Page 148 of Boundless

The shimmer in the air was gone, but the coldof all that energy lingered in the air still.

The people watched, mouths wide open, terrified of what would happen next. They were okay—I hadn’t hurt them.Thank God,I hadn’t hurt them.

And now I realized there was no other way around this but through. Right through Lyall.

“You and me,” I said, and my voice shook because even if I had all this power now, this was Lyall. He’d had the same power for much longer—and Icouldn’tkill him, when he would try to kill me. It would not be fair by any means but… “You and me, we fight. I win, you leave. You win…”

He’d kill me. There was no need to put it into words.

“Nilah, no!” Hessa called from behind me, and she had another arrow ready and aimed at his face, right there over my shoulder.

Maera continued to growl and to try to push me back, too, but nothing else was going to work. A fight with Lyall, one I most likely wouldn’t survive—but it still had to happen. So, I put my hand over the head of the arrow just near my shoulder, and pushed it down.

“He can’t die, Hessa,” I said, eyes locked on Lyall, who was smiling, of course. “None of the heirs can die, or the curse that has been plaguing the faelands will spread, and Verenthia will eventually be no more. The stars have said it themselves.” I spoke as if I’d heard them with my own ears.

The people didn’t believe me, of course. How could I expect them to when one of their own, a real fae king, had already infected them with his lies?

“But I will fight you, Lyall. And for the sake ofallof us, including you, I hope I win.” Because I was going to fight until my dying breath.

A grin full of mischief. “Just when I thought this day couldn’t get any better,” he whispered and stepped forward.

Maera tried to push me back again. Hessa tried to whisper in my ear about how he was going to kill me in front of all these people, how he was stronger than me, how he had years and years of practice, how his magic was superior simply becausehe’d had it much longer than me—but I had to try, didn’t I? Because I wasn’t going to let him just come up here andtakethis throne for himself, and I wasn’t going to try to force these people into acceptingmeas their ruler. Not after everything we’d had to go through to get here.No way in hell.

If fighting him was what it took, then so be it.

“Let me show the good people of the Frozen Court why they will love having me as their king…”

With his hands raised, Lyall showed me the magic burning in his palms, spreading up his knuckles, all the way to his wrists.

I raised mine, too, and pretended they weren’t shaking. Pretended he couldn’t see them. Pretended I knew exactly what I was doing.

“I will kill you in front of all of them,” Lyall whispered, barely moved his lips, but I read the words just fine. He was right in front of me. “And I will be cheered for it.”

Fucking hell, I believed him.

And I still couldn’t find it in me to wish that Lyall had found anybody else in that forest all those years ago.

A scream wanted to rip out of me as the magic inside me built up, and I was thinking about shields and attacks, and slowing him down like I did everyone just now, covering him in that white shimmer until he couldn’t move an inch. That’s all I had—these thoughts in my head, these ideas, nothing more.

His light became brighter and brighter, so warm I felt it against my skin.No match,whispered a voice in my ear, but I pushed it down again because I was doing this one way or the other.

My mouth opened to scream.

The magic tore itself from my soul.

The people gasped and sucked in air as they waited, and…

Then came the horses.

Yes,horses.

For possibly the tenth time that morning, I stopped in my tracks—not just I, but everyone. The entire crowd turned their heads as the sound grew louder and louder, and it was easy to spot the horses, the soldiers riding them. Easy—because they were tall, and they werewhite,the horses, and the soldiers wore silver armor, and their blue eyes shone, even though they had helmets on.

They were soldiers of the Frozen Court, and there werea lotof them.

The people moved. They climbed up the wall of shards just like Hessa had done, and they were making way for the horses to come through.

What the hell is happening?!I had no answer, but my heart all but burst right out of my chest anyway because this couldn’t possibly be good. Things rarely weregoodfor me.