CHAPTER TWELVE

Author Commentary: Thank you all for coming back to read the story! It makes me happy and helps me push on even when I get delayed slightly. To keep commentary short, I will respond to each of you individually through message. Now, without further delay...

"His majesty is okay. Actually better than okay." The palace doctor assured me and the High King and Queen. I clutched at my heart and breathed easily for the first time in an hour. We had been standing outside the door for what felt like ages.

"Are you sure?" The Queen asked. She was probably about as convinced as I was. "Sarah said that it looked as if you were trying to revive him, and you, and the nurses, did make a big fuss!"

The palace doctor nervously glanced down. "My apologies. His heart was stopped and we did think him to be dying. It seems as though his body was recharging. Like a reset if you will. It's not like we see bonding to this magnitude very often— if ever. No one here in the underground would know what to expect."

"Can we see him?" I asked finally.

The doctor nodded. "He is awake and very much wants to see you all. Especially Sarah… but um first Miss Sarah, could I examine you. I want to make sure you are properly healed after the bonding."

"I feel fine. I would really just like to see Jareth." I insisted.

"Go get checked out first," the High King said, much to my dismay. "Jareth would want to ensure that you are completely healthy. He isn't going anywhere."

I couldn't really say no to the High King, so I went without protest. I pouted as I followed behind the doctor to another room, not even getting to sneak a peak at my Goblin King.

"Now, that we are alone. I have a few questions to ask you, Miss Sarah." The palace doctor grabbed my wrist, checking my heart rate.

"What kind of questions?" I felt a bit uneasy with how he asked me. As if he was worried. Why would he be worried?

"Well, for starters, when was your last menses?"

I guess medical questions are not any different in the underground. "I'm not sure. I don't really keep track of it. It's not like I've ever needed too…"

"Uh huh. And have you been tired? Loss of appetite?" His brow raised this time.

"I've literally been power mad the past few weeks. So yes I might have been a bit tired." I scoffed. Then the doctor grabbed my belly and closed his eyes. It was awkward, but given that it was my first examination from a fae, I didn't know what else to expect. I cleared my throat. "What are you doing?"

"Did you know that one of my powers is empathy. It is why I make such a good doctor. I can feel all sorts of feelings from others. Like when the Goblin King's heart stopped. I got there so quickly because I could feel it. " He opened his eyes and walked over to cupboard and opened the cabinet door, revealing tonics and other medicines.

"I guess that does come in handy as a doctor." I bit my lip and watched as the doctor pushed through different vials before picking one out.

"Here," he said, handing it to me. "This should help with any nausea."

"Doctor," I was afraid to ask. "What exactly is this for?"

"Pregnancy, Miss Sarah. You are with child. Now, it is none of my business, but I am going to assume that the Goblin King is the father." He said point blank and instantly my heart stopped. I was sure I heard him wrong, but I hadn't.

"I um—" my mouth went dry. I'm pregnant? I am going to have a baby?

"Miss Sarah," the doctor sighed. "I know that you probably have a lot running through your mind right now. As your doctor, I would advise you to tell him. Along with everything else going on you are going to need all the support you can get."

I nodded…still unsure of what to say or how to act. I never thought about having a baby.

"I'm actually surprised you didn't know," the doctor said. "You did have premonitions before."

Instantly my memory flashed to my last nightmare. The one while I was sick from all the magic. An ugly goblin baby had torn it's way out of my stomach. Is that what is inside me? I clutched my stomach as a wave of sickness washed over me.

"What's wrong Miss Sarah?" He sat me down in a near chair. "I'm sensing a lot of fear."

"Doctor," I took in a deep breath before asking. "You said you could sense feelings. What about my baby. Is my baby good?"

"I don't understand what you mean. All babies are good."

"I mean is the baby normal? Healthy?"

"Everything seems perfectly fine. Strong too. I can tell you that he will be a very strong fae."

"Fae…"

"Well of course a fae. You are a fae and Jareth. It only makes sense that the baby will be a fae."

"Not a goblin then?"

"No child!" The doctor laughed. "Just because Jareth is the Goblin King doesn't make him a goblin. He is a fae just like you. That wouldn't even make sense. Goblins don't even have kids."

"Right?" I smiled uneasily. I know he was the royal doctor and has lived in the underground his entire life, but somehow I didn't seem to be all that convinced.

"Now, go see Jareth. He has been asking for you since he woke up."

He didn't have to tell me twice, but at the same time I wasn't as eager as before to see him. Not that I now had news to tell him…

I was only down the hall and hadn't been gone that long, so I was a bit surprised when I found the room that Jareth had been sleeping in empty with a nurse stripping the sheets from the bed.

"Um…" I barely made out before the young woman noticed my presence.

"Oh!" She cuffed her hands and slightly bowed her head. "Miss Sarah, his Highness is getting cleaned up. He asked me to tell you to wait for him in the garden.

"Thank you." I smiled. I was disappointed that I had to wait even longer to see Jareth, but a was also kinda of glad. I didn't know how to tell him I was pregnant and I still had to wrap my own mind around the idea as well.

I had only been to this particular garden in the High Palace once before after meeting Jareth's parents for the first time. I had come to discuss some of my premonitions with the king and had ended up having tea with the queen. Back then the flowers sparkled— literally. The plants in the garden seemed to dance of liveliness. But unlike then, now the plants were dull and dying. The magic was fading more and more. I wasn't even sure what happens once all the magic was gone. No one had told me.

The rustling of the plants grew loud as the wind picked up. Instantly, it was as if I was sitting at the arctic. The cold air moved in and nipped at my skin causing me to shiver. Clouds hid the sun and my nerves weighed on my chest.

"Sssaaarraah," a whisper echoed through out the garden and I froze.

I've watched enough movies to know that, that is never a good sign.

"Sssaarraah…." It called out again.

I turned around to run when a shadow of a man appeared from behind a large tree.

"Darth!" I gasped. How was he here? More importantly why? "Your too late! I can't use my power. I'm bounded."

He chuckled eerily. Then he closed in on me and I found myself trapped between the shadow man and the a hedge at the end of the garden.

"You don't see it do you? No one has figured it out!" His laugh was now manic and I shuttered.

"Sarah!" Jareth's voice rang from the other side of the garden. My eyes darted to find him running toward us as fast as he could.

"Jareth!" I gasped and just as quickly, Darth's shadowy figure engulfed me leaving me feeling as cold and dead as my nightmares before. I was completely frozen. Jareth threw his hand out as if he was trying to wield something. Magic. His eyes winced just as he probably remembered as well as I did that our magic was bounded together.

"Don't hurt her!" Jareth stopped in his tracks.

"Hurt her?" Darth sang. "I wouldn't hurt her. Oh no… Not when she carries the child that will bring the doom upon the underground."

"She doesn't carry…" Jareth began to protest. If my heart wasn't frozen with the rest of my body before, now it was. His eyes met mine, stunned and searching for truth to his words.

Darth then moved away from me and charged after Jareth.

"Jareth run!" I screamed as soon as his hold released me from his shadowed prison. I fell to my knees but never too my eyes off Darth full force targeting Jareth.

Before Darth could even reach Jareth, a powerful force slammed against him and his shadowy figure started to dissipate. Jareth's mom stood in the opening of the garden in a battle stance. She whispered something I couldn't make out, crossed her wrists together with her fingers extended chanted again and flung them to the side. Another wave of energy beamed through the garden and Darth fully disappeared.

Jareth was instantly at my side, standing me up from the garden's floor.

"Sarah, are you okay?" He asked panicked.

"I'm okay." I assured him.

"The magic in our castle is starting to disappear like the labyrinths." The High Queen said holding a dead rose. "Soon, demons will be able to wander into any area. We have no force to keep them out. I'm afraid war is inevitable at this point."

"We still need to figure out why the magic is fading." Jareth said.

"Actually, your father and Karen believe they have figured out what has happened. Come. We will go over it inside the castle." The High Queen hasted us.

When she was a little ways ahead of us and out of ear shot, Jareth reached for my hand then leaned in with a whisper. "Is what Darth said true?"

I held my breath. He was talking about the baby. How would Jareth feel knowing I was pregnant? It wasn't as if we were really together when it happened or like we were on good terms before this morning.

I bit my lip and nodded.

"I see…" was all he said and we kept walking.

That was it? Not angry? Not disappointed… not even happy. I wanted to ask him, but truth be told then I would have to tell him how I felt about it and I didn't really know. Especially after what Darth said. My baby would be the fall of the underground? A lump formed in my throat and I recalled the dream I had about the goblin popping out of my stomach. I know the palace doctor assured me I wouldn't have a goblin baby, but what if Darth had done something? Then what?

Jareth's hand that was still in mine tightened. At least he was still holding my hand. Through it all, the thing I loved most about my Goblin King, was he always stood by my side. But I didn't want him to stay at my side out of responsibility.

My thoughts were disrupted when we entered the High Kings office. Karen was holding my original labyrinth book.

"So mother tells me that you believe you have discovered what is happening to the magic in the underground?" Jareth asked.

"I believe I have." Karen said. "Sometimes when the underground has a spell or potion that is just too dangerous to keep around, they have the guardians guard it. That way no one that has magical powers has access to it—Not even the king. I've reached out to the guardians to ask if they had anything on record for what is occurring here. It looks like we have a pretty strong lead."

Jareth and I both took a seat on the couch, ready to hear the rest. The Queen stood next to the king who was sitting at his desk while Karen continued to educate us on her knowledge. "There is a spell that is unique to the fae. It was created in the event that the fae needed more power and such they could steal the power from other magical objects and beings. In this case the spell has been altered and it is stealing the power from the labyrinth, which somehow is spilling out into the rest of the underground."

"How does this spell work. Can we reverse it?" I asked.

Karen and the High King gave each other a glance. The king nodded and Karen responded, "When you ran the labyrinth, Darth got a hold of something of yours. Which in turn gave him what he needed to return your powers by using the labyrinth's magic to do so… but at a great consequence."

"What consequence would that be?" I could feel Jareth tense up next to me.

"Somewhere in the labyrinth all the magic in the underground is being sucked into a rip in reality. It started off slow, but now it must be growing stronger. Think of it like a black hole, sucking in all the magic in the underground. To Darth it must have been a happy accident. Without the magic in the underground, demons can rise again from the shadows without fear."

I took in everything Karen told us but only had one thing on my mind. "Can we reverse it?" I asked again.

"We don't know," the king finally spoke. He stood up and reached for the book that Karen was once holding. "First we need to find where this rip is. Which must be in the labyrinth given that all the magic started disappearing there first."

"I know every corner of the labyrinth. If something was wrong I would have found it by now."

"Would you? The magic has been disappearing in the underground for 15 years. Yet you didn't come to us until Sarah here started to retrieve her powers. You didn't come to us!"

"Because it is my kingdom father! You never once believed in me. That is why you sent me away to the labyrinth wasn't it? You wanted me to prove myself worthy to be the next successor to your throne!" Jareth raised his voice. I guess I never thought about why he was king over the labyrinth when he was also the son of the High King.

"Your weakness is your too playful!" The king growled. "It blinded you back then and it is still blinding you now."

"What are you talking about?" Jareth's eyes narrowed.

"You have a goblin woking for the demons in your kingdom." The King threw the book on the table. "And you didn't even notice! You were too busy wooing a child!"

Jareth's mother stood to her feet and gasped. In contrast, I held my breath through the silence that had now echoed throughout the room. My cheeks burned with awkwardness and I prayed that no one was looking at me.

"My goblins all love their king and kingdom." Jareth spat. "None would betray me and work for the demons."

"Then who, Jareth, did Sarah give her ring to?" Karen picked the book back up from the table. She turned to a page and handed it to Jareth. Jareth read intently before his eyes widened.

"Sarah, did you give your ring to a Goblin for directional service?"

I thought back and tried to remember everything about the labyrinth, recalling an old man with a bird on his head.

"Yes, I think I did."

"That is what Darth used from you to unbind your powers," Karen said.

"But that goblin isn't one of mine?" Jareth stood tall as he talked to his father. "I know every goblin in my kingdom, and this goblin isn't mine."

"Who ever he was, he was up to no good." The king said. "While you may not have been able to know what he was up to and stop him, you could have came to us when you knew the labyrinth was in trouble." Without another word, the king left the room.

"Jareth," his mom started. "Don't listen to your father."

"Don't listen?" Jareth hissed. "Mother, the man always thinks of me as a screw up? How should I not listen?"

"Your father has been very stressed with this situation. On top of that, he almost lost you last night. Just give him time." She remained calm.

"That's right." Karen chimed in. "Sometimes when we care too much, we don't show it the way it should be shown."

While she was telling it to Jareth, I knew she was directing it at me. I gave her slight smile, to let her know that I understood. All these years I had completely misunderstood Karen. Not that she was making it easy to be understood, but it was strange thinking that all this time she has been on my side. Maybe if I had stopped making her the enemy, she would have felt I was capable of handling the truth.

"Jareth," I touched his arm. "Is there really not anyplace in the labyrinth that you haven't checked. Not a dungeon or what about that place you put people to forget about them?"

"An oubliette." Jareth's eyes widened. Was I right? "Sarah, dear, your a genius!"

I blushed. "Well I mean, I did solve your labyrinth. Don't tell me that all these years you haven't searched a single oubliette."

"Why would I go searching oubliettes. I put people there to forget about them, not to go searching for them." He rubbed his chin in thought. "But, an oubliette is not where I think this rip might be. But it's on the right track. Thing is I don't know how he would have did it?"

"What is it dear?" The High Queen asked her son.

"Mother," Jareth looked intensely at her, "Is it possible that Darth somehow got into the heart of the labyrinth?"

"That would be impossible?" She gasped.

"Maybe… but maybe not." Then his face drained of all color. "If he did, it would be all my fault. Father is right…"

Don't tell me truth hurts, little girl
'Cause it hurts like hell