Chapter Twenty Nine

Midnight Confessions

Sarah looked at Jareth as he came back to the bed. She wondered how it felt to tick off the Chancellor, and not worry about it. "He's not friendly to you or me," she warned. "He thinks I'm a distraction."

"You are a distraction," Jareth pulled her against his body as he settled in the big bed. "A beautiful distraction." He kissed her forehead as she wrapped her arms about his torso. "Sarah, while we have a few moments of sanity, we need to discuss some important issues."

"All right." She sighed. "That sounds serious."

"It is," Jareth agreed. "First and foremost, you must not say a word to anyone about what happened between us in the Labyrinth tonight. For your own safety. you must not tell anyone that I've touched you without my gloves." He looked at her to be sure she was listening to him. "No one can know about that until I've a chance to talk to my Father."

"I don't understand. Didn't you say we were hand-fasted?" Emerald eyes sought answers in stormy sea mismatched eyes.

"Yes, we are. However, until I can talk to Oberon, we need to be discreet." He held a hand up at her objections. "Yes, yes, I know. It's crazy. And a good deal of that is my fault. You see, I didn't report everything that happened on your first visit."

A dark brow rose and Sarah looked at him, "What does that mean?"

Quilt swept over the Goblin King's face; it was not a look he wore well. "I didn't report your bite from the Swarm Queen, or the enchanted peach I sent you…" He looked down saw her raised brow and frowned. "All right, I also didn't report that I Fae marked you and sang you a Soul Fae Song. Is that what you want to hear?"

Sarah sighed. "I forgive you."

"Why? You don't even understand the enormity of what I did, how can you just forgive me?" The man asked as he watched her face.

"I hurt your pride," she said in a very quiet voice. "I didn't mean to, but I did."

Jareth looked at her. The little mortal girl they called her. Usually with derision. How little anyone in the palace understood his woman. "Yes, you did. But part of it was my fault. I should have told you when you were bitten what was happening. Sarah, Swarm Fairies carry their venom in saliva. When you were bitten, you were infected, and there's no antibody for the venom. It changes the victim in little ways. If one were to be attacked by the swarm in full force, you could die from the venom."

"Jareth, I don't want you to take this the wrong way, but I'm not sure I would even have believed you if you'd told me just then." Sarah informed him calmly. "Ok so I was bitten by a Swarm Fairy… how did it affect me?"

"We're still not sure," he confessed.

"Is there more?" she asked, saw that he was holding back. "Of course there is. Ok, come on! I'm ready for anything you have to say."

"You didn't win the game…you lost."

"Run that one by me again." Her voice had lost its humor.

"You remember that peach?"

Her breath was coming in short bursts. "Yes."

"Well, when you took that bite, you forfeited your freedom." He could feel her go cold under his embrace. "You lost the game then."

Green eyes with fiery centers glared at him. "But I broke the spell!"

"No, you broke the ballroom, the spell was inside you," he corrected softly.

"You're telling me that I lost."

He could feel her temper rising. "Yes, you lost."

"But I fought my way though the gate! And that Humongous thing you had wielding an axe!" Her voice rose two octaves.

"You should never have been able to get out of the Ballroom." He tapped his chin, "I had not planned on you being able to get past that obstacle. After all, I myself was the bait for that one." He mused over the underestimating of the girl. "There I was, playing with the baby, the next thing I know I have to order the guard out to do something, while I hide my baby."

Sarah groaned softly. "He was not your baby, he was my brother! And I thought I was winning."

"That's the odd thing, you should not have been able to even get in the gate!" Jareth frowned. "Near as I can figure out, the Labyrinth was helping you because…I… cheated, a little."

"A little?" She was glaring and her face was getting red. "You cheated a lot!"

"It's my game," he said as if it mattered.

"Oh and that makes cheating right? Is that what you intend to teach Toby and Claire?" She barked.

"No," he gasped. "I've grown a bit since then."

"You telling me you would not have cheated if we faced that situation right now?"

"No," he said in a boyish tone, "I'm saying I wouldn't tell Toby and Claire to cheat." He began to tickle her. "To win you, I'd lie, cheat and steal!"

She slapped his hands away. "What else have you not told me?'

anyone seeing his face right then knew he was looking for a way out, "Well, you remember that fairy bite?" She nodded. "When you came back to us…the Healer gave you some living crystal elixir…." She didn't react, and he went on. "And it combined with my giving you healing energy. Kicked the fairy venom in your system in to high gear." She mouthed, 'and'. "And you're not exactly mortal anymore."

Sarah scrunched down under the blanket. "I don't want to know anymore."

"But Sarah…"

"No."

"But Sarah, really…"

"No!" She pulled the blanket up over her head.

'Hiding will do you no good.' He thought toward her.

Sarah popped her head out from under the blanket. "I heard that."

Jareth nodded. "Sarah, sooner or later you're going to start exhibiting powers. I'm going to have to train you."

She sat up, "We're likely to kill each other. What else."

"When I took off my gloves, I was not just using you as a safety net. I was beginning the bonding process," he admitted with a guilty smile.

Sarah stared at him. "So in that tunnel you began the bonding?"

"No, not in the tunnel," he sighed very uncomfortable with what he was about to tell her.

"I'm confused. The first time you touched me without gloves was in the tunnel." She was trying to process all that he was saying.

"We have to go a bit further back," Jareth sighed, rubbing his aching forehead. "Sarah, you were so very, very hurt when you came back to us. Even the healers thought you were going to die. Candon, in desperation gave you the Living Crystal Elixir. The only reason it didn't kill you outright was your body already contained the Swarm venom and the effects of having eaten Fae Food."

Sarah shuddered with the memory of that night, the night she lost her world, her parents and her life above. "I had to save the smalls."

Pulling her close, Jareth whispered back, "I had to save you. I ordered the healers from the room, removed my glove and passed healing engeries into you. The combination of the elixir, the venom, the effects of the marking and the peach mixed with the energies…and then there's the fact that you were already part of the Labyrinth…"

"Stop!" She sat up. "I'm part of the Labyrinth?"

"We are bound together, you, the Labyrinth and I," he stated. "To complete the healing process I had to bring you into the heart of the Labyrinth and claim you."

"But you already told me you owned me." She felt her head ache with all the information.

"Yes, I said it, but I didn't …proclaim it…I had to carry you into the heart of the Labyrinth and proclaim it. Then we were bound together, all three of us; you, me and the Labyrinth." The admission still was not getting through to her. "Sarah, listen to me. You and I have been connected by a magical thread since the moment you entered the Labyrinth that night four years ago."

Sarah looked at him, "So what happened tonight did what? Sealed the deal?"

"Human terms," he sighed. "But yes, it sealed the deal. You are now my hand-fasted spouse, my bonded mate. We've touched skin to skin." He held his ungloved hands out in plan sight.

"And it's got to be kept a secret," she said, "But the entire palace can freely think that I'm your…mistress." She didn't like the feeling of shame sweeping though her.

"Dearest, if I had been smarter about this whole thing from the start," he pulled her close, resting his chin on her head. "None of this would be necessary. Politics being what they are, I have to play this stupid game, and I'm afraid you have to play as well."

She shook her head, "Jareth, this is going to be hard for the smalls to understand. I don't understand, and I'm a lead player."

"Sarah, no one out side of Canton, Marg and a few others knows that you are changing. I know it's going to be hard not to show the changes, but right now for the safety of our little family you have to play the part," Jareth soothed.

"Our little family?" she looked up at him. "Our what?"

"You," he kissed her. "Me," he kissed again. "Our children."

"Our children," she repeated in an emotional whisper.

"Yes, darling girl, our children. The smalls and any that you and I have together." He smiled the same smile he'd given to her on their first meeting. "Oh how I want to have children with you."

"If this is a dream, don't wake me."

"Sarah, I should think by now you'd know I'm more along the lines of a nightmare." Jareth teased, pulling her under the blankets. "Funny how some girls always prefer the dragon to the knight."