Page 42 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

What would it have been like to have someone strong standing beside her? Holding her hand? Sharing her burdens?

She would never know.

Because some burdens could only be carried alone. Jareth wasn’t the shining knight in the story books who swept in to save the helpless princess. He was the cretin who used her and left her heartbroken.

Her silent cries caught as she inhaled a ragged, determined breath. He couldn’t save her because she wasn’t the helpless princess.

She was Crown Princess of Etthan, the only heir of a dead king, and her people depended on her. She drew in another shuddering breath and blew it out slowly. Breathing became easier with every inhale and exhale. She scooped up Calix and shoved herself into a seated position, bracing one hand against the ground until the trembling subsided.

She could sense Jareth crouched beside her. Around them, water sloshed and echoed strangely against walls she couldn’t see in the deep shadows. After sliding Calix back into her pocket, she stood and tested her wobbly legs. Water squished unpleasantly inside her boots and caused Rency’s dress to cling to her body. She tried to squeeze out the skirt with shaking hands.

As she did, she swept her gaze up at the ceiling above them. They were in some sort of underwater grotto illuminated by ghostly blue light. It took her a moment to find the source of the light—it streamed from half a dozen holes in the ceiling and walls. Except, they weren’t truly holes, for something kept the water from rushing into the grotto and drowning them. Reva took a tentative step toward the wall and stared through the window at the glowing creatures swimming just outside.

Jellyfish wafted past her and cast light against her damp cheeks. Mouth slightly ajar, Reva reached to touch the surface that hung suspended between her and the ocean. It wasn’t hard like glass but gave slightly when she pressed against it.

“Where are we?” she whispered as the first jellyfish was joined by a smaller one.

Behind her, Jareth sighed heavily. “This is Argos,” he said, his voice lacking all inflection. “I’ve brought you home.”

As the jellyfish wafted beyond her viewpoint, Reva withdrew her fingers from the barrier. “This isn’t home,” she said quietly.

She waited for him to respond, but Jareth said nothing. At last, she turned to face him, even though he was the last person she wanted to look at right now. Voices echoed from deeper in the grotto. Sea-green lights flickered against the walls inside an opening at the opposite end of the chamber. Moments later, bright glowing orbs and shadowy figures appeared.

“Jareth, is that you?” a feminine voice called out.

The sea prince heaved a weighty sigh and tore his gaze from Reva’s. “I’m here, Belen!” he called to the shadows.

A thin figure with a lantern peeled out of the darkness and moved to join them, illuminated by the glowing orb inside the metal casing. It was a young female elf with Jareth’s long dark hair and piercing sea-green eyes. She wore a gown the color of shallow waters, clasped at one shoulder with a golden shell broach. Two more shadows appeared behind her—male guards carrying tridents and lanterns.

Reva pressed her back against the wall of the grotto and instinctively grasped for the knife she kept in her boot, only to remember that Rency had stolen it and never returned it.

Belen set her lantern on the ground and reached up to hug Jareth. While she looked about the same age as Reva, she was tiny, barely five feet tall. Jareth stooped down in order to hug her back. Their embrace lingered several moments before he withdrew.

“I’m so glad you’ve returned,” she said, gripping his arm with a pale hand. “There was another breach this morning.”

Jareth’s gasp echoed through the grotto. “How many?” he asked, voice pained as the two guards drew closer and stopped on either side of the girl. One of them cast a curious look toward Reva.

“Three,” the girl said, swiping at tears on her cheeks. “We tried to get to them, but there wasn’t time to rescue everyone. I’m sorry, Jareth—they tried. They truly did.”

His shoulders hunched, and the meaning of the girl’s words finally dawned on Reva.

They were talking about people. They’d lost people that morning.

Her throat swelled. So Jareth hadn’t been lying—at least not about all of it. His world really was crashing in around him, but that still hadn’t given him the right to abduct her.

And yet…she pressed her back to the wall and felt trapped by the uncertainty. She couldn’t be responsible for saving his people as well as her own. He asked too much. How would she feed them? She’d be saving them from the sea just to die a slower death on land.

“Reva?” Jareth’s voice pulled her out of her frantic reverie.

“I’m sorry?” She licked her lips and took a stumbling step forward.

His eyebrows tugged together as he frowned at her, but he didn’t voice the question in his gaze.

“Who is this?” Belen asked as Reva stepped into the circle of light cast by the lanterns—the ones lit not with wick and fire but by tiny schools of glowing fish in clear basins of water. “Is this—is this her?” Awe mingled with hope, and the look on Belen’s face drove a blade into Reva’s heart.

“I’d like you to meet my sister, Belen,” Jareth said, still staring at Reva with uncertainty painted in his eyes.

Reva ignored the doubt in his gaze and the hope in his sister’s and drew herself up as tall as could. In the center of the grotto at the bottom of the sea, she lifted her chin and fell back on her role of feral queen.

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