life was a willow and it bent right to your wind (CS Halloweek 7/7)
Summary: Samhain brings a turning point for witch Emma and pirate beau Killian, in both their lives and their relationship. Gods willing, what they’ve built is strong enough to resist the temptations of darkness—but the only way to find out is to move forward.
A/N: And here’s the last part! Thank you to all who went on this little journey! And again, thanks to the organizers of @cshalloweek for all the exciting prompts! [tags under cut]
October 31: Spirit / white | haunted house | betrayal | “tell me again” | wicked
1218 words | rated T | AO3 | part 1 | part 2 | part 3 | part 4 | part 5 | part 6
part 7: wait for the signal and I’ll meet you after dark
“Tell me,” Emma demanded. “Tell me what you did.”
As calmly as he could, he relayed the earlier events to her. What he was describing, she wasn’t sure had ever been done. Dark Ones were made over time—magic users corrupting their own souls for power and committing dark deeds, to the point that they were almost immortal; there had blessedly been few, but none that had ever been murdered by a mortal, even if the means were still magical.
“I saw it oozing between my fingers, then it all went dark until—until whatever you did a couple minutes ago.”
“Can…can I check something? Do you trust me?” she hated to ask, resting her hand on his chest.
“Of course I do; anything you think will work.”
She nodded and took a deep breath. Then, in what was probably a gesture he was familiar with, pushed her hand into his chest—and pulled out his heart. (She knew that spell existed, and her mother had explained the basics of it once, but also fully laid out the dangers of using it—what it meant for the victim and the path it could set the magic user on. But desperate times and desperate measures and all that.)
Much like his aura, Killian’s heart glowed a deep red. There were some darker patches within it, but they were overwhelmed by the crimson. But what she needed to see—what she had hoped wasn’t there—was the bit of black goo starting to drip off the bottom tip of the organ.
“Not much of a do-gooder now, are you?” Killian sneered. She was so startled by the change in demeanor that she nearly squeezed his heart, which she knew would cause undue pain, if not be altogether fatal. Her eyes jumped from his heart to his face, and the change in his countenance was visible—this was the Darkness talking again; even the red glow of the heart seemed to reflect menacingly in his pupils. “Crush it; I dare you. It’d put an end to my long, sorry existence.”
“No,” she answered firmly, and hastily shoved the organ back in his chest so it was a nonfactor. “There has to be another way to solve this.”
“Emma—don’t let me become that,” he said weakly, but she could tell it was him again.
She bit back a remark towards the fact that he brought it on himself, but he’d dealt with self-loathing much longer than Emma had been alive and didn’t need her added admonishment—not right now. “I won’t,” she promised, though.
But she still had no idea how to do that. She tried to pull on the strings in his aura again, but that only caused more pain—and more vile words from the Darkness in him. She tried to do a cleansing spell on his heart; she tried praying to a few pertinent gods; and was damn close to using up her store of Lake Nostos water if there was a chance of it breaking this strange magical hold.
“So weak, so useless,” he scoffed. “No wonder you haven’t been able to save your parents yet.”
“You don’t mean that,” she refuted. “I know you don’t.”
“Oh, do you?” He got up and moved away from her, the shadows still clinging to his frame in the moonlight. “Do you even know me, love? I’ve lived for decades chasing one thing. You don’t know the half of my life.”
As close as they’d gotten in the last couple years, he was right—there was still a lot Emma didn’t know. But there was one thing she did. She’d known it for a while, but it didn’t finally click until tonight.
“No, I don’t,” she agreed. “But I do know this: I love you, and I’ll do anything to save you.”
He seemed conflicted, but she didn’t hesitate to step into his space and haul his lips to hers. If all she had to use against the Darkness was her love for him, then she was going to make a damn convincing case for her point.
Killian was stiff for a moment, shocked, but quickly melted into the kiss, pulling her close.
No sooner had he done that than a gust of warm air burst forth from his body and they staggered apart, him gasping.
His hand flew to his chest, and then he glanced around him. “Emma, what was…?”
For her part, Emma was speechless. She’d heard of things like that happening—her parents were confirmed True Love and all that—but was that really—?
“Was that True Love’s Kiss?” he finally asked, astonished.
“I…I think…maybe?” she stammered. “How do you feel?”
“Fine,” he breathed. “The Darkness…it’s gone; it had been haunting me, like a demon over my shoulder and it’s just…disappeared.”
“Thank the gods,” she said, then wrapped herself back around him. “And don’t scare me like that. Ever again. Ever.”
“Never, love—never,” he confirmed, and folded his arms around her as tight as he could. “Just—one thing…tell me again.”
She looked up at him. “Tell you what? That I love you?”
“Aye, that,” he said, grinning softly. “I love you too, darling. More than you know.”
“I mean, I kind of know.”
He chuckled—his usual, deep laugh that always sent the best kind of shiver through her—and just kissed her again. And again. And things quickly got heated, and they may have come together right against that poor old tree. (She would have preferred to take their time, but the sheer relief they both felt was definitely a compounding factor, and the fact that she had places to be later. But after that…she wasn’t going to let him out of her sight—or arms—or other places—for quite some time.)
As long as she could, she held him tight, until she needed to join the rest of her coven. “Shall I meet you back at your place, my love?” he murmured into her shoulder as she righted her clothes.
“You better,” she tossed back. “I thought I lost you tonight. I’m not letting you out of my sight for a very long time.”
“I thought I lost you too, love—my chance at being with you. Thank you for bringing me back to myself.”
Thankfully, her coven’s annual rituals didn’t take long, and she was able to rush back to him, her spirit all the more at ease.
Then, they spent the next few days in bed. Happily.
As they came out of the honeymoon fog (eventually), Emma was relieved that the shadow of Killian’s past no longer followed them, but her own goals still lay ahead unfinished—and without any further insight into how she might break her parents’ curse.
Until Killian pointed out that she had a new source for one key ingredient—the essence of True Love. She had been using her parents’ hairs tied together for that in the past, but perhaps pulling from someone not cursed would be the trick needed.
Her brilliant True Love was right.
And at the next Samhain, Emma was able to fully celebrate with everyone she loved. When Killian wrapped her in his arms after arriving ashore from another voyage, she couldn’t help but think that all was as it should be—nor could she wait to see what joys her future continued to hold.
