Reset

“Do we need Henry again?” David asked as he put his foot down and drove a little faster.

“No,” Regina shook her head, “it’s my magic draining.. I won’t be able to cast this spell again for a number of hours.”

David had never understood how magic worked, he’d never needed to and he’d never had anyone to ask, “so magic isn’t limitless? It does run out?”

“It does here,” Regina sighed, “much like my patience.”

David laughed at the snark in Regina’s tone, “sorry,” he said through a wide smile.

“Stop the car,” Regina said as they approached the edge of the woods. David stopped the truck and almost before it came to a complete halt Regina had scrabbled to find the handle and was out of the vehicle and walking in the road with a frown as if attempting to decide on a direction.

David hurried around the truck and watched her turned in circles and kept his arms up, ready to steady her if she fell.

“This way,” she pointed and headed off up the road.

David rushed in front of her and held his arms out to stop the odd car that was driving in the road and to direct them around Regina as if nothing out of the ordinary was going on. She suddenly turned towards the unsafe apartment building site and David quickly raised the police barrier for her as she approached it.

“She’s here,” Regina whispered, “where are we?”

She was still walking forward and was getting closer to structure so David gently held her arm by the elbow, “you can’t go in there, it’s dangerous.”

The spell broke and Regina blinked a few times and fell against David with a heavy weight and he quickly put a steadying arm around her as she looked around in confusion before seeing the dangerous construction site, “she’s here, David,” she whispered as she attempted to get her energy back.

Chapter 31

David looked from Regina to the building site, he didn’t want to leave her but he wanted to see if he could find Emma too.

Regina could see his struggle and released herself from his hold and stood by herself, if a little shaky, “I’m fine, go,” she said breathily.

He gave her one last look before nodding and pulling out his radio, “Sean, I’m with Regina, we’re at the condemned apartments and we think Emma is inside.”

A few moments later Sean’s voice replied, “I’m on my way.”

As he turned to enter the building site Regina grabbed his arm and he turned and looked at her with confusion, “after you find her, safe and well, you and I are going to have a long and heated discussion about using dwarves as builders.”

David swallowed nervously and Regina let him go and he climbed up into the building site. She let out a shaky breath and walked away from the building site and towards the road, ducking under the police tape as she went. In the distance she saw the Sheriff’s cruiser racing towards her and it came to a skidding halt beside her.

“Where’s David?” Sean asked her as he jumped out of the car.

“Inside,” Regina said as she sat back and leaned on the front of the car.

Sean looked from the building site to Regina hesitantly. They had had literally no contact before or since the curse broke, sure he’d heard a lot about her, especially working with David and Emma, but he knew nothing about the woman personally. He didn’t know what to expect from her or what was expected from him but he did know she looked exhausted and like she was struggling to stand up.

“I have some water in the car, should I get it for you?” Sean asked her.

Regina looked at him in surprise but slowly nodded, “thank you.”

He opened the driver’s door and picked up a sealed bottle of water and stood up, he untwisted the cap in front of Regina and handed the bottle to her. She gratefully took it and drank delicate sips from it with a shaky hand.

“Would you like to sit in the car?” Sean asked.

“No,” Regina shook her head and looked back towards the building site.

David jumped down from the building site and ran towards them, he was covered in building dust and was attempting to wipe it from his eyes and face, “get the rope out of the car,” he told Sean.

“You’ve found her?” Regina asked hopefully.

“No,” he shook his head, “there’s.. a crack, a hole, in the ground, as big as a car,” he took something out of his pocket and handed it to Regina. She took the set of keys with a silver star attached and a small torch and she recognised them as Emma’s.

Sean handed him the rope and David pointed to the keys, “they were by the hole.”

“Can you see down there?” Regina demanded.

“There’s an underground stream, quite powerful,” he wiped at his face again to remove the sweat and dust from his forehead, “I need to climb down there.”

“I’ll come with you,” Sean offered.

“Wait a minute,” Regina put the bottle of water on the bonnet of the car and held up her hands, “the building is unsafe, too much movement is going to cause a further collapse. You can’t just go in there and tie a piece of rope to a pillar and abseil down.”

“My daughter is down there!” David shouted back.

“So you want to die down there with her, well, bravo,” Regina said and shook her head.