Chapter Two
The Goblin King would not stop touching her, and Sarah was getting annoyed. Not because she didn't want the touch, but because she did. Quite a bit, actually. It was like a craving. She even felt herself reaching for him in those few, rare moments when he would let her hand drop so that he could gesture at one of his many goblins, or tend to some small task.
"Jareth?" she asked as soon as he had shooed away the last one of the gawking goblins, punting it out of the dining room and through the window, where it squealed in fear before taking flight. "You're going to take me back to Brakebills, aren't you?"
"No, precious," he said, not even glancing at her. "You'll be able to go back and forth on your own. I'll teach you the way."
"But I'm not a Traveler," she said, coming to stand somewhat awkwardly at his side, looking out again over the red-tinged sky of the Labyrinth, its twisting corridors moving as she watched, like some enormous living thing. "I'm just a human."
"You're not just anything," he said, sounding giddy. He grinned at her. "You're Sarah. Soon to be a monarch of one realm of Faerie. That's more than most could ever hope to aspire to."
Sarah peered at him. It was hard. She had spent years—more than a decade—trying not to look at him, and her chest ached at his sheer, otherworldly beauty. And, she realized as her breath hitched, she was closer still, her body pressed against his.
Jareth's eyes went heavy-lidded as his hands rested at her waist, his gaze dark. "As much as I want to delight in you, precious," he murmured, fingers pulsing gently against her flesh, "You need to eat."
"What's happening?" she asked, her voice more breathy than afraid.
"It's the bond. You can feel it, can't you? The need to be closer. To touch, always. It will fade a little over time, I'm told, but it needs to be—" he swallowed hard, his throat bobbing. "You need to eat," he said again, his voice a harsh rasp. "I can sense the weakness in you, precious. You have not been taking care of yourself."
Sarah pulled back with a sharp intake of breath, though one of his hands caught hers as they fell away from her waist. "I don't need a keeper," she snapped.
"I would never dream of it," he said, his voice smooth, but he guided her by a touch of the elbow to the long, polished wooden table that took up the bulk of the dining room.
When they had entered the room, the table had been empty save for a centerpiece of a silver platter spilling over with various fruits. Considering what had happened to her the last time she'd eaten a piece of fruit in his kingdom, Sarah was less than enthusiastic about the idea of doing so again.
She was opening her mouth to say something of that kind when she realized she was now looking at a feast. Arrayed across the table—over twenty feet long, it must have been—were platters and steaming dishes that smelled absolutely delightful.
Sarah did a quick survey of the dishes. "They look vegetarian."
"They are," he said. "I know you no longer eat meat, precious."
She glanced at him, her elbow still in his soft grip. "Why do you call me that?"
Jareth grinned. "Because you are. The most precious thing in the known worlds."
"I'm not a thing."
"Of course," he said, voice soothing. "Sit. Eat."
"Are these going to send me into some sort of delirium, like the peach?" she asked even as she sat, pulling a plate toward her and surveying the foodstuff. There was more here than she could eat in a month. "This is wasteful."
"It's fairy food, precious, and it will never harm you again. You've gained more than you know from our bond. What you do not consume will go back into the magic of the world." His fingers brushed the back of her neck, sliding her hair to one side. She shivered and could hear the smile in his voice as his breath tickled her ear. "Eat."
###
Jareth made sure that she had finished at least half a plate before helping himself to his own. He enjoyed roasted meat on celebratory occasions and feast days, but he found Sarah's diet much to his liking, mostly.
They did not speak while they dined, though he could sense the brush of her emotions through their link, and kept up a steady stream of calm toward her.
She was still mortal, after all. At least until—
He took a long pull of sweet white wine, gazing at her. He could still hardly believe it had happened, and at the last possible moment, too. If he had come back to the Labyrinth before the soul bond snapped into place, his mother would have bound him in chains of magic and hauled him back to her eternal winter.
Jareth glimpsed a few gray heads with gold and red eyes leaning through an open door, and pretended not to notice. The goblins were curious about Sarah, in more ways than one, and while they were under orders to leave them alone, goblins never were the most attentive of subjects. He hoped that by giving some a glimpse, they could spread news to others, quieting the rumor mill sure to be in full swing by now.
The last the goblins had known, after all, was that their beloved king was doomed to a life of whoring himself to his own mother.
The thought turned his stomach sour. Isdis had been after powerful couplings for eons. But even the fae courts were disgusted with her decision to turn her attention on her eldest son, and their debauchery was well known throughout the many worlds.
Even the fae had their limits, though none had the spine to stand up to the Queen of the Ice.
Sarah was already looking much better, the fairy food full of a vitality that was missing from the mortal fare on Earth. Her cheeks rosy, her eyes shining, she stifled an enormous yawn that he caught in an instant.
"Let me show you the castle," Jareth said, twirling the stem of his wine glass. "You can pick out whichever rooms suit you."
She narrowed her eyes. "Not your rooms?"
"I'm certainly not opposed," he purred. "But you'd have to share." He smiled wide and stood, coming to her side and offering his hand. "Shall we?"
He could see her hesitation, but a moment later, Sarah placed her hand in his. He pulled her to her feet, tucked her hand into his elbow, and started toward the door, noting as he did that the four or five goblin faces popped out of sight immediately.
They walked arm-in-arm through the castle corridors, Jareth stopping to show off one room and then another, watching with delight the varying expressions of wonder on his bond-mates face. Even though she attempted to scowl and shrug off his touch several times, she still clasped his arm when excited, pointing out all those things which to him had become somewhat mundane.
He dragged her away from the library with a great deal more difficulty than he would have before her recent meal. It wasn't until he threatened to toss her over his shoulder or transport her directly to his bedroom that she finally acquiesced in prying herself away from the enormous space.
She carried a small red-leather book with her now, however, its pages currently blank. She was glancing between it and him, suspicion clear in every line of her features. "Any book?"
"I'll show you the spell, but yes, precious, any book. Even those found in the Poison Room."
"What's the Poison Room?" she asked, letting his fingers twine around hers as they walked up a set of tower stairs wide enough for them to go abreast. "Is that in your castle?"
He chuckled. "No, precious. Ah," his expression lit up as they came upon a carved wooden door painted in green with gilt accents. "I believe this may be to your liking."
###
Sarah's eyes snapped open in the dark.
The room was strange. Beautiful and breathtaking, but strange. And that strangeness was enough to send her heart racing as she tried to remember where she was.
Her fingers convulsed around the book held in her hand, and slammed it shut a heartbeat later when the shirtless Goblin King materialized in her room.
She sat up, covers puddling into her lap. "What are you doing?"
"Your panic woke me." He was looking around the room, gaze quick and assessing. "What is it?"
Sarah flushed, embarrassment causing her to pull her knees up to her chest. She had worn a long night dress to bed, and it had bunched around her hips during the night. Even though she was covered with the blankets, she felt exposed.
She gripped the book tight, remembering some of what she had read before sleep had overtaken her.
A soul bond is a system unique to the fae, but one which can affect other species, as well. A fae, once come into its power, upon meeting the entity destined to be its mate, will feel a soul bond lock into place. This is an intertwining of energies of the highest order. Nothing can separate the entanglement once the process has started, though the link will remain weakened so long as it remains unconsummated.
Unconsummated. That was what she had to remember. There had been nothing else between them but some kisses.
The bed dipped, and Sarah let out a little shriek that had her flushing even deeper. Even in the dark shadows of the room, she could see him in hard lines of pale skin which reflected the moonlight. His eyes were like glittering coals.
As soon as she had made her noise of distress, Jareth froze. He looked like a statue, one knee on the bed while his other leg stretched behind him, his arm raised as though to reach for her.
Heart still pounding out a staccato rhythm, Sarah triple-checked that the blankets were keeping her hidden from sight.
His words were low and soothing, as though he spoke to a spooked animal. "I will never hurt you, Sarah."
"How can I trust you?" she asked, his words doing nothing to prevent the fear from threading her voice. "You—" she sucked in a breath, feeling the anxiety twist into panic despite her efforts. "I wished for you."
If possible, the Goblin King went even more rigid. She could not even detect a rise or a fall to his chest to show breath.
She heard his voice through their link, and if she could give it a color, it would be vermillion. Like a flash of rage. What?
Pursing her lips, Sarah lifted her chin, attempting to force it still even though it wanted to wobble as tears threatened. "When Toby was dying, I wished for you. And you didn't come."
There was a momentary silence, and then a whisper that made those tears fall. "Sarah, I never heard your wish. I promise you, I did not know you needed me."
Sarah wanted to wail, and she was shaking, her hands clutching the book so tight that her knuckles were mottled red and white. "No. No, because Dean Fogg told me when you first started teaching your class that I had to be careful about my words, that if I said something starting with 'I wish,' that you would come to me."
Jareth's head turned away, and his next words were said in such a low growl, she had trouble deciphering them. "Isdis." He swore, long and loud, and when he glanced back at her, she pressed her shoulders against the headboard, noting that his eyes were burning gold. "My mother must have kept your words from my ears, Sarah, I—I would have come to you in an instant. Without hesitation."
She shook her head, bottom lip trembling and tears falling in tracks down her cheeks. There was a lump the size of her fist in her throat. "No," she choked out again. "No, you must have heard…"
Sarah jumped when she felt a feather-light touch on her cheek, and she found Jareth had come closer, moving with a quickness she had been unable to detect. "Until you arrived at Brakebills, precious, I kept my distance." She saw that teardrops glittered on the tips of his bare fingers. He brought those fingers to his mouth and licked them clean, watching her the whole while with those owl-yellow eyes. Sarah's breath shuddered to a stop at the sight. "Isdis must have kept me from hearing your call. I am so, so sorry."
"How do I know you're telling the truth?"
"Here." He now sat perched on the edge of the bed, one arm braced over her head against the headboard, leaning toward her, his other hand raised in offering. "Touch makes it easier to sense lies and falsehoods through our bond."
Sarah had read something of the kind last night, in one of the many tomes she called up, which had anything to do with fae soul bonds. She had been awake until well passed sunset, reading until her eyes burned with fatigue. And as Jareth had been talking, she could sense something of the edges of that promised link, letting her know with soothing sensations that he was talking true.
###
Jareth stayed still, letting the choice be hers utterly. This was no longer a game to him, something to pass the time with the latest mortal runner. No.
Sarah had haunted his dreams for over a decade. Her eyes, her tears. They had brimmed on their very first meeting as she begged for her brother back, and how he had wanted to taste them then as he had just done now. Magician's tears were precious things. The tears of the one who loved you? They were beyond rubies.
How she had changed and yet stayed at the core the same. Stubborn. Relentless.
He had given her the space he deemed necessary, allowed her continued contact with the friends she had made in his realm, even that traitorous dwarf.
Waited.
For when she had spoken those fateful last words to collapse his hold over ten years ago, he had sensed it. Stabbing through him like a deadly promise. The faintest hint of the bond to come, and he had realized—no, he had known with bone-deep certainty—that he had ruined his only chance to escape his mothers clutches.
Until news reached him that she had made it through the initial examination to become a Magician, to enroll in Brakebills, the mortal realms' solution to the wild magic now coursing through the many worlds.
And he had known then that there was one last chance. Henry Fogg was an old acquaintance, and Jareth had a standing invitation to teach at the prestigious school.
Sarah's bare hand touched his for the first time, and magic coursed between them, making them both pull in air as one.
"Gods," Jareth murmured. "Sarah, I—"
"Did you hear me wish for you?" she asked, her voice commanding, her fingers closing down hard on his.
"No," he answered at once. "I never heard your wish. I did not even know that Tobias had died until you arrived at Brakebills, and I discovered how magic had awoken in you."
Power wove and sang along their connection, and its note was pure.
Sarah's breath trembled and came faster. He could sense the rising anxiety in her, and realized that she was on the brink of an attack. "Sarah…" he murmured. "It's alright. You're safe now. Isdis cannot harm you any longer."
No one would, so long as he could help it.
"My brother," she croaked, breath coming faster. "Gods, my brother—you could have saved him."
Yes, he thought, without recalling that she could hear him, especially as they were still touching.
Sarah let out a keening wail, and then she launched herself at him, arms wrapping around his neck as she sobbed into his shoulder.
Jareth caught her, dragging her closer so that she was on his lap. Running hands down her back, he made soothing noises as he rocked, holding her tight as she trembled and cried. He realized as his hands moved in circular patterns up and down her body that the nightdress she had worn to bed was twisted around her upper thighs, and that she wore nothing beneath.
He rolled his eyes up to the painted ceiling, exposed wooden beams carved with floral patterns that he attempted to trace and categorize to ignore the molten heat against his leg. The pants he wore were thin enough that every movement was an exquisite torture.
His chest hurt, his heart aching for her, and yet the bond was raw, new, and the need to consummate was all-consuming.
Then he realized that she had stopped weeping.
"What does it mean, to consummate?" she asked in an unsteady whisper, as though she feared the answer. "We have sex?"
"No," he rasped, trying to ignore the sweet press of her flesh. "But I will touch you everywhere, and you will touch me. Sex is… common, but unnecessary."
"Do you know what happened to me?"
"Yes."
She let out another shuddering breath, her arms loosening, nails scraping against his bare back and shoulders. Jareth's grip on her tightened. "I thought you would have made them disappear, or killed them by now," she murmured, her head still bent, pressed against his shoulder.
"No, precious," he said, his hands roaming once more, motions slow, careful. At the ready for any sign of hesitation or distress.
"But I am the reason none of them will ever find the success they so desperately crave. I am the reason all of their endeavors will fail, one by one, and that everything they every love will crumble to dust before their eyes. Every bite they take, no matter how well prepared or seasoned, will turn to ash in their mouth. They will forever hunger, forever thirst, forever be dissatisfied.
"And when they have nothing—when they are reduced to living on the streets and eating the filth others discard—then I will be the fishbone that spears the throat, or the cold that steals the last of their breath, or the bullet of the random shooter."
His voice hardened as he spoke, and his nails were a little sharper as they traced circular patterns on her skin. She had gone still, but through the bond he could sense nothing but a growing lust. "They were dead the moment they touched you."
Finally, Sarah lifted her head, jade-green gaze finding his. Her eyes were glittering in the dark, red-rimmed and bloodshot. Her lips were puffy from where she had worried them with her teeth, and her nose was flushed. She looked a mess.
She looked breathtaking.
He brought his hands up to cup her face, smearing the tracks of her tears. "I love you."
###
Sarah almost did not believe what she had heard, and the subsequent ring of pure truth that she sensed through their link.
His eyes searched hers, back to their original colors now, and she knew without exactly understanding how that he did not mind if she could not say the words back.
Her arms fell from around his neck, but she let her fingers catch in the silken strands of his hair, then trace the line of his jaw. The deep smile lines around his mouth. His lips.
There was a pale light filling the room, and Sarah knew that dawn was coming upon them now, and yet she felt stuck still.
Not in any way that had to do with the fear which often paralyzed her, but with a desire to make the moment draw out, to keep it quiet and small between them.
There were so many implications for this desire, she knew, and yet…
"You love me," she murmured, leaning in to him, her legs parting so that she straddled his waist instead of sitting across his lap. "The Goblin King?"
"Jareth," he corrected her. "I love the sound of my name on your lips."
She purred a little at that, and hands moved from cupping her face to cupping her backside, fingers splayed so that he touched both rumpled green cotton and bare flesh. His blunted nails dug in a little, and she rocked forward, feeling the stiff length of him beneath silken pajama bottoms.
Jareth groaned, his head tilting toward her, causing her hands to tangle in his hair once more. She could smell his breath. Herbs and summer sunlight. "Kiss me. Please, gods, Sarah, I need you."
She had never felt like this before.
Knowing he spoke truth changed things. Stripped away disbelief. And there were the edges of his thoughts, too, that she could sense through their bond. He had wanted her a long time, had been plagued with dreams just as she had been.
A flash of an image of the Goblin King twisted in sheets, thrashing in sleep as he imagined her. Her own heart ticked up a bit, her core clenching with a need that she followed to his lips, pressing against him and parting her mouth for his tongue an instant later.
Sarah moaned into the kiss, hands exploring, to run down his lean, lightly muscled frame. The bond seemed to open wide between them, surging in a push and pull of emotions and sensations that had her head reeling.
Sarah broke the kiss with a gasp, expression wild as she clutched at him, rubbing against the thick length of the erection straining against the fabric of his pants. "I want you," she whispered, his face clearer now in the light streaming through the wide tower windows.
His hands, long tracing patterns along her skin, went still for a moment before continuing their movements, the action a little more desperate now. "Do you mean it?"
"I've wanted you for years," she admitted, gaze flicking away from him for only a moment before being drawn back. "Can you—I mean… I don't want to get pregnant. Not yet."
He gave a solemn nod. "I've been taking a potion for some years which prevents my seed from taking root."
"Okay," she said, giving a nervous laugh. Then, "Please… Jareth, I don't want to stop."
"We still will, if you but say the word," he murmured, running the tip of his nose across hers. "I want you, Sarah, but never at risk to yourself."
She melted, lips trembling until they pressed to his skin, tracing along his flesh, tasting him with flicks of her tongue. Jareth no longer played with the hem of her nightdress, instead pulling it up and over her head in a smooth, single motion, exposing her wholly to him. Her nipples pebbled in the cool air, but his palms soon covered them, warming.
Kissing him again, Sarah traced her hands down his chest, his stomach, to the band of his pants, sliding beneath to grasp the silken length of him. He was hot, throbbing, and thick in her hand, and as soon as her fingers wrapped around him, he growled, scooting back on the bed and pushing his clothes off with the same movement.
There was nothing between them but flesh and air, and soon there was little of that. His fingertips found her soaked as he slipped along her clit with little resistance, breaking their kiss with a hiss of near-pain. "Gods," he murmured, before trailing a blazing line of heated kisses down her throat. "I want to feel you wrapped around me." He slipped a finger into her channel and she cried out. He added another, and she bucked against him.
Sarah mewed and moved, riding his fingers as though she were riding his cock.
"That's it," he hissed. "You're so tight, beloved. Just a little longer…"
He added a third finger before thrusting up into her, filling her and hooking his digits so they hit the perfect spot. She cried out, teeth coming down on his shoulder as she gripped him taut. She grasped his shaft, its length and girth giving her some pause, but then his thumb swirled along her clit, and she was coming apart, soaking his hand as she rode him to completion. "Fuck," she gasped. "Oh—"
Jareth removed his hand, going to grip her hips instead, guiding her up and over his straining erection. "Sarah," he said, his tone a plea. "My precious Sarah. I love you."
She sank onto him, even though he stretched her nearly to the limit. Her movement was slow, careful, and she kept her eyes closed, the side of her face pressed to his, her arms around his neck once more. His hands moved between her ass and her hips, helping her sink slowly down.
The moment he was fully seated within her, the bond—
It was as though she inhabited both their bodies at once.
His love was an entity all its own, fully wrapped around her, so that she breathed it like oxygen.
And the power in the room was a physical thing. She had never—
"I—" tears threatened, and he was holding her face again, gaze assessing. Worried. "I don't know what this is, I…" she squeezed down around him and his fingers trembled a little. "I've never felt so wanted before."
"Oh, beloved, precious thing," he said, gently easing her down on top of him and then rolling so that he was above her, still pressed deep within. Her lips parted as her knees came up, and she wrapped her legs around his waist. "You'll never feel unwanted again."
And then he moved, easing out of her first before gently thrusting back in, the motion unhurried and yet… and yet, there was an edge of desperation, and abandon. This had been something they had been unknowingly moving toward for over a decade, and now—
Now, she could sense a growing pressure inside herself, and she moaned deep in her throat as his tempo increased. He kissed her arched neck, biting and nibbling, groaning as her muscles spasmed and fluttered around his shaft.
"Gods," he whispered again. "Sarah, my precious, my beloved. You are everything. You are absolutely—" he shuddered, gasping as she hitched her leg higher and dug her nails into his shoulders. "Everything," he finished. He kissed her, his tongue diving deep into her mouth as his hips plunged and angled deeper, his fingers once more finding her clit and making deft swirls over its swollen nub.
Sarah cried out into his mouth, the sound muffled as she came apart, shattering with an orgasm that had her inner muscles gripping his cock tighter than before.
Jareth plunged into her, hard, and she felt the moment his restraint snapped. It surged through the bond, his pleasure cresting on the heels of her own, and their link causing echoes of shuddering bliss to reverberate through them both, so that the tower room rang with their breathy moans. Sarah had never felt so swollen and raw and as though every nerve ending were on high alert.
The link between them twisted and braided, wrapped around her so tight she could sense it like a physical thing, constricting her ribs and yet—it was stronger, and so was she. Vitality flowed through her body as she trembled anew, even as Jareth was still emptying inside her in spasms.
"Ah," he murmured, kissing her neck, tongue swirling over the places where his teeth had borne down. "Precious one. Do you feel it?"
"What is it?" she gasped, arms and legs wrapped around him. Daylight streamed brilliantly through the windows, so that when Jareth pulled back, she could see all of his features, his beauty still enough to make her heart ache.
"It is done," his lips gently feathered over hers, and when her eyes slipped closed, she could see herself through him, and feel the way her own body felt, wrapped around him. It made her dizzy. "The bond is whole," he murmured. "My love. My Queen."
Sarah shook her head, anxieties threading back into her mind, but then—oh, it was better than taking a Valium. The calm and peace of ages settled into her bones, comforting her in ways that she had never experienced. Heard of, yes, but never felt herself. When she opened her eyes, it was like waking up for the first time since Toby died.
Waking up, and feeling loved. Whole. Complete and total for once in her life.
She wanted to cry for the sheer joy of it.
Jareth pulled them both to a seated position, slipping out of her as he did. Her body cried out at the loss, and yet she ached. "My Sarah," he said, petting her hair, her face. "Any regrets?"
She did an internal assessment, and then shook her head, watching him with a hungry expression. "None."
###
Jareth slipped out of the bed some hours later, sated and sore. Sarah lay sprawled in a tangle of sheets, her dark hair like a bolt of midnight silk spread across the creamy linens. Her chest rose and fell in deep, even breaths, and through their bond he felt her contentment, her peace. And he knew, through the taste of her tears earlier, just how new the sensations were to her.
He strode naked to the window, looking out over the twisting corridors of the Labyrinth beyond his city. The noonday sun shone down brilliantly, baking the stone walls. Deep within him, through the connection all monarchs had with their land, Jareth could sense the Labyrinth's contentment. Its Champion had returned to take her rightful place at side of the Goblin King.
He gripped the window sill and leaned forward, grin wide on his face. He could sense the edge of Sarah's dreams, and knew she was still consumed with the thought of him, her body dancing with the echoes of the pleasures he'd roused.
Jareth stepped up onto the open window and leaped off the high tower, letting the change overtake him an instant before he would have smashed into the cobbles far below.
He flew the usual course over the Labyrinth, head swiveling as he checked to ensure all was well within his kingdom. One day, he would teach Sarah the transformation spell so that she could ride the air currents alongside him.
A blast of bitter cold winter wind smacked into him, and Jareth tumbled into a dive, outstripping the airstream. He transformed as he reached the parapet of the Labyrinth, coming erect in a cloud of glittering shadows, his cloak rippling from the armor on his shoulders as he stared down Isdis.
She was flanked by two of her favorites. Isadora and Merrick, paternal twins, with fiery red hair and blazing blue eyes. Their taste for torture and lust for power was well known. They were considered too dangerous for most of the courts, including his own, and his lip curled at the sight of them.
"What are you doing here?" he demanded of his mother, keeping his peripheral on the twins as they spread to either side, walking down the battlements as though they were in the midst of a summer day stroll, except weapons materialized in their hands as they went. Bow and arrow. All the better to track him in the sky.
His mother still did not know that he had inherited the Traveling abilities of his father.
Jareth narrowed his eyes. "Well?"
Isdis smiled, sharp as a blade. "Come with me, and I will not harm your precious mortal. Deny me still, and I will destroy her."
Talons puckered the leather at the tips of his gloves, and Jareth felt speech become a mite difficult as he growled, "Is that so? You would rather kill me, then?"
"The bond is not complete," she intoned.
Jareth laughed. "Look again."
Isdis blinked, pale, nearly translucent skin sliding over pale gray eyes. Pale like a wolf, rimmed in black. "No," she whispered. Then she screeched, "NO!"
"You will never have me," Jareth said, and pulled a little on the magic that had bloomed in him from the soul bond. The energy that came to him easier now than ever before. He wanted to Travel to behind Merrick or Isadora and slash their throats, but he still did not want to show that skill to this creature. This thing which was his flesh and blood. "Leave my kingdom, and if you return, I will consider it a declaration of war. Can the Winter Court survive in a land war against the Horde?"
"You wouldn't dare," Isdis hissed, features stark and drawn. Whoever had seen her as lovely, he never understood it. His father had certainly paid a high price for his lust. "My son," she crooned, features and voice softening. "Just think of it. Together, we would be more than the High King and Queen put together, and they would never fight as one. No longer. We could rule all of Faerie."
Jareth scowled. "I have no desire to rule Faerie. That may be your ambition, but it was never mine. Now, leave."
Isdis snapped her gaze away, looking disgusted. "My dears," she called, pulling the twins to her. She turned her back on Jareth, but cast him one more look before she disappeared. "You will regret this."
The Goblin King did not respond, only watched as the Queen of the Ice disappeared. She did not Travel as he would do, but used an anchor coin which deposited her directly into her throne room. It made for a quick getaway, but it was predictable. Jareth had several people in place at her Court who, with the right persuasion, might ensure that when Isdis landed, she lost her head.
He had had nothing good enough to offer them before, not when he had been so under threat of Isdis hauling him back to the eternal winter. But now that the bond with Sarah was consummated, the link complete, whole?
Jareth walked the parapets, the width of the wall such that he would not be glimpsed from the maze itself, so long as he kept to the center. The Labyrinth sang its strange song of rumbling rock walls and sliding doorways, of birdsong and insect trill. He let it wash over and through him, and stopped for a moment, closing his eyes.
Distantly, he could sense the still-sleeping Sarah.
But within himself? Power. More so than had ever been at his call before.
Isdis would not give up. She may have retreated for now, but she would have spies at his castle, same as he had in hers. She would attempt to find any crack, any weakness, and exploit it utterly.
He could not have that.
###
When Sarah woke next, the sun's rays were slanted and crimson, the clouds she could see through the wide windows edged in molten gold.
Jareth sat with his back to her at the large desk, but at the sound of the covers rustling, he turned to look at her, his expression softening. "Good evening. How did you sleep?"
Sarah stifled a yawn with the back of her hand. "Better than in years," she answered truthfully. Her stomach gave a little growl, and she slid to the edge of the bed before standing, her nakedness forgotten when Jareth reached for her. She took his bare hand, magic zinging between them, and let him pull her onto his lap. He wore soft pants which clung to his long legs, and a billowing shirt which just begged her touch. Sarah indulged, sliding her fingers along the soft folds. "What are you up to?" she asked, her voice containing a teasing edge.
"Oh, not much," Jareth murmured, nipping her earlobe. "Planning a change in the course curriculum for this semester."
"Anything I can help with?"
His hand slid up the inside of her thigh, and she parted her legs, inviting. He chuckled and stopped just shy of her heated center, fingertips tracing a teasing, circular pattern. "We'll be working on a special project in the coming months. Something that no human or, rather, set of humans has ever been privy to in the past."
Sarah arched her back, biting her lower lip as she wiggled just enough that his fingers touched her aching core. "What's that?" she gasped.
Jareth nodded toward the desk, and Sarah looked over, her motions reluctant, but her curiosity won out in the end.
On the table were spread several open books, and a few sketches of dresses, scepters, and—
"Are those tiaras, or diadems, or—" she was babbling, she knew.
"For your coronation, my love," he murmured. "This semester we're going to crown the very first Goblin Queen."
Hello, friends!
I do want to make two quick notes:
1. While I am using a magic system similar enough to The Magicians, I am going to fiddle with it a bit. So, please, keep an open mind when Sarah or Jareth use their magic.
2. Sarah's original run was in 1986, but for obvious reason I have moved it to around 2010. All other events of the movie remain the same.
I hope you enjoyed this second chapter. I had a hell of a time writing it 😊
Next chapter: back to Brakebills!
Thank you so much to everyone who has commented. It makes a WORLD of difference between having the motivation to write or not. That said, just knowing that there are readers out there is enough. 😉 Ya'll rock.
I hope you enjoyed, and if you have any comments or suggestions, please leave a contribution in the little box.
Love,
CrimsonSympathy