Page 102 of Boundless

A second of silence. Maera was standing next to Rune, and I hadn’t even noticed her approaching, but the Unseelie fae surehad. His eyes moved lightning fast from her to Rune, but he ignoredmecompletely, like I wasn’t even there.

“And what if I choose not to say?”

He said the words separately. Slowly. Terrified, but he pushed them out anyway.

The tension that filled the air came from Rune. He was doing it on purpose, just a second before he stepped back.

“Then I will take it, and I will leave, Chancellor. It is entirely your right.” He was smiling, Rune. I heard it in his voice. “Perhaps I’ll drop by the Fire Palace to ask the king and queen.”

The chancellor breathed easier, but he held back the sigh of relief I knew he wanted to heave. “The king and queen haven’t seen the Seelie King, I’m afraid. He, too, refused my invitation today. The only thing he said when he left was that he would be back.” A small smile. “Just like yourself.”

Oh, yeah. That definitely sounded like Lyall.

“Very well,” Rune said, and he and Maera stepped back together, but my blood was fucking boiling because this wasn’t right. If Lyall had already been here, how were we to know if he’d found the heir already, if he’d killed them, or if he’d found a clue to where else they could be? Because they most certainly were not here.

So, I said to the Chancellor, despite my better judgment, “Are you sure? Are you absolutely sure he didn’t say anything else?”

“Yes,” the fae said, and he did not even meet my eyes when he said it. He was too busy watching Rune and Maera because they were the bigger threat.

Rune then looked back at me once, and I knew what he meant. He was done here, apparently, and he didn’t think this guy knew more. That, or he knew that we needed to get out of there asap.

“We will be on our way now, Chancellor. Thank you for the warm welcome with the morvekai.” Rune stepped back, took my hand in his.

The fae’s orange eyes zoomed in on it and I could have sworn he looked three times paler all of a sudden as he swallowed.

“Of course,” he barely managed, and he and the soldiers stepped aside to make way for us to pass.

The morvekai did, too.

Not going to lie, I was scared shitless to be passing by that creature. Holy fuck, he was most certainly over seven feet, maybe eight, and his shoulders were really wide, and his skin was really plastic, and those eyes…fuck.

Rune stopped right in front of it, pulled me back. This time I had no trouble half hiding behind his shoulder because that thing was truly monstrous. If it wasn’t for my burning curiosity, I’d have even looked away.

But Rune studied it carefully. Slowly. Like he had never seen anything more fascinating and disgusting at the same time. The morvekai didn’t blink or breathe or move at all. It had weapons on its person, lots of them—swords and knives and even an axe—but it didn’t reach for them yet.

“The making of a morvekai is illegal by fae law,” Rune said, looking back at the chancellor, who no longer looked half as happy as he had in the beginning. In fact, he looked about ready to start running back wherever he came from, possibly to alert whatever king and queen this kingdom had. “I’ll be sure to ask how these ones came to be when I meet with your superiors.”

Superiors.Notkingorqueen,or evenroyals.

The chancellor looked him dead in the eyes. “I’m sure they shall be thrilled to answer,” he said, his voice almost a snake’s hiss now.

Pretty sure Rune could tell, but he chose to ignore it. Instead, he turned around and guided us up the bridge. Maera stayedbehind, looking back every few seconds, just like me, but nobody was coming closer to us. Not the chancellor, not the soldiers, and not the morvekai monster. They all stayed right where they were and watched us in silence as the blue bird guided us farther and farther away.

Minutes later, we were in the nearest town again, and the Unseelie fae continued to ignore us.

“It wasn’t it.”It made sense now—itwasn’tit. Not the right place.

We sat near a tree trunk at the edge of that same town that led us to the settlement. We’d stopped to take a breather, to think through what to do next, and Maera had gone to shift back, too. At least that’s what Ithoughtshe went to do when she simply went around the back of the buildings without a single look our way the moment we sat down.

“Two bridges,” Rune said, tapping his fingers together as he stared at the ground.

“The other one was ruined, but it was there.Twobridges, not one. It wasn’t the right place,” I said, shaking my head at myself. I should have known it couldn’t possibly be so easy, damn it. Nothing ever was.

“No, it wasn’t.” Rune looked up at me, concerned. “We can’t stay here long. The chancellor will be on us. The usurpers will grow curious. They might want to cause trouble, maybe try to keep us from leaving since Lyall was already here.”

Goose bumps covered my arms and I dragged myself closer to him. Rune immediately put his arm around my shoulders. “The morvekai. That…thing.How powerful is it?” Because just the thought of being face to face with not one butfiveof them—or more—made me feel so fucking helpless.

“Very,” Rune said, making my stomach twist. “But they can be killed. I can kill them.Youcan kill them.” A finger under my chin, and he pulled my head up so I looked into his eyes that were so full of colors, I was almost relieved to see they hadn’t changed. Like I was already expectingeverythingto be different at any given second now.