Chapter 39

Because You Deserved To Know

Sarah's POV

I sat bolt upright. That same nightmare again, Vailan's shadow army making it to the above ground.

"Sarah? Nightmare again?" Jareth asked and I nodded. "Come here."

I shuffled over to him and curled up against his side, and he rest his head on top of mine. Jareth was as comforting as he could be shackled to the wall. Vailan had him chained up because he feared how much power Jareth might have. He had left the rest of us untied and Gareth explained that it was because everyone, including him, had no power to act against Vailan.

Ruby was unconscious, and had been for the last three days. Apparently, when Vailan cut off her wings, she lost her connection to the High Grounds and became human.

Jareth winced and I realised I had just leant against his side where one of the shadows had stabbed him.

I leant back and began to lift his shirt to see how the wound was doing.

"Let me see."

"Its fine." He tried to move away slightly but I caught him.

"Let me see." I said, more adamant this time and he nodded.

I lifted his shirt and saw that it was healing rather well. Though it had only been three days since we charged the castle and lost, Fae healed quickly so the gash was almost gone.

I ran my fingers over the light cut and kissed it. "There, all better now."

Jareth laughed lightly, despite the fact it obviously hurt him.

I shuffled to his other side and cuddled against him again. His chains were just long enough for him to play with my hair, which helped me relax.

I glanced over to Ruby and Gareth.

Gareth was fast asleep with the still unconscious Ruby on his knee, lent against his body. He had sat like that for the last three days. He never let her go.

"She'll be fine." Jareth said, snapping me from my thoughts.

"Did you know? About Vailan?" I asked curiously.

"No. But I do think she tried to tell me."

"What do you mean?"

He looked away, at Gareth and Ruby. "Many times over the years Ruby has tried to tell me something about Vailan, but my mother always stopped her before she had chance. I thought it was something more about why he was banished. She tried a lot more recently but we were always interrupted. I just assumed she was trying to warn me about the war. But when she tried to tell me on the day we charged the castle, it was different. I knew it was the same thing, but it didn't make sense for it to be a warning about the war, because it was already happening. I guess now I know what it was she was trying to tell me." His face changed slightly to something else, sorrow I think. He kept his eyes fixed on Ruby.

"I think Vailan was wrong."

"How do you mean?"

His face snapped back to me. "He said Ruby was the one to force him out of the family, which I know isn't true, but he also said she was the reason we didn't know. I think he got it the wrong way. I think Ruby told my mother of what a monster he would turn out to be, and it was my mother who took action against him, or else why would Ruby try and tell me the truth?"

"Because you deserved to know." We looked up and saw Ruby was looking back at us, now awake, but weak.

With her angelus side now gone, she looked different. Not too different, but her skin no longer held the glow it once did, though her movements were still graceful, they were slightly sloppier than before, and her eyes were now a pale grey rather than that shocking electric blue. But one thing that hadn't changed, what that exiting spark in her eyes that made her friends happy and her enemies run in fear.

"Your right. Vailan was fed a steady diet of half-truths and miss-truths. I did not show your mother what he would become, she saw it herself. When you were children, he was always trying to get away from the expectations that looking like you and your brother gave him." Ruby explained steadily. Jareth stayed quiet, taking it all in.

"That's why your eye is like it is. Your mother favoured you to him, he lost it and hit you, causing your eye to dilate and get stuck that way. His final straw was when he decided he could not live looking like you two anymore and made the shadow shroud. He has looked that way ever since he was 6. He only reviled his face because I damaged his shadow when I launched him across the room." She laughed a little on the last bit.

"I never even knew he was my brother." Jareth said, still slightly stunned at the news.

"I know, that was your mothers choice. All you would know was that you had a brother who got banished and why. You weren't know you were a triplet and you weren't to know that your third was Vailan. She was very specific about that. Now, get some sleep. Vailan will take me and Gareth into the throne room tomorrow morn."

"How do you-" She cut him off.

"Just because I am human, doesn't mean I am deaf. I heard him telling one of the guards when they dragged us from the throne room."

"Oh ok..."

"From the state of your clothes I'd say we've been in here four... no... three days. If you ask me, you guys deserve some time alone." Ruby winked at us.

I looked up at Jareth and could see the mind bullets he was shooting at her for saying that. It made me smile that I was not the only one who was shy about our relationship.

Ruby smiled and rest her head back on Gareth's shoulder.

After Ruby was fast asleep, Jareth looked at me.

"I need you to try something for me."

A looked at him confused, but nodded and he smiled.

Jareth taught me how to summon a crystal, which it turns out is harder than it looks, and got me to hold it against the shackles around his wrist. After three or four tries, the crystal melted into the metal and the shackles opened.

"Thank you." Jareth said, rubbing one of his wrists.

I took one of his hands from him and looked at his wrist where the shackle had been. It was bruised and cut. I rubbed lightly over the marks on his wrist and felt his other hand on my cheek.

"It's ok, I'll be fine." I looked up at him to be sure, and his eyes portrayed the same thing.

I smiled as he pulled me on to his lap. Cradling me in his arms he lent down and kissed me lightly. He stroked my cheek with his hand and I put my head on his shoulder, nuzzling into the crook of his neck as I fell asleep.

Hi guys, thought I'd go a little more into the specifics of Vailan.

I also thought I would give Jareth and Sarah some... ehem... alone time... In the next chapter.

Comments will be blessed by the gods... or something like that  :-)

Thanks to Jarethismyking for voting, comments and putting up with/ not murdering me over Skype last night hahaha. Also thanks to KatarinaTheSiayan for commenting and giving me support.

Thanks for reading

Labyrinth

P.P.S,

To Jarethismyking,

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Love,

Tess xxx