Beware the drama. That's all I can say.
Jareth rose early the next morning. It had taken all his self-control, but after the moment he had so longed for (albeit under different circumstances—he wanted her as his lover, not a sacrificial lamb) he had stayed in bed. Sarah had tried to get up, but he pulled her down and just held her. They hadn't said anything. He could feel that Sarah was forming all sorts of protests, but she had seemed too embarrassed to speak. He had wanted just one moment to be only about them, not Jehanna. He had kept her firmly in his arms until she finally fell asleep.
He gently pulled away from Sarah trying not to wake her. He pulled on his dressing gown and stood at the window looking out over his kingdom. Their kingdom now.
Sarah stirred and was soon awake and sitting up in the bed, sheet clutched to her chest.
"Did it work?" she asked.
"Most likely," he answered tersely.
"You don't know?" She seemed angry.
"I married you, Sarah," he snapped. "You can stay in your own room, if you wish. You do not need to move into my chambers. We can pretend it all never happened."
"What?" The anger was gone, and confusion muddled her thoughts. "You don't want me?" It was a simple question of disbelief of his sincerity, no injured vanity demanding why he didn't want her.
"Yes, I want you, Sarah. And that is why I will not ask anything of you as a husband. You must come to me because you want it, not because of anything—or anyone—else." He waved a hand and magically changed into a simple outfit of breeches and a vest covered shirt. "I will send your maid to you." He conjured a crystal and then threw it into the air where it vanished.
He walked out of the room. As he neared the throne room he heard humming. A girl's humming. He walked in to find Jehanna lounging on his throne in much the same way he was accustomed to. Of course since she was wearing a skirt her legs showed in the most unladylike way. If she had heard him enter she ignored him. She just stared off into space humming a tune with which he was unfamiliar.
"I was going to let you say something first, but I've changed my mind," she said at last. She turned her head and grinned at him. "Hiya, bro!"
"Bro?" An eyebrow went up. "Dear heavens, you've become even more crude and undignified."
She just stuck out her tongue, but then looked past him and waved. "Hi Sarah!"
"Jenny?"
He turned to see Sarah staring with extremely wide eyes at his sister.
"The one and the same! Well… not really the same. But word is you're not the same anymore either. Hoggle was grumbling about changes and you, and something about Jareth, but he's always grumbling about Jareth. I think it's true love." She sighed dramatically then started laughing at her own joke. "How've you been, Sar?"
It was Jareth's turn to be wide eyed and confused. "Do you two… know each other?"
"Sure do!" Jehanna said happily, enjoying the whole situation immensely. "We were roomies in London. Eaten any peaches lately, Sar?"
"You rotten little…" she spluttered and held back the myriad of profanities she wanted to shout. "It's all your stupid fault!"
Sarah started pacing and muttering. Jehanna didn't seem to understand what Sarah was talking about, so she just jumped off the throne and walked towards her brother.
"Did you miss me?" she asked him innocently, her head tilting to one side. Like her brother, there would never be anything truly innocent about her. Mischief came more naturally to her than the goblins. And how Jareth had missed her!
"Of course I did." He grabbed her into a tight hug. "Remind me to tan your hide later," he growled.
She pulled away. "What did I do?"
He raised an eyebrow and gave her 'the stare'. "I'll write you a list. Starting with how you disobeyed me by flying alone and too far out."
"I…" she started to argue, but stopped and dropped her head in shame. But the feeling didn't last long. "I'm not a kid anymore."
"I am disinclined to agree with you. You are still a very young Fae."
"But I matured as a human. I'm as old as Sarah is! Just ask her."
Sarah stopped pacing.
But Jareth didn't ask her. He had a question for his sister. "You remember your mortal life?"
"Every bit of it."
"But," Sarah asked, "as… a mortal… did you remember being a Fae?"
"Not really, but kinda," Jehanna said slowly. "All my 'odd moments' were a bit of me poking through, but I never really knew everything. Just ideas, emotions, flashes of memory, and a lot of dreams."
"So who was it that kept giving me peaches?"
"That was the princess."
"And the advice?"
"Also the princess but with a bit of the human. Those were definitely odd moments… as I even mentioned at the time."
"So I am fully justified in blaming all of this on you," Sarah said angrily and then stormed out.
"Sarah…" Jehanna called, but her brother grabbed her arm and stopped her from following. "Jareth, before you say anything, I'm still not sure what is going on right now. Father just told me that you married and broke the curse. He wouldn't let anyone explain anything to me. I remember Sarah going missing from Aboveground, and I overheard Hoggle muttering to himself, and then some goblins saying she was here, but I don't know why or what or anything."
"She's my wife," he said.
"So she with you brought me back? Wicked," Jehanna said happily, but the smile fell when she saw his face. "Isn't that good? I thought you'd make a good pair."
Jareth pushed past her and sat on his throne. He was torn with joy at having his sister back, and anger at the role she had played in everything, knowingly or not. Like Sarah said, everything was so easily blamed on Jehanna. But that would wait. She wasn't ready to hear all that had passed the last few days in her name.
"I will not explain it to you now. Right now I have to decide what to do with you."
"Uh oh, you've got your king face on. Why do you need to do anything?"
"Because Amneris is still powerful and will continue to target you because she can. Precautions must be taken, and this time you will obey." When she opened her mouth to protest he continued. "You may have matured as a human, but now you are back in your own body with the experience and hormones of a child."
"It's not fair!" she shouted.
Jareth rubbed his temples. Not this old tune again. "And that attitude proves my point. Even if it isn't fair, you have no one to blame but yourself. You are to keep to the castle until I can devise a way to protect you. You will not go outside. Not to the Labyrinth, not to the city, not to the gardens. The balconies are also off limits; in fact, stay away from windows all together. And if I catch even a rumour that you've changed into an owl I will personally chain you to the walls of the deepest, darkest cell in the dungeons."
He saw tears forming in her eyes, but she ran out of the room before they could fall.
He groaned as his head began to pound and ache. A wife he loved desperately who hated him, who was also inexplicably changing into a Fae, who was probably developing magic that needed training; a sister just freed from a curse, possibly in even more danger now, who also probably hated him right now; a kingdom to run and an evil woman to stop. Yes, his life was just perfect.
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
Sarah was just climbing down a ladder in the library with a book in hand when Jehanna came in.
"Sarah, can I talk with you?" She looked over at Bregg, a permanent piece of furniture in the library it seemed. "In private?"
Sarah wanted to refuse; she was incredibly angry at the girl. But she noticed the tear-stained face and felt a twinge of pity—just enough to talk with her and maybe clear away some questions.
"Sure. We can go to my room."
Jehanna stopped in the doorway of Sarah's chamber. "You'll have to close those." She pointed to the balcony doors. "Jareth has ordered me away from all windows. I can't go anywhere outside the castle, and balconies qualify as outside."
"That seems a bit ridiculous." But she closed the doors nonetheless.
"Yeah, but if I'm actually obeying then that gives you an idea how serious he is about this." They sat in silence until Jehanna just let all her emotions break loose. "What's going on Sarah? I remember flying, getting sick, all the nightmares, and then growing up a human with no idea who I was. I met you and more and more of my memories leaked through, you disappeared, and then a few days later I woke up… like being human was a very strange but vivid dream… and you're married to my brother. On top of that you both hate me!"
Unlike Jareth, Sarah did not control her anger and emotions and spare Jehanna the truth. "Those peaches you gave me, do you remember? They reinforced a connection I have with the Labyrinth and put me in a sort of dream state. There I spoke with the Goblin King and was eventually tricked into letting him bring me back here. Now I'm stuck living here forever!"
"You were here before? When? How did the peach do anything? It was just a normal peach."
"When I was fifteen I wished my brother away. I beat the Labyrinth and got him back, but during my run I had a bite of a peach. It was one of Jareth's traps for me. It also turned out to be the pomegranate to my Persephone."
"Oh, oops. I'm sorry. Peaches just always made me feel better. Now I know it was because they were a piece of home."
"I noticed your rose garden had a few potted peach trees."
Jehanna jumped up. "You've been to my garden? Did he lock it up? Did you have to find the key and discover the secrets about it?"
Sarah chuckled and said to herself, "He knew you'd be mad." She then spoke to Jehanna. "No, it's open to all who just wander through."
Jehanna sat back down with a slightly pouting expression. "Great, he wastes a perfect opportunity. Okay, so that's how you got here and how you first met my brother. Wait… you beat him and won back your brother?" Her eyes were wide with admiration.
"Yes. Right before I remembered the words 'you have no power over me' is when he tried to offer me my dreams again, and then he tried offering himself."
"And you turned him down? Which you regretted and now happily have been able to fix?" she asked hoping for some good news in the tale.
"No. I didn't even think about it when I turned him down. I just had to get my brother back. I'd do the same thing again if given the chance."
"But then why…" Jehanna looked confused again.
"Did I marry him? The curse on you could only be broken if he married someone as cruel as himself."
Realization fell over Jehanna's features. "You came here because of me. You married him because of me. Jareth loves you, but you only married him because of me. It really is my entire fault."
"Jehanna…" Now Sarah was starting to feel bad for telling her.
"No! Don't call me that! With you I'm Jenny. I was just fine being Jenny! And now you and my brother are miserable because of Jehanna. Why didn't you just leave me alone as Jenny?" she shouted hysterically.
"Because it would have killed your brother when you died. I saw it whenever he spoke about you. It was when he showed me your garden that I knew had to help him get you back. The way he talked about taking you on your first flight… he felt so guilty about the curse. He felt it was his fault."
"But it wasn't!" Jehanna was still in hysterics. "It was my fault! It's all my fault!" Once again she was running out of a room in tears.
OIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIOIO
Amneris sat smiling on her throne. She was certain that her little visit with Jareth all that time ago would finally push him over the edge. Any day now. She would finally be the Goblin Queen and have on her arm the most handsome and desirable of the Fae kings. Of course, she would have to find another way of getting rid of the brat. Perhaps she could just send her to some other court somewhere far away under the pretext of getting a better education. The Labyrinth was too remote for proper learning for a princess—even a low-stationed bastard of a princess. Yes, that was a good plan. Maybe it was time to make sure again that the brat was still alive.
She conjured a nightmare shadow to show her the girl. She hoped that she'd catch the girl in one of her little shows. That Dracula had been very attractive for a mere human. More men needed to wear leather more often.
The shadow, however, remained blank.
"Show me the girl!" she yelled at it. Still nothing formed in the black. "Where is she?"
Amneris used her magic to feel for the cursed net she had put over the girl. It was gone. If the girl had died a mortal death the net would still be active over the empty Fae body. That could only mean one thing.
"NO!" the Nightmare Queen screamed. Shadows and ghouls quickly fled the room before she could lash out at one of them. "How did he break my curse? How is this possible? Who did he marry?"
She stood and started looking for one of her creatures to vent her frustration on. As she made a ghoul twist and shrivel with pain she started to smile, and then she started to grin.
"Whoever the whore is that he has taken as is wife, she will pay. I'll make her suffer so much that she'll wish she had never even heard of the Goblin King."
Her cackling laughter mixed and echoed around the room with the screams of the tortured ghoul.
As I've mentioned before, for a picture of Jehanna, check out my deviantART through the link on my profile.
From here I'm not entirely sure where things are going. I'm thinking some action to replace the soap opera worthy drama, some humour with the coming romance, and some good old goblin shenanigans. Updates will slow down a bit since I've now caught up uploading to where I am still writing. But reviews keep my muse happy and working.
