Page 35 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

Isla barked a laugh, but there wasn’t anything humorous in the sound. “That’s not what she’s saying, you fools.”

Reva leaned back to study her friend’s face. They exchanged a long, measured look, and Reva wondered if Isla had begun to suspect what Reva had.

“Well, it wasn’t me,” Jareth said quietly. “I would die before I let anyone hurt you, Reva.”

His words sent a new wave of shivers across Reva’s skin. Their kiss beneath the sea was beginning to develop nuances she wasn’t sure she was prepared to deal with.

“Isn’t that sweet?” Rency rolled his eyes toward the skies. “Don’t forget—I’ve also taken great pains to protect you, Reva.”

It took every ounce of self-control she possessed not to punch him in the face. “Forgive me if I don’t feel any sympathy for your pains.”

Now Jareth on the other hand…

Her cheeks still burned from his ardent declaration. Truth? Or a clever ploy to earn her trust?

Was it possible that Jareth actually cared about her? As more than a princess he hoped to marry for political gain? She’d always scoffed at stories about heroes and damsels in distress falling in love at first sight. It was the stuff of fairy tales.

And yet…she could not deny something tugged her toward Jareth, something she had never felt for anyone before. Was it something inside her, something that had been searching for a companion soul? Or was it the power of sea magic?

“What of the attack on my ship? My poor, innocent, darling ship.” Rency kissed his fingertips and then patted the deck beside him. A rumble of—was that pleasure?—creaked the timbers of the Andromeda. “Doesn’t this prove I am also a victim? Perhaps they were trying to assassinate me.”

Jareth and Reva snorted in unison, exchanging awkwardly amused smiles afterward.

“No, you nincompoop,” Isla said, stepping closer to kick Rency hard on the thigh.

He yelped and raked her with a foul look.

“You’re not listening to her,” Isla said as she jabbed a finger toward Reva. “She doesn’t think you or Jareth have anything to do with this. And she doesn’t think Felix is working alone. So do your sums, pirate.”

Reva held her breath and waited for Rency to put the pieces together. Jareth shifted his gaze between them, looking confused. But it only took a moment for the annoyance to leak out of Rency’s expression, replacing it with something somber.

“You think he’s working with Cassandra. But she’s such a—” He hesitated and scratched behind his ear and searched for words.

“A conniving witch?” Isla suggested grimly.

Reva winced but couldn’t argue with her friend. Cassandra had always played the part of spoiled courtier, but she was more than that. “But,” she said, “this doesn’t explain the sea monster who attacked the Andromeda.”

“It’s not a sea monster,” Jareth said. His tone was low, and when she looked up into his face, his sea-green eyes were piercing. “I don’t know what it is, but that thing doesn’t come from the sea.”

A fist tightened inside her stomach. “What do you mean?”

“It wasn’t the usual sort of sea monster. This was something else. Something worse.”

“What could be worse than a gigantic kraken trying to rip my ship apart?” Rency asked, his voice rising and eliciting concerned glances from the crew.

Jareth hesitated and leaned closer to Rency, as if he didn’t want the crew to hear him. “Someone used an artifact to summon this creature—an unnatural creature. And I think you might know what sort of object could do such a thing.” Jareth patted the deck of the ship. “You already have more than your fair share of unnatural possessions, Rency.”

He was referring to the Andromeda, naturally. Rency’s magical pirate ship.

“Are you saying I summoned the kraken—monster—thing?” Rency’s voice dripped with dislike.

“No,” Reva said with a meaningful look at Jareth, “but I noticed black ink in the water around the Endellion. And today, when we fought the monster, didn’t you notice how it exploded and left behind a liquid substance—something like blood that wasn’t blood? Something like ink?”

As if to prove her point, a sailor waltzed by with a mop, cleaning up the black residue from the deck.

“I noticed,” Rency said darkly, staring at her with unsettling intensity. He stroked his goatee with one hand and mulled her words over before continuing, “Well, I don’t personally have any experience with such things…but this could be the work of a Death Pearl.”

Jareth sucked in a startled breath, and Reva frowned at him. By the sands, what was a Death Pearl? And why did the mention of it make Jareth look like he’d seen a ghost?

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