Page 119 of Boundless

I liked Hil. I really didn’t think he had it in him to be evil in any kind of way.

“The honor’s all yours,” I said and waved a hand for him toward the stairs.

“Such generosity,” Hil whispered as he moved past me, then bowed his head to Maera. “Your Exquisite Highness…”

Maera gave me a look when he went ahead, and I could have sworn she was trying her damn hardest not to smile, too.

“I’m going to shift again. She’s restless,” she told me—and I knew she meant her wolf. I had yet to understand how it worked, what it was like in her head, but I nodded.

“Of course. Whatever feels more comfortable to the both of you.”

“Thanks.” She took off the cloak and gave it back to me. “Till next time.”

By the time I secured the cloak around my shoulders again, her wolf had fully shifted, and she was already moving up the stairs as she sniffed the air deeply.

We found Hil there, eyes up toward whoever was speaking on the third floor, the voices too low for me to understand a single word.

Maera stopped beside him, her ears perked up and her neck extended.

Then came the noise.

Something made of metal fell to the floor with a loud thud, and a scream followed. Hil and Maera were already running back down the stairs, and Hil waved for me to keep moving, too, that same grin still on his face.

“What the hell did you do?” I hissed, as more sounds came from upstairs, shouts and footsteps and even glass breaking, but Hil grabbed me by the arm and he turned me around, took me back down the hallway where we came from.

“Nothing, nothing, just made a friend, that’s all. Keep walking,” he said and turned to look behind us with every step, though there was nobody there. Nobody chasing us, I thought. But when we turned the corner, I could have sworn I heard someone calling, “Hey!” from those very stairs.

“Move, move, move!”

Hil was running again, and so was Maera’s wolf. I had no choice but to follow.

“Hil, for fuck’s sake—what the hell!”

He didn’t answer, but he didn’t let me go back downstairs all the way. Instead, he grabbed me by the hand and pulled me through a wide doorway decorated with cobwebs, and right into a dark hall that we’d been pretty sure had been empty when we first came.

It was.

Maera ran ahead as if she already knew where she was going. There were footsteps behind us, but they were far away, fading with every new step we took. Orange light, smaller than those that Rune and other fae made, came from Hil’s raised hand, as there were no torches or lanterns here. The light illuminated the wide hall just fine, but we were already at the other end, and Hil was aiming for the wooden doors on the wall. He didn’t slow down his pace at all. Instead, he let go of me and ran faster, then kicked the door right under the handle.

It gave.

The door swung open and slammed against the wall on the other side, and I was pulled into a narrow corridor, with empty lanterns on the orange-colored walls. I was as terrified as I was excited, not going to lie. We went through another set of doors that gave easily against Hil’s shoulder when he slammed onto them like a savage—and behind them were people.

Seven fae men and women, all Unseelie, all handling baskets full of either food or cloths.

Shit.

We stopped right inside the wide hallway. They stopped, too.No guards.

My chest rose and fell fast, and for a moment there, I considered grabbing Hil and turning around to go back through the doors, find a quiet place and regroup, but?—

“Throne room.” Hil’s voice pierced the sudden silence. “We’re looking for the old throne room. Be so kind and point us to it, will you?”

My eyes closed. I fisted my hands as the magic inside me intensified. I was going to fuckingmurderhim with my own hands, I thought, as the people ahead looked at one another for a second, and…

One of the fae women holding a smaller basket full of apples balanced it on her hip, then raised her hand and pointed to the other side of the room across from us.

Holy fuck.