Page 40 of Pearls of Salt and Sacrifice

“We’d be able to help your people. Teach them to fish in the best places. Use our magic to grow crops. Bring food from the sea. We have ways.”

“It would be too little, too late, I’m afraid.”

She didn’t know why, but her gaze fell to his mouth. It was a very nice mouth. Beautifully formed and surrounded by a scruff of dark whiskers that she found unaccountably attractive.

Curse his magical mouth…

“It’s our only hope, Reva,” he whispered, every word laced with a desperation she knew all too well. He leaned closer. To peer into her eyes? Or…

Was he going to kiss her again?

She gasped and shied away, spinning so her back was to the railing and she was facing the deck.

“Don’t touch me, Jareth,” she said, but her voice trembled, filling her with embarrassment. She hoped he couldn’t hear the furious pounding of her heart.

“Reva, please—”

“No.” She stiffened her spine. “You’ve had your fun with me, and now we must pay the price—whatever that price entails. I will leave the sea and return to my people, and you will return to yours. I’ll do what I can for your little ones and elderly. But that’s all.”

She couldn’t allow her heart to lead her astray. She had to do what was best for her people. If sacrificing herself in marriage to preserve the best trade routes—to avoid war—was what it took, that was what she would do. Because she was a princess, a daughter of kings. And no matter how she might wish to be a normal woman, who married a man for love rather than her kingdom’s future, that was not up to her.

“So you’ll turn me away, despite my promise to help your people, in favor of a man who neither knows nor cares for you.”

Reva rubbed her forearms to dissipate the cold shiver that passed over her at the sad words. “Yes,” she whispered. “That’s about the sum of it.”

“I, too, must do what is best for my people,” Jareth said, spreading his hands.

Fine hands, they were too. Large and strong, yet gentle enough to pet a baby kraken and tuck it away in a pocket for safekeeping.

Reva looked up, studying his face as the clouds shifted and cast cool white moonlight over his high cheekbones. She desperately wanted to find another solution, to listen to the whispers of her heart that said Jareth would make a more loyal husband and better king than Felix.

Felix who stood on the beach and let his people drown. Felix who might want her dead.

But Jareth had tricked her once, and she couldn’t take the chance that there was more he hadn’t told her. Tears pricked her eyes.

“I’m sorry, Jareth,” she whispered. “But I cannot save your people and mine. It’s too great a burden for one woman. I’m sorry.”

His eyes rolled closed, and he heaved a painful sigh. Then, his eyes flew open, and he caught her by both elbows once again. “I’m sorry too,” he whispered. “Hold your breath, Reva.”

Before she had time to scream for help, Jareth had swept her into his arms, leaped onto the railing, and plunged them both over the side of the ship.

Chapter Twelve

Reva’s strangled cry cut short as the cold water closed over her head.

She’d barely registered the wild swirl of sensations, the stomach-wrenching plunge into deep darkness. The shock of ice-cold water against her skin. Jareth’s arms wrapping around her like iron bars. The smothering saltwater forcing its way into her mouth and nose as he dragged her below the waves.

She kicked and struggled against his hold, but he was far too strong. Something coiled around her legs, and then her waist. Reva tried to scream but only choked on the sea water she swallowed.

Had he saved her only to murder her now?

This is it, her brain told her. This is where you die. Your kingdom lost. Your people lost. You lost at sea.

No! She had to fight, had to swim, had to…

But whatever had latched about her legs and waist only drew her deeper and deeper beneath the surface. She continued to choke, water overwhelming every one of her senses. The deepest blackness imaginable pressed in on her. Then Jareth found her mouth, his hands tangling in her hair.

And, sharks bite her, she let him kiss her. In her weakness, in her need to survive, she let him kiss her. She’d never felt more vulnerable, more helpless. Even her tears were stolen away by the sea.

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