The room was huge, large alabaster columns raised a high ceiling. There were loads of creatures wandering about the room, sitting at large tables filled with food. It was a feast made more gods but the room was filled with nothing but monsters. Cian stood beside me, eyes searching the room carefully before turning to me and situating the hood over my head, "Stay out of trouble until you see my signal. I mean it, Jezebel." 

"I don't have a death wish, Cian." I whispered to him. 

"Could have fooled me." He replied as he stepped away from me and I gave him a dry look, "Keep your eyes open. When I give my signal, things will happen quickly." He turned from me and disappeared into the crowd. I watched him go, tracking his moments so that I wouldn't lose sight of him. 

A drunken body bumped into me, "Watch it." The creature hissed before moving on. I glared after it for a moment, before turning back to keep my eye on Cian. A wave of frustration moved through me when I realized I'd lost sight of the summer prince. I barred my teeth, and pushed my way around the edges of the room, searching the crowd for a sight of him. This great plan was quickly unraveling.

The crowd parted for a moment and I sucked in a sharp breath. There he was. Everything else was forgotten. 

"Seth..." I whispered his name under my breath. He turned in my direction as if he had heard me, our gazes tangling together. His gaze conveyed many emotions, surprise, concern...anger. I pulled the hood of the cloak Cian had given me tighter around my face. I didn't want to draw attention to myself. I weaved my way through the boisterous gathering, making my way to where the spirits all seemed to be sitting, waiting. 

My skin erupted with goosebumps as I stood close to him, the air as cold as ice. I wanted to reach out and touch him but my fingers curled inward into a tight fist, "I know you're upset with me for coming here." His lips remained shut and I had a sinking feeling that it had something to do with him being a spirit. There was no way and no need for him to speak, still the emotions were conveyed on his pale and semi translucent face, "I am going to fix all of this. Get you back in your body, back where you belong."

Someone bumped into me hard from behind. I fell to the ground, catching myself on my hands. I gritted my teeth, lifting my face, "Watch where your walking." I snapped. That seemed like the correct thing to say. I needed to blend in, and I'd already disobeyed Cian's order.

Jareth stood over me with a surprised look on his rotting face and I felt my heart sink into my stomach before that feeling was replaced with hatred, "You."

"Half-breed..." I wanted to call upon my shadows, the need tingled across my skin. I needed this Lord dead. It was compulsive and hard to ignore. Hard to ignore because I did not want to ignore it. He must have seen the blood thirsty look in my eyes because he sneered, reaching down to snatch me. I tossed my head and the shadows slithered from under me, and wrapping him up in a cocoon of darkness. 

I pushed up off the ground, staring at him ensnared in my shadows. His eyes widening with fear, "How?" He croaked. Others nearby were watching the scene in amusement and shock, they delighted in violence and death. Wicked delights have their wicked ends. 

"A kiss." I hissed and understanding rippled over his face as I ripped away his shadow and watched the brief look of agony, follow by the vacant expression on his face.  

"She's a shadow wielder." There was a reverberating moment of confusion before all hell broke loose. I had control of Jareth, like a puppet on a string and I used him to my advantage, though I didn't understand how I had done what I had. When people drew close to catch me he would attack, like a wild beast and with no real form. I knew that I must be able to use him better but I had no control. I was essentially like a child throwing a tantrum. 

I was struck from behind and I collapsed the ground and Jareth was impaled through the chest with a large spear. I struggled a little as I grabbed up off the ground and dragged forward, the crowd parting like a sea. I shoved forward, my face kissing the ground. I gritted my teeth against the pain of my flesh scrapping against the uneven stones. Slowly, I pulled myself up off the ground.

I felt my limbs tremble with a sense ofoverwhelming dread as I looked upon, who I suspected was, the Erlking. He was larger than any man I had ever laid eyes on, and the armor covering his body looked to be made of bones. His eyes were soulless pits of darkness. However, unlike the Faeries of his court he was not rotting away. He was not a grotesque beast that I envisioned he would be. His appearance was strikingly angelic, it was the atmosphere around him that wreaked of death. 

He leaned forward in his chair, "I do not recognize you as one of mine. What is your name Fae?"

"Jezebel." I didn't know why I had answered him honestly. I could have lied, but the truth had slipped out as if it had wanted to be told. I bit the inside of my cheek, perhaps that was his power. He could command the truth from people. 

"Whoever sent you here was a great fool. Whether they be Unseelie or Seelie...they should have known better then to send an amateur into my court." He suspected I was a spy. 

My gaze flickered to Cian who stood beside the Erlking, his face drawn together in a deep scowl. He was upset with me. I had ruined our plan by getting myself caught. It had been hard to control myself, even now the shadows danced on the edges of my vision. The darkness called to me, wanting me to embrace it...to embody it. "Nobody sent me. I came by myself." My voice wavered. 

He seemed surprised by my words, "Pray tell, are you mad?" The crowd chuckled at his question.

"My king..." The female who had been with Jareth and Kilgore stepped from the crowd before I could reply, and my blood felt cold and hot at the same time. Fear that I would get Cian and I killed before we could save Seth, and the need to see this Faerie dead waring within. The sensations were smoldering. She cast a narrowed look in my direction, "This girl is nothing but a dirty half-breed, or she was when we left her with..."

"Shut your fucking mouth." I hissed in her direction. The shadows moved like lightening, striking with the accuracy of my intentions. She was sent hurtling through the air, knocking into a large alabaster pillar on the far side of the room near one of the many exits. The crowd grew silent at the sight. I didn't know if I had killed her but a part of me hoped I had. I cast a look toward Cian and he held my gaze, both of us knowing that I had protected his betrayal of his captor. 

The Erlking burst into a deep laugh, clapping his hands as if amused by what had happened. I slowly turned my gaze toward him. He wore a wicked smile, "Daughter, mine." He stretched his arms outward as if he were welcoming me home. It was an odd thing, it really was. I wasn't sure how I should feel. I had asked my mother many times as a child where my father was, who he was...but she had never given me a straight answer. It was always a sly smile, followed by her cupping my cheek with her hand, "It doesn't matter who he was, only that he gave me you." 

My grandmother told a different story, one that now, seemed to make a lot of sense. My mother had left my brother in my grandmother's care while she went into town for some supplies. She did not return home for three days, during which a huge snow storm struck, making it impossible for anyone to search for her. When the storm ended, my mother turned up in perfect condition as if nothing at all had happened. When questioned how she survived and where she had been. She said a stranger in the woods had given her shelter after the car had hit a patch of black ice and gone off the road. Several weeks later she turned out to be pregnant with me. 

Nineteen years later, the death of the man I loved, and a poisonous kiss later...here we were. As if it had all be orchestrated by some chaotic unseen force of the universe. I furrowed my brow, "I have no father." It was the only reply I could muster and it we more like a wish. I wished I had no father, because this one was garbage. 

He never lost his smile as he rose from his seat, "Come now, only a child of mine could wield the shadows as you do. My other bastards, are nothing but disappointments, taking after their mothers. Not you..." I kept my gaze fixed on him as he moved, steps graceful and predatory, "You are my darkness given form." Not something I took as a compliment. 

"I am curious however, how you found this place?"

"Followed some of your men..." 

"You lie." He didn't hesitate to call me out, amusement written over his face. 

"Stay away from me." I took a step back, the shadows slithering around my feet as if I stood in a pit of snakes. 

"You have nothing to fear from me." His words were lies. I could tell that without even needing to know much about him. He came closer and I felt the urge to flee. I had to remind myself that I was no longer human. That I wasn't weak and fragile. 

Still, I took a step backwards, "I just want you to return my friend to me, and I'll leave." 

"Leave? But my darling, you just got here. We have so much to catch up on." 

I pulled at the darkness and the shadows creeping along the floor. They slithered up my legs, wrapping around me slowly. The Erlking watched with curiosity and amusement, "Return my friend to me and I'll leave this place. You won't have to worry about me." It came out as breathless demand, my limbs trembling. I may be fully Fae now but my heart was still very human. 

"If I do not? What happens then?"  

"I make you." I released the shadows that danced around me, and they stretched out towards him. A dark mass ready to drag him back to whatever hell he had crawled out of. I watched as they rolled off of him. I stared at him with wide-eyed bewilderment. Why hadn't my shadows done anything to him? It didn't make any sense. I pushed harder, made my intentions more precise in my mind. A familiar ringing began to sound in my ears, my blood heating uncomfortably in my trembling form. Around me the shadows battered and rammed against him like ravenous beasts, unable to touch him for some reason.

The rage and frustration rolled through me, shattering something in my mind. I launched my body towards him, arm swinging. I didn't know what I planned to do. I knew enough self-defense to be adequate against a human. The Erlking captured my fist in his hand, meeting my gaze. I gritted my teeth but did not stop my attack, kicking at him with my leg. He simply flexed his control of my hand, squeezing hard. I felt my bones rubbing against each other. I let out a small cry of pain as I was dropped to my knees. 

He laughed as darkness seeped out of him. Until this moment I had never considered that there might be different types of darkness, but as I stared up from at the Erlking...I knew the terror of it. I could only watch as it swallowed the both of us completely, stealing the air straight from my lungs, "You are but a fraction of me. A shadow of my glory, but I am the darkness."

I felt weak and fragile. I was a little girl again, and I was alone. I was alone and it was dark, so dark. I swallowed a small whimper the had crawled up the back of my throat, eager for release. There was something digging around in my mind, it was clawing through my thoughts and memories. 

"So much untapped potential inside of you. Your humanity keeps you bound. I'll rid you of that." Sharp talons ripping at the edges of my mind. It made me want to scream in agony.