Chapter 14: You Have No Power Over Me

"Icca, you have no power over me."

Jareth squeezed her tightly and she heard Ismaila blow air out of her mouth in relief. But it was Icca's reaction that interested her the most. No flurry of feathers, no chiming of a clock, no disappointed but resigned expression. He just stood there. Magic didn't spin them into a vortex. She didn't fall through time and space back into her hallway. He just stood there.

Laughing.

"Those are the words that you think will win you this day?" he asked, baring his sharp teeth in a manic grin. "Those infantile words that defeated the Goblin King are not going to defeat me, little mortal. Your power is mine."

Icca's last statement was said with such bite and force, that Sarah shuddered, feeling as if they were blades of truth ripping her asunder. She was powerless. She was an autumn leaf, dry, crisp, and fragile, blown with such violence into an abyss.

"Some words have power and sometimes…well…they can create vows," Jareth said, unperturbed. His voice reaching her ears as if from the far end of a damp tunnel. "Sarah's words enabled my goblins to take her baby brother, and they allowed her…to .back."

Icca merely canted his head to the side as if to say, 'so what?' She tried to focus on his expression, but her eyesight began to blur and he was starting to form a second self in her vision.

"I created a vow when I told Sarah she was mine," Jareth continued. "But you can not claim Sarah's power by mere words, Icca. You know this."

"And yet, her situation remains unchanged," Icca said, indicating Sarah's weakened state as she practically lay against Jareth's side.

"Has it?" Jareth raised one brow.

"I am still siphoning her magic, Jareth, and I still hold her ties to the immortal." Icca raised a hand to demonstrate the barely visible threads of magic that were swirling around him.

"Ah, you think so?" Jareth asked, cocksure in his mannerisms and tone. Sarah felt Icca was right, even as she tried to take comfort in Jareth's confidence. It hadn't worked. Her words had made him laugh! They certainly hadn't won her freedom, nor her power. She was wilting like a magnolia in the desert. Her head was spinning, like there was a maelstrom in the centre of her frontal lobe. She barely heard Jareth when he started speaking again.

"I realised when Sarah shook off your memory spell within seconds of you casting it, that your hold on her magic is superfluous at best." He turned to Sarah. "My dear, do you remember in the book, the line about 'certain powers?'"

Sarah wrinkled her brow and thought hard. She had known every line in that book but it had been many years since she had even thought about the lines. And her current feebleness was making it even harder to pin down the lines.

"Sarah, a little-known fact is that red book does not contain the same story for everyone who reads it," Jareth said, staring at Icca. "It usually contains things pertinent to the reader…to convince them to wish a child away. Tell me what the line was."

"I can't remember…" Sarah said, straining to think.

"But what no one knew…" Jareth prompted.

"But what no one knew…" Sarah started, as it came flooding back to her, triggered by his smooth, calm voice. "…Is that the king of the goblins had fallen in…love…with the girl, and he had given her certain powers," Sarah quoted, flatly.

"Of course, I wasn't in love with you then," Jareth pointed out. "But there is more than just Icca's magic in you. He chose you because my mother inadvertently showed him a glimpse of the future. But you have always been precious, love."

"The Labyrinth?" Icca asked, finally showing some doubt in his expression. He was no longer smirking.

"The book might have claimed that I was in love with Sarah and that I had given her certain powers, but it was the Labyrinth that did it, and in reality, it is just an extension of me," he explained. "So, you can take the power you gifted her, Icca, but you can't take what is her birthright. What the Labyrinth gave her. What I have given her."

Icca was about to laugh once more when Sarah felt a shift in her core—she had started to feel it when Jareth mentioned love. The magic that was lacking moments before, suddenly felt less hollow. Given the irate look on Icca's face, she was taking back her power. She straightened herself and pushed away from Jareth's side as magic started coursing through her veins like it had always been there, rejuvenating and refilling her.

The little dust like particles that Sarah had seen as her strength was fading, froze in their path towards Icca, glinting like minuscule diamonds in the air.

Jareth was right. Even if she had no magic, she wasn't a wilting gerbera in the Sahara. Sarah was the champion who gave up her childish dreams to save her brother; if she could beat a fae at his own game as a teen, she could beat this fae with Jareth lending his strength.

"You have no power over me," she said, confidently. This time she believed it. "You have no power over me!"

While he still did not disappear from view (Sarah began to wonder if Jareth's final moment with her had been drama-laden, rather than a natural consequence of her winning), he did stumble backwards looking aghast. The shards of magic glinted once more before vanishing from her sight.

"And if I am not mistaken," Jareth said, folding his arms and leering. "You just lost all contact with your boon and have no power over me either."

Icca's eyes went wide and as the last of Sarah's magic fled back into her body, his body slackened and his head lowered. While it had been nearly invisible, Sarah was sure everyone in the room had felt it when her magic snapped back into place.

"I love you, Jareth," Icca said, softly. "I did this all for you. We are meant to be together."

"I once told someone that everything I had done I had done for them," Jareth said, sagely. "I learnt that actions completed in selfishness and deceit and obfuscation are not a solid foundation to love, Icca. Sarah has my love and she earnt it without harming others or myself to get it."

"Exactly!" Icca cried. "What has she done to deserve you? Nothing! She wished away some baby! Well, tra la la. I changed the stars for you, Jareth. I pushed them out of alignment so you could have me and not her! A fae, and not an intelligence impaired mortal."

"Tra la la, indeed," Jareth said. "And yet, I find myself in love with Sarah and not you."

Sarah laced her fingers with his and he gently squeezed her hand in acknowledgment. She glanced at Ismaila who was smiling broadly at both of them.

Sarah guessed she had made her choice. She had chosen Jareth and everything that entailed.

"Without my plans and schemes you never would have got her," he yelled, the tight rein he had on his emotions all but faded.

"And for that I would thank you, Icca," Jareth said, haughtily. "She has turned my world upside down and did it all without elaborate schemes."

"You will pay for this," Icca said, sullenly and without any real bite. "You will suffer from any dalliance with her, Jareth. You will see. She'll break your heart."

Before anyone could offer a rebuttal, he had vanished back through the window in the form of the blackbird.

"Let her stay here, Jareth, while I ring her father to let her know where she is." Ismaila patted her son on his shoulder. "We don't need him worrying again for nothing if he rings her and she isn't home." She then left them alone in the room.

Jareth glanced at Sarah's pale, stiff form before striding to the window to slam it shut.

He cautiously turned back around to face her. She had her arms wrapped around herself and was studying the pattern in the carpet. He fished around for something to say to her as the silence felt oppressive. Being alone with Sarah shouldn't feel like this, but hearing those words uttered from her lips again had added some heaviness to the air. And apparent strain to her features. Even when the words weren't aimed at him this time.

"It felt so different saying those words this time," she said, surprising him. She gave a nervous chuckle and her eyes flicked up to meet his. "It was cathartic when I said it to you but this felt…"

"Different," he suggested. "Because it didn't feel natural."

"Yes, because something was working against me—forcing me to not mean the words," she replied, looking away. "And there was more at stake last time. I just couldn't lose my brother. He was just a baby and you…" She looked back up at him, her face full of apology.

"And I am big enough, and ugly enough to look after myself." He smirked at her and then tried to supress a sigh. Icca had come at such a fragile stage in their relationship and now he could feel how it had shifted between them. "And you had doubts."

Shock was etched into her face, followed by two high spots of pink. She grimaced. "I don't mean to offend you."

"I know," he said gently.

"I kept seeing you throwing the snake at my throat or taking away my time or sending me down a chute to the Bog or sending the cleaners after me," she said in a garbled rush. "I know he was planting those memories at the forefront of my mind to try and stop me from saying the words and he very nearly did."

"They were part of the game," Jareth said, softly. "I would never have harmed you. Or your brother."

"I have a severe fear of snakes now," Sarah muttered.

"I see."

She relaxed her arms ever so slightly. "I know it was part of the game, but I don't know you well enough to know if those games transfer themselves into relationships."

"You fear that I would play mind games and emotionally abuse you," Jareth stated, blandly. "You still see me as a fae."

Her nod squeezed his heart painfully. He watched her blink rapidly a few times and then she was wrapping her arms around herself again.

"I have magic," she said, pausing to nibble her lip. "But can we really stand face to face as equals? Does a Goblin Queen hold any real power aside from an honorary title? I love you, but love isn't always everything."

"Icca really got into your mind, didn't he?" Jareth said, striding towards an armchair and sitting down in it, crossing his long legs, and then studying the woman that he loved trembling in his sitting room. "His games and schemes are typical of my kind. And yes, having played the Labyrinth, you can see that I have the potential to be similarly minded."

Sarah waited a few beats and stared at him. "But?"

"No but," he said, shrugging. "I do have the potential to be deceitful. I am half fae, after all. Humans have the potential to be deceitful too, do they not? Did you or did you not trick Hockley out of his jewels?"

Crimson flashed across her cheeks. "Hoggle!"

"Did you not also lie to everyone around you about the events that night?" he asked, cocking a brow. "Omission is a lie, or so I am led to believe. Have you told anyone the truth of that night?"

She shook her head.

"Even your father who knows you have seen magic, doesn't know that you wished Toby away?"

"No, I never told him," Sarah replied.

"There," he said, tapping the arm of his chair with his index finger to punctuate his point. "Humans can lie and omit facts and therefore be deceitful. It is only fae who are considered to be worse at this because we have magic." He produced a crystal and twirled it around his wrist. "Which you do too, so therefore…" He left the end hanging with a simple wave of his free hand.

He threw the crystal up, catching it a few times while surreptitiously watching Sarah mull his words over. He could tell that she looked conflicted and that his words had hit home. Yes, Fae were tricky by nature, but magic aside, did humans not behave the same way over power, land, and resources?

"You know, you arrogant sod," Sarah said, her hands on her hips. "You could have just told me that you would be honest with me and would never deceive me, instead of showing off and being all…cocky."

"Sod is it now?" He was smirking. "Have I been rubbing off on you?" He laughed, noting her eyes narrowing. "And what is the point in telling you that I would never harm you, when I had said it so many times and you still don't believe me?"

Sarah's hands tightened on her arms and her eyes were impossibly large.

"I—"

"You love me, but you can't trust me," he said, simply, shaking his fringe out of his eyes as he assessed her. "And you are finding excuses now to back away from me, because you are scared and you feel you are in too deep."

Sarah swallowed.

"It is just going so fast," she muttered.

"Oh yes, our love has been a millennium in the making," he mocked. "Far too quick."

Sarah huffed. "You know what I mean." She gestured wildly, finally releasing herself from her tight grip. "We've only slept together once and we haven't really processed the aftermath of that and then there is the fact that it seems predestined and not really my choice and—"

"I was not judging you for being scared, Sarah," he said, bounding out of his seat and holding her shoulders. "I am scared too. I have never been in love. I have never had a Queen. I have never been a father. It is all new to me as well."

Sarah's expression softened and he watched her chew on her lip again. "Thank you for admitting that you are scared too."

"You're exhausted and need a rest," he stated. "You can stay here, or I can take you home or we can walk around to your father's house or—"

"I will stay here," she said, her hands moving to his hips. He shivered with delight at her light touch. "With you."

"Are you sure?"

"I am," Sarah said, wrapping her arms around his waist and resting her head against his chest. "But just to sleep."

He chuckled.

His chuckle rumbled against her ear, soothing away the rigours of the day, and the tight, greasy ball of tension inside her melted away.

He sighed and then placed a soft kiss against the top of her head. "We will find a way together, Sarah. Through our fear, through the challenges."

"Through dangers untold and hardships unnumbered?" she asked, looking up at him.

"Through all of those," he replied, rubbing his nose against hers. "Together."

He disentangled her from his person and took her hand instead.

"Bed," he commanded and she willingly followed. She wanted a hot bath or shower, but once they were in his room, he merely threw a crystal at her that seemed to at once cleanse and refresh her.

Sarah nibbled her lip as she looked at the bed that she hadn't seen since they slept together and she had stormed out. Seeing the enormity of the bed, matched the enormity of her feelings and she was momentarily paralysed.

"I sleep naked," Jareth announced, as she turned to see him slowly unbuttoning his shirt. "But you're welcome to sleep in one of my shirts." He threw the one he was wearing onto a nearby armchair.

Sarah glanced at it and then her eyes couldn't help but roam up his body, taking in the smooth skin of his navel and they lingered momentarily on his chest before flicking up to his eyes that were twinkling with mirth. He broke out in a lopsided smile.

"I can not tell you how pleased I am you find me attractive, Sarah." His hands drifted down to his trousers. "No, don't blush. I enjoy you watching me."

Sarah aimed for nonchalance by rolling her eyes and picking up his discarded shirt. She then glanced at the bathroom door, contemplating her modesty but decided that she had told him she loved him and surely that was far more intimate than stripping naked in front of him.

She removed her clothing and got into his shirt as quickly as she could manage, aware he was now watching her from under the sheets. She smoothed down his shirt, catching a whiff of his scent as she did so before she slipped under the sheets with Jareth.

Jareth smiled at her and with a bit of adjusting she ended up with him cuddling her from behind. She thought he would try it on or talk to her but he merely placed a soft kiss against the juncture of her neck and shoulder and murmured a goodnight against her skin.

Morning woke them, both at the same time, in a tangle of sheets and limbs. Neither of them seemed in a hurry to move, however.

"Sarah?"

"Hmm?"

"Tell me about how you felt waking up after your night in the Labyrinth?" Jareth asked, wrapping an arm around her waist, while the other hand stroked her hair.

"Well, after I had packed away all my childish belongings and after…well…then…" She thought of the party her Labyrinth friends had thrown and bit her lip before she got them into trouble.

"Then my disloyal subjects took it into their heads to throw a party in your bedroom…" Jareth said, evenly.

"You knew?"

"I watched for a while as an owl." He curled a strand of hair around his finger. "Do not fret, my darling, they were duly punished but not unreasonably so."

Sarah paused for a moment to soak in the fact he was starting to know her and her thoughts so well. He tugged on the loop of hair and she cleared her throat.

"Well, after they all left, I crawled into bed and I really struggled to fall asleep," Sarah admitted. "I kept running through it all in my mind. And I got myself a bit worked up thinking you'd steal Toby so I was awake most of the night listening out for strange sounds."

"Nice to know that you consider me and my noises to be strange," Jareth said drily.

Sarah snorted. "You were a lip-gloss wearing, tight pant sporting otherworldly glam rocker…who sang at me instead of communicating…and changed outfits every time you came to torment me….and you had a mullet. What part of you wasn't strange?"

"This is not a mullet," Jareth growled, tapping her bottom with his bare hand. Sarah started. Her top, or rather his shirt had ridden up and her bottom was quite uncovered. Feeling his bare hand on her naked arse sent shivers of delight coursing through her.

"Anyway," Sarah emphasised, fighting for equilibrium. "I finally drifted off but woke not long after to Toby crying. And it was such a relief to hear him crying, that I went straight to his room and got him out of his cot and gave him his morning bottle. Karen was extremely grateful, if not extremely wary of my…generosity."

"But how did you feel the morning after?" he asked. "Baby brother aside."

"I felt…strange," she replied. "I felt like I had been away a lot longer and that I would never quite look at my world the same way. It felt like coming home after a long holiday when your house feels familiar but distant at the same time."

Jareth made a sound of acknowledgement at the back of his throat.

"I couldn't stop thinking of you."

Silence followed this sentence and even Jareth's hand on her hair stilled.

"Truly?"

"You were the strangest man I had ever seen or met, and yet you were captivating. I hated you as much as you intrigued me." Sarah closed her eyes and sighed. "At first I thought that my words had been hollow because it certainly felt like you had power over me."

"Your words weren't hollow," he said, placing a kiss on her shoulder.

"Food tasted different," she said. "For weeks, I was so thirsty. Sleep was hard to come by. I felt like my insides were burning but I got no relief."

Jareth stiffened behind her, holding his breath. Sarah hadn't told anyone this before. She had almost forgotten about how hard she hid her ailing health.

"You seem…well…now," Jareth said, cautiously, saying each word as if they would break her.

"It didn't last forever."

"Sarah…" he breathed, holding her tight against his naked body. "It was my fault. The peach, the dance, and the song…" His hand moved back to her hip where he started tracing circles with his fingertips. "Your body was struggling with a half-completed vow. I should never have given you that blasted fruit."

"I looked after myself," she said. "Lots of supplements, exercise, the right food and as much sleep as I could manage. Like I said, it didn't last forever."

"So, all these years you have been merely surviving."

"It wasn't as bad as all that," Sarah acknowledged. "I was never hospitalised or seriously sick."

"Just vow-sick," Jareth said with a low growl. "And how long did it take until it wore off?"

"I don't know," she replied. "I gradually grew better until one day; I realised I was well again."

"How long?" he asked, his jaw clenched.

"A few weeks, a few months," she replied, shrugging lightly. "I didn't time it."

"I did this to you."

"You did," she replied. "But honestly, I just thought that I was a bit melancholy. None of my friends or Dad or Karen noticed anything different about me."

"I would have noticed," he spat.

"I was a teenager," she exclaimed. "Body changes and mood swings were par for the course and anyone would have just assumed that was the case with me. I just knew that it started the morning after my Labyrinth run."

"No wonder you were less than ecstatic about running into me again at your parents' party," he said, bitterly. "I made you ill."

"That had less to do with me being temporarily out of sorts after my run and the fact that you were a powerful magical entity manipulating my parents and potentially kidnapping Toby again," Sarah said. "And you used magic on Gavin."

"He was irritating you," Jareth pointed out. "Though he never made you ill, so perhaps I shouldn't have interfered."

"Jareth…"

"Leave me," he said, without any bite to his words. "I have harmed you."

Sarah laughed, incredulously. "No, I wo—"

"You will," he commanded, his eyes still firmly shut. "I will not be mocked by you in my own bed."

Sarah scoffed, and before he could utter another word, she rolled over him until she was straddling him and placed her lips violently against his.

"Shut up, Jareth, and make love to me, or so help me god, I am going to drag Hoggle in here to watch us every time we have sex."

"Hogpig?" he asked, incredulously. "Of all the…him! Could she have not threatened me with Sir Didymus or that overgrown yeti she befriended? But no, my beloved selects fucking Hoghead." He gestured to his invisible audience before huffing.

Sarah laughed, feeling his cock against her arse. She shuffled back, and not really needing any warming up giving how he had just been tracing her hip, she slid down his shaft until it made her cry out.

"Sarah," he cried, arching his back. "You can't fuck me every time you want me to shut up."

"I can try," she said, kissing his collarbone. He mumbled a response and closed his eyes with a sigh. His hands closed over her hips and started guiding her up and down. She felt so deliciously full on this position. Already wet from knowing he had been lying naked next to her all night, she took all of him without hesitation. "You're blowing it out of proportion. I was never desperately ill."

She squirmed with delight as he hit a spot inside her that she had never felt without the use of toys. He moved her hips with slow, sensuous rolls even while she tried to hasten the process.

"Slowly," he said, gritting his teeth. "Or it will be over too soon."

Sarah didn't care if it were and given how she couldn't set the pace with his iron grip on her hips, she reached down and started rubbing her clit.

"Sarah," he ground out.

"Jareth," she hissed, leaning down over him, and placating him with a kiss.

"You haven't even warmed up," he said, his voice strained. He arched his back, exposing his throat so openly to her mouth. Seeing him reacting so strongly to pleasure, was more than enough to tighten her quim and send bursts of pleasure rippling through her.

"Can't you feel how wet I am for you, Jareth?" she teased as she wiggled her hips. His eyes shot open and a look of wonder appeared on his face.

"You want me," he said, panting and jutting his hips out, thrusting deep into her making her cry out.

"I want you," she concurred. "Is that so hard to believe?"

"It is not hard to believe anyone wants me," he admitted, panting. "But you being in earnest is hard to believe."

She smiled and kissed the tip of his nose, as he finally loosened his grip on her and she was able to set the pace a bit better.

"I want you; I love you, I—"

"Have me," he finished for her as he again closed his eyes and groaned loudly making every nerve ending in her clit spasm. "I can't last, Sarah."

"Shhh." She pressed her lips to his and she felt her budding orgasm start to clench her walls. Two more deep thrusts hitting the right spot and Sarah moaned her release into his mouth. He followed shortly, crying her name, and gripping her hips tightly again.

"It is a cliché, but I feel like every time with you, is my first time," he muttered, after they had caught their respective breaths. "I feel like a foolish youngling with no stamina."

Sarah laughed as she rested on his chest, enjoying the baritone rumble of his voice under her cheek. "I don't mind, Jareth. It is quite nice to have this effect on you. Especially given your age and experience."

"At least you came first," he said, with resignation. "And I will not have you disparage my age."

She giggled and started tracing shapes on his chest. "Are you really that upset by it?"

He opened his eyes as she shifted to look at him. His eyes glinted in the dawn light. "I would have you know that my prowess as a lover is renowned all over the Underground."

"That's not really saying what you want it to say," Sarah remarked with a laugh. "It makes you sound very slutty."

"I am not accustomed to making love, however," he went on, his hands smoothing her hair, his thumb caressing her cheek bone. "And making love to someone you love is unlike orgies and fucking. As with everything with you, it is harder."

"Harder?" Sarah repeated, with a snort.

"Harder to resist you, harder to try not to lose you."

"Lose me?"

"Lose you to your doubts," he explained. "To my own doubts. I want you forever and I my heart is not fickle, Sarah. It will genuinely break if I were to have you, and then lose you."

She placed a kiss on his cheek. "We can only take it one day at a time. I can't tell you that I will love you forever, or that we will work out. We can only try, work hard, and love harder."

"One day at a time," Jareth repeated.

"Who knows what tomorrow will bring?"

"Well, quite a few fae," he replied. "In a manner of speaking, some fae have limited abilities to see the future. And of course, there is my mother."

Sarah nestled back into his chest, feeling no words would be enough to jolly him out of his deep thoughts on their future. She was surprised he was such an overthinker and that he had been so deeply concerned that her health was not at full capacity all those years ago. A rush of affection washed over her at his display of vulnerability and insecurity. If you had asked her years ago, she would have staked her life on him being shallow and fickle. But it created a warmth inside her to learn that he might be built like a fae, but he was soft-centred.

"We should get up," Jareth said eventually.