Written for the prompt The Cost of Magic at gen prompt bingo

There was always a cost when it came to Magic, there was no such thing as a free wish or a free ritual, a sacrifice was often needed and given. Jareth had thought about the cost to him when he had first decided to grant some powers to Sarah Williams and he had deemed the cost acceptable. Granting her the power of wishes the cost was some of his own innate magic, Sarah's power was powered by his magic that he transferred to her for a lack of better term. That would have been all the cost that there was for her gift if things had worked the way he had wanted them to.

That was the problem though, life wasn't fair and it didn't always run the way people wanted it to, even if that person was a Fae King. He had hoped that Sarah would fail to complete his labyrinth in time, or that she would agree to stay with him in the labyrinth. Neither scenario had come to fruition though; Sarah had managed to change the situation and the price that Magic wanted to extract for her gift.

'You have no power over me.' The words rung in his ears taunting him, the words he never wanted to hear fall from her lips, the words that had changed Magic's price for Sarah's gifts. Her wishes had been fuelled by his magic within her, magic that had still been tethered to his core that had allowed him to exert certain control over the gifted magic in order to protect Sarah from what could be some devastating situations if she allowed the magic and wishes to take control of her. Declaring that he had no power over her had snapped that connection leaving his small gift of magic adrift within Sarah, something that Magic itself was unhappy about.

Magic demanded a higher price of Jareth as a result of the connection splintering and he found himself losing more magic to the mortal girl, Magic deeming it necessary that Sara have enough magic in her to yield it herself after beating Jareth at his own game. Jareth had known that it was a possible consequence of his actions so he wasn't shocked by Magic's decision, but he was wary about what Sarah would do with the magic.

He wondered how she would go about learning to control and use her magic, would she refer back to the varied reading of her childhood, would she perhaps reach out to Magic itself, or would she call out to him. He hoped it was the latter, if only so that he could have some place in her life. Losing a larger portion of his magic than he had intended wouldn't be too high a cost to him if he could have her in his life at his side.