AN: Hello all. I can't apologize enough for taking so long in posting. I've had this story finished for two weeks, but just now found the chance to post it. Anyway, there is only one more chapter after this…so I'll put the longer Author's Note there. In the meantime, please, forgive me! And, enjoy and R&R! ~ Saphire

Disclaimer: D'Vinnian is mine. So are Drathsar, Peake, and Kajna. If you wish to develop them further and use them, just ask first. Anything else from the movie Labyrinth is quite obviously not mine. Although, I wouldn't mind borrowing Jareth for a while….or Bowie for that matter….

Chapter twenty-five: My Only Regret

Sarah sighed contentedly as consciousness slowly returned to her. The warmth of the morning sun streaming through the window caressed her cheek, and the satin of the sheets she was wrapped in caressed the rest of her body. The feathers of the pillow cradled her head and the softness of the luxurious mattress cuddled her body as if she was on a cloud. Truly, Sarah thought, she would have no problems getting used to this.

A dull ache permeated her senses, but it was a good ache, and she moaned as she stretched her muscles, not quite ready to open her eyes. Everything so far, from last night to this very moment, had seemed a dream to her, and she was loath to end it by facing a new day. She sighed, but there was much to discuss, and it shouldn't be put off. Rolling to her other side, eyes still closed, Sarah expected to make contact with Jareth's body, but was met by an empty bed. Her eyes slowly opened and she blinked, allowing the world to come into focus. Seeing that the other side of the bed was, in fact, empty, Sarah sat up, her eyes darting around the room, curious as the where the Goblin King had gone. Her answer was not far.

Jareth stood, leaning by the heavy wooden door, dressed in black from head to toe, arms folded across his chest and a bland expression on his face.

'Not quite what I expected,' Sarah mused, giving into the sudden urge to pull the sheets tighter around her.

"Good morning," she finally offered, feeling she ought to say something rather than grow queasy under his indifferent gaze.

"Finally up I see," he answered, a wry sarcasm in his voice.

Sarah opened her mouth to answer, but shut it again when she found she had no reply.

"You do realize that you are in my bed, correct?" Jareth asked, and though his expression was unchanged, his tone carried an accusation.

"I - I'm sorry," Sarah stammered, her brows knitting together, wondering why she felt the need to apologize at all.

"Well?"

"Well what?"

"Do you plan on staying there or will you move?" the Goblin King's tone was considerably colder.

'What is going on?' Sarah thought with a growing sense of concern. Maybe…

"Jareth, do - do you have any regrets about last night?"

As soon as the words left her mouth, Sarah shut her eyes tight. 'Please say no, please please say no,' she chanted over in her head.

For a split moment, something softened in Jareth. For a second, his plan, his control, escaped him.

"Only one," he answered softly, sadly.

Sarah opened her eyes at his emotional tone, waiting for an explanation. But, by the time she had opened them, the Goblin King had gone back to the way he had been before, reigning in all of his emotions. That one small truth would be all she would get.

"What do you regret?" Sarah finally asked quietly, finding it had to swallow, making her voice sound thick.

Jareth let one corner of his mouth turn to a sneer for a moment, before going back to a thin line,

"I regret to see that you are still in my bed, for one."

It took a moment for Sarah to answer, her brain trying to progress what was happening, her heart beating higher in her chest than normal, with a staccato beat.

"Could you turn around?" she finally asked, suddenly feeling timid around him.

This time, the sneer on his face was in full,

"Oh come now, Sarah. Why so shy?? You certainly weren't last night."

Sarah blushed rosily and shrank involuntarily into the bed as the king approached. His gait was neither slow nor fast, but measured and steady, and intimidating. For a moment, he just stared at Sarah and her own eyes widened as she saw the emptiness in his. Then, before she could move, his hand jerked the sheet away from her shaking grip and she was left exposed before the king.

"Jareth!" she squealed, attempting to cover herself.

To her horror, the Goblin King laughed, cruelly, "Yes, Sarah?"

"W - why?" she stuttered, feeling both physically and figuratively exposed before the king in black.

He didn't give her even an inch of breathing room and his eyes raked openly over her body, though there was no assurance in his gaze; rather, there was disdain. A cold amusement danced over his marble features,

"Did you really think I would change after one night with you, Sarah? You really have a lot of confidence in your abilities, then. I would say the night was enjoyable, though I'm not sure it was worth passing up a meal. Tell me, did Ben teach you what you know in bed?"

Sarah's mouth hung open, where was the Jareth of last night? The one that spoke of love, and sung to her, and made her feel like a goddess simply by looking at her, and made her feel more alive than she had ever been when she was with him… Where was the Jareth that had made love to her?

"S - stop it! What has gotten into you?!"

"Nothing, girl. I am the same as I always was. Why? What did you expect to change?"

"But you - you…. Last night -"

Jareth smiled coldly, the gesture was predatory and calculating,

"Ah, last night. I do so enjoy the hunt…don't you?"

"Hunt? You enjoy the… You mean you were lying!? You just…. You used me for you amusement!"

Jareth quirked a brow at her, "No, I used you to gain back my kingdom."

He waved his hand carelessly at her in a dismissive manner as he turned from her,

"The rest was just an added bonus."

Sarah sprung up from the bed, forgetting about her nakedness as his barbed remarks stung her heart. Angry tears spilled down her face,

"How could you?!"

"Me?" Jareth asked with mock innocence,

"What did I do? You were a willing partner, if not instigator, in everything last night! Even as you have promised yourself to another man!"

The king's voice rose to a shout at the end, bitterness injected into the words. Sarah instinctively reached for the engagement ring on her finger, twisted it nervously.

"Finally, you remember it is there? How do you feel, Sarah, having cheated on him? Having betrayed him?"

"Stop it! Just stop it! You - you are a horrid…you bastard!! I can't believe I fell…I said I lov…SEND ME HOME!" she ended in a scream, too upset, too furious to think right.

Her heart pounded in her throat and her eyes hurt from tears she tried to hold back, her whole frame shaking with sadness and anger.

Jareth had turned from her for a moment as she yelled…his eyes clenched closed at her final outburst. Finally the words he had been waiting for. After all, what human would ever belong in the Underground?

He swallowed thickly, then turned around, and, without preamble, tossed a crystal at her. Sarah was gone as soon as it made contact, also sending her back in her old clothes.

Jareth walked to the bed and stood by the side that Sarah had slept on for a moment in utter silence. A hand, encased in black leather, reached out and ran down the sheets she had rested against, trembling, his eyes closed. "My only regret, dear Sarah, is what I had to do once you woke up," he whispered. For a minute, there was nothing. The Goblin King made not one move.

Then, his eyes opened and her turned from the bed, shutting the door with a heavy thump on an empty room.