Page 128 of Boundless

Yes—my sudden thirst for blood didn’t go unnoticed with me. I was just choosing to ignore it for now.

“He won’t stay gone forever,” Rune said. “He’s proving to be a bigger problem than I anticipated.”

That was definitely true.

“So…what now?” asked Hil, sitting on the stair in front of us. “Because…because it’s real.” He shook his head, looked around at the pieces of marble that had once been statues. Those animals that had awakened. “It’s all real. I felt it. I feltthem, and I’m not entirely sure what to do with myself now.” His eyes locked on Rune’s, then mine. “I’m open to suggestions, since this was all your brilliant idea.”

“You’ve claimed your throne, and your throne has claimed you,” Rune said.

“Has it, though?” Hil said, his voice pitched high.

Rune paused for a second, looked at him like he wasn’t sure whether Hil was kidding or not. “Royal protection is only activated for royals.”

“Except I didn’t activate anything—I just bled on the chair,” Hil said.

“That would signal whatever protection magic the Fire Palace has installed, yes.”

“Installed—who installed protection magic to this place when we all know that it hasn’t even opened in forever?” Hil definitely looked like he was losing it.

“Our ancestors,” Rune explained. He didn’t look as pissed off as a second ago, and he most definitely believed that Hil wasn’t joking. “The very first kings and queens eternalized their best magics through the years. For me, there are layers upon layers of shadows in every corner, in the bedroom and the throne room and the king’s study, set there by dozens of Midnight kings and queens, that would come very easily for me to use with minimal energy and effort.”

I remembered exactly what he talked about—the shadows that had looked likestairsin the throne room floor at the Midnight Palace, and all the others in his bedroom, too.

“If that’s true, then why didn’t these animals protect the original royals back in the day?” Hil asked. That, too, was a question I wanted the answer to myself.

“Outside. They were attacked outside in a ballroom during a celebration—a prince’s birthday, if I remember correctly,” Rune explained.

“And the other parts of this placedon’thave statues that come to life?”

“I’m not sure, but the Midnight Palace doesn’t have shadows elsewhere. And the Queen’s Palace in the Seelie Court has light hidden in the reflection of all gold surfaces only in the sentient parts.”

Shivers rushed down my arms.

“And the Ice Palace?” Because I hadn’t seen or felt anything when I was there, not when the dais opened up and revealed the throne chair to me. I hadn’t seen any statues or lights or anything like it—though I hadn’t exactlylookedbecause I’d had no idea what any of it even meant then.

“I don’t know,” Rune said, shaking his head.

“Again—what now?” Hil insisted. “What happens to me now?”

“Now you give it a moment,” Rune said. “I’m no expert, but you should access your bloodline’s power soon, and when you do…” He looked at me for a second, shrugged. “Then you rule.”

Hil opened and closed his mouth a few times, shook his head, looked down at the floor then back up at us again. “I’m a king,” he finally whispered with barely any voice, and it was easy to see that he hadn’t actually believed us before when we told him the story.

“Yes, you are,” said Rune, and he sounded just as certain as he’d been before, when he told me that it would work out. That Hil wouldn’t be thinking about finding the riches he stole so he could disappear once we brought him here—that he would choose to stay.

And indeed, I believed it, too. I saw it in the way Hil smiled one second, then looked absolutely horrified in the next.

“I don’t…I don’t know anything about ruling a kingdom. I don’t know anything aboutanything,really. I’ve given up on anything I’ve ever started.”

I was tempted to smile. Instead, I reached out and touched his hand. “You’re a hell of a thief, though, aren't you? Nobody was able to pull off whatyoupulled off.”

He raised his brows in thought.

“I don’t really know anything about ruling a kingdom, either, if that makes you feel better,” Rune said.

“Actually, it does,” said Hil.

“Neither do I,” I told them, and it was the first time I’d actually thought aboutrulingout loud in a way that implied I was considering it. Like,for real.