Page 90 of Somber Prince

“It really is now or never, isn’t it?” I exhaled.

Lucia met my gaze from across the table. She looked like she might know what we were talking about, but she didn’t look enthusiastic about the subject.

“Is everyone coming?” I asked Melanie.

“It has to be everyone from Prince Rha’s sarai. They want all eighteen of us out. Otherwise, they won’t even bother with the portal.”

That explained Lucia’s mournful expression. She never made it a secret that she preferred the life in Teneris to the one she’d left behind.

“Melanie, do people know the risks when crossing back into our world?”

“They do,” she assured me.

Elaine, who was quietly listening to our conversation, nodded in confirmation.

I scraped both hands down my face. “And they still want to do it?”

“No one wants to be a slave, Dawn,” Melanie’s half-whisper sounded more powerful than yelling. “Even if it’s a pampered slave.”

I dropped my gaze to my lap. A pause hung between us while my sister was giving me a chance to argue with her point. Only what could I say? Melanie was right. A cage was still a cage, even when it looked like a golden bedroom.

The silence stretched for too long, but I still couldn’t bring myself to say a word.

Elaine broke it first.

“Kostya is quite excited about leaving,” she said. “He can’t wait to get all the modern conveniences back.”

I followed her gaze to the man she was talking about. He was finishing a second helping of meat and potatoes, looking content with where he was for the time being.

“Does he know he may end up in the time way before electricity was even discovered?”

“He does.” Elaine smiled. “But he decided he’d be the one to discover it and would make millions.”

“So, everyone is on board?”

“Yep,” Melanie quipped.

For some, I imagined, traveling to a different time period might present a chance to start anew—a hope to do better.

“How about you, Elaine? What do you think about going back?”

She heaved a sigh, fidgeting with a button on her sweater. “As long as there is a chance to get to our time, I think it’s worth a try. My family must be losing their minds. I have to make an effort, you know? For their sake.”

Pulling the sweater tighter around herself, she got up and moved away from the table. I followed her with my gaze as she sat down on a floor cushion by the wall next to a Keeper.

“I still didn’t hear anything about Ciana,” I reminded Melanie.

Rha was meeting with General Oskura right now. But what if she still didn’t have any news for me?

“I hope we hear something soon. But we really can’t wait for longer than three days.” Melanie took my hand, her voice softening. “Imagine if we got back to the time when Mom and Dad were still alive.”

My heart squeezed with longing. What wouldn’t I give to see my parents well and alive again? For a moment, I even forgot that it would mean reliving their deaths all over again too.

“How would that work? Will we be kids again? Or will there be two versions of each of us running around?”

Melanie jerked her shoulder. “I guess we’ll find out when we get there.”

I poked with my spoon in the bowl with my dessert. The head chef started adding roasted pecans to the honeyed apricots and served them with whipped cream, making the dish even more delicious. This had become my all-time favorite dessert, and of course Rha enjoyed it when I had it. Eating it without him almost felt like a waste.

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