Robert paced in Jareth's study, muttering to himself. Trust Sarah? With life and death? Did none of these people see what danger she was in now? They all treated it as if were some game and he was supposed to just sit back and watch it happen. They might all be close to immortal, but Sarah was still very much human. Robert's bonding mark seemed to itch a bit, and he idly scratched it. He knew Karen was reading him, testing out his emotional state. He wasn't crazy about that, but she was Fae and it was all part of their marriage bond. A bond that linked them permanently. A bond like the one Jareth and Sarah were starting to have. It made Robert a bit uneasy.

"She's not supposed to be in any danger," Robert said, breaking the silence. "You said this was a peaceful place - no wars or anything."

"There hasn't been a war in centuries," Seline spoke up, "but there will be rogues and criminals in every age, Robert. It is true in your own world, is it not?"

"Yes, but Sarah would never be in the middle of anything like that if she was back home." Karen rolled her eyes and folded her arms across her chest.

"Robert, you can't be sure of that. What if she joined the military after college, or got held up one night buying groceries? She could crash her car, or drown on vacation."

"Are you trying to terrify me?" Robert growled. Karen shook her head.

"All I am saying is that nothing is certain, not here and certainly not back on Earth. We take our chances and take one day at a time." He didn't answer, except to mutter something she didn't quite catch about sneaky Fae and their promises.

"She is presumptive queen and she will know what to do when she is tested," Logan said, pouring himself a large drink. It seemed to glow golden fire with tiny lightning bolts darting through the amber liquid. Robert was a bit impressed when Logan downed it without flinching.

"She's a child," Robert protested. The High King frowned, shaking his head.

"Don't start that again, we were making such progress," Logan said, pouring another drink. Robert noted that the liquid in the bottle never seemed to go down, but Logan had been pouring quite a few for himself. He sighed, one more way of knowing he was in crazy land with no road map.

"She can claim Jareth as her mate before the year is up, you know," Logan said, staring into his empty glass.

"You told her she couldn't," Robert said, confused. "I'm lost again."

"She needs time to get to know him, she can't marry a stranger," Karen said firmly. "Their bond needs time to grow, if she married him now out of teenage hormones - they'd never get a chance for a real marriage."

"Not that I'm a fan of teenage marriages, but she could save Jareth if she chose him now. Devlin would then be challenging both monarchs for the kingdom and Sarah could channel the Labyrinth's power against the Lordos as queen. Devlin would be toast." Logan nodded at his statement and sat down near the large fireplace as if he'd solved a great riddle.

"Because Devlin didn't challenge her directly," Robert said slowly. Logan nodded.

"She has no restrictions on her powers - if she came into them now."

Karen watched her husband pace for quite a while, trying to decide just how much she should tell him of Sarah's destiny. She had really tried to explain it to him over the years, but he'd never wanted to hear it. Robert had always seemed to ignore the magic in Karen and focus on what he considered normal. But Sarah had never been normal, even without magic, she was more than people saw at first glance. As presumptive queen, Sarah held barely restrained magic inside of her, only to be released when she wed Jareth. She sighed, a year would be too late to save them if Devlin gained the upper hand during this challenge.

Things were supposed to happen in slow stages, giving eveyone time to adjust to the newness of it all. But now it was all coming to pass too quickly due to Devlin's interference. Sarah should have had a year to get to know Jareth, to grow into her love for him. Now, it was all Karen could do to keep Robert from stealing a crystal and jumping into the Labyrinth.

Queen Seline watched the mortal man as well, eyes narrowed. His family's magic was slight, but with the proper triggers, quite impressive. All it would take was the correct provocation and Robert Williams could gather the emotions wherever he was and cause a magical storm with them, blinding everyone to their own thoughts or needs. He could bend others to his will if he only knew how to harness this power, and Sarah had it as well. It would be very difficult to control him if he understood this, but she supposed it would only be a matter of time before he'd have to come to terms with his heritage.

"Robert, please sit down, you're worrying the children," Karen said softly. Robert glanced over at Alia and Jenata who were staring at him with thinly veiled concern. He ran his hand through his hair and threw himself into a chair.

"When will this be over?" he asked no one in particular. Logan shrugged, gulping down a shot of whatever was in the large bottle.

"When someone loses the game," the king answered, narrowly avoiding the smack his wife sent to the back of his head.

Just great, Robert thought. "Logan, give me a shot of whatever that is, will you?"

"Of course, friend Robert, of course."

JSJSJS

The evening mists rolled over darkening skies, thunder hinting at a possible storm within hours. For what seemed like the hundredth time, Jareth tried to focus on his bond with his kingdom - and then remembered that he did not have Goblin King powers, he had no way of sensing where his oubliettes were, where Sarah was hidden. Biting his lip to keep from screaming, he instead focused on keeping an adequate distance between himself and Devlin. The Lordos was nearby, following.

Of course he would follow Jareth instead of trying to find Sarah on his own. Why should he put actual effort into his plan to take over the kingdom? Jareth swore as he pushed low lying branches out of the way. It was quickly growing dark and if he did not find Sarah before the night was over, Devlin might have time to kill him before the Challenge was fully met.

The Labyrinth was no help to him, she refused to give him even a hint to Sarah's location.

"Concentrate and you will be found," the voice said in his head.

"I'm supposed to be looking for Sarah," he reminded the Labyrinth, who merely whispered a final hint to the king as she faded away.

"She fears you, loves you and will do as you say...if you let her."

Meanwhile, Sarah was pacing in her prison, trying to talk herself into a solution. "Point one, Devlin has his powers so that you can stay alive. Point two, Jareth is without his powers so that the fight remains fair. Point three, I am supposedly a weapon you need - but that can't be true or I would have control over you, not Devlin. Point four - " she was interrupted by Rialta's excited shout.

"Repeat that," she begged. Sarah gave her a confused glance, shrugging.

"Which part - it's all a mess."

"Devlin was given his powers because the Labyrinth thinks he is bound to me by his magic. But you have the ring on your finger. Devlin doesn't have power over me anymore - you do."

"But why were you dying until his power was restored?" Sarah asked, refusing to hope for something so simple.

"Because when Jareth withheld Devlin's power, there was an imbalance in the Labyrinth. It wasn't Jareth's magic being held in here so the Labyrinth distorted it, changed it somehow to keep it from hurting the kingdoms. Being as I am in between worlds, I felt a bit of backlash from the storage. But Sarah - if we take back his powers and you use them with your own - you could fix everything."

"But wouldn't that be cheating?"

"No, not at all. Listen - they have to find us and the loser is killed by the winner. But what if they were both losers, well not really losers, but neither won the Challenge?"

"Then they'd both die?" Sarah was horrified. Rialta shook her head sharply.

"No. They'd both forfeit - no winner, no loser. The Labyrinth would be the final authority unless a higher power intervened. You are the higher power."

"How is that possible?"

"You are presumptive queen - you will have to become queen in word and deed."

"What? I can't - I mean I'm only fifteen!"

"In deed doesn't mean that - really, you humans are so archaic. It only means that you allow Jareth's magic to join with yours and become one force. You'd be bound to each other's soul. It's a very huge commitment. Even more than what you were thinking that it meant."

Sarah blushed. She'd never thought to ask what the vows meant. All right, she could do this, she loved Jareth. She took a deep breath.

"What do I do?"

"Well first of all, we need to get out of this place and find Jareth. Then you two commit yourselves to each other and let the magic combine. After that, Devlin's powers will be no match for the two of you."

"Right. So...how do we get out of here?"

Rialta sighed. "I have no idea."