Page 1 of Boundless

one

Ground underneath my knees.

My mind was a chaos of screams and shouts, of the sound of blasts of magic, of growls—and then my name on my sister’s lips.

Hands on my arms, on my face.

Two realities crashed onto each other right in my chest, knocking my breath out. Rune’s name was at the tip of my tongue, and ice-cold magic was at the tips of my fingers—but the sky was blue here, a bright blue, and the sun was shining.

No Rune and no Vair and no Midnight Palace.

I am home.

Which, really—wasn’t it just absolutely fucking hilarious?

“Nilah, open your eyes. Look at me, pup. Look at me.”

It was like a slap on the face, on my ice-cold cheeks, and I still felt the soft touch at the same time. My dad’s hands. His scent. His warmth.

His eyes, dark and wide and terrified.

A part of me was about ready to break out in a crying fit. I was with my dad—everything else could wait. I was safe now, he was here, and I could let go. I could scream to my heart’s desire untilI let out every ounce of this dread that had filled every cell of my body.

But I couldn’t.

My dad was here, but so was I—andthatwas a problem. Rune was in Verenthia, in the Midnight Palace, having killed his own father withmyhelp, and I had no clue what the hell happened next.

I had no clue what happened to Rune, or to Vair, or tome—I had no clue.

I couldn’t cry now. I couldn’t break down, even if my father’s arms were around me. Even if he was hugging me to his chest and telling me to breathe. Fiona and Betty were right there, too, their arms around the both of us.

A moment I had dreamed of so many times. It felt like years since I’d been away—years, not months. It felt like I’d been craving this very thing for fucking centuries, and now that I was here…

I couldn’t stay.

“Dad.” My voice sounded strange like it sometimes did. My dad stopped, and Fiona and Betty leaned back.

Wide eyes on mine. I looked at all three of them—perfectly okay.Pale, and in shock, but okay.

“I have to go.”

The words left my lips in a rush. I barely had enough strength to whisper them.

My dad narrowed his thick brows. “Go where?”

I was certain that my legs wouldn’t hold me, but I made to stand up anyway, and they did. The earth could have been shaking underneath me—my God, it’s Earth.The trees were all green, their bark so brown, so healthy. The grass was smooth and shiny, the asphalt, and the sidewalks and the fences and the cars, so…sophisticated.So advanced. After all I’d gotten used to seeing in Verenthia,thisfelt strange to me now.

This—the very place where I grew up, where I lived my whole life.

“Nilah, what’s the matter?”

Fiona.

I turned to her—my sister, the spitting image of my mother, just not her eyes. Hers were warm and brown and wide, and I’d thought mine were like Mom’s, but I was just lying to myself. They might have been like Mom’s once, when I was born, before Lyall found me in the meadow. After that, they became the eyes of the Ice Queen of Verenthia, whose soul lived inside me.

I wasnotme.

“You’re scaring me, Nil,” my sister said, and I knew that. I saw it. Saw the way the three of them were looking at me, frozen in place, their hands halfway up like they wanted to touch me but they didn’t dare.