Negotiation

Jareth's face could have been chiseled from stone. "This is worse than the last round of the Unseelie Accords."

"You exaggerate. You're such a drama queen."

His eyes spurred curls of frost to bloom on the windows. "You both utterly refuse to give ground on any point. At all." The frost had now covered the windows and was creeping up the wall.

I ignored his Faerie theatrics. "That's because your mother is absolutely unreasonable on all accounts."

"Shockingly, she thinks the same of you. If I had known a simple overnight for Feanor at his Grandmother's was going to turn into another Great War of Air and Darkness, I would never have brought it up."

"You should have asked me first."

He crossed his arms and leaned a shoulder against the frosted wall. "You've made note of that already. Several times. I'll keep it in mind for the future. For now, what's said is said."

I snorted. "Don't you have control of space and time? Can't you just rewind things to before you made this ridiculous suggestion?"

"First, that only works in my realm, and my mother — as you know — resides conveniently outside it. Second, who do you think I learned that ability from? And third—ah, you were being facetious. Forgive me, I'm distracted by the absurd turn of events." He paused, swiping a hand across his eyes. "What can be done? Mother will want an answer to her latest suggestion."

"Stall her."

"For how long?"

"I don't know — until Feanor's a teenager and can safely handle the deathtraps she insists on surrounding him with."

"Sarah."

"Jareth."

"Be serious."

"You think I'm kidding?"

"Be reasonable, then."

"I am. You may have survived your mother's brand of parenting however many centuries ago, but times have changed."

"He's my son. He needs training."

"He's two, Jareth. Your mother sent him a poisonous spider for his birthday 'to keep him on his toes'."

"He did manage to stomp on it quite nicely."

"Damned fool luck, and you know it. I shudder to think what she'll foist on him in her domain. The answer to an overnight at Grandmother's remains an emphatic no."

"You do make my life so difficult."

"Do you want me to tell her? You can stop being the intermediary."

He closed his eyes briefly. "No, I'm fairly sure that would be even worse."

"Only fairly sure? Perhaps I should try. Because damned if I'm going to let our son into her clutches unsupervised."

He held up a hand. "I'll deal with it."

I stood up, patted his shoulder, and kissed the side of his jaw. "I'll make it worth your while when you're finished."

"Small favors."

"I'm sure these favors could be bigger." I began kissing down his neck, inhaling his intoxicating scent of winter. "Use your imagination."

He smiled and shooed me away. "Devil woman, leave me be."

"Love you too, honey — good luck."