Page 149 of Boundless

Lyall’s cold laughter rang in my ears. Five lines of Ice fae soldiers riding their horses marched in unison, every single step precise, their heads up, their shoulders back. More came through the open gates as the people backed farther away to make way—so much more.

“What is this?” Lyall screeched, and the sound of his voice pulled me out of my trance.

“Stand still, will you?!” Hessa hissed from my side—and she was talking to Maera’s wolf, on the back of whom she was standing.

Yes, Hessa had climbed on the back of Maera, and she was trying to rise on her tiptoes, too, as she looked ahead at the gates, and…

Then she jumped.

Hessa gasped, turned to me, cheeks pale and eyes wide. “There’s aseaof them out there…”

A shape moved toward me so fast, and had it not been for Maera jumping in front of me and growling, Lyall would have managed to grab me by the throat.

His eyes were bloodshot as he looked down at me and demanded, “Whatdid you do?!”

Except I hadn’t done anything, had I?

Whatin the worldcouldI do to get those soldiers to come here like this, riding on those horses? I wouldn’t even know where tofindthem. Even now, the best I could do was watch as they came almost all the way to the stairs of the Ice Palace, their movements so precise they could have been damn robots.

Fear and panic crashed inside my chest. The soldiers stopped, and they formed a fucking bridge of bodies all the way to the gates. More people were all over the wall of shards, and we could all see a lot more of those silver helmets glistening under the sunlight in the distance.

A sea of them,Hessa said, and she hadn’t been kidding.

That’s when it finally hit me:Hessa is here.And the fact that she was here…

Once again, my heart stopped altogether. Lyall asked me what I’d done another two times, and the people looked so fucking confused, and I had no words to say, no clear thoughts to cling to, until…

“Apologies for the delay, Your Highness.”

Those two words.

That voice.

I was tempted to think I’d made it up because what were the odds that Rune washereright now and that he was talking to me?

I couldn’t move if I tried. I couldn’t think, I could hardly breathe, but my eyes still followed the only movement in the crowd to a head full of black hair, and a shirt on those wide shoulders I would know anywhere in the world.

Rune was in the crowd, and he was making his way toward us from somewhere in the middle, and once the people noticed him, they made way for him, too, as the whispers erupted.

Meanwhile, Lyall was moving back slowly, and I saw it through the corner of my eye. The Seelie soldiers standing on the other side of the Ice ones had their weapons drawn and ready—but I couldn’t focus on them for longer than a second.

Because Rune was here for real, with his eyes that spoke to me without the need for a single sound, with that half smile curling one corner of his lips like God had designed it especially for me—and he was coming. He was getting closer.

If only I could move my body, I’d have run and jumped in his arms the moment he stepped away from the crowd. If only I could move, I’d have had his hand in mine by now. Instead, all I could do was stand there and watch like a damn fool, frozen, not by my magic, but by all the feelings rushing through me so violently. Fear and relief and excitement and panic.

His undivided attention was on me until he was just in front of the first stair to the palace—and he bowed.

Rune bowed to me with a hand in front of him, and for a good, long moment.

The whispers grew louder.

“What…” Voice came out of me, which was surprising, but I still couldn’t bring myself to speak a full sentence. “What are you…what…”

He stood up, smiled. My heart melted.

“Please allow me, on behalf of the Midnight Court and the Midnight Queen, to present to you a token of good faith—the Key of Command to your army.” Again, Rune bowed his head and raised his hand, his fist closed.

Noise in the background, but I couldn’t be bothered with anything else as I tried to make sense of his words but couldn’t. Again, the best I could do was look at his fingers as they openedslowly to reveal to me a piece of crystal in the shape of a diamond. Inside it, in the very center, burned a silver light.