The music from the open doorway swelled beautifully and sent shivers of nervous anticipation down Sarah's spine. Sarah loved to watch historical movies, and she thought that she knew perfectly well what Amael's ball was going to be like. Despite all of Sarah's mental preparation, as well as the dance lessons from Jareth, the food and wine tasting with Amael, and the dress fittings, she was the opposite of being prepared for this.
"Are you ready, precious?" Jareth asked. His soft-spoken words and the casual way that he looked down at her only made Sarah squeeze his arm harder.
"I don't think that a thousand years of preparation could ever prepare me for this," Sarah said. Her gaze was locked on the open doorway that lead to the balcony that would take them down to Amael's ballroom. The announcer was giving them an expectant look, and also looked rather annoyed; it was almost a given at this point, considering that they'd been standing there for nearly two minutes now.
Jareth spun around so that he was between Sarah's gaze and the doorway. "Precious," he started. "Sarah." She slowly looked up at him. "None of those people matter. I love you, and that's all that matters." He cupped her face between his hands and gently kissed her lips. It was only thanks to some spell that the Goblins had cast over Sarah that Jareth didn't pull away with pale pink lipstick on his own lips.
"Well, there is one person who matters," Sarah whispered.
"Yes, but we don't have to worry about them. Because tonight is our night," Jareth replied. "Are you ready, precious?" Sarah nodded, and with one last, light kiss of her lips, Jareth went back to her side. She gripped his arm and they stepped forward, through the overly ornate doorway.
"Announcing Jareth the Goblin King and Lady Sarah Williams," the man said in a clear, ringing voice that carried over the sound of the orchestra and the light chatter of the guests. Jareth and Sarah started down the stairs, and by the time that they'd reached the bottom, all eyes were on them. Sarah's knees felt like they were made of jell-o, and her stomach was turning worse than the time that she'd eaten some funny Indian food and ended up with food poisoning. She felt just about as good as that time, too.
"Jareth, it's so good to see you again," Mizumi said as she came up to the two of them. Her two strange daughter followed in her wake, although people tended to stay away from the smaller of the two, as the literal dark cloud that hung over her head was raining something fierce.
"Yes, it's always a pleasure to see you and your daughters, Mizumi," Jareth said through an overly forced smile. "I see that Moulin is the life of the party, as usual."
"It's always an honor to be invited to your mother's balls," Moulin said without inflection in her voice.
"Well, you know how Moulin is; she'd rather be in a library than at a ball," Mizumi said with a little laugh.
"You could have at least asked that she leave Nimbus at home," Jareth said.
"Nimbus gets lonely and destroys the castle when I'm not there," Moulin said, again, without inflection.
"I'm starving," the larger of Mizumi's daughters said as she patted her overly-large stomach.
"Yes, of course you are, darling," Mizumi said with tenderness. "Why don't you go get something to eat while mommy talks with Jareth?" Drumlin left, and Moulin trailed after her.
"There are a lot of people that I'd like to introduce Sarah to tonight, so if you don't mind…" Jareth said as he and Sarah half-turned to leave.
"Oh, but Jareth, there is something dreadfully important that I wanted to speak to you about."
"If it was so important, then you should have written to me."
"I did."
"Oh." Jareth paused for a beat to consider this. "Then you should have marked your letters as being urgent after I didn't respond."
"I did," Mizumi said through a clenched smile.
"I see." Jareth paused again, and then offered Mizumi a cheerful smile. "Well, a party is no place to discuss important matters! After all, in case you hadn't heard, but I'm planning to make a very important announcement later, and talking business would only take away from my announcement. Come on Sarah, I think that I see Pyrael over there." Without further ado, Jareth quickly lead Sarah away from the other Fae. Once they were several feet away, Sarah looked back to Mizumi, and saw that the blue-haired woman was positively fuming where they'd left her by the end of the stairs.
The orchestra started to play a lively waltz, and Jareth swept Sarah up and over to the dance floor. It was easy for Sarah to forget her troubles for a moment as she focused instead on not stepping on Jareth's toes. "I thought that we were going to go speak with Pyrael."
"Why? Are you missing her in the scant few hours that we last saw her?" Jareth asked with a slight smirk. Sarah gave him a deep scowl and he laughed a little. "Pyrael won't mind if we don't meet up with her for a little bit. And Mizumi probably knows that it was just some excuse to get away from her."
"Why is she so determined to speak with you?" Sarah asked.
"Why should I know? She's completely crazy. You see those daughters of hers?"
"Yeah. They're a bit… unusual," Sarah said. Drumlin was standing by the food table and inhaling anything within her grasp, while her sister stood by and created an ever-growing puddle of water from her cloud. "What about them?"
"They're not Fae."
"What are they?"
"They're ablation that Mizumi created. Aspects of herself that she wanted to get rid of, but its difficult for anybody to do that, as you might imagine."
"I don't understand; why would anybody want to get rid of a part of themselves like that?"
"I can't really say for certain about Mizumi's motives, but there has always been… uh… how should I put this? Mizumi is a troubled individual." Jareth pulled away from Sarah but still held onto her hand as the song ended. He lightly pressed his lips to the back of her hand, and then pulled her back to him as they walked off from the dance floor.
"Jareth? Oh, I was hoping that I'd get a chance to talk with you for a moment tonight!" It was a well-dressed male Fae, who had a giggling girl dressed in a frothy, pink dress on his arm.
"Yes, of course, Lord Chiesu," Jareth said.
"I was wondering about the outer-most borders of your Labyrinth, the ones that…" Chiesu started to talk about places that Sarah had never heard of before.
"Politics are so boring," said Chiesu's date to Sarah.
"It's not that they're boring, it's just that I would probably be more interested if I knew what they were talking about."
"Hm, maybe you're right. But even though I do know the towns that Chiesu's talking about, I still find it hard to be overly interested in it. This is a really pretty dress. Who made this?" she asked as she gently fingered the puffy sleeve of Sarah's dress.
"Oh, I don't know. The goblins, I guess."
"Yes, of course. Jareth is the Goblin King, after all." She rolled her eyes.
"So it's settled then. I'll write to you as soon as Yepam and I get home, and we'll arrange to meet another time to discuss this further, then?" Chiesu said.
"Yes, of course," Jareth said. Yepam gave Sarah a small smile as Chiesu lead her away. "I hate it when people try to talk about important matters at a party," Jareth said to Sarah as he turned to lead her away. "I keep telling people that they need to write to me so that we can talk in a more business-like environment, but they almost never do."
"That's because you throw most of your mail in the fire without even opening them," Sarah said with a roll of her eyes. "How do you know if something important isn't happening?"
"Because my mother would tell me if it was," Jareth said as if it was the most obvious thing in the entire world. They walked around the room and met several other people, some in groups of three or four, and others by themselves. But they usually would only make quick introductions and exchange pleasantries before Jareth would usher Sarah on.
After a bit, they finally ran into Pyrael and Amael. "This is my worthless husband, Gavriel. Don't talk to him." Gavriel, was stuffing his face with the remaining hors d'oeuvres that Drumlin had not eaten. Sarah had not seen where the three of them had gone, but she didn't really care so long as they were not near her.
"I see that you've already made the rounds," Amael said. "I think that just about everybody on my… special guest list is here now. You should make your announcement." Sarah's heart started to hammer in her chest. Jareth gave her hand a quick squeeze and offered her a loving smile. "I'll go tell the orchestra so that you can." Amael vanished into the crowd.
"You don't have to do anything but to stand at my side, precious," Jareth whispered in her ear. "We'll leave shortly after, alright?" Sarah could only nod. Jareth shifted a little and ran his tongue along the shell of Sarah's ear. "We'll be quick, because there are so many things that I would love to do to you, and none of them involve that pretty dress of yours, Sarah." Sarah flushed and pressed Jareth closer to her for a moment just as the orchestra abruptly cut off in the middle of a song.
"So sorry for the interruption," Amael said as she stood at the front of the stage. "I just wanted to thank everybody for coming out tonight, and I hope that you're all having a great time. Before this ball goes any further, I just wanted to hand the stage over to my youngest son, Jareth, as he has an important announcement that he'd like to share with everybody." Everybody politely clapped and moved out of the way as Jareth, with Sarah in tow, walked up to the stage.
"Thank you, mother," Jareth said as soon as he and Sarah got to the center of the small stage. Sarah's knees were shaking again, and this was even worse than when they'd walked into the room, because then, she could only say that maybe most of the attention was on her. But now, 100% of it was focused on her and Jareth. "I just wanted to make a public announcement of this and say that Sarah and I have decided to get married."
A ripple of shock ran through the crowd at Jareth's simple words.
"It is a decision that neither of us came to lightly, considering, not only the strict rules that still govern our people, but also the fact that Sarah is from the Aboveworld. But we are in love, and I don't think that any of that really matters," Jareth said as he turned to look Sarah in the eye. The crowd started to whisper louder and louder, and the couple of words that floated to Sarah's ear were not overly kind. Sarah opened her mouth to say something, anything, to Jareth, but he cupped her face between his hands and gave her an exceptionally passionate kiss.
For a brief moment, the ball and all of the people who couldn't even keep their comments to themselves until she and Jareth were out of earshot, completely vanished. The only thing that existed was Jareth's soft, thin lips and his moist tongue as it did completely devilish things to her mouth. Sarah pulled away from Jareth, completely breathless, and turned her attention to the crowd, which had fallen completely silent. A few of the older ladies that Sarah had been introduced to were fanning themselves with their hands, and several of the younger women just stood, completely slack-jawed at the sight.
"I think that this is our cue," Jareth whispered to Sarah. She turned her back to look at him. Jareth wrapped an arm around Sarah's waist to pull him flush against his chest. "I bid you all adieu," Jareth said to everybody. Then, they vanished from the ballroom.
It took Sarah a moment to reorient herself— they were standing in Jareth's room. Well, it was pretty much their room now, as Sarah hadn't slept a night in any other room since she'd gotten to his castle. She looked up at Jareth who leaned over to capture her lips in a searing, passionate kiss. He roughly bit on her lower lip before his tongue darted out and ran over her lip to soothe the pain away a little.
Jareth backed Sarah up until she hit the foot-board of the bed, and then Jareth's nimble fingers roughly grasped at the bodice of the dress and tore it apart as if it was rice paper. "Jareth!" Sarah exclaimed with annoyance as he continued to rip the bodice until there was nothing left but Sarah's skirt and her corset. "What are you doing?"
"I'm undressing you the fastest way I know how," Jareth replied before he started to lightly nip at the pale flesh just above the top of her corset.
"That dress took a lot of time to make, and you ripped it up."
"I'll repair it, precious, don't you worry," Jareth replied. He pushed the skirt down off from Sarah's hips, and it pooled around her ankles until Jareth picked Sarah up and pressed her against the ornate bed post. Sarah wrapped her ankles around Jareth's waist and rocked her hips against his erection.
"You could… you could have used magic, you know?"
"Yes, but I want to be a little rough with you right now, precious," Jareth growled. He grabbed the cups of Sarah's corset and started to roughly pull on it. Sarah felt the metal fastening that the strings went through protest against Jareth's actions for a brief moment before they broke free from the fabric. Jareth ripped the corset off from her torso and threw it aside with the remains of her dress.
Sarah grabbed Jareth's shirt in her hands and tried to rip it off from him, but the fabric was too strong. "Oh come on!" Sarah complained after a moment of trying. Jareth made sure that Sarah was balanced between the bedpost and his hips, and released his hold of her so that he could reach down and rip his own shirt for Sarah. She brushed the torn fabric off from his arms before she cupped his face and gave him a rough kiss of her own.
"Jareth," Sarah broke off their kiss with a breathy moan. She reached up and grabbed onto the post with both hands and pushed her back against the solid pole as she ground her hips firmly against Jareth's rock-hard erection. "Jareth… Jareth, please. I need you."
Jareth's pants slid to the floor, seemingly of their own violation, and Sarah felt his penis poking her butt. Jareth readjusted Sarah's position against the bed-post, pushed aside her panties, and then slammed roughly into her. Sarah let out a strangled cry and raked her fingers down Jareth's back hard enough to leave red marks.
Jareth grabbed a handful of Sarah's dark hair and tilted her head to the side so that he could run his tongue up the side of her neck. "Yes, my precious Sarah," he groaned as he continued to pound into her at an alarming rate. "Yes, scream for me!" Sarah let out another cry as Jareth drove deeper and harder into her than he had been. "Scream my name, precious!"
"J-jareth! Jareth!" Sarah started, and each rendition of the Goblin King's name grew louder and louder. Jareth pounded into Sarah as hard as he could every time that she said his name. "Jar…" Sarah broke off in a breathless shudder as she reached her orgasm. Jareth let out a primal roar as he came, and then roughly bit the junction of Sarah's neck and shoulder. She started to shake around him all over again as the feel of Jareth's cum inside of her brought her to another orgasm.
Jareth slowly released Sarah and put her down on the ground; she put her hands behind her onto the bed post in order to support her, as she was feeling exceptionally weak in the knees after the entire experience.
"Come, precious," Jareth said as he walked over to the bed. Sometime during their passionate fucking, Jareth had removed both his pants as well as his boots, and Sarah took a moment to watch his naked butt for a second. When Jareth had climbed onto the bed and gave her an expectant look, Sarah hurried to join him.
Sarah lay for a moment in the dark room; the fire was nothing but dying embers and the only source of light seemed to come from the quarter moon as its light streamed in through the windows. She wasn't sure why she'd woken up in the first place, but now that she was awake, she couldn't seem to get back to sleep.
Jareth grumbled a little in his sleep as she slipped from the bed; she felt a little pang of guilt as he reached for her, but seemed confused, even in his sleep, that he couldn't find her. But, it wasn't like she was going to go anywhere far— jut a walk until she felt sleepy again.
Sarah moved over to the wardrobe where her clothes were stored, both from Aboveworld and the things that Jareth had provided her with from the Underworld. A dark figure standing next to the mirror caught her attention, but as Sarah got closer, she saw that it was only a dressmaker dummy, with the dress that Sarah had worn to Amael's ball on it, completely repaired.
Sarah gave a low snort and rolled her eyes as she reached into the wardrobe to grab her dressing gown. After she'd pulled it on, she crept silently from the room. Although the castle had let Sarah out from the room, it either sensed her desire to just walk until she got tired, or was unwilling to send her to anyplace other than a seemingly endless hallway.
This seemed alright to Sarah until she realized how completely cold that she was. The castle always seemed to be the right temperature, no matter what, so it hadn't occurred to Sarah that she should have grabbed her heavier dressing gown. And maybe her slippers— when had the stone floor become so completely freezing under her bare feet?
Sarah looked down and she saw that there was a low, dense mist that circled around her ankles. She shivered, half with fright, and turned around to try and go back to the bedroom.
Only, as she turned, she saw that she was no longer in the castle, but in a garden. She'd walked in Jareth's gardens enough with Jareth, Amael, and Pyrael since she'd arrived at his kingdom, and the creeping vines and flowers that looked blood-red in the inky night had no place in Jareth's usually cheery gardens.
Sarah's breath caught in her throat and misted before her. "Hello?" Sarah called out as unease blossomed in her belly.
"Hello," said a deep voice from behind her. Sarah jumped a little, and half turned, but a chilly hand reached out and grabbed Sarah's chin; long, unkempt nails scrapped along the delicate flesh of Sarah's throat, and Sarah swallowed hard.
Thank you so much for sticking with my story thus far. I hope that you've enjoyed the latest chapter!
As always, this has not been proof read, so any help with fixing this chapter up will be most appreciated!