There was another long pause before Jareth decided to speak again. It was as if he were taking his time and trying to word things exactly right before saying them, treating Sarah as if she might fly away if he said the wrong thing - and Sarah was well aware of the apprehension he was feeling. She, at least, had the good grace not to mention it.

"Jareth," she began, cutting herself short before starting again. "We really don't have a lot of time left. I know time moves slower in dreams, but I will eventually wake up at some point. I hope," she contended, with a small smile.

"You are, of course, correct, Precious," he said, answering her smile with a sad one of his own. "I'm reluctant to tell you a lot of this, simply because I don't want you to worry, but I feel you must know what happened. I'll not sugar coat this, I'm afraid," he said rather grimly. Sarah's stomach was doing flip-flops, and the sudden change in the weather was bringing in sharp winds and storm clouds; she wasn't sure which of them was doing it, or if it was some combination of both of them, but she wasn't overly fond of the prospect of getting drenched.

Sarah reached out and took hold of his hand, giving it a squeeze. The leather was smooth and soft against her skin, and not for the first time that night, she wondered what it would really feel like - surely leather in the real world didn't feel like that.

"I can take it, Goblin King. Whatever it is. I've lived through worse," she said tilting her head to look at him. She'd never seen him like this before and silently wondered just how bad what he had to tell her was. Then again, with the exception of some of her dreams, she hadn't really had any interactions with him at all, so maybe he was like this all the time. She really had no basis for comparison.

Jareth looked down at her hand wrapped around his and laced their fingers together before bringing them to his lips, brushing them across the back of her hand.

I'm well aware, Precious. I'm afraid I'm the cause of, at least, some of that," he said before placing their hands on his thigh. Sarah, without thinking, readjusted her position to sit more comfortably, but she did not, he noticed, move her hand. He wondered, if for only a moment, if the reason she was less apprehensive around him was because she really thought that no harm could befall her in her dreams. Or, perhaps, she thought she would always be safe there because she wasn't awake in her world. The thought disturbed him, and not just because it wasn't true.

There was plenty that could happen to her within her dreams that could affect her physically, and the idea that she could be so reckless and unprotected made him angry. It was something that they would address later. In detail. He simply had to get Sarah and her magic under control before she or someone else got hurt. But that was a story for a different day. Or a different dream.

"There's no need to go into specifics about the whys and the hows and the 'it's-not-fair's' of your Labyrinth run. There are Underground books that detail that unmitigated disaster in great detail," he said, fixing a look on Sarah that would make almost anyone shrink back; Sarah, to her credit, defiantly looked him right in the eyes, and he was fairly sure she was fighting back a smile. One day, in the very near future, circumstances be damned, he was going to wipe that smirk off her face. And they'd both be better for it.

"After you returned Above, for a while, there was nothing different; we began to rebuild that which was destroyed, the Labyrinth adjusted, things were fine. Life went on, and, in fact, three more runners ran the Labyrinth and failed. Your record remains, to this day, in tact," he said with a little more emphasis than he intended. "Changelings were placed, goblins were made, things were normal. Well, normal for my kingdom, in any case." Sarah listened studiously while he continued.

"A rift had opened in my kingdom, though I scarcely noticed it. I supposed I should have seen it coming – the Labyrinth had never been defeated before, and naturally, as you had done exactly that, it's only natural that someone would have seen that as a sign of weakness. An opening, if you will," he said.

"There was always dark magic in the realm – this was not news, though I was not aware of an impending uprising. You went back Aboveground, and conspired with those treasonous subjects of mine, and I went on ruling. But things began to feel differently eventually – a storm was brewing; I blamed the change of mood on the newly ruined Goblin City and the aftermath of your little… vacation." Sarah, with a smile like the Mona Lisa, said nothing.

"I wasn't aware of how quickly the news of a runner defeating the Labyrinth had gotten out, and I have to assume that this fight had been planned for some time long before your arrival, but you were a convenient distraction and my enemies took full advantage. There was a kingdom, just on the edges of mine, ruled by a King named Lorcan. He was…" Jareth paused for a moment, remembering how he'd destroyed Lorcan slowly, for half a second he was completely gone, until he felt Sarah's hand squeeze his.

He glanced over to her and gave her a reassuring smile before looking back out over the landscape and beginning again. "He was ruler for a long time, and honestly I'd never had an issue with him, however, the the Labyrinth and its power is sought after by a great many would-be rulers, and has been for several millennia. I wasn't necessarily surprised that he attempted to kill me and steal my power. I was, however, surprised by how clever he was about it."

He looked back to Sarah with a smirk, though there was nothing funny about what he had to tell her.

"This is where you enter back into the story, Precious."

Sarah looked down at the ground for a moment, knowing she was about to relive one of the single most terrifying moments of her life, and boy did she have questions, and so much pent-up anger about it, but she would allow him to finish before she gave him a piece of her mind.

Jareth took her silence as an invitation to continue, and so he did.

"What no one knew was that the King had given the girl certain powers," Jareth began glancing down at her just in time to see her head snap up to look at him and meet his eyes.

"That's not how it goes. You're missing a part," Sarah said her voice barely above a whisper.

"If you know what's good for you, Sarah," he said, remaining deathly still, his voice barely above a whisper, "you'll not push the issue further."

The look he shot her could have leveled several city blocks. She gave a nod of her head for him to continue. Whatever emotion Jareth was fighting at the moment, Sarah didn't want to address it. Neither, it seemed, did Jareth.

"Your magic, Sarah, is tied to the me, and just as importantly, it is tied to the Labyrinth. Your magic-"

"My magic? What are you talking about? I don't have magic," she said, finally catching up.

"Really," he said, lifting one fine eyebrow and challenging her. "You presume to know better than me on this subject? Please, Sarah, enlighten me as to how my kingdom and magic works, considering you, a mortal, are an expert," he said with more than just a little malice in his voice.

Sarah opened her mouth to speak, snatching her hand back and balling it into a fist, debating seriously if she was going to punch him to knock that smug tone from his voice, before realizing that there were some things that happened, before the incident they were about to get into that hadn't added up. Like how she was able to reach through her mirror to touch and hug her friends, when initially, she was only able to call them and they were able to cross through. She hadn't tested entering the Underground fully at any point, for fear of getting trapped, but she was willing to bet she could have crossed over if she wanted. She was never entirely sure if even Jareth knew that.

She also thought to all the strange happenings that occurred around her that had kept her out of danger Aboveground without prompting from, at least she thought, from the Goblin King: a bad fall without being hurt, a car accident that she and Karen had gotten into where they both walked away scratch free, even though everyone said that they shouldn't have, the time slips, long before the recent developments… she closed her mouth and settled back down in her seat without protest.

"That what I thought," Jareth said with a roll of his eyes. "Try not to interrupt me again, Precious," he said. "We have much to cover."

"Sir, yes sir," Sarah said with a mock salute, rolling her eyes right back.

Jareth, tilted his head and looked at her a moment, a mischievous glint to his mismatched eyes.

"Your Majesty, Sire, Goblin King, My Liege, Master, My Lord," he said, listing the titles off, ticking one finger for each one. "You may call me Jareth, when it is just the two of us, for I'm quite fond of the way my name sounds on your… tongue," he said with a wicked smile. "Any other names are unnecessary and inappropriate, Precious." He leaned in close, his mouth just a hairsbreadth from her ear. His lips curled into a devious smile when he felt her shiver. "Though, there is one… situation where I'd allow you to call me sir," he crooned in her ear, practically purring. "I doubt you'd be interested though," he said with a dark chuckle that Sarah couldn't understand, before pulling away again and settling comfortably back into the position he was in. If the Goblin King was going for a look of innocence, he severely missed his mark.

Sarah flushed immediately, and she wasn't even entirely sure why. She managed to look everywhere except at him, studiously looking down at her hand where it rested in the grass. Had she looked up, she would have noticed the damn near obscene trail the Goblin King's eyes took up and down her body and the smile to match. After a moment, he cleared his throat and continued.

"Your magic attracts those who can feel it, that is, anyone imbued with magic. A link to your magic, means a link to both my magic and the Labyrinth's magic. Which means a way to siphon off all that magic. I believe the attack on you was an attempt to steal magic from all of us, thus the chanting from your attacker. Had he simply wanted you dead, you would have been," he said quietly.

Neither one of them wanted to acknowledge that there was a real possibility that she would have been dead or worse once the spell had been completed and her magic fully siphoned off. In fact, death would have been the kinder option in Jareth's opinion - who knew what would have befallen her if she'd been taken.

Sarah wasn't quite sure what to say to him after that. She looked out across the vast lands that rolled beneath her feet and this time, it was Jareth's turn to reach out and grab her hand. She jumped a little at the sudden contact, but settled quickly as he laced his fingers with hers.

"I am sorry that happened to you, Precious. It's partially my fault. I should have never allowed the connection between our worlds to continue. I put you in danger because I wanted to … allow you a connection to your friends and my world and I shouldn't have. That should have been the end," he said sadly.

He wasn't prepared to get into why he'd kept the connection open. Nor did he plan on getting into the fact that he'd gotten regular updates from the dwarf whenever he'd visit, as per the terms of his agreement with Hoggle. If Hoggle wanted to continue to see Sarah, Hoggle would tell the King how she was. Hoggle wasn't happy about it, but figured there could be no harm in telling the King that she was fine. Something that turned out valuable on the night in question. Sarah hadn't seen Hoggle, but Hoggle had saw her. Hoggle was the reason Jareth even knew something was wrong, as his magic had been blocked.

"I'm not," she said after a long moment.

"You're not what?"

"Sorry," she said, finally looking up at him. "Even knowing what I know now, even knowing the danger that came from it, I'm not sorry. And I know it's selfish, but I need it, I needed..." You, she thought to herself.

"You needed what, Sarah?" he asked, searching her eyes for what she was unable to say. He knew, somewhere in the back of his mind what she was about to say and practically dared her to say it.

"It. The Labyrinth. My friends... I needed that - I still do - and it was a kindness, allowing me to have it. Probably much more than I deserved after ..." She stopped again, trying hard not to betray whatever she was feeling towards him. She was failing and they both knew it.

"Yes, it probably was," he said with a chuckle. "I keep telling you how generous I am, Precious. You never believe me," he said with a grin, granting her a pardon from the serious turn their conversation had taken.

"Hey, I'm trying to say thank you, you pompous jackass," she laughed.

"Keep your treasonous name calling to yourself, Ms. Williams." He was laughing now, too.

"Oh, there's plenty more where that came from."

"You're welcome, Precious. My pleasure," he said without any malice or sarcasm.

They settled there again in comfortable silence.

"I called for you that night," Sarah whispered, finally.

"I know," Jareth said just as quietly.

"You didn't come."

"I did come," he said, though there was no heat in his voice.

"You didn't do anything. I saw you for a moment, but you never…" she trailed off.

Jareth reached out and lifted her chin with his finger so that she was looking at her.

"I was there, Sarah. My castle was under attack, but the moment I saw that you were in danger, I tried to get through. My magic was blocked somehow. I watched the whole thing. The last thing I remember seeing was your back coming towards the mirror. I couldn't get through."

Sarah had tried not to cry throughout the whole story, but she couldn't stop the tears that escaped her now. She knew, in her heart, that he wouldn't have just abandoned her, but she didn't know his magic had been blocked. Jareth cupped her face in both hands and wiped away her tears with his thumbs.

"An attack on you, The Champion and Defender of my Labyrinth, is an attack on the Goblin Kingdom, and an attack on me. Don't you ever forget that, Precious." His voice was steady and commanding and very much befitting of his status as King of the Goblin Kingdom. She believed him.

"Ok," she chuckled, "But I'm not calling you 'Your Highness'," she smirked.

Jareth, almost laughing, arched an eyebrow at her. "That's good, Precious, as Your Highness is a title that will go to my heir one day, until I abdicate or die. I do believe I gave you an acceptable list of titles before."

Sarah rolled her eyes and removed herself from his grasp sat back; it was hard to think straight when he was so close to her. "Whatever you say, Goblin King," she chuckled, and reached out and grabbed his hand again. That was acceptable, as she didn't necessarily want to break all contact with him (but anything thing else was just begging for trouble).

Jareth smirked, looking down at their joined hand now resting comfortably in Sarah's lap, and began again.

"There was a traitor in my castle. That was how Lorcan knew of our connection and your magic. That's not necessarily something that would be common knowledge. The attack on my castle was long and tiring but my men prevailed. My army fought Lorcan's men back to his land, where I brought the traitor back to his master and destroyed them both. Lorcan's land was assembled into the Goblin Kingdom and has been peaceful since," Jareth said with a nod of his head.

"To protect you further, I severed the connection of our shared dream state. I didn't know if there was a way to harm you through them, so I thought it best."

"And yet," Sarah said waving her free hand at the air around them, motioning to what was obviously a shared dream state that they were currently in.

"And yet," Jareth said, nodding his head and agreeing with her, he was silent again, and Sarah suspected that there was a lot he wasn't telling her.

"My top adviser believes the Labyrinth itself has reestablished this connection. It's quite… perplexing," he said. "Regardless, I believe the Labyrinth is protecting you, and since there's a new danger, as there always seems to be when you're involved, Precious, it reestablished this so that we can communicate, since I can no longer contact you when you're awake."

"When I'm involved?!" Sarah shouted jumping to her feet and looking down at him with her hands on her hips. "This is your fault Goblin King. Control your subjects!"

Jareth took a leisurely path with his eyes from the tips of her toes, all the way up her body until his eyes finally reached hers.

"An argument could be made," he said softly, "that since you came to my kingdom, are under the protection of my Labyrinth, consort with my subjects, have eaten food from my realm and keep finding ways back to its King, that you are one of my subjects as well, Sarah-mine."

Jareth stood to his full height, brushing off his britches and adjusting his gloves leisurely before moving. Before Sarah had time to blink, he was very much in her personal space and Sarah was very much finding difficulty breathing. He stepped forward, and, to his amusement, Sarah backed up. She was met with an abrupt stop when she backed into the tree that she was pretty sure wasn't there just a few moments before. Jareth used his advantage to corner her stepping as close as he possibly could without actually touching her. He grabbed her face and made sure she was looking at him. Sarah wasn't able to mentally process the look he was giving her, but she knew it made her shiver.

"Is that an invitation to control you, precious thing?" he grinned, showing the full extent of his sharp teeth.

"In your dreams, Goblin King," Sarah said, though it didn't have quite the conviction she was aiming for. Her voice came out barely above a whisper, and all Jareth did was continue grinning.

He used the grip on her jaw to tilt her head to the side and lean his face in. Sarah's hands went to his chest, though if she was pushing him away, neither of them was able to tell. She could hear the sound of him inhaling her scent against the skin of her neck, until she felt his breath against the shell of her ear.

"Frequently," he breathed, and Sarah felt goosebumps raise on her skin; she shivered and her hands fisted in his shirt. Jareth's hand moved from her jaw down her neck, trailing lightly against the sensitive skin, to rest on her sternum for a moment, giving her a push and holding her there, pinned to the tree, making sure she knew she was unable to move out of his grasp.

She met his eyes, lips parted, and let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. One side of Jareth's mouth quirked up, and he just barely brushed his mouth against hers. There was no pressure, just a tease of what he could do.

"Just say the word, Precious," he whispered. She could feel his lips moving against hers, they were sharing air now. "I promise, we'll both enjoy it," he whispered, barely audible.

And then he kissed her.

It was softer than she expected it to be, almost reverent, if she was being honest. A simple meeting of their lips, he lingered there long enough to make her want more before he pulled away and let go of her completely. Eyes hooded, he turned from her, and sat back down where he was before.

Sarah didn't move. She took a few shaky breaths before her heart slowed back down. Jareth was sitting in the grass adjusting his gloves absently, ignoring the fact that she was standing there wondering if she could die of a heart attack if she had one in her dream.

When she was finally able to will her legs to work again, she walked back to where she'd been sitting before and folded herself back down on the ground. She was silent, possibly for the first time in her life.

"As I was saying, precious, there's something chasing you again, as I'm sure you've noticed and we have to do something about that. I need to get you back in the Underground," he said, hedging his bets - he had silently started a countdown in his head to when she'd start screaming about how much power he didn't have over her and how unfair it was and there was no way he was going to take her alive, etc. but it never came.

"Ok," she said quietly.

"Precious, you have to understand - wait what?" He head turned to look at her so fast that he was dizzy.

"I said 'ok'," she repeated. "If there's something chasing me, and can attack me in my world, that means I'm at risk. If I'm at risk, then Toby, my dad and Karen are at risk, too. I understand. How much time do I have? And what's the story? I can't just disappear."

Jareth looked at her dumbfounded. Slack jawed, he just stared as if he'd never seen her before in his life. It was a long time before he was able to speak again.

"I, uhm…" he started and then shook his head, as if clearing cobwebs from it. "Thank you for being so agreeable," he said. "I know this isn't an easy decision."

"The decision to protect the ones I care about is always an easy decision, Goblin King. For me, anyway," she said, looking him right in the eye.

Jareth let that cheap shot go, as if he didn't protect the ones he cared about, and instead started to formulate a plan. "I can give you a week to get your affairs in order. You can tell people that you've accepted an offer to study abroad for one of your classes and that's where you'll be. Then they don't have to worry about you."

Sarah nodded her head; it was a good plan and she thought it might work.

"And you'll bring me back home when we find out what's chasing me," she asked, knowing better than to make open-ended agreements with him.

"I'll bring you back when you're safe," he said.

"When you've… neutralized the threat," she countered.

"When you're safe," he said again.

Sarah sighed.

"Will I be able to visit my family while I'm down there."

"No, Precious. Not if we're to keep them safe. If they can track your magic, they can track you to the house."

Sara sighed again.

"Fine. Until I'm safe," she said finally.

"I am sorry, Sarah. This was never my intention. It isn't fair," he said with a sad smile.

She looked over at him and nodded.

"I know, but that's the way it is."

They sat in that comfortable silence again for quite some time before Sarah realized something else.

"How are you going to get me? I thought you said you can't contact me outside my dreams? The mirror is broken, there's no way for you do get to me," she said furrowing her brow.

"Precious," he said shaking his head. "All you ever have to do is use your right words," he chuckled.

"Oh," Sarah laughed, embarrassed that it was that simple, and that she'd forgotten. "Right. Got it."

They sat there, watching the sky for a long time. Watching the moon shift across the landscape, until Sarah finally spoke again.

"Well, now that that's all worked out, what do we do now?" she asked, watching a particularly bright star sparkle.

Jareth's look was practically obscene as he crawled over to her. Sarah yelped as he gave her a little shove so that she fell back on her elbows. "What are you-"

"You asked what we should do now, Precious. I have a couple ideas," he said, his eyes dark.

"Jareth, I think you've got the wrong-" he had crawled his way completely on top of her and began nuzzling her neck, effectively cutting off her ability to speak. She would have been lying to herself if she said she wasn't enjoying the heat from his body.

"The wrong what, Precious? The wrong position?" he purred. It was a rich, warm sound from deep in his throat and it made Sarah shiver. He took great enjoyment in getting her flustered, lost for a moment in the softness of her skin. He placed a soft kiss just under her ear.

"No, I just- oh," she said on a whisper, before reaching up and sliding her arm around his neck. It was a foreign and familiar feeling at the same time.

"Time to wake up, Precious," he whispered, before biting down on her ear lobe.

Sarah sat straight up in her bed with a gasp. The sun was up and the clock on her nightstand read 7:29. Exactly one minute before her alarm was scheduled to go off. She was sweaty, her sheets were drenched and she was flushed head to toe. And pissed.

"Son of a bitch," she bit out, before flinging the covers off and getting out of the bed.

It was going to be a long week.