Gold

{46}

The Enchanted Forest
The Dark Castle
About a week after Claire's arrival ~

"Claire, are you ready to practice again?" Rumplestiltskin called from outside my door.

I stepped out of my room and sighed.

"Sure, let's practice." I told him. If he clocked my mood, he didn't say anything. I'd been feeling down lately. The fact that Rumplestiltskin and I fought a lot didn't help. We argued nearly every day and each argument ended in at least a days worth of silence.

We walked back into the main room but we weren't alone. There was a handsome man holding Rumplestiltskin's magic wand. He had a bow and arrows with him as well.

"Are you sure you wanna do this, dearie?" Rumplestiltskin asked the man.

"Pretty sure." The man told him.

"If you don't know how to use that wand, it can do nasty things to you." Rumplestiltskin told the man.

"Well.. then I'll stick to what I know works. Do you know what this arrow can do to you?" The man asked.

"Has to hit me first." Rumplestiltskin told him, vanishing and then reappearing in a cloud of purple smoke.

"Shouldn't be a problem. An arrow fired from this bow always finds it target. Don't you just love magic?" The man asked, firing the arrow.

Rumplestiltskin vanished and reappeared beside me, but the arrow still hit him in the chest.

"I know I do." The man said.

"As do I!" Rumplestiltskin said, pulling the arrow from his chest. Wow, I guess he really is as immortal as they say.

"But don't you know! All magic comes with a price, and in your case, that's me." Rumplestiltskin said, making his way to the man.

I winced as he grabbed the man and vanished. I heard a loud thud and realized he probably threw him into the dungeon.

I looked around in confusion as I stood beside Emma. Snow and Charming had herded us into a car and brought us out into a random field. Emma looked like she was wondering what the hell we were doing as well.

"Why are we in the middle of nowhere? Why aren't you guys telling me what's going on? Why the secrecy?" Emma asked them.

"Because you and Claire need to see this." Snow told us. Emma and I exchanged a look.

"Great, that always goes well for me. Listen, whatever it is, it can wait. August was trying to warn me about someone- someone dangerous." Emma told them.

Since that day August was turned back into a little boy and he tried to warn us, Emma had been working constantly to try and uncover the threat.

I'd been helping her as well. We both knew it had to be a woman since August has clearly said, 'she', but we didn't know who.

Well, I had my suspicions. The timing on Tamara arriving and August getting killed was just too close for me. I didn't know if Emma shared this theory, but I wasn't sure of anyone else who seemed suspicious.

"Doesn't matter." Charming remarked and I gave him a look. "Doesn't matter?" I asked in disbelief.

"It doesn't matter because of this." Snow said, pulling us both another step forward. I felt a feeling of magic passing through me and looked around.

We were standing in a field, a field full of magic beans. They'd been harvesting magic beans this entire time. They had to have starting this when we went to Manhattan.