AN: *bites nails nervously and peers over readers' shoulders* How's this chapter?
I had a witty disclaimer but... I blew my memory limit for the day with my in class essay.
Standard disclaimers now apply.
************************ Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Four **************************
They stepped into the Goblin King's bedroom, the magic flaring and dying around them in a
brilliant burst of otherworldly light. Sarah sighed and looked at her surroundings with
something that was mixed pain and relief. Both warred on her face until relief won.
She could feel Jareth's heated gaze on her, could sense the intensity buried behind the
façade of pale, mismatched eyes. Could feel the cooled magic, the power, still clinging
to his form. It was easy to forget now, sometimes, how human he truly wasn't. He was a
man, a King, but he was hardly human. Hardly that mundane.
Sarah uncurled her hand from his gloved one and, with a gentle tug, freed herself from his
finely boned fingers. Her hand, still trembling from shock, fell away from the supple leather
of the glove. She ignored her King and took the few steps to the bed. Sarah perched on the
edge, knees drawn to her chin like a child as she rested her head on them, arms wrapped around
her whole body for reassurance.
She didn't speak, only closed rich brown eyes tightly, and breathed deeply. Breathed deeply
and tried with all her might to accept what her heart was telling her, that she had fought and
won. That this place, this magical, accursed place, was truly, and always meant to be, home.
Home. A place of safety, of comfort, of security.
She had never been so frightened in her life.
********************************************************************************************
Jareth watched his subject, HIS Sarah. In the candle light of his room she looked soft, less
fierce, more a girl than a woman grown. Her face, bathed in shadow, was highlighted gold as
it rested on top of her knees. Her blue gown clung to her, out of place with the dark hues
of his room. But then, she seemed almost out of place here herself.
Sarah, for all her wonders, for all her beauty and uniqueness, was hardly exotic. Eye
catching, breath taking certainly, but not exotic. The Goblin King cursed softly to himself
as that tight place in his chest eased, warmed, filled with her sight, was soothed by the
promise of her eternal presence.
He glided an almost hesitant step closer to her, then another when he received no reaction.
Another step, less timid, put him at her side. Jareth watched her for another long moment,
and when temptation proved too much even for his own considerable will power, reached out...
One gloved hand touched, then stroked responsive hair. She didn't startle at his touch,
didn't pull back, didn't protest. He let out a deep breath before she spoke.
"I... I didn't exactly tell the truth back there."
His hand froze.
"What are you talking about Sarah?" She looked up then, looked up and tilted her face to
smile crookedly at him. Tears filled her lovely, expressive eyes. When she spoke her voice
was halting, alternating between laughter and hysteria.
"Back there, before the Sidhe Court. I... I lied."
Without thinking about it a stunned Jareth dropped fluidly to his knees so that they were
level with each other, immortal human and inhuman Goblin King. He stared at the woman he had
loved for twenty years and wondered if he saw a stranger.
"Sarah..." Her name was spoken almost harshly, a command. The crooked, half broken smile
widened a bit as she looked away from him, face focused blankly at a wall. Gentle, firm
fingers, trailed down through her hair and rested on her flushed cheek for a moment before
moving to lightly grip her chin. His inexorable grip guided her eyes back to his.
The tears were gone as she stared at him, a deer caught in headlights. The smile faltered
and dissipated, turned into a sad, half angry line of discontent.
"I... I didn't so much as lie as I didn't tell all of the truth."
"Define your truth Sarah. Now." The laughter, wild, fearful, returned for a moment before
she sagged again and turned her face towards the comfort of his hand. Jareth, baffled,
cradled her face in his bewildered hands. She pulled away after a long minute, all laughter
gone.
She held out one hand, palm up. The scar, white, angry, gleamed in the half flickering light.
"Do you know what this is?" Jareth bristled at the question but quelled, quieted at the pain
behind Sarah's words. He reached outward, caught the hand, and, with a jealous, bitter swallow,
traced the jagged line of the scar and answered, voice vibrant with a thousand mixed emotions,
even in its gentle fierceness.
"This is the scar that is tangible, physical evidence of your love for a mortal man who will
be dead and dust before you begin to learn what it means to be immortal, eternal. This
is... is your knight in shining armor..." The last was spit out, barely.
Sarah closed her eyes again, sighed, and brought the hand to her chest where she clutched it
to her breast. She spoke after silence, untouchable, unbreakable, descended between them and
filled the space separating their bodies.
"It is a symbol of my love for Devon, and the disservice I did by loving him. I, I was his
world Jareth. Besides Melanie, no one in Above could touch him like I could. He was so pure,
so bright, so good. Boy Scout, all American, handsome, gentle, kind. He didn't smoke, drink,
or gamble aside from the occasional poker game.
"And even then he had to bend, had to shield my eyes from the blinding light so I could see his
outstretched hand. He was my knight, my Angel, my rescuer. He brought me from the fires of
Hell Jareth. He carried me back to life." Jareth held his ragged breath.
"But he deserves someone who doesn't have to be shielded from the light Jareth. Damn it!"
Sarah cried, suddenly anguished with a depth of despair he hadn't seen since he had taken her
from her almost daughter. "Damn me," she continued softly, so soft he had to lean closer to
hear her quiet words.
"Damn me for not wanting his purity, his perfection. Immortal or not Jareth I'm no Angel, no
Princess. I'm human, faillable, petty... And drawn to the darkness." She reached forward
suddenly and grasped his willing hands.
"Do you wish to know my truth Jareth? I am yours and I belong here, in the Labyrinth, Land
of Nightmares and Dreams. But I don't just belong here in the Underground. I... You want
to know what the Room of Fate told me Jareth?
"It said the only place I'll ever belong, the only place I'll truly find happiness, peace, is
by your side and in your arms."
Jareth was on his feet in an instant, terrible, radiant, wavering between fury and hope as he
pulled Sarah up as well, her body pressed against his, hands still clasped.
"What exactly are you saying? That the Room of Fate named you my Queen?" Sarah laughed again
and, trembling, buried herself in his shoulder, not seeking comfort or strength just...
"No. The Room of Fate never named me Goblin Queen Jareth. It named me lover and beloved. It
named me your match, your other half if something so cliché exists." Jareth growled suddenly.
"I don't give a damn what the Room of Fate said. I want to know what you're saying, right now.
What are you telling me Sarah?" She shuddered against him and tried not to weep. "Do you love
me?"
"Set me free Jareth." The King of the Goblins looked down at her, face defiant, pained even as
he grappled with the desperate turn of their conversation. He cupped one cheek with gloves
warmed from his body heat as he raised her face, trying desperately to understand, to see the
words he needed to hear in order to say them himself, in order to believe what her tortured
eyes told him. He would not be burned twice! But by Above, sometimes Sarah burned so brightly.
"Sarah..."
"Please Jareth, I, don't push this now. Not when time no longer matters. I belong here,
release me from my vows and give me free will." His gaze seared hers, searching for answers to
a thousand questions.
"If... If I let you go how will I know that you'll stay will me Sarah? That fear for what
you've been told is your destiny won't drive you away? That you won't return to your knight?
That you won't try to embrace the light? What guarantee can you give me?" She met his gaze,
his hungry, suddenly passionate gaze, met it, held it, and for once found herself equal to it.
Found herself a match for Jareth, in all his unconscious splendor. Could meet his eyes strange,
as a woman and not a child.
"None at all," Sarah replied coolly, trying, desperately, not to cave, not to fold, not to melt
into an embrace that held as much darkness as any night. Not to surrender to her King. For
some part of her had always named him thus. Devon was forgotten as Jareth's eyes flashed,
dangerous, baring for one heart wrenching instant the hell that was his turbulent soul as layers
of masks were peeled away.
"I cannot give you up Sarah, not even if you ask it. You are mine... After all we just went
through you are mine. I shall not change who I am for anyone..." Sarah stopped his reply with
soft fingertips on sensual lips. She had never been able to deny his beauty.
"And I cannot love a man who is my master." He studied her, searched her, and sighed, turning
away as she let her errant hand fall, clenched to one side.
And the proud line of his shoulders broke, bowed, crumbled under the weight of a decision that
no one, let alone a proud jaded immortal King, should have to make on the eve of winning his
heart's desire. He let go what was rightfully his; he released the only woman he had ever
loved from the promises that had bound her to him forever. He forfeited an assured future for
something far less certain, a future ruled by free will.
Jareth, Goblin King, turned back to her, stepped away, and bowed, fully, a mocking smile on
pale, tightly pressed lips, tender heart reeling. "I release you from your agreement Sarah
Williams. Your life, your allegiance, your loyalty are your own to do with what you will, to
pledge to whom you wish. I am no longer your King."
Sarah stepped forward even as he pulled away, stepped forward and placed one palm over his
erratic heart beat, the other reached up to trace the lines of his regal face, exploring with
a boldness that was entirely new. Jareth relaxed for a moment, allowed her caress, before
growling in frustration, eyes clenched shut, hands fists.
"Don't try my will power Sarah..." he breathed heavily, lost in the confusion of the last day.
She smiled sadly, tears in her eyes, and reached up to kiss one cheek, then the other, then to
plant a tender one on lips that had mocked her so often. That had been so cruel.
She broke the brief, emotionally charged contact after a moment and drew far enough back to
whisper her reply, her gentle, sorrowful reply.
"You are no longer my King Jareth, unless I will it so. You set me free, what made you so
certain that I wouldn't return?" Jareth jerked away and stared at her, eyes wild.
"Don't toy with me Sarah!" he snapped harshly, tired, wrung out from a thousand emotions that
tore at his weary immortal soul. An echo of angry words from two decades before. She smiled
and it was a tender, fragile thing.
"I do not give my heart lightly Goblin King. And I never lie. Not to you." The wild stare
turned calculating then and, oh God, so fierce, so possessive it made her shiver.
She was in his arms in an instant, crushed to his warm chest, held, pinned by arms that lifted
her up to a hungry mouth. Yes, there was indeed darkness in the Goblin King and she needed
that. He had ruined her happily ever after. He had ruined her knight in shining armor. He
had jaded her simply by showing her how beautiful the night could be.
"I love you. Heaven help me I've fallen in love with the Goblin King."
Her palm burned and Sarah didn't care, just for that instant she yielded to the inevitable of
fate. She had never felt more content.
AN: Eh... Did I handle all that okay? I can't decide. And no this is not the last chapter.
=) Too many loose ends to tie up sillies. *hint* The last chapter will be titled 'The End'.
Trust me. ;)
I had a witty disclaimer but... I blew my memory limit for the day with my in class essay.
Standard disclaimers now apply.
************************ Sacrifices: Chapter Twenty Four **************************
They stepped into the Goblin King's bedroom, the magic flaring and dying around them in a
brilliant burst of otherworldly light. Sarah sighed and looked at her surroundings with
something that was mixed pain and relief. Both warred on her face until relief won.
She could feel Jareth's heated gaze on her, could sense the intensity buried behind the
façade of pale, mismatched eyes. Could feel the cooled magic, the power, still clinging
to his form. It was easy to forget now, sometimes, how human he truly wasn't. He was a
man, a King, but he was hardly human. Hardly that mundane.
Sarah uncurled her hand from his gloved one and, with a gentle tug, freed herself from his
finely boned fingers. Her hand, still trembling from shock, fell away from the supple leather
of the glove. She ignored her King and took the few steps to the bed. Sarah perched on the
edge, knees drawn to her chin like a child as she rested her head on them, arms wrapped around
her whole body for reassurance.
She didn't speak, only closed rich brown eyes tightly, and breathed deeply. Breathed deeply
and tried with all her might to accept what her heart was telling her, that she had fought and
won. That this place, this magical, accursed place, was truly, and always meant to be, home.
Home. A place of safety, of comfort, of security.
She had never been so frightened in her life.
********************************************************************************************
Jareth watched his subject, HIS Sarah. In the candle light of his room she looked soft, less
fierce, more a girl than a woman grown. Her face, bathed in shadow, was highlighted gold as
it rested on top of her knees. Her blue gown clung to her, out of place with the dark hues
of his room. But then, she seemed almost out of place here herself.
Sarah, for all her wonders, for all her beauty and uniqueness, was hardly exotic. Eye
catching, breath taking certainly, but not exotic. The Goblin King cursed softly to himself
as that tight place in his chest eased, warmed, filled with her sight, was soothed by the
promise of her eternal presence.
He glided an almost hesitant step closer to her, then another when he received no reaction.
Another step, less timid, put him at her side. Jareth watched her for another long moment,
and when temptation proved too much even for his own considerable will power, reached out...
One gloved hand touched, then stroked responsive hair. She didn't startle at his touch,
didn't pull back, didn't protest. He let out a deep breath before she spoke.
"I... I didn't exactly tell the truth back there."
His hand froze.
"What are you talking about Sarah?" She looked up then, looked up and tilted her face to
smile crookedly at him. Tears filled her lovely, expressive eyes. When she spoke her voice
was halting, alternating between laughter and hysteria.
"Back there, before the Sidhe Court. I... I lied."
Without thinking about it a stunned Jareth dropped fluidly to his knees so that they were
level with each other, immortal human and inhuman Goblin King. He stared at the woman he had
loved for twenty years and wondered if he saw a stranger.
"Sarah..." Her name was spoken almost harshly, a command. The crooked, half broken smile
widened a bit as she looked away from him, face focused blankly at a wall. Gentle, firm
fingers, trailed down through her hair and rested on her flushed cheek for a moment before
moving to lightly grip her chin. His inexorable grip guided her eyes back to his.
The tears were gone as she stared at him, a deer caught in headlights. The smile faltered
and dissipated, turned into a sad, half angry line of discontent.
"I... I didn't so much as lie as I didn't tell all of the truth."
"Define your truth Sarah. Now." The laughter, wild, fearful, returned for a moment before
she sagged again and turned her face towards the comfort of his hand. Jareth, baffled,
cradled her face in his bewildered hands. She pulled away after a long minute, all laughter
gone.
She held out one hand, palm up. The scar, white, angry, gleamed in the half flickering light.
"Do you know what this is?" Jareth bristled at the question but quelled, quieted at the pain
behind Sarah's words. He reached outward, caught the hand, and, with a jealous, bitter swallow,
traced the jagged line of the scar and answered, voice vibrant with a thousand mixed emotions,
even in its gentle fierceness.
"This is the scar that is tangible, physical evidence of your love for a mortal man who will
be dead and dust before you begin to learn what it means to be immortal, eternal. This
is... is your knight in shining armor..." The last was spit out, barely.
Sarah closed her eyes again, sighed, and brought the hand to her chest where she clutched it
to her breast. She spoke after silence, untouchable, unbreakable, descended between them and
filled the space separating their bodies.
"It is a symbol of my love for Devon, and the disservice I did by loving him. I, I was his
world Jareth. Besides Melanie, no one in Above could touch him like I could. He was so pure,
so bright, so good. Boy Scout, all American, handsome, gentle, kind. He didn't smoke, drink,
or gamble aside from the occasional poker game.
"And even then he had to bend, had to shield my eyes from the blinding light so I could see his
outstretched hand. He was my knight, my Angel, my rescuer. He brought me from the fires of
Hell Jareth. He carried me back to life." Jareth held his ragged breath.
"But he deserves someone who doesn't have to be shielded from the light Jareth. Damn it!"
Sarah cried, suddenly anguished with a depth of despair he hadn't seen since he had taken her
from her almost daughter. "Damn me," she continued softly, so soft he had to lean closer to
hear her quiet words.
"Damn me for not wanting his purity, his perfection. Immortal or not Jareth I'm no Angel, no
Princess. I'm human, faillable, petty... And drawn to the darkness." She reached forward
suddenly and grasped his willing hands.
"Do you wish to know my truth Jareth? I am yours and I belong here, in the Labyrinth, Land
of Nightmares and Dreams. But I don't just belong here in the Underground. I... You want
to know what the Room of Fate told me Jareth?
"It said the only place I'll ever belong, the only place I'll truly find happiness, peace, is
by your side and in your arms."
Jareth was on his feet in an instant, terrible, radiant, wavering between fury and hope as he
pulled Sarah up as well, her body pressed against his, hands still clasped.
"What exactly are you saying? That the Room of Fate named you my Queen?" Sarah laughed again
and, trembling, buried herself in his shoulder, not seeking comfort or strength just...
"No. The Room of Fate never named me Goblin Queen Jareth. It named me lover and beloved. It
named me your match, your other half if something so cliché exists." Jareth growled suddenly.
"I don't give a damn what the Room of Fate said. I want to know what you're saying, right now.
What are you telling me Sarah?" She shuddered against him and tried not to weep. "Do you love
me?"
"Set me free Jareth." The King of the Goblins looked down at her, face defiant, pained even as
he grappled with the desperate turn of their conversation. He cupped one cheek with gloves
warmed from his body heat as he raised her face, trying desperately to understand, to see the
words he needed to hear in order to say them himself, in order to believe what her tortured
eyes told him. He would not be burned twice! But by Above, sometimes Sarah burned so brightly.
"Sarah..."
"Please Jareth, I, don't push this now. Not when time no longer matters. I belong here,
release me from my vows and give me free will." His gaze seared hers, searching for answers to
a thousand questions.
"If... If I let you go how will I know that you'll stay will me Sarah? That fear for what
you've been told is your destiny won't drive you away? That you won't return to your knight?
That you won't try to embrace the light? What guarantee can you give me?" She met his gaze,
his hungry, suddenly passionate gaze, met it, held it, and for once found herself equal to it.
Found herself a match for Jareth, in all his unconscious splendor. Could meet his eyes strange,
as a woman and not a child.
"None at all," Sarah replied coolly, trying, desperately, not to cave, not to fold, not to melt
into an embrace that held as much darkness as any night. Not to surrender to her King. For
some part of her had always named him thus. Devon was forgotten as Jareth's eyes flashed,
dangerous, baring for one heart wrenching instant the hell that was his turbulent soul as layers
of masks were peeled away.
"I cannot give you up Sarah, not even if you ask it. You are mine... After all we just went
through you are mine. I shall not change who I am for anyone..." Sarah stopped his reply with
soft fingertips on sensual lips. She had never been able to deny his beauty.
"And I cannot love a man who is my master." He studied her, searched her, and sighed, turning
away as she let her errant hand fall, clenched to one side.
And the proud line of his shoulders broke, bowed, crumbled under the weight of a decision that
no one, let alone a proud jaded immortal King, should have to make on the eve of winning his
heart's desire. He let go what was rightfully his; he released the only woman he had ever
loved from the promises that had bound her to him forever. He forfeited an assured future for
something far less certain, a future ruled by free will.
Jareth, Goblin King, turned back to her, stepped away, and bowed, fully, a mocking smile on
pale, tightly pressed lips, tender heart reeling. "I release you from your agreement Sarah
Williams. Your life, your allegiance, your loyalty are your own to do with what you will, to
pledge to whom you wish. I am no longer your King."
Sarah stepped forward even as he pulled away, stepped forward and placed one palm over his
erratic heart beat, the other reached up to trace the lines of his regal face, exploring with
a boldness that was entirely new. Jareth relaxed for a moment, allowed her caress, before
growling in frustration, eyes clenched shut, hands fists.
"Don't try my will power Sarah..." he breathed heavily, lost in the confusion of the last day.
She smiled sadly, tears in her eyes, and reached up to kiss one cheek, then the other, then to
plant a tender one on lips that had mocked her so often. That had been so cruel.
She broke the brief, emotionally charged contact after a moment and drew far enough back to
whisper her reply, her gentle, sorrowful reply.
"You are no longer my King Jareth, unless I will it so. You set me free, what made you so
certain that I wouldn't return?" Jareth jerked away and stared at her, eyes wild.
"Don't toy with me Sarah!" he snapped harshly, tired, wrung out from a thousand emotions that
tore at his weary immortal soul. An echo of angry words from two decades before. She smiled
and it was a tender, fragile thing.
"I do not give my heart lightly Goblin King. And I never lie. Not to you." The wild stare
turned calculating then and, oh God, so fierce, so possessive it made her shiver.
She was in his arms in an instant, crushed to his warm chest, held, pinned by arms that lifted
her up to a hungry mouth. Yes, there was indeed darkness in the Goblin King and she needed
that. He had ruined her happily ever after. He had ruined her knight in shining armor. He
had jaded her simply by showing her how beautiful the night could be.
"I love you. Heaven help me I've fallen in love with the Goblin King."
Her palm burned and Sarah didn't care, just for that instant she yielded to the inevitable of
fate. She had never felt more content.
AN: Eh... Did I handle all that okay? I can't decide. And no this is not the last chapter.
=) Too many loose ends to tie up sillies. *hint* The last chapter will be titled 'The End'.
Trust me. ;)