Chapter 2: Amelia.

Nine months after Jareth Left the Aboveground

Sarah had asked her friends to stop spying on the King. She couldn't be certain he was aware of their spying or not. Though she suspected he did know. He'd be the type who'd obnoxiously know everything. Sir Didymus was relieved to have stopped the task of shadowing his King. Hoggle on the other hand was still grumpy that he had to spend that much time in the King's presence in the first place.

"He ain't even do anything but royally sulk since you asked us to watch him."

"Twas an ignoble affair to have to furtively observe our King," Didymus had said.

"King sad." Ludo had slowly shaken his shaggy head side to side; his face drooping in empathy.

Sarah had decided espionage was much too similar to actually caring about his activities and she'd rather he didn't know she had recruited her friends to watch him.

Sarah had also chucked a cloth over the heart crystal so she didn't have to see it anymore, hoping for out of sight, out of mind. However, it was constantly rolling around in the back of her consciousness. Part of Sarah had been hoping Jareth would have been caught lying so she could smash the thing on the ground and have done with it.

After all, it would make her decision easier to know he was lying. As long as she had no proof she was stuck in a limbo of wondering about their future.

She scoffed out loud. There was no future. She was going to move on.

This thought comforted her so much so that Sarah had started dating again. After all, she had a libido that was no longer being satisfied every Wednesday. She had needs.

After several failed dating attempts, she finally hit it off with a man called Logan. Logan was tall, blue-eyed with brown wavy hair down past the bottom of his ears.

He worked in accounts. He was as far as she could get from the Goblin King. Bland to the point of dull, he was not enigmatic or charming at all. But he was stable and considerate.

On the third date, she attempted to get laid. But the moment that she engaged in a kiss with Logan, she heard a cracking sound reverberating through her flat.

"What the fuck was that?" Logan asked, panting as he pulled away from her.

Sarah turned towards the lounge with her heart in her throat. She grabbed the nearest item which happened to be a swan ornament her nana had given her and went through to the other room.

Holding the swan aloft in self-defence she peered around the corner into the empty room. Her eyes darted into every corner. It was deserted. But there was one thing out of place.

On the floor was the cloth she had used to cover up Jareth's crystal. She trailed her eyes up from the ground, up the bookshelf to the shelf where the crystal sat.

Pain ripped through him.

It was a hot, lancing pain. Pain that had him in spasms and clutching at his chest. He fell to his knees, wildly aware that he was drawing the attention of many onlookers. He gasped in his agony, sweat breaking out on his forehead and running down to sting his eyes.

And in the next instance, it was over.

His heart. Something had happened to his heart.

He straightened up and the bystanders glanced away instantly and muttered to themselves. Let them gossip. The only thing that matters is what has happened to my heart.

He moved to stand unsteadily onto his feet when a strong hand caught his elbow.

"Jaréal, my love, what happened?"

Jareth cringed at the pet name Hiofe called him. He used to adore it. He gritted his teeth as wave followed wave of nausea.

"Hiofe," he muttered, clutching at his lover's arm. "I think my heart was broken."

"Oh, Jaréal, " he simpered, pulling him closer to his strong bulk. "You have broken many hearts and now you taste what it's like."

Jareth just groaned and clutched his chest. "Help me, Hiofe."

Hiofe had to know that he never asked for help. He was a King. He couldn't show weakness. Hiofe proved his understanding as he discreetly supported Jareth under his arm and into a secluded corner as quickly as he could manage.

"My King, people will talk." He giggled as he dropped Jareth's aching body into the nearest chair. "Again."

"Let them."

"Oh, but if only I was still the object of their gossip and your desires." Hiofe pushed his black curls out of his face and fanned them around the two petite burgundy horns atop his scalp. "Replaced by some mortal chit who has broken your heart."

Jareth's eyes flashed dangerously. He wiped at his brow. And tried to level a withering glare at Hiofe. He missed the mark as he grimaced in pain instead.

"The rumours of what you've done have travelled, Jaréal." Hiofe sat heavily in the chair beside him. "Regardless, you have been at this ball for a solid three hours and not danced with or seduced a single creature."

Jareth just closed his eyes and pinched the bridge of his nose with shaking fingers. "Her safety is paramount."

"What makes you think she is unsafe?"

"The pain…"

"I wager she is in no danger, Jaréal." Hiofe patted his shoulder. "She probably took another lover or—"

"I need you to go to her." Jareth rested his head back against the head of the chair, unable to bear listening to any mention of Sarah with another lover. Not that the thought of her in danger was any easier to bear. "Find Amelia and enlist her help."

"Amelia?"

"You are still fucking her, are you not?"

Jareth opened his eyes to see Hiofe nodding briskly. "I never stopped. She needed me more after you…"

Jareth tried to unstick his tongue from the roof of his mouth. "After I left her."

"Yes." Hiofe looked uncomfortable for a moment. "She thought she would be the one that you'd eventually give your heart to."

Jareth gritted his teeth.

"Why do you think Amelia would be any help?"

Jareth shook his head. "I promised my heart-keeper that I wouldn't interfere in her life."

Hiofe clicked his tongue. "Wouldn't this be seen as interference by proxy?"

Hiofe was probably right. As much as it pained him to admit it. He was a gentle soul who had been a gentle lover for many decades now. And despite no longer being lovers, Hiofe held no bitterness towards him. Unlike some of the others. He'd almost go as far as to suggest they were friends.

Which was rare in the Underground. Especially so between royals; Hiofe was the Prince of Hiji. He was perhaps not as high ranking as himself, but still up there enough that he should have been classed as an enemy or an ally, but never a friend.

Jareth had slept with enemies and allies alike. But they never held the place Hiofe had in his confidence. In fact, he was the closest being to him—until Sarah came along, that was.

He was attractive, sure. And loyal. Hiofe was more generous than Jareth deserved. Hiofe loved him too, he believed. It would be so easy to have given his heart to Hiofe. But despite the sense it made, he had gone and ascribed that feeling to Sarah.

Makes no sense at all, he thought bitterly to himself. But as time went on, he realised he needed an equal more than a lover who was willing to call him master and be subservient to him in all things; not just the bedroom. Sarah had never been subservient to him. The longer he thought about it, the more he realised, she was the only one to look at him straight in the face without flinching. Amelia, another mortal lover, had come close, but she couldn't hold a candle to Sarah's strength and determination.

Sarah had been right. Jareth held no power over her. She was truly his match. If Sarah could convince herself that she loved him, then he'd know that it was real. Everyone else loved his title. His crown. His power. They had convinced themselves that the arrangements they had were more meaningful than they were.

It took his own pain and heartbreak for Jareth to realise that he'd ascribed fae emotions on these mortals for all these years. He had believed they felt the same way he had. That it had all been about hedonistic pleasure. Sarah had made him realise that he was actually hurting people. Even Hiofe; his friend. He hated to admit it, but in his weakened state, Sarah had been right. She didn't want to be with someone who treated others like they were disposable and replaceable. And yet all this time, he had even treated her thusly.

He emitted a low growl which Hiofe would ascribe to his pain, rather than his internal reflection.

He sucked air through his teeth sharply as a wave of pain crashed over him again.

"Jaréal?" Hiofe whispered.

"Just go and see Amelia," Jareth grunted. "Find out if my Champion is safe."

Hiofe nodded and left him to his pain and heartache.

Sarah swallowed thickly as she stared at the crystal. Minute hairline cracks appeared in the otherwise unblemished crystal. A dark red blood-like fog swirled through the cracks; appearing and disappearing in time to the beat of a heart.

Had their kiss done this? Or was this some trick of the Goblin King's? Surely, an inanimate, though magic ornament couldn't detect when she was kissing someone? Could it? Was she literally breaking his heart? She swallowed heavily again as she stepped closer to the pulsating globe.

"What are we staring at?" Logan had sneaked up behind her and started kissing her neck. Sarah's eyes widened as she saw the cracks deepen within the crystal.

She pulled away from Logan with uncertainty about whether or not she should let it continue. She couldn't be responsible for killing Jareth with a broken heart. She had to get it back to him so she could get back to her life.

Sarah didn't notice Logan leaving as she stood there transfixed by the orb. Without conscious effort, her hand reached out and she gently placed the pad of her finger against the slight fracture. Warmth and endorphins flooded through her system like an instant high. She gasped from the shock of it, pulling her finger away in haste. The high that had flooded her body evaporated within seconds leaving her needing more.

She growled, picked up the cloth from the ground and once more covered the glass irritation.

Jareth was panting as the waves of pain rolled through him. They were diminishing but equally compounded by his worry that something had happened to Sarah. The pain couldn't be just from her having a lover. That was the consequence for him if he strayed from his heart, not if his heart strayed from him.

He choked back a sob as his usually strong demeanour was ravaged by the pain. He hadn't so much as looked at another warm body let alone fucked one. Why was he being punished?

Then as soon as the pain had hit him, it left. He was vibrating with the tremors that had exhausted his body, suddenly replaced by light and happy feelings.

Sarah.

She was touching his heart. He could feel it. She was alive. No one else could elicit such strong emotion in him. No one else could touch his heart-crystal, to begin with. Despite the earlier pain, a smile crept across his face.

It didn't last long. He cursed that Hiofe was on his way to Amelia to interfere, just like Sarah knew he would. He may not be directly breaking his promise to her, but he wasn't exactly innocent by sending Amelia to do his dirty work. Why was that cursed mortal always right?

Hiofe sat waiting for Amelia in her office. By mortal standards, it was plush and swanky, much like Amelia herself.

When she finally entered, he took in the sight of her like a dying man in the desert. He resisted rushing towards her and kissing her pale throat and threading his fingers in her golden hair.

"Hello, Ami," he greeted her in her tongue.

Hiofe sauntered closer drinking in her shocked expression. He didn't usually turn up announced on a day they weren't scheduled for a tryst.

"What are you doing here?" Her voice was like velvet against his ears.

"Your master has need of you."

"He's not my master." He watched her turn away to place her armful of papers on her desk, before turning back to him with a raised brow and a nonplussed expression.

"The Goblin King has need of you."

"He hasn't had a need for me for over a year now." She placed her hand, heavy with rings, on her curvy hip.

"He would like you to find Sarah Williams and assure him that she is well and safe."

"Sarah? The Sarah?"

"Yes."

"And why can't he find her? Has the Champion eluded him somehow?" Her tone was light but Hiofe detected her trace of sarcasm.

"He has made a promise to her that he wouldn't interfere in her life any more. Unless she wishes it."

Amelia frowned. "I thought this was the mortal he was desperately in love with."

"It is."

"Then why is Leon avoiding her?" This time her tone was unmistakably sardonic. Hiofe was unused to the Goblin King being referred to by his mortal moniker. Leon was not a name that suited the arrogant king.

"My dear, he doesn't give me his reasons." He sighed. "He gave me up long before he gave you up. Remember?" He used the same tone she had used on him.

"Why me?"

"He knows I can come to you. And you can move through the mortal world easier than I can. It's no small thing to trust you with."

Hiofe's glamour magic was weak and his inhuman features difficult to hide in the mortal realm. Hence why Jaréal asked him to find Amelia instead.

"What do I do if I find her?"

"Ascertain her wellbeing. Report back to me, via this." He placed a deep burgundy scale upon her desk. "Say my name as you hold this. It will summon me."

"Is that a scale from a Vilja?"

"The very same." Hiofe watched her pale slightly. The Vilja was not a being to trifle with. A humanoid lizard creature that dwelled in both water and on land, with unmatched power to trick and deceive. They were Hiofe's favourite prey. The scales were much prized and were indestructible tools for magic.

"And just her wellbeing?"

"Ensure she is safe and well."

"That's all?" Her brow raised sceptically.

Hiofe grunted in assent before stepping closer to the only mortal who had captured the attention of so many Underground residents. Jaréal was a fool to choose anyone above her. His loss, my gain. He grinned wickedly at Amelia's perplexed expression.

"How do I find her?" Her voice wobbled slightly.

He could taste her reluctance. Despite the fact they had been regularly fucking, he knew she still harboured feelings towards the Goblin King. As did everyone that fell into arrangements with him. Excepting of course the one he decided to commit to, it seemed.

Hiofe proffered Sarah's business card. "This will help."

Amelia flicked her eyes over the card and back to his visage. "Why her, Hiofe?"

He shrugged. "I have not met her. I can not answer for him."

"I thought—"

"Oh, Ami, you all think you can win him over." Hiofe placed his hands on her shoulders. "Even I did for a time. But the truth is, the Goblin King is not winnable. He never was."

"And yet—"

"And yet, this mortal won him." Hiofe squeezed his paramour gently. "I think he was just as surprised as the rest of us."

Amelia blinked and stepped away. "I am getting too old in the tooth for all this."

"You still look as beautiful as when I first met you."

"I am nearly sixty, Hiofe."

"And what is sixty but a blink of the eye in Underground years. You are but a babe."

Amelia smiled. "And yet, most of my world would put me out to pasture while you—"

"Still find you irresistible." He moved closer, kissing the column of her throat. He never tasted anything so exquisite.

Sarah checked the printout from her email and glanced up at the sign above the cafe. Confirming she was at the right place at the right time, she pushed open the bright green door and scanned the patrons.

She was here to meet a new client. None of them matched the description given to her, so she sat down at a table and flicked through her notebook to memorise the client's requests. John, her boss, was ecstatic that Amelia Brown had reached out to his company. More or less with the same enthusiasm he had when Leon Delaware-Boothe handed him his business.

Sarah swallowed the guilt she harboured for potentially losing him as a client, as quick as she had gained him. She knew John resented her for his sudden disappearance. Of course, the social pages in the local rags had all said he was back in Soho, London. John wasn't to know he could never return unless she—

"Ms Williams?" a clear accented voice cut through her thoughts. She cleared the haze from her eyes with a few rapid blinks.

She glanced up to see a woman in her fifties holding her hand out to her. A hand that was drowning in gold and diamonds and tipped with impeccable red nails that would have Karen drooling.

"Ms Brown?" Sarah shook the woman's hand, studying the light brown eyes that appraised her in return. Amelia Brown had flown in from Sweden to meet with her. Sarah sucked in a deep breath as she mustered the courage not to blow the project.

"Amelia, please."

Sarah nodded and gestured to the table. "I hope this table is to your liking."

Amelia clicked her tongue and sat down, smoothing her deep green skirt and straightening the pearl necklace at her throat.

"It is adequate."

Sarah felt the power this lady had ooze across the bespoke wooden table. Sarah was quick to observe the lack of Formica, common at her usual haunts. Everything about this cafe screamed opulence. Especially Amelia in her peach coloured silk blouse and elegant jewellery.

They both ordered a salad and tea and while they waited they discussed her event. It was to be a fundraiser for a charity she supported. An evening with the Philharmonic Orchestra in a park to support children in foster care.

"How about A Night Under the Trees with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra?" Sarah suggested when they brainstormed names for the event.

"I was thinking along those lines. Maybe less of a mouthful though."

Sarah jotted some notes down and they discussed further ideas for an hour before they wrapped up their meeting.

"Tell me about yourself," Amelia asked as they drank the dregs of their third cup of tea. "I like to get to know the people I offer work to on a more personal level."

"Not much to tell." Sarah placed her cup down in the saucer and smiled politely. "I am an event planner and I have a mortgage."

"Is there a special someone in your life?"

Sarah hated this question. She never had a special someone in the way they implied. A series of casual affairs before she embarked on her weekly ritual of fucking Jareth. And since then… well, she hadn't heard back from Logan after her failed attempt to get laid.

"Apart from my cats, there is no one," Sarah answered with a small sigh. "Every date I have recently been on has been a dud."

Something flashed across Amelia's face. The lines around her mouth tightened as she assessed her. "A pretty girl like you? When I was your age I was in the arms of a different gorgeous man every night."

Sarah nearly choked on her tea. She cleared her throat. "There was someone I was interested in. But I saw a side of him that turned me away." She occasionally bumped into Benji. And while they were civil, she knew that after his possessive display at Leon Delaware-Boothe's art event, she could not pursue that avenue again.

"Let me guess. He was a man with great power but very much liked to sleep around?"

"No." Sarah frowned. It sounded more like Jareth than Benji. "He was sweet until he showed his jealousy and insecurity if another man so much as looked at me. But in the same breath, he couldn't muster the energy to fight for me." Sarah shrugged and leaned back in her chair. "He wanted to take the easy path to a relationship when I'd rather someone proved themself and didn't quit at the first obstacle."

Amelia nodded slowly.

"But in the end, he deserved better than what I could give him, for all his faults." Sarah tapped at the handle of her teacup. "I think he is seeing someone else now anyway. I occasionally see him with a woman near my workplace."

"So there is no one else?"

"He called me a bird too, which was rather sexist," Sarah muttered, ignoring her client. "I don't even like birds."

"You don't like birds?"

Sarah shook her head. "I won't harm a bird." Unless it is a certain barn owl. "But I am not overly fond of them."

"Why is that?"

"The birds I have met are arrogant and cruel and selfish." She saw Jareth's cold features in her mind as she spoke. "While handsome, they are pompous and—"

"It sounds like you're describing a man, not a bird."

Sarah laughed. "I know a few men that match the very same description."

"And what of children?"

Sarah inhaled deeply. "I have none, but I love children. Spent a lot of my teenage years looking after my baby brother."

Amelia wiped her hands with a napkin in a very genteel way before dabbing at the corner of her mouth. "I have spent my entire life dedicated to unwanted children. So it is crucial we have the same outlook on this."

Sarah cringed inwardly as she thought of the empty cot in her parent's bedroom. Toby.

"Believe me, unwanted children is a matter close to my heart too."

"It must be." She sniffed. "Not every teenage girl would be happy to dedicate their adolescence to babysitting their baby brother."

The shrewd look Amelia gave her tickled a part of her mind, warning her to be on her guard.

"It was a pleasure, not a chore."

"I am sure there were moments when it felt more chore-like than a pleasure."

When Sarah went to reply, she found she was clenching her jaw. "Of course there was the odd time."

"I am sure a pretty thing like you would have preferred to be off on romantic adventures or with her friends."

Sarah snorted. "What has my prettiness got to do with anything?"

She gritted her teeth again. It wouldn't do to be rude to a client, even if they were asking questions she wasn't comfortable with."

"I daresay you turned a fair few heads or a few fair heads. However, which way you want to look at it."

Sarah watched as Amelia took a small sip of her tea. Those brown eyes watched her over the rim.

"Heads may have been turned, Ms Brown" —Sarah lazily stirred her tea—"but that doesn't necessarily mean I have to meet their gaze."

"Touché." The older lady smirked. "Forgive me. As I get older I yearn for youth and would hate to see anyone with as much potential as you waste it."

"And forgive me, Amelia, but I have more potential than just my looks alone. Or what a man can provide."

Amelia nodded. "I daresay there is a certain breed of man that would find your moxie attractive."

Sarah raised her brows but remained silent. Amelia was in her parent's generation and she usually found they had a funny way of approaching youth; it wasn't worth trying to decipher her comments.

"Anyway, it was lovely meeting you Ms Williams. I had heard a lot about you." She stood up gracefully and dusted off her skirt. "You were not what I expected and yet I look forward to getting to know you better."

"Adjö," Sarah said politely as Amelia left the cafe. She had taken pains to learn some Swedish, but something told her, Amelia couldn't care less about any extra effort she put in.

Sarah headed back to the office at a snail's pace—her notebook full of ideas and her head full of questions.

A/N: I'm going to work on this one until I'm finished. I can't stand having two WIPS. Hahaha. I can't focus on either.