Page 152 of Boundless

My mouth opened but no sound came out.

I am so screwed.

forty-five

You knowthat feeling of impending doom that hangs over your head any time you make big changes and you’re face to face with a brand new unknown?

You’ll be surprised to hear this, but Ididn’thave that right now.

I kept waiting for it. I expected to find it every time I was aware of myself, but so far, since yesterday morning, it hadn’t come.

Almost like I wasn’t afraid or anxious about the unknown. Almost like I was perfectly equipped to handle it, which was ridiculous. People kept calling meYour Highnessand every single time I had to bite my tongue before I told them,please, for the love of God, just use my name. I’m not a damn queen!

Except I was.

Everything that had happened since I came back here and sat on that throne chair indicated that Iwas,in fact, a queen. The Ice Palace treated me as such, read my mind and opened doors for me, gave me everything I wasthinkingabout. It was strange as hell, but I thoughtsome flowers would look nice in thatcorner,and I turned around, andvoila!A moment later, there were flowers in that very corner.

The people treated me as such, too, after that show Lyall had put on for everyone the morning before, which didn’t sit all that well with me, to be honest. Not that I blamed them, but they’d been ready to choosehimright there in front of my eyes, until Rune came and gave me that diamond, the Key of Command of the Frozen army, and brought with him an alliance with the Midnight Court.

The MidnightQueen.Not king because Rune had basically resigned. He had literally given up the throne that belonged to him—for me.

How fucking ludicrous was that?

On the one hand, that’s the only thing that made me feel like I ruled—not just a kingdom, but an entire world. Iownedit. I was the luckiest person to have ever existed despite everything that had brought me here.

And on the other, I felt…unworthy. I was terrified that he’d wake up and realize that he’d made a mistake because I wasn’t worth an entire kingdom, was I? I was just me!

Yet every time Rune looked at me, this voice of doubt faded away. It grew weaker every new time it came, too, so I had faith that it would be gone for good in no time.

Because, yes, I was queen.

And Rune was right here with me. In the Ice Palace. Tolivewith me forever. To never leave my side.

So…it wasn’t so bad, was it? And that’s probably why that impending cloud of doom hadn’t showed up over my head yet—figuratively speaking, of course.

That’s why, when I looked at my reflection in the silver mirror that had belonged to the Ice Queen, I smiled. Felt grounded. Felt likemefor the first time in forever. And I woulddefinitely have to get fixed, because I intended to keep it with me forever. Just as a reminder.

“Your Highness.”

I blinked and was tempted to look for royalty around me to figure out who the seer was speaking to—it was instinctual at that point. But each time I was remembering that it wasmefaster, so that was progress.

This time, I didn’t even flinch before I turned around and met her eyes. The sorcerer who’d become a seer right there in the forest.Chosenby the stars. Possibly much more carefully thanIhad been chosen by the fractured soul of Queen Veyra.

“Yes, seer?” I said with a smile.

We’d hardly had a moment to speak alone, but she claimed there was time. She said we’d have the chance to sit and chat andbuildwhatever we needed to build to restore order in this kingdom with the guidance of the stars through her—and who was I to doubt it? After all, seers were respected as very few others in Verenthia. There was a reason for that.

“I know you have to leave soon, but I believe I’m close. If I may have another reading,” she said, and my heart jumped.

There, on the beautiful desk with the entire kingdom made out of metal underneath the glass desktop sat the marble cube that used to be Vair. I’d tried to bring him back with magic because I knew I could. I knew he was there—Ifeltit. But one required a spell for sorcery, and the spells in the old queen’s books were completely lost on me, so I’d asked the seer yesterday to find me the right one.

She hadn’t hesitated, had read from the pages of the Queen Veyra’s grimoire, and she thought she’d found the spell I’d need, but it was ancient, written in a different dialect. She’d promised me that she could crack it if I gave her the time, and I would.

She promised she could teach me all of these spells and all the ways of sorcerers, too, if I wanted.

Maybe I would one day.

“Of course. As long as you need,” I said now, and went to the desk to open the grimoire for her, to the page where the spell for Vair was, according to her. A spell to give life to an inanimate object. Right there, written in a book that was in my possession.