Chapter Twenty-Six
Jareth
October 11th, 2002. Day 24 of quarantine.
There was a certain level of calm to which he had claimed his right.
He had the oath to his brother, to go straight to the duel once he could step foot outside quarantine.
Another swore to Sarah, that he would give her the head of Aurora, High Queen of Faerie.
It was a puzzle he had yet to solve. Fae were taught to be careful with their words, to avoid such a fate as he found himself with now. Overextended and unable to fulfill at least one of his vows. To be foresworn would be the most grievous of sins.
And, so, faced with the impossible, Jareth had reached into the core of himself and extracted the calm that he had spent centuries cultivating. The cool well within him allowed all his friends and loved ones to be slaughtered by his own brother, and to keep putting one boot in front of the other. It was a magic that had more to do with the mind, and less to do with the powers of Faerie.
He would be calm because he had to be, and because the solution was not yet evident. Fears and anxieties would not serve him now.
Taking a deep breath of the chill air seeping through the cracked window, Jareth ran his hands up Sarah's bare back. She made a soft sound, burrowing deeper into the covers but still tight against him, fingers curling over the device around his neck.
She smelled divine. Warm and vital. Sweet almonds and night-blooming jasmine.
He did not want to wake her, and yet his body yearned to be within her once again. To feel her silken strength and her hot breath in his ear, her moans reverberating throughout his body, and then—gods above! He wanted her with every breath.
Sarah Williams still had some mortality about her, however, or at least some habits she did not wish to shed yet. Sleep, one of them, for she was deep within her dreams now.
He drank in every inch of her. The hand around his necklace was the one emblazoned now with the mark of the Labyrinth, and the power he could sense there was a pulsing beacon. If those of Faerie had not known of her before, the reverberations of this claiming, of her awakening, would have alerted many more to what she was, and whose she was.
The scent of The Goblin King was about her, after all, the power of the Labyrinth itself that which sustained her, nourishing where her magic had been lacking before, where she had only been a fae-touched mortal of some moderate consequence.
Now she was The Goblin Queen. The first that he knew of. A power all her own.
Jareth could sense the Labyrinth far and away, through the wards and the spellwork tying him to this world. It reached for her, for him. It wanted both its rulers by its side for once and always.
He wondered if it might take her, without either of them being able to do much about it. The Labyrinth was not the most patient of sentient structures, and it might wish to be with its Queen more so than it would respect the sacrament of their coupling and her obligations in the Above.
Jareth paused in his minute explorations of her figure, imagining for a moment how her brother and father would react to the news of her being missing—again.
Please, to all the gods, do not let it come to that, he prayed.
And then another thought came to him, and he smiled, realizing something that had been missing all along. As his mind worked along the problem, more pieces fell into place, smoothing his path back to the Underground. Home.
There remained one issue. A snag. The oath to his brother. As soon as this world releases you.
Yet, perhaps, they could come to an arrangement.
Jareth slipped from the bed, glancing at the pre-dawn light through one of the narrow windows. The world outside was still and quiet when he lifted the wards.
And there was that malleability again, the beginning fray of his original need to stay in the world, to be beholden to its laws of guest right.
With all that was coming through the television, this quarantine would be extended at least once, if not more. The numbers of the dead and dying were not dropping how the central authorities wanted them to. With over ten thousand dead, they were talking of tightening instead of loosening restrictions.
And he did not have the leisure to be loitering around Sarah's apartment for an unforeseen amount of time.
She made a sound of mild distress behind him, and he glanced over his shoulder, smiling to see her curling around the warm spot where he had been lying. She was still well in the grips of her dreams, and so he padded to the private bathroom without disturbing her further.
Jareth clothed himself with a minor push of magic, pulling his hair into a high ponytail that left some strands falling down the back of his neck. In the mirrors, he looked fierce, and with another little push, he lightened the black cloth to a pale gray and set the stitching to be reflective silver instead of jet.
Better, he thought. It would be best not to look as intimidating as he wished to feel.
Removing one of the gloves, he pressed his hand to a mirror and spoke his brother's name.
The answer was immediate. Aldric's face swam into focus, and it took a mere moment before something passed across his elder brother's features which Jareth had never seen before.
Uncertainty? Fear?
"She told you," he said, his tone flat.
Jareth shook his head, and some of his calculations slid into place. "Sarah extracted an oath from me after she went to you. Which is why I call upon you now, so that I may be released from another."
Aldric smiled as a snake might, given human form and a delicious, plump meal before it. "Why would I release you? It is the promise you gave me in exchange for rescuing her from the selkie. You cannot find your way around it."
"No," Jareth admitted. "But I would exchange. One oath for another. I need time."
"For what?"
"My betrothed," He said, knowing it was petty to call her such in front of him, even as the words left his mouth. "The promise I gave her. I cannot speak of it, for her asking was enough to endanger us all."
Aldric's expression was stone, eyes like flint sparked steel. There was a moment of intense silence, and then he growled, "I could come through, you know. Meet you here and now, where—"
"You're not allowed to destroy my bathroom," Sarah said, slipping in behind Jareth without his notice. She was getting stealthier. Wrapped in her emerald robe with her hair pulled over one shoulder, she crossed her arms over her stomach. "Good morning, Aldric."
Her tone was polite and inquisitive all at once, something both fae males noticed, their attention fixed on her.
She blushed. "I'll just get dressed. Aldric, don't kill Jareth. I would never forgive you."
The elder of the two men clicked his tongue, looking amused. He watched her retreat before turning his attention back to Jareth. "You have a plan for returning to Faerie, don't you?"
"I do."
"Would it work for me, too?"
Jareth pulled in a breath, nerves screaming. This man had terrorized his life, almost from the moment of birth. But Sarah believed in him, somehow. "It would work for any fae beholden to the guest rights of the Above, yes."
Aldric nodded, then disappeared from view, returning a few moments later with a gleam in his eye that made Jareth's heart plummet. "I will do as you ask, and one better besides, but I require an exchange."
"What is it?" He asked, skepticism plain in his tone. He had the feeling he would regret this.
"I'll release you from your original vow, and give you a moon's turn to prepare yourself for our battle after you return to your castle."
Jareth waited for a moment, but Aldric did not continue. He sighed. "And in return?"
If he had thought Aldric smiled like a serpent before, it was nothing compared to the pleased expression which filled his face now. "Three things, brother mine." He held up a slender, gloved finger. "You allow me to move our sisters' remains to their rightful place in the family tombs."
It was an old demand, one that Jareth was loathed to ascent to, but he gave a nod.
A second finger raised. "You allow me to plan your wedding. We'll ensure it happens before the duel."
Jareth's heart crashed against his ribcage. "Why would you want to—"
"That is my demand," Aldric interrupted, eyes narrowed. "And, finally, you include me in your plan of escape from the Above."
"Why would you need—yes, fine," he said, cutting himself off at Aldric's annoyed look. "I agree."
Magic twined in the air, just as Aldric stepped through the mirror.
It took nearly everything in Jareth to stay where he was, not to move away from his brother's presence. They had not stood within feet of one another like this in centuries.
There was a gasp, but Jareth waited until Aldric turned his head before he did as well, finding Sarah standing near with her hands by her mouth. "But you'll be trapped!" she cried, then, "You can't kill each other. I forbid it."
Aldric bowed to her, lower than Jareth had ever seen him do, even to the High Queen. "As you wish, love. It is your domicile, after all. Your sanctuary."
Jareth tensed as his brother made his way to Sarah, and followed close at his heels, but Aldric only bowed once more, a shallower one this time.
"I hear that congratulations are in order," he said, reaching for her hand. Sarah gave him the one with the Labyrinth mark, and Aldric's thumb swept over the branded flesh before he bent and gently kissed her knuckles. "I will be proud to call you family," he said, his voice low.
Jareth wanted to smack his brother away, but Aldric released her and stepped back before he could make a move.
"I don't know what to say," Sarah started. "You're trapped here, you realize? I would say for another week, at least, but they say that the quarantine is going to be extended, and—"
Aldric sent Jareth a sharp look. "You said you had a plan?"
"Yes," he agreed. "But I had no time to speak to Sarah, or prepare before you came barging through the portal." He did nothing to hide the contempt in his voice.
"Gods, I did not miss you," Aldric growled. "What needs to occur?"
"We need to send anything Sarah does not want to be destroyed out of her possessions through to the Underground," Jareth started, even as she made a squeak of protest. "And gather every living being to the fire escape. It'll offer the best possible avenue."
"For what?" Aldric pressed.
"We'll break the guest rites of this house by burning it down," Jareth stated.
There was a long beat of silence, both his lover and his brother looking at him as though he were insane.
They both started talking at once.
"You can't possibly think—"
"Why the hell would you say you had a plan when—"
"What about the neighbors?"
"You're going to get us all killed."
Jareth held up his hands. "I can guard us against the flame."
"It's smoke inhalation that kills people!" Sarah cried. "My brother is here. So is Rico."
"I am well aware of our circumstances, precious," Jareth tried to soothe.
"Who the hell is Rico?" Aldric asked. "How many people do you have in your court?"
"None that I trust save those here," The Goblin King said. "Thanks to you."
Aldric grinned back at him, looking so pleased with himself that Jareth wished to smash a fist into that perfect face.
Instead, he explained his plan.
###
"Disgusting creature," Aldric muttered, aiming a kick at Rico.
"Hey!" Sarah yelled, pointing a finger at him from across the living room. "Cut that out. He's my friend."
The officer-turned-goblin scampered to her side, a thin hand circling her blue jean-clad calf as he glared at the fae lord. "Watch yourself, fairy."
Jareth and Aldric laughed simultaneously, then stopped and glared at one another.
"Fairies bite," Sarah said, gently extricating herself from Rico's grip and slipping another photo into a cardboard box. "I would know."
"You were bit by a fairy, love?" Aldric asked, smiling.
Toby came out of the bathroom at that point and stopped still. "Wait. Who is with whom?" He pointed between the three of them.
Jareth growled, but Sarah responded gently with, "I chose Jareth."
Aldric did not flinch, but his eyes did harden as he glanced at his brother. "Unfortunately. But who knows?"
Sarah glared. "Who knows what?"
"What will happen after your wedding."
She cursed, just as Toby yelped. "Wedding? You two are getting married?"
Sliding his hands over his hair, Jareth shook his head and snapped, "Could we please pack and talk at the same time? I grow weary of being in such close proximity to my brother."
"The feeling is mutual," Aldric grumbled, picking up a snow globe and shaking it so that the glittery white flakes swirled within, blanketing a miniature New York skyline.
"You were the one who demanded to be here," Jareth pointed out. "You could have just as easily awaited our arrival in the Underground."
"Ah, but what would be the fun in that?" Aldric crooned, shaking the globe again before setting it back down on the entertainment center. "Besides, once it was known that I had begun to fade, there were… defections."
Jareth perked up, interested to hear anything that had to do with the misfortunes of his long-time nemesis.
"Does Dad know?" Toby asked his sister. "That you're getting married?"
Sarah hesitated. "No. I don't think he would approve." Tossing another picture into the box, it landed with a too-hard thump, with the faintest tinkle of broken glass. She gazed at the ceiling, where Hector Polermo could be heard practicing his melodies on the piano, and then said, "I wish he could be there."
"I see no reason why not, pet," Aldric said in a smooth voice, and Jareth intercepted before he went to Sarah's side. Glaring, he continued, "As your official planner, I could ensure Robert Williams gives you away, or whatever other mortal ritual you hold to."
Waving a hand, Jareth made the art and photo frames rise out of the cardboard box Sarah had been packing. As they rotated in midair, the glass repaired itself, the shards sinking back into the empty spaces and sealing shut without a trace of a seam. They settled back in the box in perfect order from largest to smallest.
Aldric glared at him the entire time that he performed this minor magic. The push of power was less than ever, the strain almost nonexistent, and Jareth smiled back, saying, "I think we will endeavor to give Sarah everything she deserves."
"You two are really weird," Toby said, sidling around the two fae and going to his sister's side. "And why are we packing?"
They had started the process in Sarah's bedroom, where she had allowed the use of magic to speed along the process, but out here, she had asked to take her time. "This may not have been my first apartment," she said to them, "But it's been home for years, and that means something to me."
Still, Toby had woken up and, groggy, made his way to the bathroom, slamming the door behind him. He had barely acknowledged Aldric's presence, even, though Rico demanded a thorough explanation. The teenager had spent an inordinate amount of time in the powder room before re-emerging.
"We're packing because we're moving," Sarah said, and there was forced cheer in her voice. She had argued hard against this but, in the end, saw that there was no other way. "The quarantine is set to be extended any day now, and neither of them can be stuck here for however long this will take to die down."
Toby rubbed the back of his head, sending blond hair askew. "I thought they were stuck, though. Guest rites?"
Jareth sighed and, motioning to Toby, pulled him aside and explained the situation in low tones. He kept half an eye on his brother, who was leaning too close to Sarah as he helped her pack, and managed to tell everything to the teen within a few minutes.
He ended up taking it quite well.
"You're going to kill us."
"No," Jareth said, sighing again and gesturing to Aldric. "Could you help?"
"It's your plan and your vassal," the other fae said, dismissive. "But yes, Jareth can protect us from the flames and smoke with ease. What's this, pet?" he asked Sarah, picking up one of her sketchbooks.
She went a little pink in the cheeks. "Just some drawings."
"Oh!" he exclaimed, sounding genuinely delighted. "May I look?"
Jareth knew which book that was. She had sketched him a few times within, and the book contained the drawing of the owl that was now marked on Jareth's inner bicep, somewhere Aldric had not yet seen.
He wanted to snatch the book from his brother's hands, but instead, Sarah gave him a little nod, and he flipped the book open.
Jareth tried not to take his frustration out on any of his lover's belongings as he went to the kitchen to begin packing dinnerware. Why she felt like she needed to keep the set when he had hundreds of plates of the finest fae cutlery and settings, he did not understand. What he did know was that she had asked him to pack almost everything, and he would deny her nothing.
He could hear Aldric murmuring over the drawings, being that there was little room to get away from such things in only a few hundred square feet of space. "These are incredible, love. You have a gift."
"No," Sarah said, laughing. "Just practice."
"Would you draw me, one day?"
She hesitated for a moment before he heard her quietly say, "Of course. If you like."
"I would."
Jareth turned back to his work, letting the conversation flow around him. Toby and Rico were talking among themselves but occasionally chimed in with the other two.
He realized that never once in his long life and experience with Aldric had he seen his brother so at ease. With Sarah, and even the others, he teased and smiled. Not the cutting smile that he would give Jareth when he knew that the was about to deliver another significant blow of untold pain. Not even the somewhat patronizing, indulgent smile that he had been granted when he was in his youth, before gaining the Labyrinth.
No, around Sarah? Aldric was another creature entirely.
Someone Jareth was loathe to admit that he somewhat enjoyed the company of.
It had been a long time since he had been able to match wits and memory. The fae were a long-lived race, but his experience and station as The Goblin King had caused a rift to grow between him and the culture of his upbringing. He was surrounded by goblins, fairies, sprites… all manner of the lesser fae, but none of his own.
Not to mention all the things that Aldric had done. The lives he had ended.
Hardening his heart, Jareth finished the kitchen and joined the rest in the living room. Sarah was packing her desk, and that was all that remained. Aldric had already sent the boxes through to the Underground, straight for the castle at the heart of the Labyrinth.
Sarah scraped the bottom of a drawer, paused, then slowly slid it closed. She straightened and glanced at them all, a heavy silence stretching between them.
"That's all of it," she said. "Many hands make light work, I suppose."
"And there's the magic," Toby said.
"And there's that," she agreed, turning away, expression haunted. "I'll be on the fire escape."
Jareth wanted to pull her to him and reassure her that this was how it had to be and that everything would work out for the better, thanks to his plan.
But, she was still human enough, still mortal feeling, and this was Home. Or it had been, long enough that guest rites snapped into place the moment he came here. So much so that it was an easy thing, to tell the bounds of her sanctuary. And though they had been stuck inside for three weeks, he knew she itched to be part of the city again.
Not a city of goblins.
A city of peers. Equals. The novel and inspired.
So he did not try to tell her it would be alright, or that this too would pass. Nothing of the sort. This was one of the worst things that could happen to someone from her world, and she walked into it willingly.
For him.
Guilt and shame warred for dominance, but Jareth knew he had to do this, and so continued to make his preparations, weaving together the spell that would contain the fire to her domicile, so that not even the walls would warm in neighboring apartments. He would keep the Polermo family safe.
He would keep them all safe.
###
Jareth created the hottest fire he could safely contain, something that would destroy as quickly as possible, but still, it took more than five minutes for the apartment to burn enough that the guest rites snapped, and the barrier containing the two fae was broken. Sarah cried the whole while, stone-faced and unaccepting of touch, but streaming tears.
The moment the barrier of the guest rites fell, he transported the lot of them to the street below, where they could hear the scream of sirens. People on the opposite side of the street were leaning out of their windows or on their own balconies and fire escapes. The Polermo family was calling Sarah and Jareth's names until they spotted them far below and fell into stunned silence.
Jareth pulled on the power he had been granted from the coupling with Sarah, from his own link to the Labyrinth and the Underground, and he put out the flames still roaring within the gutted apartment. Then he sent a wave of forgetfulness over the watching humans and, with a grim expression, brought the entire party, including his brother, to the Underground. To the castle beyond the Goblin City.
###
The throne room was empty save for an errant chicken, scratching in a corner under a window where dirt and debris had collected.
Silence fell heavy, until Aldric stepped away from the group, surveying the room with an air of propriety that Jareth did not miss. "You've let this place go to ruin."
"You try to maintain such a thing while hordes of goblins—" he started, then shut his mouth with a click, turning instead to Toby and Rico. "Welcome to the Underground."
Toby crossed to the window, startling the chicken into a short flight down to the courtyard below. He gazed out over the Labyrinth and its twisting walls. "I thought your army was surrounding this place," he called to Aldric. "Where is it?"
Jareth and Aldric went to Toby at the same time, glaring at one another before checking for themselves. The window was wide enough for them to stand three abreast, and so they did, and Jareth's heart soared with triumph.
The tent city was gone. Disbanded.
Aldric stared in silence, but his hands gripped the ledge, the leather of his gloves giving a soft creak as that grip tightened. "Impossible."
"Shall we check the other side? Perhaps they have moved," Jareth offered, knowing it was unlikely. Knowing, just as his brother ought to, that his men had abandoned him.
Perhaps only for the moment, he thought. Perhaps once they know he has returned to his power, they will rally again to his side.
But, he had the feeling that it would not be the same.
Aldric crossed to the other window, the heels of his boots clacking on the flagstone floors. He was utterly still once he had reached it, and yet Jareth could tell.
The troops were not there.
Sarah was still standing where she had originally been when they transported her into the throne room, her hands in the pockets of her jeans. But she looked toward Aldric now, and before Jareth could do or say anything, she was crossing the space to him, a hand going to rest on his shoulder.
"Hey," she said, so soft that only the fae in the room could hear. "Will you be alright?"
"I'm losing everything," he whispered, still not moving. "While he gains everything."
Her expression hardened. "You have taken plenty of Jareth, from everything I've read and seen. Don't try to deny—" She held up a hand when he began to protest. "Your own cousin, you beheaded? I know enough, Aldric, to know that there has been pain on both sides."
He scowled at her and shrugged away her touch. "You have no concept of pain."
Sarah jerked, as though she wanted to slap him, but held back, breathing hard, her lips drawn tight. "That's not fair." Her eyes narrowed. "I want to help you, but you're making it difficult. This has been a shock to us all. I just lost my home." Her breath hitched on the last, and she clenched her hands into fists. "I don't know when I'll be back in the Above, if ever, so yes, I know a little bit of pain and loss."
Her voice had been raising as she spoke, and all were watching her.
"I also know when to circle the wagons and have each other's backs. There's something bigger at stake here. Maybe we can't talk about it directly, but we all know what it is. And I am sick," she was almost screaming at this point, "And tired of trying to be the only voice of moderation and reason between the two of you when I am literally a tenth your age or less just—oh, grow up, the both of you!"
She stamped her foot and stormed out of the room, heading right where she needed to, the stairs up to Jareth's private quarters. He felt that the Labyrinth was helping guide her steps, as it would forever when she was in its demesne, now that she was branded with its mark.
He wanted to follow her with everything in him, but instead, he turned to the other three men in the room. "The castle has prepared rooms for you all. I can show them to you, or send a crystal that you can follow to the door."
"I'll take your crystal," Aldric murmured, not looking at him but out the window, his arms folded over his chest.
Jareth summoned one and sent it to float near his brother, who walked toward it. It began moving toward the corridor that would lead to the guest quarters.
Toby was looking at the staircase where Sarah had left. "Will she be okay?"
"I will do everything I can to ensure it," Jareth said sincerely. The Labyrinth rolled in the back of his mind, grateful to have its rulers returned, to have Sarah and Jareth both within its walls.
Her brother nodded and looked at Rico. "Do you feel at home here or anything?"
The goblin scratched his head, looking around. "Not particularly, but it seems like this is par for the course. I'm here another, what? Ten days?"
Jareth nodded, narrowing his eyes. "So long as you do not transgress as you did before. If you do, you will be transported back to the Underground, and to this state, for the rest of your days."
Rico put up his long-fingered hands. "Okay, I got it, I got it."
Several goblins began to peek around doorways, drawn by the sound of his voice, no doubt. Soon there was a clamoring mess of noise as dozens of goblins screeched that their king had returned. Some of them tried taking Rico by the hand to lead him into a dance, but he yanked back and shouted over the din, "I'll take that crystal now!"
Jareth summoned one for each of them, doing his best to cater to the exuberant goblins that infested his court. He did adore them, in his way, but they were oftentimes more of a nuisance as, like now, they prevented him from some of his more important tasks.
He set the ale to flowing and a feast on a long, low table that they fell upon with the enthusiasm only goblins possessed.
He left them to it, following the subtle scent of jasmine and almonds leading him up the tower stairs to the room at the highest level of his castle. He slid the door at the bottom of the stairs shut and locked it with a minor push of magic, using more to light the torches along the way and ensure a fire would be blazing in the fireplace when he reached his chambers.
Sarah was reading a book on one of the long couches by his fireplace when he entered, and, with a shock of recognition, he realized it was one of his own journals. One that, if he knew it well, was from the time of her initial run.
She looked up as he stopped in the doorway, feeling his own sense of belonging, of home, rush over him. And seeing Sarah here, with him?
It was enough to render him speechless.
"I think the Labyrinth wanted me to read this," she said, setting a ribbon marker through the pages before closing the leather-clad volume. "I swear I felt like a hand was guiding my own until I touched the spine."
"You'd be right," he said, his voice rough. "The Labyrinth does have a mind and a will its own, and it sustains you now, is connected to you."
"I know. I can feel it," she said, rising and setting his journal on the cushioned chair behind her. She came to his side, took his hands, and drew him further into the room. The doors closed on their own behind them, and even though the windows in his tower room were thrown wide open to let in the crisp autumn air, it was warm within the space.
Sarah pulled off his gloves, letting them fall to the floor before he grasped her face, cradling it, and kissed her.
The first kiss they had shared in the Underground. In the heart of the Labyrinth, the hand with the branded mark rising to touch his.
The connection between them seemed to snap into place at last, power blooming between their lips along with their sighs.
Jareth started to push her toward the bed, lowering his hands to her waist and hip so that he could guide her.
But Sarah stopped him, pressing against his chest and rooting herself to the spot, though she seemed reluctant to pull her mouth from his. When they parted, her eyes were hooded with lust, but also glimmering with determination. "There's something I must know, and I'm done waiting."
Jareth's went still.
She took a deep breath, then said, "Tell me what happened when you got this," she touched his device. "Tell me what happened to your sisters. Kieryn and Reganne. Whatever it is, it's at the heart of why things are so awful between you and Aldric. I need to understand, and you said you would tell me one day."
"One day," Jareth protested, pulling away from her despite his body's protests. "But, now? Why now?"
"Don't you see?" Sarah asked, pursuing him, though her motions were graceful, and careful, as though she were attempting to soothe him with her body. Her eyes never left his face. "Whatever happened, the only way past it is through it. Which means telling him the truth, too."
The blood seemed to freeze in his veins. "You jest."
She shook her head minutely. "I would tell her everything, for I would keep nothing from her," she quoted. "You wrote those words in your journal almost two decades ago, Jareth, when you were thinking of my run, soon after I went home. You thought that finding me meant that you could finally be so powerful that your brother would never dare come for you so that this feud would come to an end. You believed me to be the key.
"So, listen to me. You have to speak the truth of this thing. Whatever it is, the only way to fix things is to know—"
"You aim to fix this?" Jareth snarled, his ardor thoroughly cooled. "They are dead. Reganne and Kieryn are no more. And you do not understand what I did, how I—" he held his tongue, biting down so hard that he tasted sweet copper. Fae blood. "You would hate me," he whispered at last, the words so quiet he wondered if she could hear.
She did, for her eyes widened, and she took another step forward. He let her. Let her press her palm to his chest, eyes seeking his face. "I could not hate you, Jareth. I promise you."
He held onto her words like a raft upon a tempest sea. He wanted to beg her not to demand this, but then she asked the question, and he felt their agreement ring between them, prompting a response. He knew that this time if he denied her, there would be dire consequences. Perhaps more than he was willing to face.
"What happened to the twins? What happened when you became The Goblin King?"
Jareth closed his eyes for a moment, and then they pulled open. A burning need within him to see her crystalline gaze.
His tongue was unloosed, and even though she started to step back as his story unfolded, he kept going. It felt right. The first time he had spoken these words, told this story, in the hundreds of years since the events transpired.
And, of course, he told Sarah.
###
When they found the old Goblin King, his corpse was mummified. Skin stretched tight over the long, lean bones of a fae lord.
Kieryn prodded the body, looking up with dual-colored eyes at her sister. "It looks like he died from some sort of trauma."
Reganne slid down the rubble pile, crouching beside the splayed body. "Maybe the ceiling caved in on him?"
Jareth picked his way down into the cavern beneath the Labyrinth and tried to ignore the beat of power that he could sense coming from the corpse. Just as he had ignored the beat of something like a heartbeat, ever since stepping through the gates. He had begun to mention something when they were in a massive forest, but then they had been overcome by a mass of goblins howling and throwing spears and arrows.
They had fled, losing their carefully packed packs, except for Jareth, who had kept his on during their rest break. Now they had all been parsing out goods from it, sustaining themselves on rations. Kieryn and Reganne had been so wrapped up in their losses, and puzzling over the secrets and mysteries of the enormous structure they found themselves in, that he had dropped the thought of telling them.
A mistake. Such a horrid mistake.
His head swam as he stepped along the edge of the enormous underground cavern. Kieryn and Reganne continued to speak in low voices, and he let the sound of it flow over him—how he wished in later years that he had listened more intently to what they said—as the thrumming, drumming sound grew louder, deeper still. Reverberating through his chest, until it was like the rhythm seized his own heart and forced it to beat in the same rhythm.
Magic wove through the air, and seemed to have sharp edges to it like splinters of glass.
Reganne grunted and swore, then sat back on her haunches, wiping her forearm across her forehead, pushing back her golden hair. "Maybe he should try."
And how he would remember these words for the remainder of his days.
Kieryn beckoned him over. "Brother, come, try to lift this."
Jareth stumbled over to find them both gesturing at a silver and golden medallion on a thick silver chain around the neck of the desiccated corpse. Reganne showed him that, despite her efforts, she could not make the device move even an inch. When she tried, magic bit down around them, warning.
He could barely understand the events as they unfolded, but he had spent centuries reliving this in his mind.
Reganne moved to the side to accommodate Jareth and, without hesitating, without thinking of what this could mean—for he had seen his father's own amulet, and knew its significance—he grasped the cold silver and—
Lifted it like it were nothing.
It was not. It was a little heavier than it looked, but otherwise, it was what he might have imagined from such a pendant.
Kieryn pulled in an excited breath as the chain unclasped from the mummified neck of the previous Goblin King. "We're nearly at the end of the thirteen hours, little brother. Put it on."
Put it on.
And he did. So caught up in the thrumming, humming madness of that interminable rhythm, he slid the chain over his neck and let the cool metal rest against his chest.
For a breath, nothing happened.
And then everything in his mind was ripped apart.
###
"When you receive one of these, you receive all the memories of those who came before," Jareth said in a dull voice, fingering the points of the medallion as he spoke and feeling the zip of power along the warmed silver. "All those who wore it.
"You see it all. You feel it all. Their entire life, all their time, while being the master of the device.
"And the old Goblin King, he had died in a most spectacular fashion. Betrayed by those he thought closest to him, he perished in agony. Murdered by his own grown child, who attempted unsuccessfully to take the device, for the Labyrinth chooses its own masters."
Sarah was watching him, leaning against a sideboard, her hands gripping the edges, knuckles white. "You saw all that?" she asked.
"And more. A dozen deaths, all of them violent, all of them more painful than anything else that I had experienced, and then the Labyrinth itself was awakening after a thousand years of slumber, reaching out to me. That was the heartbeat that I kept hearing, as we went through its walls. It wanted me. Knew me from the beginning, and…" Jareth trailed off momentarily, lost in remembrance. "I was overcome."
"Then what happened?"
He closed his eyes, tears burning behind closed lids. "When I came to, I was awash in power. Flooded with it. And all I could feel were the echoes of a dozen deaths, so when they reached out and touched me, I—"
He swallowed hard, and, beginning to tremble, looked to Sarah. "I did not know it was them."
She paled. "Oh, gods."
"I thought, at that moment, that they were the ones who had killed me—who had killed the former Goblin King. And I was more than anything I had been before. Power, like nothing I had known, was at my fingertips. When I lashed out, it was with such great force because I did not know how much there could be that came to my call."
He fell silent, all quiet save the crackle of the fire and the low drone of insects out the open windows.
Sarah pulled in a shuddering breath, then said in a low, quiet voice that barely broke the spell, "Jareth? I'm so sorry that happened, but—it was an accident."
"An accident," he echoed, voice flat. "And yet they screamed, Sarah. In terror and pain, they cried out my name. Begged me to stop. I will never forget."
She pushed off the sideboard and walked to him, her fingers brushing against the tips of his. Though the fire was still lit, it was the only light source in the room, and she was bathed mostly in shadow. Still, he could see her eyes, always those brilliant eyes gazing up at him. "It's not for you to forget, I don't think," she murmured. "But it's still not your fault."
He wanted to jerk away at that, but she grasped his hands tight in hers. He turned his head to the dark shadows of the room.
How could she have said that?
"It's not your fault," she said again, squeezing his fingers. "Jareth, look at me."
He did. He could do nothing but.
"I'll stand beside you, but we have to tell Aldric. He has to know the truth."
For a long time, he looked at her, letting her hold his hands. Then he finally pressed back against her fingers, and said in a rasp, "All right. You will be with me?"
He felt like a coward for asking, but he could not imagine revealing this truth without her standing by him.
She stepped closer still, letting go of his hands to wrap her arms around his middle. Her voice came somewhat muffled from where she pressed her head against his chest. "Of course."
His arms encircled her, and something tight in his chest eased as they held one another in his darkening bedroom.
"Thank you for telling me," she murmured. "And thank you for trusting me."
"I would tell you all, precious," he whispered back, his grip around her more like clutching, he had to admit. "I would keep nothing from you."
And he would not, compact or no.
Author's Note:
Hello, all.
Thank you, once again, for your enduring patience.
I promise I'm not giving up this story or abandoning it. It's been 6+ months at this point since the last upload, but I have been working on this chapter the entire while. In little bits and pieces, and then a torrent at the end (thank you, flow state), but there were a lot of Happenings around here.
'23 started with a hell of a health scare within my family. I'm on my second job of the year. I've busted my leg to the point that I must stay off it until surgery at an unknown, probably far-off date.
But…
It's been lovely to see all of your comments and reviews, writing me how much you love this story and want to see more. I can make no promises, but I appreciate the fuck out of all of you that take the time to say something. It helps motivate me more than I can tell.
I hope it was worth the wait to a degree. It took a little time to determine when the story of the twins would come out, but this seemed like the right moment. And poor Sarah. We'll be seeing from her POV next chapter, as she steps into the role of Goblin Queen for the first time 😊
Thank you very much for all your love and support. Stay safe out there. 💕
~CrimsonSympathy