Page 127 of Boundless

The fake king Lox, who, if he ran away now, I was pretty sure I wouldn’t find him again.

I didn’t think, couldn’t even tell you when I made the decision, or evenifI did. Death didn’t sit well with me. It never had, but then again, this was Verenthia.Normaldidn’t apply here. Common sense or empathy for the people who wanted your blood only got them their wish granted faster.

And so, I attacked.

From the top of the stairs, right next to the Unseelie throne, standing with the Unseelie heir, I raised a single hand and I released frostfire straight from the bottom of my being, aiming it at the face of the fae named Lox.

The silver light traveled like a ball of actual frost and shimmer, between a stag’s antlers, and right below the talons of a raven, over the head of a morvekai and past the blade of the sword of a soldier. It moved in slow motion for me before it struck its target.

It hurt like my soul was being ripped out of my body, the frostfire so powerful, full of sharp edges as it traveled down my arm, but it hit the fae with the same strength, so I didn’t complain. It slammed onto his chest and it spread all around him fast, silver magic that glimmered under the orange lights, spreading up to his neck and his chin, slipping into his open mouth. He stepped back, disoriented, looking down at his chest,trying to dust off the magic in vain. It clung to his clothes as the woman screamed at the top of her lungs.

I only realized I’d fallen when I could no longer see them, and the room tilted before my eyes. Now I was looking at the pieces of broken marble around us, what had been animals just moments ago.

Hands on my face, slapping my cheeks, and I saw Hil’s orange eyes as he pulled me to sit up, but I must have passed out for a moment or two there, because all I remembered after was darkness. All I remembered was what Rune had told me about the fae kingdoms of Verenthia, about the Unseelie who could once possess animals to do their bidding whenever they pleased.

I found that cruel. I found that fascinating.

And I knew deep down inside me that I’d killed a man, this one all by myself. That’s why the entire weight of him rested on my shoulders now, heavier than a mountain.

Then I heard his voice.

I would know that it was him calling my name even among a million other screams, shouts, whispers. I would know the shade of Rune’s voice, the way he called me like he thought my very name was sacred, like he didn’t think himself worthy of speaking it. The way his sheer will transported itself with the sound and I had no choice but to look, to give it my entire attention, even when I was unconscious or about to be.

My eyes opened wide. I expected to find the animals fighting, the morvekai fighting, and Lyall throwing his golden light at us while Hil held me to sit up, but no. The doors of the throne room were open, and there were Unseelie fae outside in the hallway, and there was a dead body right by the doors, and a wolf and a man were standing over it.

Maera and Rune. Alive, their eyes on me.

I breathed then. I settled the new weight on my shoulders better.

We were going to be okay.

It tookme a while to clear my head, to touch Rune’s hand, see the blood on him, the wounds on his chest and neck, and convince myself that he was okay despite them. He was in front of me, and we were sitting on the stairs of the dais, and he was smiling as he looked at me. Relieved. Tired.

Very much alive.

“What’s taking her so long?” Hil said as he paced in front of us, hands on his hips, his shirt ruined, but he was no longer bleeding. It hadn’t been too long now since those statues who’d come back to life had gone back to their places, had frozen in the exact same positions they had been before, and had gone back to being white. Not marble, but definitely something close.

“Let her take her time. She’ll make sure he isn’t hiding anywhere,” I said absentmindedly, holding Rune’s hand between mine.

We were talking about Maera, of course, who’d gone to search for Lyall and the fake queen, who had run away, apparently, after Lox fell dead. His body was still there, on the floor in front of the doors—reallydead,even though there was no blood on him. Even though I’d only hit him with my magic. With frostfire.

Knowingthat he would die, and I couldn’t even tell you how I knew. Just that I did.

And the morvekai had followed him the very same second. Hil had seen it with his own eyes, and that’s how we knew that those piles of ashes on the floor was what was left of them. They’d turned to fucking ashes like vampires did in the stories back home when they were in contact with sunlight.

Ashes, and they were gone. Their armors and weapons all over the floor.

Hil squatted in front of us. His clothes were a mess, his hair falling in his face, but his eyes were more alive than I’d seen them before.

“What happened to you?” he asked Rune, and it was a question I wanted to know the answer to myself, desperately.

“They were waiting for me. They’d set up a trap—sorcerer magic. Knocked me out cold for a few seconds, and Lyall had enough time to chain me and lock me in a cage in this makeshift throne room that the first usurpers built for themselves.” Easy to hear in the sound of his voice that he wasfuriousabout it, though he tried to hold himself back.

“Lyall,” I spit, so much hatred inside me at the moment that I barely recognized myself. I’d disliked people my whole life but never with this intensity.

“Yes. He came here before us. Spoke to them, prepared for our arrival. He promised them access to this room and an alliance with the Seelie Court,” Rune said through gritted teeth.

“And now he’s gone.” For which I was glad because I couldn’t keep myself from wishing to see him dead, and Lyall couldn’t die. Not unless we wanted to ruin this entire realm.