Jareth blinked awake, becoming aware that his arm was asleep. He half rolled over, realizing Sarah was asleep on that arm, and ever so gently worked it out from under her. Sarah muttered and rolled over.
He could only grin. After last night's vigorous exercise over her vanity, he'd insisted that she come Below to sleep. Sarah had done so, but only after a shower and change of clothes. She had intended to sleep in a fetching nightgown, though given how it looked on her, sleep was something they'd gotten to rather late. So late, that they'd remained in her suite, and Jareth had fallen asleep beside her.
Now she was rumpled, her hair a tangled mess, the nightgown sliding off. But her lips were curved in a contented smile, and Jareth bent to kiss her shoulder. "My kingdom for a kiss upon her shoulder," he murmured, a snatch of music playing in his mind. Though in this case, it was that kiss upon her shoulder that was helping him keep his kingdom.
How he would have liked to remain here at her side, waking her slowly with kisses, and enjoy a morning romp. But the land plucked at his senses, demanding something of him, and Umardelin was not to be ignored. Jareth would have to employ his seeing-crystals to find out what was currently going on his kingdom which needed his attention.
Part of him wondered if it could be some machination of Lyselle's. Looking at Sarah now, he was more certain than ever that her doubt at the Champion's Ball was someone else's doing. It wasn't like Sarah to falter; if she felt vulnerable, she would double down and brazen through on pure stubborn. It would have been more in character for her to seat herself in his lap and make her possession blatantly clear, than to flee the gathering.
With one final lingering kiss, he rose, heading to his own rooms to dress himself. Sarah grumbled softly in her sleep, and he smiled at her. "I'll be back soon enough, precious one," Jareth murmured.
…
Sarah woke just before dawn, and rolled over onto Jareth's side of the bed. The blankets beside her were empty, but still warm; Jareth had been there moments ago. Most likely he was on one of his reconnaissance flights over the kingdom. Sarah stretched and got up. Or started to. Her nightgown might very well be beyond repair, the corset-style front entirely unlaced, and the seam split up the side almost to her breast.
She should've expected that. "Make me your queen, then," was the sort of phrase guaranteed to inspire him. And once atop her vanity Above was hardly enough to sate either of them, particularly not when it had been a hasty, hungry round of lovemaking. Down here in her bed they'd both been more patient, but not so much that her wardrobe didn't suffer.
It hardly mattered, since the shirt he'd worn was still hanging at the foot of the bed. It hit her at mid-thigh, and at this hour there were few goblins or servants about to be scandalized – except the kitchen staff, who were accustomed to her early sleepiness.
She padded barefoot out of the bedroom and down the winding stair, heading for the kitchens. Beldych would make her toast with butter and jam, if there weren't any pastries on hand. The coffee bushes, though, were still a work in progress, and she had to content herself with strong tea when she forgot to bring coffee down with her.
Halfway down, she heard something rattle, and turned sharply. Outside the narrow tower window was a familiar-looking barn owl, which flapped its wings again, jostling the thin panes of glass. "You couldn't just fly in upstairs, huh?" Sarah asked, undoing the latch and letting Jareth in.
The owl swooped past her, hovering in midair for a moment before it perched on the torch bracket just above her head. It bobbed its head to look at her, and made a soft chirruping sound.
Sarah took a closer look, and almost groaned. This bird was darker than Jareth, with more prominent specks across its belly and wings. "Great, I just let a wild freakin' owl into the castle. Okay, c'mere, sweetheart, let me get you outside."
Even as she tried to open the window, the owl trilled and flew off to the next torch, half a turn down the stairs. "There aren't any mice in here for you to eat," Sarah called in the same sweet tone, approaching the bird carefully. She didn't want to spook it. "We have goblins, they keep the vermin down. But they might go after you, sweetie, so you have to go back outside. Now be a nice owl and fly through the window when I open it?"
Barn owls, despite being incredibly beautiful, could make a wide variety of un-pretty noises. Still, the throaty sound accompanied by beak-clacking struck Sarah as being almost akin to laughing. At least it wasn't screeching at her.
Sarah eased past the bird to the next window and unlatched it. "All right, come on, beautiful," she said soothingly, and turned to look back at it.
The owl blinked, hopped off its perch … and became a faerie woman just in time for her feet to touch the floor. Not just any fae, either, but a woman of startling beauty: her long hair was the same cream-and-gold as the owl's plumage, and her blue eyes were streaked with a mysterious gray. By the look of her, she couldn't be more than twenty, but Sarah knew age was deceptive among the fae.
Her first, absurd thought was a half-formed realization that this gorgeous stranger made her look frowzy by comparison. That was quickly overrun by the shocked realization that she'd let a strange fae into their home. Oh, shit… We just dealt with Lyselle, and I let some rando into the castle!
The woman only smiled, and gave her a slight curtsy. "You must be Sarah. I am Cadelinyth of Etaron. Jareth's mother. Feel free to call me Della."
Sarah could only stare at her. Of course! She'd heard the story of Jareth's grandparents, the sorceress-queen and her owl, so this had to be Jareth's mother. "I…" she began, and another realization struck her so suddenly that she blurted it aloud. "I'm not wearing pants. Oh my God. Sorry … give me just a moment." She had met the parents of other lovers before, but never this unexpected or unprepared. They weren't supposed to get here for another two days!
While Sarah tried to force her mind back into something resembling proper speech, and come up with a reasonable explanation for why the soon-to-be Goblin Queen—and this woman's soon-to-be daughter-in-law—was roaming the halls in precisely one piece of clothing that wasn't even hers, Cadelinyth patted her shoulder gently. "I know where the kitchens are, darling. Go wake my son, if he's still abed … and judging by the love-bite on your neck, he likely is."
Sarah could only squeak in horrified embarrassment, and fled back up the stairs. She bolted into his room, calling out, "Jareth! Your mother is here early, and I didn't know it was her, I thought it was you and then I thought it was just an owl but it's your mom and dear God, I'm just wearing your damn shirt and I hope I didn't flash her when I went running up the stairs. Oh my God, this is a nightmare… "
He had been in the dressing room, and stepped out to stare at her, his up-swept brows arched even higher. It was a mark of her agitation that she paid no attention to the fact that he hadn't bothered to don a shirt just yet. "Sarah, slow down. Now, what happened?"
She managed to relay the tale with less breathlessness, and this time included, "And don't bitch at me about letting someone in the castle. One, I was half-asleep. Two, I thought it was you—I didn't know anyone else turned into an owl. Three, you're supposed to have spells and wards to protect against that sort of thing."
"It's all right, Sarah," he soothed, and went to kiss her brow, drawing her close. "Although I would prefer that you not let any strange birds into my castle in the future. All the window-locks are spelled to admit me in owl-form."
"Would've been nice to know that earlier," Sarah commented, snuggling against his chest. "And it's our castle, dammit. Get that through your thick fae head. Our kingdom, our castle."
"Mere habit," Jareth murmured, nuzzling her hair. "I assure you, I'm quite aware that all I have and all I am, I now share with you."
"Including your parents," Cadelinyth said lightly from the doorway, and Sarah yelped, scrambling for clothes. There had to be something she'd left in here, as often she hastily undressed in this room. Sarah spied a skirt tangled up in the cushion pit, and yanked it out, darting into the dressing room to put it on.
"Mother, while I'm pleased beyond expression to see you, I find myself wishing you had announced your arrival," Jareth said. Despite the formal words, there was a warmth in his tone that Sarah hadn't heard applied to anyone other than herself.
She paused with the skirt in hand, and turned to see Cadelinyth reaching up to cup her son's face, drawing him down and kissing the bridge of his nose. "I love you, my son," she said. "And I am proud of you. Forgive me if I wished to see your bride before the two of you had the chance to arrange matters so as to show only what you wanted me to see."
"And this invasion of my bedchamber was also your endless curiosity?" Jareth asked, hugging her.
"Well, yes," Cadelinyth replied. "The way two lovers speak to each other when they think no one is present gives a much better indication of the health of their relationship than anything else." She smiled, that same wicked smirk that Sarah often saw on Jareth's lips, and added, "I'm glad to see she has you well in hand, my son."
"Hmph. I indulge her," Jareth said, and Cadelinyth laughed. "Now go downstairs before you give Sarah fits of apoplexy."
"I shall. I believe there are scones being baked even as we speak," Cadelinyth replied. Then she looked over at Sarah and smiled again, charmingly. "Do not be afraid, my darling daughter-to-be. You cannot offend me with the revelation that my son's head can be turned by a length of lovely leg. He comes by that honestly; his father has much the same weakness."
"Mother!" Jareth exclaimed, and laughing merrily at them both, Cadelinyth finally left.
"Okay, so I finally met your mother," Sarah said weakly. "While wearing your shirt, and nothing else. Also with a great big obvious hickey on my neck. Thanks, by the way."
"You're welcome," Jareth said, hugging her tightly. He did trace a finger over her neck, and by the tingle of magic she knew he was erasing the evidence of last night's activities. "All will be well, Sarah. My mother is one of the most even-tempered and least-confrontational fae I know."
"In that case, are you sure she's your mother?" Sarah quipped, and he bit her ear gently to remonstrate.
…
When they both came downstairs a while later, Sarah was still embarrassed. "So, the bad news is that I can't stay," she began, after formal introductions and some royal small talk. Cadelinyth looked at her curiously, and she continued, "I took time off work for the visit, but we weren't expecting you for at least another day. I've got to go to work Aboveground today and tomorrow."
"It's been a very long time since I went Above," Cadelinyth mused.
"Mother, please," Jareth interrupted. "She is going to work. Let her put her life back in order before you flap in and disrupt it?"
"Oh, do you have a monopoly on that?" Della teased.
"It's okay," Sarah said. "I really do actually have to get to work. I thought you weren't coming just yet. And I expected Jareth's father as well…?"
"I fly faster than our horses can travel," Della replied. "And again, I wanted to take you two off guard."
"Thank you for being the utterly devious wretch I know you to be," Jareth grumbled.
"Your father loves my deviousness," she informed him. "Besides, now Sarah knows where you got it from. Never fear, Sarah darling. Take a scone, and when you return, my beloved Thiel will be here for more formal introductions. If we're all in luck, you and I can go Above for a bit during our visit. I hear you have excellent shopping in New York."
Jareth rested his head in his palms. "Not an hour passes, and my mother is already giving orders in my kingdom. Sarah, love, please go. Perhaps by the time you return tonight I will have convinced Etaron's queen that she does not rule here."
His mother's only reply was to ruffle his hair affectionately. Sarah couldn't help a laugh, and rubbed Jareth's shoulder. "You get to do this when you meet my dad. We'll always be children to our parents. And to think, I used to believe you'd hatched from an egg."
"Trust me, about halfway through the pregnancy, I wished I could lay eggs," Della chortled.
Jareth leaned back and offered Sarah a wan smile. She kissed his cheek, and murmured, "I love you. I'll be back soon."
"I love you, Sarai," Jareth replied. "I'll be counting the hours."
…
Sarah made it Above and got herself dressed and ready for work in the nick of time. She didn't get to her desk immediately, though. Everyone was out in the hallway chattering about something. "What's up?" Sarah asked.
Amy shuddered. "The law firm upstairs called in an exterminator, finally. I swear their secretaries must leave candy in their desks. Anyway, they'd been seeing rats, and the exterminator found fresh holes chewed in the insulation, leading down here. They're checking out our office, now." A pause, and she cocked her head. "Didn't you say you saw a mouse, the other day?"
"I thought I did, but it was just a shadow," Sarah lied, wondering what Neesk had done now. Hunting rats in the walls had seemed a safe distraction for the little goblin, but like everything else in her life lately, it was more than it seemed.
A moment later, the pest control guy came out, shaking his head. "Damnedest thing I ever saw," the older man muttered.
"We've got rats, too?" Amy asked, grimacing.
"Nah, your floor is clean," the exterminator told her. "But I never seen a rat graveyard before. Whole pile of skulls in one corner, picked clean. Not a trace of rats anywhere else. They must've all moved upstairs for some reason. Somebody put down poison, or something?"
No one had, and he finally departed, still shaking his head. Sarah, meanwhile, made a mental note to tell Neesk not to pile up his kills.
…
