When they finally pulled apart for air, Wyatt was stuck by how beautiful DG was with the afternoon light from the window bathing her features in cool light. There was nothing he wanted more than to take her back into his arms and meld their lips together.
That primal urge was reflected in DG's gaze, and it scared her out of her wits. However, before they had time to see what would happen if they let go and gave into the urges coursing through them, two pairs of foot steps were heard coming their way.
DG tried to school her face as Coriander and Tinny approached, the fear evident on their faces.
"Your highness, your grace!" Coriander said, her voice barely revealing that she had just run from the stables where she had been taking care of her horse to deliver this news to the princess personally.
"What is it?" DG asked, fear taking a hold of her even though she had no idea what had happened.
"It's the boy," Tinny said urgently around her gasping breaths. "He's wandered into the forest."
"The fieries are no threat to him," DG said, confusion and fear warring for supremacy. There was no need to explain what boy they were talking about. It was Jeb.
Coriander shook her head, "Not the fieries, your highness. One of them reported to a patrol that they smell a evil witch."
"Which way?" Wyatt asked, his voice hard and leaving no room for questioning.
DG offered him her hand, "This way," she said. She couldn't teleport them directly there, Jareth had not left her enough magick for that, but she knew someone who still could, if they were willing. Az, she called out silently, I need you.
Within moments Az was before them, looking at DG and Wyatt with concern. "What is it?"
"It's Jeb," DG said. "He's lost in the forest." She held out her hand, a slight sparking of her magick bouncing off it, calling to Az's own magick. DG looked up at her sister with wide, vulnerable eyes, "Please, Az. He needs us."
Az didn't ask for more than that. She took DG's hand and Wyatt's other hand, "Hang on."
Within the blink of an eye the trio was standing in the middle of a very dense forest instead of the gallery in the castle. DG's ears tuned into the sounds of the forest around them, letting her goblin senses tell her where her boy was, and judge how serious the danger was to him.
"This way," she said to Az as she started to run after Wyatt who had already heard his son's soft voice close by where they were.
The Goblin Princess growled when she came into the clearing and found Wyatt watching the scene before him with terrific fear in his eyes. She made a guttural noise that sounded from deep within her and the land that surrounded them when she saw who exactly it was that threatened Jeb. She uttered a curse in the ancient language before calling out to the boy, "Jeb."
He turned to face her, his eyes somewhat glazed over as he took in the sudden appearance of his father and the two princesses. "Jeb, come here" DG said, her voice reinforced with the magick that lived inside of her and surrounded them all.
The witch snarled, "No, Jeb. Take my hand. It's the trick I told you about. She's trying to trick you. She's not the real DG."
"What do you see?" Az whispered to Cain, unsure why such an ugly witch thought she could trick the lad.
"I see DG standing over there," he nodded toward his right before motioning toward the witch, "And there."
"Glamour," Az whispered.
"I know," DG whispered back as she continued to glare at the evil witch. The magick she was emitting intensified, sparking with both light and dark blue light. "Jeb," she called out again. He turned to look at her, unsure which vision of DG was the real one. "Don't trust me, Jeb," she said. "Go to your father. Trust in him."
Jeb closed his eyes tightly before reopening them and looking with a clearer gaze at his father and the two women beside him. "Daddy?" he whispered, still unsure because of the witch's spell.
Wyatt nodded, never happier to hear his son's voice. He held out his arms, "It's okay, Jeb. Just come over here to me."
"NO!" the witch shouted, reinforcing her words with a burst of magick, "She's just trying to trick you, Jeb. That's not your father."
Jeb hesitated, unsure which DG was the real one.
Wyatt growled low at the witch, sending her a seething glare before turning back to his son and saying, "For your eighth birthday your grandmother made you a chocolate cake, but their dog, Hunter, got to it before the party and he got really sick. Mrs. Suza from across town bought you a carrot cake to make up for it."
The boy listened intently to his father's words, DG's magick combating that of the witch to give the lad a fighting chance. He smiled slightly at the story, "I started crying that I didn't want to eat carrots instead of chocolate." With every word he spoke, Jeb took a step closer to his father, "So Grandma gave me some of the leftover chocolate icing."
When Wyatt had grabbed hold of Jeb, Az threw up a defensive shield effectively blocking off the witch's magick from getting to either father or son. At the same moment she took DG's hand, combining their power in a move that left the witch snarling with rage as she dropped the glamour.
"Well, well, well, the two princess came out to play," she sneered, her face contorting into a snarl. "Do you intend to do to me what you did to my sister?"
Az stood tall at the taunting as DG ignored her question and replied, "Acts of aggression against children are forbidden on Goblin soil, witch."
"As does Jackson le Monté - on whose lands you have been in exile for the past five hundred annuals," Az said with the authority that came from sitting through many boring history lessons with Tutor.
DG hissed in rage, the pendant around her neck, as well as the one around Az's, pulsing with dark and light magicks intertwined together.
Wyatt watched in captivated horror as the magick battle waged on, two against one. So Le Monté hadn't been keeping to defensive maneuvers at all. He had been finding a way to release one of the Sisters from her watery prison. It was no secret that DG and Azkadellia were powerful, and it was definitely no secret that the Sisters had been the most powerful witches in existence once upon a time, but Wyatt was unsure how this would turn out.
Then again, he didn't know what had happened in the cave all those years ago.
DG relaxed her control over the magick, giving her power to Az in a way that she hadn't been aware she could do when she was five annuals old.
"Daddy," Jeb said from within his father's arms, one of his hands clutching something that Wyatt couldn't see clearly. "I'm scared."
Wyatt held the boy tighter, "It's okay, Jeb. Everything's going to be fine. I've got you."
"But DG's going to be mad at me."
"Why would she be mad at you?" Wyatt asked, concerned at how timid his normally outgoing adolescent was acting.
"Because I was supposed to stay at the castle. And now she's in trouble with the witch."
Wyatt breathed an inward sigh of relief before responding, "We'll have a talk later about not going off when I don't know where you are, but no, I don't think DG is mad at you." He pointed to how DG and Az's combined light was overpowering the other witch's magick. Part of him acknowledged that he had been a fool to believe that nothing could hurt her if she was with Az. Apparently she had been right.
Only a few brief moments after that, Jeb and Wyatt watched as the evil witch melted back into the land from which she came. The last of the three Sisters who had terrorized the O.Z. hundreds of annuals before.
DG and Az let their magicks absorb back into their bodies, dropping the shield that had protected the Cain men from harm during the battle. As the last of the magick was swept up, Az took one step back toward the men before collapsing in a dead faint.
The other three rushed forward, "Help me pick her up," DG requested of Wyatt.
"Is she gonna be okay?" Jeb asked, his voice terrified that DG would hate him for making a mistake that resulted in Az getting sick.
DG nodded with a soft smile to Jeb as Wyatt easily lifted Az into his arms. "She's just tired, Jeb. She used a lot of energy and concentration in a very short amount of time."
Jeb's eyes were wide as he took DG's offered hand and they started the walk back to the palace. "Why aren't you as tired as she is, then?"
"Because I'm bound to the Land, and it helps so I don't get so tired. Az isn't bound to the Land, yet."
"But she will be?"
"Yes. She will be," DG explained patiently as they exited the forest and entered the hedge maze. "When she's crowned queen of the O.Z."
Jeb continued to ask questions as Wyatt led them straight to the castle. When they had entered the shade of the castle's walls, Az began to stir.
"Deej?" she asked sleepily.
"Shh," DG responded, moving to grasp her hand, "Rest now, Az. Everything's fine."
"The witch?"
"Melted. Just like before, but this time it was all you, Az."
Az smiled sleepily as she fell back into an exhausted slumber.
"My Azkadellia?" the worried voice of the queen ruined the moment of peace DG was feeling for the first time in annuals. "What's happened?" Nesa asked as she rushed toward her daughters, Ahamo hot on the trail behind his wife.
DG closed her eyes, counting to ten in an attempt to control her anger. "Az is fine, and the last of the Sisters has been melted."
Nesa looked sharply at her younger daughter before looking again at the sleeping princess being carried by Wyatt Cain. Ahamo relieved Wyatt of Azkadellia gratefully, holding his daughter close as he listened to his wife speak to their younger daughter. "You melted her?"
DG shook her head, tilting her head toward Az she said, "I only gave her the strength and made sure she didn't fall down half way through."
Jeb looked up somberly at the queen, "It's my fault."
"Sweet Lurline, child, how?" Nesa didn't know the facts, but she was fairly positive that none of what had happened that day was the direct result of Jeb Cain's actions.
"I went into the forest without telling anyone, and the witch started talking to me. I thought she was DG. And now Azkadellia is sick."
DG knelt down in front of Jeb, making him look her in the eye as she replied, "Az is not sick, Jeb. She's tired. That's all."
"And if you hadn't found the witch out," Nesa added, her voice flowing musically and comfortingly over the boy, "She would still be hiding and plotting her dreadful schemes for King Jackson."
"What is that?" Wyatt asked, drawing attention away from what had happened previously to the cube Jeb was fiddling with in his hands.
He attempted to hide it before holding it out to his father, "It's a present DG gave me."
Wyatt looked at it and watched as the letter puzzle reset itself into a different order. "Hmm," he grunted, unsure of the point of the device.
"It'll teach him some of the other languages a young ... gentleman should know," DG explained with a slight smile on her face as she stood up straight again.
Wyatt handed it back and watched as it reset itself to exactly where Jeb had left off. The boy's eyes were wide, "How'd it do that?"
"The magick I put in it recognizes you," DG explained. "That way when your dad decides to try to solve it, your pace won't be affected by his."
"Cool," the boy said, turning to run off to play with it. He stopped suddenly, turning back around as if he had just committed a capital offense.
Wyatt chuckled at him, "Just stay inside the garden this time."
Jeb grinned at his father before rushing off to play.
DG turned to her parents again, her smile lessening, although never disappearing completely. "We'll see you at the evening meal then."
Nesa nodded, one of her hands coming out to grasp one of DG's lightly. She smiled warmly before removing her hand and motioning for Ahamo to follow her so that they could put Azkadellia to rest in the bedchamber she was using during their stay.
The princess's eyes followed them down the hall, as Ahamo looked back and nodded once to her, letting her know he appreciated the lack of fight DG had gotten into with Aerenesa.
"You okay?" Wyatt asked, snaking his arm around her waist and bringing his chin to rest on top of her head. She was the perfect height for it with her boots on.
DG nodded into his neck, breathing in his scent. "We need to talk," she whispered lightly, not wanting to leave the comfort of his embrace.
"We will," he replied, moving away slightly so that he could look at her before motioning with his head for her to follow him. "But first, I want a tour of the castle."
She smiled up at him, unsure what his game was, "A tour? Really?"
He nodded, "If I'm going to have to live here, then I don't want to be getting lost every day."
DG chuckled at that as they began walking down the corridor hand-in-hand, "You won't get lost, Wyatt."
"How do you know?" he questioned, pulling her closer. It was almost shocking to him how much he needed her as close as possible, but the knowledge of the binding just recently completed compensated for whatever shock he might have felt. "I heard that Lord Greenwalt got lost trying to find the ballroom just yesterday," he added.
"Lord Greenwalt isn't bound to the Crown Princess, who just so happens to be bound to the castle and the land it is resting upon," she explained patiently, taking her desire to be close to Wyatt in stride. "For all intents and purposes, where the castle is concerned, we are one. It will respond to you just as it will to me."
Wyatt smiled, pulling her closer still as he stopped walking, and kissed her mindless again. This time in the middle of one of the most used corridors in the castle.
A/N: I felt it was fitting to end this chapter with a kiss as well. And so public! What will the other suitors think?
Oh, and I'm not sure I've mentioned this in an author's note before or not, but I don't write smut, so if you're expecting this story to change from "T" to "M" anytime soon you're going to be waiting a long while ... like ... forever.
If smut's your thing, though (as I love to read it as much as the next fangirl) check out FeistyFox for Wyatt/DG, and PaisleyRose for Sarah/Jareth. While there may be more, those two stand out for me as the best of the best of the best. Sir. (Sorry, scifi humor.)