supposed to be stuck in. She's the only one that makes sense. It has to be the Evil Queen's mother doing it."

"It isn't," Hook muttered grimly. "Can't be Cora."

"What are you talking about?" Baelfire asked. "It has to be."

"Well, mate, it can't be." He bared his teeth in a way that only resembled a grin, his head cocked to the side. "Sorry to disappoint, but the Queen's mother is no longer among the living. It can't be her."

"No, that can't be right." Baelfire's brow furrowed as he argued. "Queen Regina banished her mother. To Wonderland, I'm pretty sure."

"Yes, she did. And then some time later, she decided her mother was still a threat to whatever plans she had, and she should therefore hire an assassin to make the journey to Wonderland and eliminate her mother. I assure you, Cora has no hand in whatever dealings these are."

"How could you possibly know that?" With his eyes narrowed in suspicion, Baelfire pressed for more answers. "That's not tavern gossip. How would you, of all people, get that kind of insider info on the Queen's family?"

Hook's face darkened further still, although there was something behind his eyes that smoldered with an intense heat. The expression Emma saw on his features was one that she recognized. Usually she saw it when he was ruthlessly spilling blood upon the decks of the ships he plundered. His fury. "It was my sword she hired." He hissed through gritted teeth. "Or rather, my hook. She enchanted it so that I could remove her mother's heart. Lots of promises were made, then there were a few strategic alterations to our deal on my end, some crossings and double-crossings. In the end, I did take Cora's life, but only after I'd spent nearly twenty years frozen in time on the very island we're now about to sail to. When I awoke from the spell, Cora revealed that the curse all my promised rewards were to be based on had never come to be, and for all my efforts, I was to receive nothing. Her heart and the look of shock on her face were a small consolation prize in that moment, but I made do. So, I can tell you with the utmost certainty that the Evil Queen's mother is, in fact, dead."

A silence fell over the cabin. The only audible sounds were those of the ship and the waves she rolled over – sounds that were typically well beneath Emma's notice after so much time aboard. Right now they were deafening. She tried to think of anything at all that she could say in response to such an admission, but failed.

Baelfire was only moderately more successful than she was. "Wow." He ran a hand through his hair and swallowed, his face slack. "Sorry, man. I figured it was just because of Neverland that you hadn't aged. Losing all that time sounds a lot worse."

"Well, you certainly won't find me crying about it. I suppose it means you all get to gaze upon this devilishly handsome face for longer." He cast a roguish wink in Emma's direction, and she couldn't help but smirk back at him in spite of herself. "But enough about my adventures. You've told us why the Queen's purse was poised to end up in Emma's hands, but what can you tell us about the contents of the bag? It didn't appear to be anything exemplary, per my examination. What makes it so valuable that she deemed it necessary to hide the purse with a servant on the run rather than simply keeping it guarded in the castle?"

"That I don't know." He sighed. "Whatever it is, it's got to be magical, though. Gold and jewels are one thing, but what she really values is power. Magic. Probably a good idea to be very careful with whatever you've got unless we can learn more. Normally I'd say we should stash it someplace safe and get it away from us, but if Evil Queen Regina herself didn't think she could protect it like that, then I'm not going to pretend I know better."

Emma licked her lips pensively. "I would bet," she mused, "that Snow White's followers have more than a few members in their ranks that know something about magic, and even more who have studied the Queen. If we can trust them – and I know that's a big 'if' – then they might be able to tell us. Or maybe we can sell it off to them and be done with the whole thing."

Baelfire seemed to ponder her words for a long moment, and then his shoulders slumped. "You're right. That is a very big 'if' on the trust thing, but we can probably find some experts in Snow's camp, or at least friends of experts. But you may not want to be so quick to pawn it off on someone else."

"Why's that?" Back when the two of them were thieving together, they had always unloaded their takings as quickly as possible. It helped them to cover their tracks. She was surprised to hear him suggest anything to the contrary.

"Firstly," Hook cut in even before Baelfire could respond, his eyes fixed warily on the other man. "There are wanted posters with your name and face already spread throughout the kingdom. Offloading the evidence won't save your skin when they've already decided that the crime was yours. But I get the sense that Baelfire has another reason that we're going to like a lot less."

After briefly narrowing his eyes at Hook, he nodded. "My dad knows that I figured out all of his best hiding spots years ago. If he's trying to hide something from me, there's a good chance he outsourced the job. He's got, let's say a 'close working relationship' with Queen Regina. They conspire a lot. She may be the one who's actually got the baby hidden, and if so, having some kind of leverage over her might make our odds look a bit better."

"Do we even know that it's leverage?" Emma certainly liked the idea of having some if there was a possibility she'd be up against the Evil Queen, but she was admittedly nervous about putting so much faith in the power of such a small pouch. "We have no idea what it is to her."

"Whatever it is," Hook offered. "We do know that it carries some import. It sounds as though she went through some trouble to conceal it, and its loss has clearly angered her. I'm actually in agreement with Baelfire on this one. We should hold onto it until we know more." When Emma nodded, he smiled at her, but it did not reach his eyes. "Alright then. We sail for Safe Haven."