“So, how will the book help you get your magic back?” Emma asked Regina.

The two women stood outside of Mr Gold’s shop. The mayor did not hear the blonde’s question. She was distracted by the cover of the book.

She ran her fingers across the heart-shaped ruby stone embedded in the front cover. The sight of it brought memories of her learning all the spells she knew. She flipped open the book to the middle page and blew at the ink.

In an instant, the ink rose from the page, floating like dust.

“Whoa!” the sheriff exclaimed.

Regina brought the book closer to her face and she inhaled the ink through her nostrils. All of the dust disappeared into her nose. Her irises glowed purple for a second before returning back to brown orbs.

“Did it work?” The blonde asked.

“Let’s find out.” The brunette’s voice sounded slightly sinister.

The mayor closed the book and held out one hand open palmed. A fireball suddenly appeared in her hand. She held it there smiling triumphantly before clenching her fist to make the flame disappear.

Emma’s jaws dropped to the ground. She had never seen anything like that in her life. She had so many questions but she couldn’t seem to verbalise any of them.

The door to the pawnshop opened and Belle came out of the shop and joined the two ladies. Both Emma and Regina did not know what went on in the shop after they left but by the look on the redhead’s face, it appeared that it was too soon to talk about it.

“Belle, thank you so much for helping me get this book. I’m so sorry for the way I’ve treated you.” Regina said.

She held out her hand and a set of keys appeared in her palm. The brunette handed the keys to Belle. The redhead was confused by the gesture.

“These are the keys for Storybrooke Library. I know how much you love books so as a token of my gratitude, I’m giving it to you.” The brunette smiled sincerely.

“Oh! Thank you.” The redhead took the keys and placed them close to her chest. She wasn’t expecting any reward for helping the Evil Queen.

“Besides, it might take a while for us to figure out how to break this curse,” Regina said with a slight chuckle.

“All the best in breaking the curse.” Belle patted the brunette on her arm.

“Thank you.” The mayor smiled. For the first time in days, Regina was feeling hopeful. She watched as the redhead walked towards the library.

“That was really nice of you,” Emma commented.

The smile disappeared from the brunette’s face. She rolled her eyes and turned to face the blonde.

“You sound surprised,” Regina said.

“Well… for an Evil Queen, you don’t seem to be very evil.” The sheriff grinned.

“I’m going back to the vault,” Regina announced, ignoring Emma’s observation.

The blonde watched as Regina walked towards the black Mercedes Benz parked in front of the shop.

“You’re not going to wake Henry up?” Emma asked confused. Regina stopped in her tracks.

“As powerful as magic is, it cannot bring the dead back to life.” The brunette’s voice was laden with sadness. Emma could sense that at some point Regina had probably tried to bring someone back to life.

The blonde stood and watched as the mayor drove off.

                                                        *.*.*.*.*

Belle almost ran to the library. She could not contain her excitement to finally get her hands on some books to read. She stopped in front of the huge double doors and tried the keys that would unlock the chains.

She picked out the biggest key in the set and inserted it into the keyhole of the padlock. She turned it with a little bit of force and the lock opened.

She smiled to herself. She looked for another key to unlock the double doors. She tried a couple until one of them glide into the keyhole with ease. She turned the key and the door opened.

She pulled the door and took in the breath-taking sight of rows of books on shelves. For a place that had been closed for years, the place looked very tidy save for the dust covering the surface of the furniture.

The redhead entered the library letting the door close on its own behind her. She stood in the doorway and turned around taking in the décor of the interior. She walked to the nearest isle of books and ran her fingers along the spine of the books. She picked out one book and look at the graphics printed on the cover.

The books she used to read had hardcovers and only a simple font for the title. The books in this realm were definitely the opposite of those books. She looked at the title on the cover of the book she was holding ‘To Kill a Mockingbird’. The book had an illustration of a tree on it. The cover was made out of a thin paper material that was a little thicker than the pages in the book.

The redhead realised that most of the books had illustrations on the cover. This made her all the more excited to read them.

She placed the book back in its spot on the shelf. There were definitely way more books than a girl could ever need, even for a bookworm like her. Instead of keeping the whole library to herself, Belle decided to open the library for the townspeople to read.

She was pleased with her decision and decided to explore the place further and maybe locate the duster so that she can spruce the place up before the big opening.

                                                              *.*.*.*.*

Regina spent a good amount of time in her vault practising her magic. She forgot how it felt to use her powers. Banishing everybody to a land without magic had put her out of practice. It didn’t help that magic worked differently in this realm. She needed to be sure that she could control it so that she did not accidentally hurt Henry while trying to wake him up.

A thought of her first love entered her mind. On the night that she was going to elope with Daniel, Snow White informed Regina’s mother, Cora, about the young lover’s plan which resulted in the death of the stable boy.

Cora caught them just as they were about to run away and ripped out Daniel’s heart and crushed it in front of his lover.

Regina was due to marry Snow White’s father, King Leopold, the next day. The eleven-year-old was not aware that she caused the death of the stable boy. Regina told her that their relationship did not work out. It was that day that she swore to ruin Snow White’s life.

The Dark Curse Regina cast was her last ditch effort to destroy Snow’s happiness. The brunette thought that she could get satisfaction watching Snow White separated from her prince charming but it quickly got old and she grew bored of living a meaningless life where nothing happens and everybody feared her. It got really lonely until she finally decided to adopt a child.

Mr Gold had helped make the arrangements to procure a boy. Call it a coincidence or call it fate, the boy turned out to be Snow White’s grandson who was also the Saviour’s son.

Regina chose to keep Henry despite learning the fact of his lineage. She took a potion to forget that information about her adopted son so that she could love and care for him without prejudice.

Now, there she was, ten years later, working together with Snow White’s daughter to save their son. She loved Henry so much that she would do anything for him. Even if it meant burying the hatchet with Snow White’s family.

It was close to eight 8 o’clock in the evening. Regina mentally prepared herself to save her son. This was it. To end the curse once and for all.