Page 120 of Boundless

She was actually pointing to the other side of the room.

“Thank you, beautiful lady. Please, carry on,” said Hil, bowing deeply to the woman who smiled and lowered her head and continued toward the doorway she’d been going to, while her eyes remained on Hil.

Hil, who walked with his chin up and a smile on his face, as if he suddenly wasn’t in a hurry, and he didn’t care much about all these people who could see him. The hallway was wide and there were doorways that led to stairs on either side, and the people were moving from one to the other constantly, but again—they weren’t stopping us. Instead, their eyes were on Hil, and they whispered in each other’s ears, but they never said anything out loud.

I almost didn’t believe my own eyes, but we made it all the way to the other side of the hallway that was much longer than I’d initially thought.

It ended in a wide archway that was covered with a deep red cloth, like someone had accidentally put up a curtain there. No signs and no threads and no emblems—just an old dusty piece of fabric that Hil pulled to the side with ease, then turned and waved for us to go through. Smiling. Always smiling like he didn’t have a care in the world and hadn’t just been locked up in a cage a few days ago.

But when we went through to the other side and he let the red curtain drop behind us, I knew we wereexactlywhere we needed to be.

Dust on the floor, layer upon layer of it. Broken pieces of glass and wood were everywhere, and the paintings here weren’t all taken off and thrown at the marble floor designed withpatterns in all shades of orange and maroon. Some remained on the walls, barely hanging, the canvases torn so that you could barely see any color left on them. It was worse than the paintings in the Gallery of the Cursed.

This place, too, was destroyed, and it was abandoned, and it was dark. Almost dead.

So much dust had gathered on the dark floors that our footprints remained when we went ahead. The hallway was round, and there were four sets of doors in it, all painted orange—except the ones at the very end on the right, which were made of rust-colored metal. Someone must have thrown red paint at them at some point, because splatters were everywhere on it, the color too bright to be blood.

“There,” I whispered, pointing at the metal doors, shaped almost like a triangle, engraved with all kinds of shapes that we couldn’t yet make out properly. The throne room would be behind those doors, and not just because they were different, but because Ifeltthe energy of the building here. This was the part of it that had existed first, that was tied to Verenthia, to the stars. The part that was sentient.

Thisabandoned hallway of the palace was exactly where we were supposed to be, and we were already here.

Tears in my eyes as I rushed forward, and the others followed. I stopped in front of the doors and put a hand against the cold metal. The moment my skin made contact, I sucked in a deep breath as the energy went through me.

It was faint, barely there, and just a few months ago I’d have probably convinced myself that I imagined it, but I didn’t. It was there. This place was it.

I stepped back.

“You sure? Because these doors look heavy. It’s gonna hurt.” Hil was looking at me like he was suddenlybeggingme to tell him to try another set.

I didn’t, though. Instead, I reached for the handles that were shaped like leaves folded in themselves halfway, and I tried to open the doors. Not sure why I’d been so sure that they would open, but they didn’t. The handles wouldn’t even go down a single inch.

“Closed.”

“Yes—and I can break wood, but this is iron.” Hil reached up to touch the paint that had been splattered over the metal, and I waited for him to react, but he didn’t. Like he didn’t feel a thing.

That’s the first time I got the feeling that something was…off.Couldn’t really put my finger on it, but it was wrong—or maybe just not as it should be.

“It’s this one, I’m sure.” I stepped back, looked around the empty hall, at the curtain in the distance that looked black from here because the orange light couldn’t reach all the way to it.

“Fine, fine, okay.” A sigh, and Hil kicked the door with all his strength.

It didn’t give.

Maera and I stepped aside to give him space, and he kicked the doors another two times, but they didn’t open. Neither even moved or groaned a little bit. Like he said, it was iron.

Cursing under his breath, Hil gritted his teeth and he tried to slam his shoulder against them, but it was useless. The pain must have pissed him off because the next second his hands were glowing orange.

“I’m going to get to the other side of this. Step back, ladies. I will now burn these doors to the ground,” he said, his voice low and dark. Yes, he was definitely pissed off.

Pulling the sleeves of his shirt up to his elbows, Hil pressed his palms against the door and took in a deep breath, preparing to unleash his magic while Maera and I moved farther back. I watched in awe as the orange glow spread up to Hil’s knuckles and climbed over his forearms. The sight of magic in action wasnever going to get old. I held my breath, too, and waited for the explosion. It was going to be loud, I just knew it, but…

A click disrupted the silence instead.

A click—like a lock turning—from the very doors.

Hil’s eyes popped open. The glow around his forearms retreated to his hands again quickly, and he turned to look at me, the question clear in his eyes—did you hear that?

I nodded.Yes, I did.