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“Which I am going to be doing,” Rency interrupted, “so why am I not getting paid?”

“You are not getting hung,” Reva fired over her shoulder, silencing him with a warning look.

Rency wisely clamped his mouth closed.

She turned back to Jareth. “And now that I have the Death Pearl, it’s entirely plausible that the blight in Etthan may…go away. If Etthan is under a curse—under Cassandra’s curse—as Rency suggested the other day, then the crops might begin to grow again. And if the crops grow…”

“Then you don’t need trade routes,” Jareth said quietly.

She suppressed a smile, forcing her expression to remain neutral, queenly. “And if I don’t need trade routes…”

Jareth’s mouth broke into a smile that grew wider by the minute. “Then you don’t need Felix,” he said.

“I say,” Felix grumbled again.

“Which means,” Reva said with a dramatic sigh, “that I’m suddenly in need of a suitable…well…suitor.”

“I volunteer,” Rency said in her ear, but the laughter in his voice told her otherwise.

Honestly, the pirate—merchant sailor—was a brat, and she was almost certain he had never possessed any true interest in her.

Jareth shot Rency a foul look before grabbing Reva’s hand in both of his. She searched his eyes. What she wouldn’t give for a few moments alone with him—even if it meant having to throw Rency and Felix both from the battlement. There was so much she wanted to say—so much she wanted to hear him say.

Seeming to share her thoughts, Jareth said nothing. He just looked at her through piercing sea-green eyes and made her want to stand there forever and memorize the facets of his irises and the emotions behind those windows to his soul.

“Well, let me be the first to congratulate you on a blissful betrothal,” Rency said, breaking the moment.

Reva stiffened and rolled her eyes toward the skies. “Sands and pearls, Rency, he hasn’t proposed, and I haven’t accepted.”

“But he’s going to, and you will.” Rency winked at her and darted forward to peck a kiss against her cheek. “So, congratulations. I can’t hang around for the festivities. It seems I have a prior engagement with slavers. Ready, Felix?”

The prince of Desta stirred abruptly and looked startled. “I’m sorry…now?”

“Yes, now. What, you want to have a lovely cup of tea first?”

Color infused Felix’s cheeks. “No,” he said stiffly. “I’m ready.”

“We’ll escort you down to the beach,” Reva said as she pulled away from Jareth.

A sense of loss filled her as his fingers slipped from hers, but she steeled herself against it. Before she could devote herself to spending time with him, she needed to uphold her agreement and care for her people.

There would be time for proposals and kissing later.

“I want to make sure you actually leave my island,” Reva continued as they headed toward the stairs littered with debris from the battlements above them.

“Your lack of faith in me is astounding.” Rency fell into step behind her, the others at his heels.

“What faith?” she tossed over her shoulder.

They took the outer staircase around the north side of the castle until it settled onto the beach where she and Jareth had emerged from the sea not that long ago. Several of Rency’s sailors waited beside a dinghy. They snapped to attention when they saw their captain striding across the sand.

“Prepare to cast off, mates!” Rency called as he strode past Reva. “We’ve a damsel to save, and a noose to escape!”

The sailors burst into chaotic motion, half of them leaping into the dinghy while the other half tried—less than successfully—to shove it out of the shallow waters.

Rency spun and swept Reva into a quick hug. To her relief, he didn’t linger but plopped her back into the sand and took a quick step back, an angelic look on his face. “Goodbye, dear girl. It’s been…something. I would say pleasant, but I don’t think that’s the word I’m looking for.”

Then he splashed through the shallows to stand waist deep in the water beside the bobbing dinghy. “Coming, Felix?”