Page 3 of For the Ghastly and Beautiful

While they’re here.

I smirk at the thought and quietly ask, “Who’s with you?”

He shrugs mischievously as the door flies open. That’s my answer. I know only one person who would make an entrance like that.

“Not that it matters, but will you tell these women that I am not—” Ecaeris stops mid-rant and whispers my name like a prayer. “Ada.”

The Mongrel Prince glides across the room so fast it appears as if his feet don’t touch the floor. He’s by my side before I can blink.

“I feared,” he states simply, closing his eyes and sealing his lips.

I understand everything that he isn’t saying.

He thought I left. That I sailed to the dark island hoping to go home.

All that time I spent wishing to be back in my world, and now all I want is to go... Home. With them to Spiran, not here. Not Earth.

“I’m ready to leave,” I tell them, and Ecaeris looks at me as if I’ve ripped his heart out before I can continue. “I want to go home. I don’t want to be here.”

I let my gaze flow around the room and raise my brows when neither of them moves. Imryll’s smile widens, brighter than before, but Ecaeris still looks gutted. When he says nothing, my brows go from high to furrowed, pinch together in aggravation.

Imryll groans at us. “Stop being such mongrels.”

“She can’t leave,” the nurse says again, this time directing her words to the guys.

Ecaeris ignores her. “How am I being a mongrel?”

I roll my eyes, knowing the ceiling offers no answers for me. There is no easy way for me to be blunt about changing my mind.

“I want to go home, Ecaeris,” I repeat, feeling like a broken record.

“I heard you,” he snaps quietly, still fuming at Imryll.

The doctor’s grin grows more expansive, and I sigh at the hot-headed prince.

“With you.”

I watch his eyebrows dance across his forehead as he processes those two words without looking away from Imryll. He slowly turns his head to stare at me, seeming as if he misheard what I said. I glare at him, refusing to repeat myself yet again.

“Did you hear her that time?” Imryll smarts.

“Shh,” Ecaeris hushes him.

He barely acknowledges his friend as he narrows his mismatched eyes on me. I smirk at his challenge.

“Say it again.”

“No.”

“Say it again,” he grinds out between clenched teeth.

He’s battling a smile. I see his cheeks twitching as he watches me. I shake my head, keeping careful control over my facial features.

“I won’t repeat myself.”

“Funny,” I comment, pointing at my chest quickly. “I won’t either. Maybe you should let Dr. Heart check your ears.”

He closes his eyes, and his chest rises and falls rapidly with his fraying patience. I purse my lips, fighting laughter when I see Imryll cover his mouth.