Miracle

Good for one miracle. Tiny crystalline print beneath the beautifully stenciled words noted Only applicable within the Labyrinth's borders. Glittery fineprint. Of course. Expect no less from your local generous Faerie lord.

Still...I held the card delicately between two fingers, as if it might bite. "You know what I want. Is it possible?"

Jareth twirled a crystal across his fingers, clearly defying known laws of gravity. "Miracles are about the impossible, aren't they, Sarah?"

My lips twitched in a smile that threatened to morph into something more volatile. "It wouldn't really be her though, would it?"

He gave me a measured blink. "Not in the way you mean."

"What way then?"

"It would be your living memory of her. Anything you didn't know wouldn't be there."

"But I could hear her voice."

"Yes."

"And she would smile at me and we would laugh and we could sing together."

"Oh yes."

"And I could hug her and tell her I love her."

"Yes."

Tears stung my eyes at the possibility. "And you would do this for me just because?"

He rolled the crystal from one hand to the other and back again slowly, the glowing sphere clearly rolling upwards of its own accord in blatant disregard of physics. "Because you're hurting and because I can."

"That's...very generous of you. Far too generous."

His teeth gleamed in the moonlight. "Do you want it?"

My fingers spasmed around the card. There would be consequences, I just knew it. But screw it. I missed her so much I couldn't breathe right sometimes. Her loss was so fresh, like someone had suckerpunched me. "Yes. I want it."

He plucked the card from my hand with silky grace and brushed a kiss across my too-empty fingers. "As you wish. She'll be waiting in the throne room for you."

"Why the throne room?"

He winked at me. "Best acoustics in the whole kingdom. Fantastic for singing."

I blinked back a fresh round of tears as I thought of her voice, and the harmonies she would always add to everything we sang. "Will you be there?"

"If you wish."

I flashed him a watery grin. "You're the official sponsor of this miracle. You should be there. Besides, there's this great tenor part in this one piece that we never could get anyone to do with us."

"As you wish." The words dropped gently between us.

My heart nearly stopped. "You going full on Princess Bride on me?"

He smiled like a Cheshire Cat as he extended his elbow to me. "One miracle at a time, eh?"

In memory of Ellen, z''l.