Page 111 of Boundless

My body finally reacted. The magic in me roared just like the dragon, and I hardly heard it from the sound of the shadows spinning—a storm. It sounded like I was in the middle of the storm, and I wasn’t the only one. The Unseelie heir who’d landed on the ground beside me was there, moving back slowly, his eyes on the shadows.

I wanted to talk to him, to tell him to move, get back, stay safe, butdon’t run,except it still felt like I was inside a movie, and things were happening as suddenly as if I really were.

The fire came seemingly out of nowhere, broke the shadows Rune had put around the dragon, and shot forward within a second. I didn’t think—I moved. It was all instinctual because I couldn’t think straight to make a conscious decision tobe brave.I just knew that that fire was coming right toward where the Unseelie heir was standing, and I needed to stop it before we were all fucking doomed.

Ice slipped out of my hands so hard it tried to throw me back. But I was standing between the fire and that man now somehow,and I held my ground and gritted my teeth, screamed at the top of my lungs, I thought, and released every bit of energy I had in me, without any clear goal in mind other than tostop the fire.That’s all that mattered—stop the fire that could kill the heir, and could kill Rune, and could easily killmeas well. Just stop it so we could run.

The magic came. My arms, my hands, my throat was numb seconds in, but the energy released from me, and there was no more orange light behind my closed lids, but it was silver now. Almost white.

For a second there, I thought I made it. I thought the fire was gone and that I could move back, run together with the heir and Rune, get the hell away from here fast, but no.

Because the fire was still there, and it stillbrokethrough the bright light of my magic and hit me straight in the chest.

I was flying.

I was falling.

I hit the ground so hard every single bone in my body should have broken, yet somehow, I was still conscious. Somehow, it was almost like I’d beenoutof my own body while I’d fallen, and now I was trying to blink my eyes, to see clearly, to find where Rune was. Where the heir was.

Where the fuckingdragonthat was roaring so loudly was headed.

Back.

The dragon was moving back toward the eggs, and someone grabbed me by the arms and pulled me to my feet in one movement. Rune’s face came in front of mine for just a split second, and then I was upside down again, and I was moving. He’d hauled me over his fucking shoulder, and he was running.

I must have fallen in and out of consciousness while he did, because what felt like just a few seconds later to me, we’d stopped, and suddenly I was perfectly alert.

“Put me down, Rune, put me down,” I said because I needed to see him. See where we were, where the dragon was—again.

My feet hit the ground. My legs held me. My eyes worked.

I was…okay.

Holy fuck, I was okay, and I could have burst out in laughter had I not looked down at myself to find that there was a hole in the brown shirt I had on. The edges of the sleeves were burned. My skin was covered in grime.

The fire hadreallyhit me, had thrown me back. Dragonfire—and yet my skin didn’t look or feel burned.

“Wildcat.”

A hand around my chin, and my head moved up, my eyes locked on Rune’s. We were both breathing heavily, and his hair was a mess, but there was no blood on him. No scorched clothes. He was okay, too.

“What the fuck just happened?”

The heir.

I moved back, stepped to Rune’s side to find that the Unseelie fae was there, indeed, his clothes as torn as before, but he didn’t look burned. He didn’t look wounded in any way.

Instead, he looked panicked as hell as he pointed his finger at me, and his eyes moved from mine to Rune’s every other second.

“Why—whywould you get in front of dragonfire for me? What the fuck, woman?” His finger shook at Rune’s face. “Who areyou people?!”

“Calm down,” Rune said, and I closed my eyes for a second, willed myself to breathe deeply, because we were still in the forest, apparently, but the dragon wasn’t here. The trees here didn’t look burned that I noticed. The silence was a dead giveaway, too. No shaking ground and no roars.

“Answer me—who are you?” the man demanded, his voice thicker, rougher.

“This is Nilah Dune. I’m Rune Kalygorn, and we’re not here to hurt you.”

Laughter.