Disclaimer: Sadly, the only things I own in this story are Damien and the batch of gray ooze. Between the two, I have no doubts about the one I will put up for sale on eBay.
Chapter 24Sarah fled into the darkness as quickly as a thought, the brothers fast on her heels. She was so focused on her goal that she didn't even flinch when she felt a powerful arm encircle her waist and was instantly engulfed by the familiar warmth of a transportation spell. She opened her eyes to utter blackness, but felt an insistent mental tug…to her right. Instinctively she turned her head.
"You can sense him," Jareth's voice rumbled from behind her. He released her as she moved away, but kept a gentle grip on her fingers so that she wouldn't get lost in the darkness.
The flash of a light spell from behind them heralded Damien's arrival.
"I feel…something. Can Toby call to me with his mind?" Sarah asked. She looked around worriedly, taking in the dank walls of what appeared to be another section of the dungeons.
"Not likely, since he isn't Fae," Damien answered. "But you are powerful enough to find him even if he can't cry out to you. We can 'hear' him too."
Sarah didn't hesitate and immediately strode toward the silent call her mind felt drawn to follow. She came to an abrupt halt as Jareth's hand clamped around her upper arm.
"You're not stopping me," she hissed up at Jareth's impassive features.
"I'm not allowing you to plunge off alone into gods-know-what either. I will travel ahead first and make certain the way is safe."
"And I'll be right behind you," Sarah countered stubbornly.
Already exasperated, Damien broke in. "Fine! Jareth – you first, Sarah – follow after and I'll guard the rear. Now get moving!"
The trio edged through the dimness in the fragile light of Damien's spell, listening intently for the faintest sigh or rustle that would indicate that Toby was near. Jareth reached back to make certain Sarah was right behind him and was surprised to feel her fingers curl around his. She must be more frightened than he had thought. Squeezing her hand reassuringly, he forged ahead into the gloom.
"No, wait," Sarah whispered, her grip on Jareth's hand tightening. "I feel something…here." She walked over toward the opposite wall and rested her fingertips against it, confused. She didn't see any openings.
Jareth curled his fingers around hers and moved her hand slightly to the left. Sarah gasped in surprise as her hand went straight through the wall. Of course! She shouldn't be surprised that Jareth's castle was its own mini-labyrinth! Damien moved in closer to the couple so that his light spell could further illuminate the hidden passage beyond the wall. The light wasn't bright enough to fall far ahead and so once again, the three of them cautiously moved forward into blackness.
After several twists and turns the passage opened into a broader corridor and Sarah's stomach lurched sickly in recognition. They had come to the very spot where she had rushed into Damien's arms after she had fled from Jareth only a few short hours before.
Jareth felt her stiffen behind him and wished to heaven that their entire night had gone differently. More than anything he wanted to take her into his arms and soothe her fears with gentle words, but he didn't think she would allow him to do so and forcing her to accept his comfort could only make the situation worse. With a sigh of resignation, he allowed her hand to drop.
Sarah instantly moved as far away from her husband as the circle of Damien's light spell would allow. She was humiliated to realize that she had still been clutching Jareth's necklace and his now crumpled admission of love in her free hand.
Jareth noticed the twinkling necklace laced between her fingers and he breathed an audible sigh of relief. "Sarah, put the necklace on."
Her eyes flashed. Was this insufferable king who called himself her husband going to order her around even NOW?!
Damien saw the look on Sarah's face and tried to throw Jareth a warning glance, but his brother was too focused on Sarah to notice him.
The king was rapidly losing patience. "Sarah! I've woven every protection spell I could think of into that necklace! Now put it on!" He strode toward his wife and belatedly took in her tight lips and flushed cheeks. He stopped where he was and held up his hands imploringly, as if to assure her that he would not touch her. "Sarah…please. I don't want anything to happen to you. I don't know what I would do-" he cut himself off, unwilling to admit emotions that left him raw in the face of her fury.
Sarah felt her anger dissipate into confusion, but she decided that she didn't have time to think about it. "Fine. I'll put it on." As she lifted the necklace around her throat, she felt Jareth move behind her and lightly take the chain from her fingers.
"Allow me," he murmured, fastening the clasp. As the chain fell from his hand, he couldn't resist giving Sarah's neck the lightest of caresses and was pleased when he felt her shiver.
Sarah was shivering at more than the sensation of Jareth's touch. As soon as the necklace had been clasped around her throat, a feeling of peace and warmth stole through her – even though she was searching frantically for her brother in a setting she would have given almost anything to avoid. Apparently Jareth had laced his gift with more than protection spells. Blushing furiously, she tried to figure out what to do with Jareth's note, still crumpled in her hand.
She turned slightly from her husband and praying he wouldn't notice, tucked the note into the bodice of her gown. The idea of putting Jareth's confession somewhere so intimate was unsettling, but her gown didn't have any pockets and she was short on other options. She might still be furious with the king, but throwing his first and only declaration of feelings for her on the floor seemed…well…wrong.
Sarah's choice of location for his letter did not escape Jareth, and he was deeply pleased, though for once, he wisely remained silent.
Sarah felt the tug on her thoughts again, although this time the call for her attention was much stronger and seemed more frantic…more frightened. Apparently the brothers had felt the same cry through their own minds, because both of them looked up sharply.
Oh god. It was coming from that awful room.
Then all three of them heard it – a slow slithery hissing noise, like something moist being dragged across the floor. Sarah was the first to notice the light – gray and sickly – that didn't seem to be coming from Damien's spell.
"Damien, would you be willing to drop your light spell? Just for a second?" she asked.
Damien nodded and flicked his hand. They should have been plunged into darkness, but the faint glow emanating from the room of corpses was unmistakable. At least the illumination was enough that they could see the looks of dawning horror on each other's faces.
Jareth's features settled into a look of determination. "Stay back," he growled at the others and strode into the room. The feminine gasp from behind him as he entered the chamber told him that his wife had yet again ignored his orders.
The sight that greeted them was enough to make all of them break out in a cold sweat and reconsider dinner. The bodies that had been dead only an hour ago were moving. Great hulks of desiccated flesh slunk and stumbled around the room as if controlled by a clumsy puppeteer. The substance that Sarah had previously thought looked like a crystalline veil over all of the corpses was now slithering over the walls and part of the floor. No longer frozen, the gray ooze inched and wriggled over every surface like a net of fat, glistening maggots.
Jareth ducked as the clawed paw from something that had once been furry swung blindly toward his head. The king muttered a curse and flame shot from his fingertips straight into the chest of the beast. What flesh the creature had left scorched and crackled; but even though its torso was seared open to the bone, it continued moving toward them with hulking, heavy footsteps. Jareth struck at the gruesome being again while Damien darted around Sarah to add his own magic to the fray. The monster shuddered and tumbled to the flagstones under the onslaught of their combined power, but it continued to move, crawling forward threateningly.
Around the room, other creatures were heaving themselves off the piles along the walls and shambling in what seemed to be aimless arcs around the large chamber. One of the monsters stumbled over a small figure, lying prone in the corner and as it brushed it, the figure rolled slightly and started to move. Pale hands untouched by decay emerged from the shadows as the being hoisted itself to its feet.
"Toby!" Sarah's voice rang out in horror. She immediately rushed toward him only to halt mid-stride as he raised his gaze to hers. The eyes looking out of the thin, twisted face in front of her simply couldn't belong to her brother. His stare held the kind of chilling blankness that Sarah imagined a victim might see in the eyes of a murderer. "Toby…" She hesitated, pausing a few feet away from him.
"Sarah! I'm so frightened. Come closer. Don't let them get me!" His whisper was desperate, pleading, but something about the way he was looking at her kept Sarah rooted to the spot.
"Everything is going to be okay. We're here now," she told him, trying to sound calm. What WAS that stuff crawling all over him? It looked like the same substance that coated the now animate monsters. Sarah shuddered as a tendril of shadow crept over Toby's lips and then over one open eye. The boy didn't appear to notice and lurched forward, walking toward Sarah with jerky steps.
"Oh god," Sarah breathed, taking a timid step backward.
Jareth and Damien incinerated the creature in front of them with a final blast of magic. Nearly reduced to powder from the impact, the creature's bones lay on the flagstones, smoking and falling delicately to pieces. The king looked up, immediately looking for Sarah and froze at what he saw. Toby, or what had once been Toby, was advancing on her, begging her to help him. One look at the boy's face, mottled with the shadowy sludge, was all Jareth needed to know the true intentions behind the boy's imploring words.
"Sarah! Get back!" the king shouted, striding over to snatch her away himself.
"No, Sarah! I'm so scared! Don't leave me here! Please!" Toby cried, shoulders starting to shake with wild sobs.
Seeing her little brother crying in pure terror was more than Sarah could stand. All the love and care she had felt for him ever since he had been a baby trapped in the labyrinth rushed to the surface and she ran to him, gathering him up protectively. "It's okay! I'm here! I'll take care of you -" Her words were cut off in a gasp as Toby's arms tightened around her.
The pain shooting through her body felt like a thousand mirrors had exploded – INSIDE of her. Flames licked along her nerves as she was driven to her knees in unreasoning, all consuming agony. Sarah was terrified that she would die. Sarah was terrified that she WOULDN'T die. Toby was only thirteen and had yet to be able to best her in any sibling rivalry or wrestling match, but his arms encased her now like blocks of granite.
She opened her mouth to scream and felt a wet coldness snake over her lips and into her mouth, choking off her attempts to cry for help. The shadow-like substance slithering all over Toby was now crawling onto her in thick ropes. Her throat and hand felt like they were on fire as she attempted to shrug herself out of Toby's hold. Failing to throw her brother off, she reached for her magic, racking her brains for any spell she could use that wouldn't hurt him.
In an instant, she was ripped from Toby's death grip and found herself resting against a blessedly warm, hard chest. She looked up into worried mis-matched eyes, and then was yanked sharply sideways as Toby lunged for them with a snarl. Jareth threw himself in front of her and smacked Toby back with a surge of power. Sarah tried to scream to Jareth not to hurt him, but her voice was still frozen. She sank to the floor, wracked by another paroxysm of pain as the king blocked a second attack from Toby. This time, she could see Jareth's magic hovering over them, like a shimmering dome of white light. Anytime her brother rushed at them, he was tossed back by the shield around them.
After Toby was thrown to the ground a third time, he rose on shaky legs and approached Jareth's protective dome slowly. He edged as close as he could to the sparkling haze without touching it and then held up his hands. Wisps of shadow crept off his fingers and up and over onto the dome. Jareth gave a sharp cry as the shadow slowly spread itself from Toby onto their shelter, seeming to become darker and more menacing as it covered the haze.
Toby was so absorbed in watching the shadow feed off of Jareth's magic that he didn't sense Damien as he circled softly behind him. The young boy was suddenly flung into the air, his mouth frozen in a silent scream. Sarah recognized the spell as the same one Jareth had used to freeze her gooserat. Her heart clenched in sympathy for her brother, but her thoughts of concern were cut off as she felt the bits of gray ooze that had previously crawled onto her begin to move. Every place the ooze touched felt numb and cold. She tried again to cry out to Jareth, but found that her voice remained useless. In fact she could barely move her lips…and yet they moved anyway. Something was moving them for her.
"Jareth…" Her voice sounded hoarse and hollow in her own ears.
The king turned and his eyes widened in shock as he gazed down at his wife. Sarah felt her whole body being pulled toward him as if she were a puppet on strings. The she realized that whatever was crawling over her WANTED her to touch Jareth. It wanted her to force the same agony on him that she had endured when Toby had held her. She felt the heat of Jareth's necklace singeing her neck and concentrated on it with all her might. He started toward her as if to take her in his arms and she flung herself back against the will of the shadow with all her might. Sarah gasped in pain as she hit the wall of the dome with a thud. The control of the ooze was strong and she hadn't gotten very far, but she remained out of Jareth's reach for the moment. She couldn't let this stuff touch him.
Jareth looked at her with wounded eyes. "Sarah, I won't harm you! Please!! Let me help you!"
She could tell that her reaction had hurt him, but she had to stay as far away from him as she could no matter what the cost. Vaguely, she could hear Damien shouting, trying to get Jareth's attention. Her body was wracked with another shattering flash of pain. This damn stuff was trying to get her to pass out so it could use her body any way it wanted to – she knew it. She concentrated again on her necklace and managed to stay conscious. Her engagement ring was burning her hand and she looked down to see it glowing brightly. The sludge that tried to slither over it literally evaporated on contact. Focusing on the heat from her ring and necklace seemed to help her regain a tiny measure of control over her own body. Her eyes felt glazed, but she forced them up to meet Jareth's and then flicked them to the left, toward Damien's voice.
Damien heaped silent blessings on the queen as he finally garnered his brother's attention. Motioning to Jareth to pour more magic into the dome, he started attacking it from the top. Jareth instantly caught his drift and white light shot from his hands and into the now shadowy mess that covered the shelter around himself and Sarah. Bit by bit, the shadow that covered Jareth's magic froze in place and started to flake off. Damien maintained his end of the spell with some effort as he was forced to continually dodge the blindly flopping bodies that now crowded the floor around them. By the time Jareth was able to take down the magic shield without risking a downpour of sludge, Damien was drenched in sweat. Jareth was looking haggard himself, but still bent down to take Sarah into his arms. She tried again to move away, but her control was slipping.
"Sarah, you have to let me. I have to get you away from here," he murmured, already resigned to her hatred of him. If she wouldn't leave willingly, he would have to forcibly bend her to his will again and was no longer certain of her forgiveness.
Exhausted from her battle with the shadows that now covered her from head to toe, Sarah was powerless to resist as Jareth gathered her up against him. The king was so absorbed in rescuing his wife that he failed to notice her agonized glances toward Toby, still hanging in the air and frozen mid-scream. She watched, helpless, as a slender creature heaved itself from the shadows and toward the boy. As the light fell on its features, Sarah noticed that the figure approaching her brother was unnaturally pale and grinned to reveal gleaming teeth. Half its face looked like it had been burned off in some magical attack, but the prominent fangs on the thing didn't seem to have suffered any damage. Sarah tried again to leap from Jareth's arms as the vampire latched onto to her brother but the vise of pain that gripped her was too intense for her to fight. The creature sank its fangs into Toby's neck like a knife through butter. Jareth turned toward the door, still holding Sarah securely and caught a glimpse of Toby out of the corner of his eye.
He acted without hesitation.
The last thing Sarah saw as she slipped from consciousness was Jareth's fierce gaze as he unleashed a mighty swath of power straight at her brother.
Damien desperately wanted a bath. How he had managed to escape from the dungeon unscathed was beyond him, but after that terrifying encounter, he wasn't at all certain that twenty baths would be enough to make him feel clean again.
They almost hadn't made it. He and Jareth had been so exhausted from the power it had taken to get Toby and Sarah out of there, escape alive themselves, and then seal the whole room off that even standing upright was now too much to ask. He slumped in a corner, watching his brother the king who was sprawled into another corner where he could keep a close eye on Sarah who was still sleeping on the bed.
Damien suspected that the necklace was the thing that had kept her alive until they had escaped. Jareth had given that necklace to Sarah as an expression of his genuine love. Damien noticed that the sludge may have kept her from screaming, but it hadn't been able to take over every part of her body and settle in the way it had on Toby because the necklace had kept burning it away. Sarah's neck had red welts from where the glittering chain lay against it, but neither brother considered removing it wise. Fighting the shadow had been a battle for her; but thanks to Jareth's gift, she hadn't given in to it and the power of the necklace was still working to shore her up as she recovered.
As soon as Jareth had blasted the vampire attacking Toby to bits, Damien had grabbed the now re-animated boy and fled from the room fast on his brother's heels. Dragging Toby out had been a challenge. A vampire's bite held its own unique level of magic. Most of a vampire's victims simply perished, but those who didn't exactly die…
A moan from the bed brought Jareth to his feet. He had refused to let go of Sarah's hand ever since he and Damien had banished the last vestiges of the shadow from her body. His queen had been covered in the stuff by the time he had finally managed to transport her to safety. Blessedly, she had responded the instant Jareth had touched her with his healing spell and the terrified king had nearly broken down in gratitude. Within moments, the ropes of shadow had dissipated enough that he had been able to gather her fully into his arms. Stroking his hands through her hair, he had simply held her to him, all the love he felt for her pouring from his heart into his magic as he healed her. Even nearly unconscious, Sarah had clung to him. As she had slipped her arms around his neck, the tendrils of shadow that had attacked him as he carried her to safety had fallen from his skin and then melted into nothingness.
Damien noticed the sudden demise of the gray ooze on his brother with a faint flicker of hope. Perhaps Sarah really did love Jareth after all? He could only imagine a love requited would have that kind of healing effect. Damien had stepped forward to add his own magic to Jareth's spell and had been pleasantly surprised as the bits of shadow that had managed to worm their way onto him fell into crystallized bits at his feet.
"I don't think I can make it disappear completely by myself," Jareth had sighed, indicating the crunching bits of shadow at Damien's feet.
"I think I've been telling you that all along," had been Damien's rejoinder as he had finally flopped into a corner, exhausted.
Now Damien also arose to go to Sarah's side. He wasn't at all certain how she would take the news about her brother.
Her eyes cracked open and settled on Jareth. "Where is he?" she croaked.
"Darling…he's safe. For now."
Sarah struggled to sit up only to feel gloved hands push her back down and tuck the covers around her more snugly.
"Don't move. I don't think I have the strength to heal you if you even so much as topple out of bed." Jareth was telling the truth. He looked awful. Dark circles ringed his eyes and his face was creased with worry.
Sarah's chin took on the stubborn set that Damien knew meant trouble. He tried to intercede. "Perhaps we should prop her up on a few pillows? She might be more comfortable – wouldn't you, Sarah?"
The queen nodded and Jareth gave in with a sigh. After a moment, the brothers had her propped into a sitting position. Jareth reached for Sarah's hand again. She instinctively drew back, but then thought better of it and placed her hand in his. This man exasperated her like no one had ever done before him, but he had also healed her in her moment of need. Holding his hand wasn't so much to ask.
"Where is Toby? Is he all right? Jareth, I want to know everything that's happened." Sarah's voice was soft, but forceful. There was clearly no way she would settle for any gloss on the truth.
"Toby is alive, love, but badly hurt. I'm keeping him in another room for the moment," Jareth replied.
"Jareth, I want to go to him," Sarah stated firmly. "He needs me."
The king briefly dropped his face in his hands. He already knew what was coming. "Sarah, I'm sorry but I can't allow it. You're still healing and I'm afraid that seeing Toby wouldn't be safe for you."
Sarah bristled where she sat. He "couldn't allow it"? She was absolutely sick of being told what she would and would not be "allowed" to do. She opened her mouth and leaned forward to give Jareth a piece of her mind, when she felt his note crinkle against her chest from where she had stuffed it down her bodice. Remembering his admission, she shut her mouth and tried to re-think the situation. She chose her words carefully, never dropping her eyes from his. "Jareth, Toby is my brother and I feel responsible toward him. It's important to me to see how he's doing for myself. I believe that you mean well when you tell me that you won't let me see him, but I only get angry with you when you try to forbid me from doing what I want to do. I am going to see my brother. If you think seeing him is unwise, I will listen to what you have to tell me first, but I will not 'allow' you to tell me what I will and will not do."
Jareth's nostrils flared slightly, but he gave no other indication of his temper. He loved this woman with all of his heart and soul. He had given her everything and she still defied him, still insisted that he treat her as if she was the one who ruled his kingdom. For heaven's sake, it was as if she expected him to treat her as his EQUAL…
Oh.
Damien's advice seemed to echo through his mind. "Show her that she has no need to fear you. Treat her as your equal. Teach her about her powers. And, Jareth, - tell her how you feel."
By the gods, he was king! No one had ever disobeyed him and ignored his every command in the way Sarah had! How could he change what he was – even for her? Jareth wanted to push her right back down on the pillows, warn her not to leave their bed and then lock her in, posting himself as her guard. One look into her blazing emerald eyes and he took a deep breath and reconsidered. Even when that shadow was poised to eat her alive, she had flung herself away from him. His chest clenched painfully at the thought that she loathed him so much that she would not even willingly accept his help when she was in danger.
"Very well," he growled. "I will take you to see your brother, but there are a few things you should know first."
"Tell me," she said, relaxing a little and taking his hand again.
Touched and surprised at her small gesture of trust, Jareth softened his tone. "Sarah, when you were attacked by the shadows, I was able to heal you as well as I did because you never gave yourself over to them. The necklace you are wearing was forged with every magical protection I could think of and those protections helped you to fight the evil and hold on to your own will. Toby's youth makes him more malleable than an adult. He was also without the benefit of any particular protection or even any magic of his own. I'm afraid the shadows did much more than physical damage to him."
"What do you mean?" Sarah asked, gripping her husband's fingers more tightly.
"I mean that Toby isn't who he was before the shadow attacked him. If it were only the power of the shadow, I might be less concerned, but he was also bitten by a vampire before we could rescue him."
"I remember…" Sarah breathed. Vivid memories of Jareth throwing some kind of violent magic at Toby rushed back to her. "You…you meant to kill him, didn't you?" She tried to remove her hands from his, but he wouldn't let her go.
"No!" the king cried, pulling her toward him. He urgently needed her to understand. "Sarah, I would never hurt Toby, but even I can't exactly run over to a newly created vampire monster, pick it up and box its ears!"
"Vampire monster?" she asked, growing pale.
"The bite of a vampire has its own kind of magic. Toby had already succumbed to the shadow and so it was that much easier for the vampire to make him one of its own."
Sarah's eyes were wide with horror. "Does that mean he's…dead?" she asked, forcing herself to say the word.
"Not exactly," said Damien, moving from where he stood to sit on the other side of the bed. "Toby was weakened by the shadows, and yes, the bite of the vampire has made Toby a creature of darkness as well. But since the boy wasn't already dead when the vampire drank from him and the vampire didn't have the time to drain him to the point of death, Toby didn't die. Rather, he became a living creature with the powers of the undead."
Sarah looked back and forth between the brothers. "So what did you do with him?" she asked in a very small voice.
"He's being held in a locked cell – for his protection and for ours," the king replied.
"Not down there in the dungeons?!" she gasped.
Jareth was beginning to lose patience. "Sarah, I had nowhere else to keep him! I made certain that he has food, light, warmth and a bed to rest on. I won't have him staying anywhere near you until it's safe and at least in the dungeons I know that there's nothing he could find and use as a weapon later!"
"There's only that shadow sludge living a few doors down!" she cried, trying to rise off the bed.
"No, there isn't! I put him in a cell on the opposite side of the castle – not that it matters. Sarah, the darkness has already laid claim to him. Even if he were to stay in the same room with the shadows, it would make no difference now!"
"I want to see him," she said firmly.
"Then I will accompany you," the king replied coldly, "and we will see him together - AFTER you are better."
Jareth and Sarah locked eyes for a moment and then turned away to heaved weighty sighs at the same time. Damien was pleased to observe that both of them seemed good and tired of arguing.
"Can we compromise?" asked Sarah softly. "I visit Toby now – accompanied by both you and Damien. And I promise to stay well away from him. Jareth, it would mean a lot to me to see him for myself."
The king looked over at Damien who nodded. "Very well," Jareth reluctantly assented, lifting his queen into his arms.
"I can stand up just fine-" Sarah started, but Jareth put a finger to her lips and whispered "shush".
Startled, she obeyed and the three of them vanished in a flash stardust.
Seconds later, they reappeared outside a narrow passageway. Sarah shivered in the sudden change of temperature and Jareth pulled her closer against the warmth of his body. He carried her down the small corridor, followed by Damien until they reached a wooden door with a number of thick locks on it. A flick of Jareth's gloved hand and all of the locks snapped open, the door falling slightly ajar. The king pushed it fully open so that the three of them could look through the long bars of a second door behind the first.
Toby rested gracefully on top of a thick, quilted coverlet on a narrow bed. Jareth had been true to his word and Sarah could see a small tray covered with fruits and cheeses as well as a wooden ewer filled with water sitting on the floor. The room was otherwise bare, but a light spell illuminated the space with a soft glow. Sarah could tell that the light spell was also producing heat, warming the otherwise dank stone of the walls and floor.
The boy rose as he heard the outer door open, and walked closer to their little group. "Sarah!" he called. "I'm so glad that you came!"
Sarah stared at her brother in astonishment. He was beautiful in a pale and sylphlike way. His skin glowed with a milky clear paleness, all traces of adolescent acne gone. No longer did he move with the coltish clumsiness Sarah had observed in him as soon as he had hit puberty, but rather with a catlike grace she had only seen before among the Fae. He smiled radiantly and drew nearer to the bars, holding out his hands. Jareth still had his arm around Sarah's waist and lifted her neatly behind him and beyond Toby's grasp.
She was poised to object, but changed her mind as Toby moved close enough for her to get a better look at him. Peering around Jareth's shoulder, she could see that everything about her brother seemed to be in gentle motion, like she was watching his very molecules swirl through the air. As she looked longer, she could see delicate traces of shadow swimming over every part of him, gliding through his hair like quicksilver and shimmering across his skin in subtle patterns. His eyes came to rest on her with greedy hunger.
"Sarah, please come closer. Are you really there? I want to touch you," his voice took on a wheedling tone and he slipped his fingers through the bars.
Jareth responded to the boy's request by planting himself even more firmly in front of Sarah and tightening his hold on her hands.
She squeezed her husband's hands back reassuringly. "Is there anything we can do for him?"
A look of frustrated helplessness crossed Jareth's face. "I don't know. Honestly, I've never seen anything like this before. There are a few enchantments I could try, but I'm not sure Toby would survive them. Damien and I know for certain that our combined magic can freeze the shadow in its tracks, but thanks to that vampire, it's now part of Toby's blood. If I try to stop the evil from feeding off of him, it's possible that he'll die in the process." Jareth took a deep breath. He knew Sarah wouldn't like this one bit. "Love, I have no desire to harm Toby in any way. We could keep him here and I can attempt to cure him – which would mean risking his death – or I can banish him from my kingdom to the dark forest beyond where he'll live out his existence as he is now." Jareth looked down at his wife with tired eyes. He didn't know if he should simply give up. All of the fates seemed to have conspired to place him in impossible situations where anything he did would only make her hate him more.
"He can't do any harm down here, can he? We could keep him here until we found a way to cure him that we knew would be safe." There had to be a way to save Toby. And what on earth was she going to tell their parents? Somehow she didn't think they would believe that their son had suddenly run off to join Cirque du Soleil, even if he now looked the part.
"Sarah, I can't allow him to stay here indefinitely. He might be able to do some harm if left to his own devices long enough. My magic is powerful, but Toby now has plenty of his own power and I can't guarantee that I can keep him safely locked up forever. The inhabitants of the Underground rely on me for protection. I will not betray them – even for you."
Sarah pressed her lips together in a thin line. "Fine. You may not be able to guarantee his safety with your magic, but we haven't tried mine." She tried to slide past Jareth, but he caught her firmly around the waist and hauled her back.
"Absolutely not."
"Jareth, Toby's my brother! I can't just leave him like this! I know I'm as powerful as you are! If you and Damien can stop the shadow in its tracks just because you love each other, imagine what I can do for Toby! Jareth, I love him more than anything!"
Jareth snorted. "You're not going in there where you'll only get yourself killed!"
"I won't get killed!" she shouted, eyes spearing him as she tried to kick and claw herself free. She wasn't entirely sure of her words, but at this point, she was far too frustrated to be reasonable.
Jareth released her waist so he could capture her hands before she scored his face. Quick as a blink, he twisted her wrists against her back, keeping them pinned in one hand while holding the rest of her against him with the other.
"Jareth!" Damien cried. "This is no way-"
"This is the ONLY way!" Damien was cut off by Jareth's roar. "I will NOT let MY QUEEN run off willy-nilly to certain death!"
Damien was at a loss. He knew Jareth was right, but if Jareth forced Sarah away from her brother, the strife between them could only make the shadow's power stronger. He had to intercede. He only prayed Sarah would listen to him. "Sarah, stop fighting! Jareth is telling you the truth. You would only die if you tried to save Toby on your own."
Sarah stopped struggling long enough to look at Damien in dismay. He had been her sole advocate against Jareth and now he was siding with him against her! The thought of Toby dying in the Underground or spending the rest of his life in exile outside Jareth's kingdom renewed her determination and she twisted in her husband's grip, hoping to god that her struggles would distract him long enough that he wouldn't notice what she was about to do. "Jareth! Let me go! I won't let you do this to me anymore!"
The king was so busy trying to keep his wife subdued that he didn't notice the tiny shot of magic she tossed toward the barred door. A simple spell - even simpler than a light spell. Sarah screamed to cover up the sound of the locks clicking open.
Jareth had had enough and swept her off her feet, preparing to transport her to the farthest wing of the castle. Sarah immediately stopped fighting and threw all of her concentration into another simple spell, usually used to light the logs in the fireplaces. She wouldn't need much magic…
She hit the floor with a groan when Jareth dropped her and then was instantly on her feet. Without giving herself time to think, she threw her weight against the barred door and tumbled into Toby's cell, belatedly taking in the satisfied smirk on the boy's face as the king gasped in pain, holding up hands that had already blistered through his gloves. The gray shadows on her brother's skin suddenly seemed thicker. Sarah tossed a glance over her shoulder and met Jareth's hurt-filled gaze. She had time to register surprise that his eyes were filled with sorrow instead of anger before Toby's hands closed softly around her throat.