Page 10 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

Her fears were confirmed when he hopped out and, thanks to his longer legs, strode past her and reached the awning first.

“Felix! What, ho?” he asked as he stepped beneath the awning and threw himself down on a brocade cushion. “Where were you, man? Have you no care for your ship and crew?”

From where he sat on his own cushion, the guarded expression on Prince’s Felix’s face turned sour. “I dispatched my crew,” he said. “And all of you went. There was no room for me in the longboat.”

“We could’ve made room,” Reva said under her breath. She remained on her feet beside Rency, so that she could kick him if the situation warranted it.

When Rency threw her a conspiratorial look, she responded with a faint smile. She had to admit that while she pretended to loathe, despise, and abominate the captain…he’d proven a steady ally to her the past couple of years. She just wished he would make more of an effort to behave. In many ways, he was like the annoying big brother she’d never had.

“Thanks to the sea elves,” Reva continued, “we were able to save most of your crew. I counted six dead.”

“I saw at least four,” Rency added with an unpleasant curl to his mouth.

Cassandra took a step forward, her eyes hard as glass. “Thanks to the sea elves?” she asked bitterly. “I wager the sea elves are the cause of our trouble.”

Reva braced herself to incur her stepmother’s wrath. “Cassandra, there isn’t any evidence of that. Unless you know something the rest of us do not?”

The older woman stabbed her fan toward the ocean and waved it around as if she were wielding a rapier. “I don’t know anything that you don’t. But if you’d paid attention in your history classes, you’d know the elves have always caused trouble for our people. They’re dangerous. Their magic is dangerous. And I assure you I’m not the only one who holds this view.” She snapped her fan toward Felix.

As if cued, the prince nodded. “I daresay you’re right,” he said. “It’s no coincidence the elf shows up to challenge my suit for your hand and moments later my ship blows up. That’s highly suspicious, if you ask me. Highly suspicious.” His voice trailed off, and he shifted on his cushion as if uncomfortable.

“We didn’t ask you,” Rency said under his breath, and Reva clamped down on the urge to kick him in the shins.

While she didn’t disagree with him, she didn’t want him riling the prince either.

“I think there is more going on than meets the eye,” Rency continued.

“Oh? Do tell.” Cassandra’s tone was snide. “You have suspicions? Come, let us hear them.”

“I know better than to drop my anchor into troubled waters,” Rency said, but flicked his gaze between Felix and Cassandra before looking to the sea. “If you want to blame the elf prince—who I personally witnessed trying to help the injured crew—you can take it up with him. Here he comes now.”

Reva glanced toward the surf in the direction Rency had indicated. Sure enough, the waters parted and allowed the prince of the sea elves to stride unhindered from the gentle waves.

She’d spent her fair share of days at sea, but she’d never seen anyone own the water the way Jareth did. Isla, who’d been loitering on the beach, fell into Jareth’s wake as he strode across the sand toward the awning.

“Welcome back, dear prince of the glittering sea.” Rency leaped to his feet and performed a grand, sweeping bow thoroughly tinged with mockery. “We welcome your wisdom during these trying times.”

Jareth halted just outside the awning.

“Do we?” Cassandra sniffed.

“Don’t we?” Rency waved an arm toward Cassandra and Felix, who stood stiff and angry beside Cassandra. “I, for one, was most appreciative of the mermaid’s—I mean merman’s—assistance.”

When Isla pressed a hand over her mouth as if to suppress a laugh, Reva’s lips twitched, but she schooled her expression. Prince Jareth offered a stilted smile, color darkening his cheeks.

“They don’t have tails, Rency,” Isla said in a cajoling whisper, loud enough for all to hear. “Mermaids have tails. Or have you no understanding of basic anatomy?”

Rency grinned and shot a wink in Isla’s direction, and Reva suspected he probably had far more than a basic knowledge of that particular subject.

The skirt-chasing buffoon…

“We prefer to be called elves,” Jareth said. “We are sea elves. Not mer. Though I understand the distinction may be difficult for humans.”

“Some would call you sirens,” Cassandra said, waving her fan viciously. “And they would say you murder sailors and drag them to the bottom of the ocean.”

Jareth shot her a sharp look. “That is a term we stopped using many ages ago.” His voice resonated and held a musical quality that Reva found soothing to the ear, like the crash of waves washing on shore or a stream burbling over rocks. “It’s a misleading representation of my people. We do not drown sailors and try to avoid them.”

“And yet,” Cassandra said with an icy smile, “here you are.”

---