Her veins are on fire, burning whiter with every cry from the people surrounding her, following her, begging her to please, please just wait and pause and consider.

Angry, blinding flashes of lightning blaze around them in time with the hot pulsing of her veins, and she tightens her grip around the dagger in her shaking hand.

She has done enough waiting.

"We didn't fight this hard to lose our happy endings."

Her voice shakes in an odd mix of energy and fear.

And it may be weak, but it's the only reasoning she can come up with, with the electricity storming through her and the dagger growing hotter against her palm.

She knows better, knows her resolve can only weaken as her eyes drift across her parents, huddled together with silent, matching looks of broken defeat. Over Regina, concerned, lips pressed tight together in the closest thing to approval she imagines she'll be getting.

And God, she knows better.

But she lets her gaze fall on Killian.

The fearful blue storm raging beneath his creased brow rivals even the masterpiece she has somehow instilled into the spinning, flashing air around them. She can tell in the lines of his face that there are words, so many words, poised on the tip of his tongue.

But for what Emma thinks might be the first time in his three hundred goddamn years of life, he can't choose the right words to say.

"I have to," she tells him, taking the barest, creeping step closer—and trying to ignore the way everyone but him cannot hide their flinches away from the power roaring from her.

She cannot blame them.

His eyes don't leave hers as he offers her a small, curt nod.

"I know."

It is not swallowing back a sob that frees the tiniest hiccup from the back of her throat as her teary eyes remain on him.

Her voice is strangled with tears when she finally speaks.

"Our happy ending… It will just have to wait a little longer."

Something switches in his eyes at her words, softening and hardening all at once before melting into that expression, the one that sometimes makes her believe, even if just for a moment, that she is the most important, stunning person on earth. The one that makes her think he might be under the impression that she paints the stars in the night sky.

And all in one movement, he is kissing her. Breaking through the space between them, digging his hook into her waist and his hand firm between her shoulder blades as he drags her closer and closer for more, regardless of the lightning storm she is creating around them that concerns even her.

The kiss is hungry and lingering, all tongue and teeth and clinging to each other and the fleeting moment they have left (because the second his arms fold around her she cannot help but fall into him, holding the dagger cautiously in the fist pressed against the small of his back and running her free hand up to grab tight hold of the leather covering his shoulder).

And she doesn't want to let him go. But his touch sends the already overpowering pulse of her magic into overdrive and she draws her lips back from his in a gasp, pressing her forehead into his shoulder and riding out the spurt of pure fire coursing through her.

He holds her tighter, hook nearly painful at her side.

"I have to do it now," she breathes into his shoulder, breathing in the familiar smell of him and making no move to let go.

"I know," he answers again, and her heart thuds as his arms begin to unlace from around her.

His eyes are at least three shades brighter than usual, and it takes her a moment to realize it is because they are filled with tears.

He catches the wrist of her free hand at the last possible moment, as she is turning away from the fearful faces trained entirely on her.

He presses his lips together and has to drag his watery blue gaze up to meet hers as the scratchy words pass by his lips, fingers digging into her wrist.

"I love you, Emma."

She cannot swallow the sob that takes her body in an echo of the storm swirling around her, and he is still there, still holding her, still watching her…

"I know."

A fleeting moment of a bleak, teary smile tugs at his lips… and it is the last thing she sees.