Page 11 of Boundless

“Good. Now get up. Get dressed. Let’s talk.”

With the empty cup in her hand, she turned and went to the other side of the bedroom, which was possibly over twice the size of mine in the Seelie Court. It was dark, with black and silver walls, the Midnight crest engraved and embossed everywhere, even the polished marble floors and pillars. The bed was huge, the sheets a deep grey, and I was not dressed in the same clothes as the last time I was conscious. Instead, I wore silk bottoms only, and my skin was clean.

Not only from dirt and blood—but from shadows and ink, too. From the mark.

No sign of the traitor’s mark or the seal I’d had my entire life anywhere on me. No sign of any wound.

I sat up, barefoot, breathing in deeply to calm the racing of my thoughts. Memories from the distant past and from the last time I was awake wreaked havoc in my mind. It was a bloody battle and it tried to slow me down. It tried to weaken me, but my body…refused.

It took me a moment to gather myself, to look around, to reallyseethe room I was in. The black stone walls didn’t just absorb light—they devoured it, smooth as glass. There weren’t many things in it, not like in the throne room, which would be for show. Here, the wood of the bed frame was painted a glossy black, with a table and a desk made in the same spirit, the same design, the wood carved by the same hand. Two racksof weapons on opposite walls, and a bookshelf with black tomes only.

It smelled like shadows here. Three large windows were opposite the bed, as tall as the entire wall, the frames made of dark metal full of sharp edges. Near them was a low silver table surrounded by black recliners and three smaller shelves holding books. That’s where Raja waited, a book in hand, looking out the last window into the everlasting night sky of the Midnight Court.

I was here.

I was really here, in the Midnight Court.

Fae lights trapped in glass spheres, and torches lit with white, smokeless flames were all around us. I saw everything in much more detail every new time I blinked, and it felt like even the air was listening to my near-silent footsteps.

It wasn’t the air, though. Just the palace.

I didn’t bother to search for clothes—the bottoms would have to do for now. I had no time for trivial things when Nilah was gone, stuck in her own world, unable to make it to me if she tried.

Because shewouldtry. I knew it as certainly as I knew that I would never rest until she was beside me again.

“She said you’d have your memory when you woke up.” Raja’s voice was ice-cold when I stopped near her by the window. She was clean, too, her hair sleeked back like always, her dress black and made of velvet and lace. Color on her cheeks, and her eyes were bright and alive. “She said the death of the king would release it, and that the magic that belongs to you will have settled inside you by now.” She looked down at my naked torso. “Has it?”

I looked down at my hand, at the shadows on my fingertips that I hadn’t evenfeltthere, that were leaking out of me without my even knowing about it.

“Yes.” The magic was definitely settled inside me. It had felt like flames under my skin before, but now that I knew, it was just…heavy. Adjusting.

“And the memory?”

Her voice seemed to echo to eternity in the endless ceiling.

I looked outside the window, at the Midnight Court. From here, I could see not only the wall of the palace but the border of the kingdom far in the distance, too.

Maybe notseeit because it was too dark, but I knew where it was. I just…knew.

“I have it.”

Raja turned to me. “And? What was it? What was the reason, boy? Why did the Ice Queen split her soul?”

I looked into her wide curious eyes. “To save us all.”

She thought about it for a moment. “I am not surprised.” She didn’t look like it, either. “Tell me, Your Highness. Tell me, now.”

“Do not call me that, Raja.” Whatever it was about those words, thattitle—it didn’t sit well with me.

“But I will, Your Highness.” A ghost of a smile touched her lips, which so rarely happened. “You are a king now, my boy. Get used to it.” Her hand was under my chin. She raised up my head and said, “Speak.”

“It was the Seelie Queen,” I said. “The moment she found out that she was pregnant with King Trogen’s son, she killed him. She poisoned him. She blamed a fake resistance movement and had seven fae beheaded.”

A hand over her mouth. This terrified Raja, as it had terrified me when the Ice Queen talked to me about it.

By Reme, how had I not remembered when it was the most intense hour of my entire life?

“The Seelie throne could not recognize the new heir yet, as she was merely weeks pregnant when she killed the king, and sothe balance began to crack.” I looked out at the Midnight Court again. The sky was dark from what I could see. It was dark everywhere in the kingdom. “When the Seer of Shadows foresaw the death of the Ice Queen, it broke a little more.” My eyes closed. I breathed in deeply. “When the royal Unseelie family was murdered, the crown taken by common fae, the balance shattered all the way, and it has been breaking a little at a time ever since.”