Daughter of Darkness (OUAT fanfic)

Chapter 8

How many times will the dark one instruct me to breathe? 

I understand that magic flows through my veins. I feel it in my fingertips. As a week passes, my powers grow. I am intentional with my practice, dedicating hours of every day to it. 

When the dark one isn't busy doing whatever the dark one does, he looms around me like an unwanted shadow. He watches me with a lowered gaze, providing limited reinforcement and countless corrections. Do this instead. Try harder. Breathe. 

Living in the dark one's castle, being a student under his direction, is not all terrible, but I won't consider my time in the Enchanted Forest to be good. Every minute of every day I am searching for a portal to my realm. 

Taran is in Prydain. My people are in Prydain. The answers I seek about my parentage, my lineage, are in Prydain. 

Belle carries a tray of biscuits into the yard. She spreads a blanket across the grass, and we sit together. "Have you learned anything new lately?" 

"This." 

I lift my palm and a cup appears in my hand. Conjuration. As long as I can clearly imagine the item, as long as it exists in the same realm as I do, I can conjure it. 

I place the cup on the blanket. 

If I were in Prydain, I could locate the black cauldron. I could attempt to destroy it. 

The dark one taught me how to immobilize another person or object, so when Belle turns her eyes to the tray, she freezes. I lift the spell and no time has passed for her. She continues our conversation as though there was no delay. "Any luck in finding a portal to Prydain?" 

"Nope." 

A book in the library upstairs informed me that mirrors can double as portals to other realms. I've spent hours in front of the mirror in my room, attempting every spell, focusing on my breath. 

In the middle of the night, I lift my hand to the glass and scream. It shatters around my feet. The pieces shimmer beneath the glow of my bauble. 

Nothing works. I'm stuck here. 

A soft knock on my bedroom door surprises me. The dark one doesn't wait for me to invite him inside. He takes in the scene. "Still trying to escape?" he asks, almost laughing. "Opening a portal isn't that simple, dearie." 

"The witches were able to do it," I say. 

"Those witches are thousands of years old." Shards of glass crunch beneath his shoes. "You're a child. You'll die trying to do what those witches did." 

"At least I will have tried," I say. "If not dead, Taran is still locked in the catacombs beneath the castle. Thousands of people are in danger, and as the last surviving member of the royal family it's my duty to protect them." 

"You don't understand, Princess," he says. There is a beat of silence that thickens the air around us. "If you return to Prydain, you will be sacrificed to the black cauldron. You're safe here in my castle." 

"Safe is not a word I would use to describe how this castle makes me feel," I say through my teeth. "I want to go back to Prydain. I want to go home." 

The dark one sits at the spinning wheel, but he does not spin. He lifts his chin, barely grinning. "The horned king was sent to your realm with the sole purpose of finding you," he says. "As you have learned, you are the youngest heir to the dark throne. You were born with a potential for great darkness, and your father is aware of that." 

"Hades-"

Before I can fully speak his name, the dark one appears in front of me. His hand covers my mouth. "It wouldn't be wise to speak your father's name unless you're looking to join him in the underworld."