Page 17 of Boundless

“How long was I gone?” I wondered because, though it felt likeyearsto me, it couldn’t have been longer than a few months.

“Eighteen days,” Fiona said, her bright chocolate eyes wide and full of tears still, but she was smiling. Those were happy tears. “You were gone eighteen days, Nil. Today is the nineteenth.”

Fuck me sideways.

I looked at Dad next, just to confirm that I’d heard right, and he nodded.Eighteen days.Impossible. Really, just plain absurd. That wasnoteighteen days for me—it was a whole fucking lifetime.

“What happened to you, Nilah? And where is the man who brought you here? He promised me that he would return you himself—where is he?” Dad asked, his voice almost hushed, like hereallydidn’t want to even talk about it, but he made himself anyway.

“Helid, he…he passed away, Dad.” I swallowed hard when the image of Helid’s face, with that golden beard and those bloodshot eyes, came in the center of my mind. So fucking vivid still—like I was looking at him right this moment. Looking at his dead body.

My dad was shocked. He shook his head, his lips parted, and Fiona pulled at my hand from the other side to get me to look at her. “What aboutyou? We were scared, Nil. We got your letter and we thought you were okay. And then you just appeared in the yard wrapped in shadows…” Her voice trailed off and she shook her head, too. She wasn’t afraid, though. She was more curious. “Your dress was covered in blood. Are you okay?”

I leaned in and kissed her forehead. God, I’d missed her more than I could have possibly realized.

“I’m fine,” I told her, and I wasn’t sure if it was a lie, but it did sound true enough. “I’m fine, I promise. And I’m sorry for losing it when I first came, but I…”

My eyes closed. The memory came back to me slowly.

Holy fuck, I’d run straight into the woods. I’d found the Aetherway. I’d used my magic—allthat I could push out of me, and it still hadn’t worked.

Most importantly, I’d used all of that magic in front of them. They’d been there. Both of them, and Betty, too. I remembered it, though faintly. They’d all seen.

“Just tell us,” Fiona said when I went a good moment without uttering a single world. I’d never been more thankful for that music in the background; otherwise the silence would have been unbearable. “Tell us, Nil. C’mon, tell us everything.”

I most definitely did not tell themeverything,but I did tell them…some things.

I told them about Verenthia, about Rune, about Lyall. I told them about Raja, too—and Vair. Of course, the details remained with me, but a talking silver lynx was quite a story, and as I toldthem about Vair, I found my fucking heart in pieces. I had no clue what the hell it was about that animal, who was probably not a real animal at all, but I cared for him so much it was ridiculous. Never mind that he’d literally kidnapped me—my gut twisted awfully at the thought of him all alone in Verenthia, with nobody to talk to, nobody to listen.

But nothing hurt as much as Rune.

Tears slipped from my eyes when I told them all that had happened. Not the truth, mind you, but a version of it. I told them that when Lyall did the life-bond with me, it also transferred some of his magic inside me, and that was why I could do what I did in the forest the day before. It was normal—all very normal. When life-bonds are created, they transfer the magic from one person to the other.

I just didn’t mention the small fact that I had half the soul of a dead queen inside me, and that’s why the magic took. And also the tiny fact that I was no longer bound to the prince at all.

No, I did not mention those things.

Dad and Fi listened intently and absorbed every word I said. In the end, they stopped and looked at one another, and then at their laps for a long time.

Long enough that I felt I was going to pass out if I didn’t eat and drink water very soon, so I said, “If you don’t mind, I’m going to get something to eat real quick.”

They both jumped to their feet before I could.

six

There werepancakes in the oven. Dad had made them in the morning, and he heated them up for me. It was almost noon, apparently. Fi set the table and wouldn’t even hear about me helping her.

As I watched them with my heart in my throat, I felt…guilty as fuck. I wasn’t used to being taken care of like this.Idid this forthem, not the other way around.

But when I sat down to eat, there was no more room left for guilt. The pancakes and the honey, and even the milk tasted like home. I’d loved the food in Verenthia, especially that in the Frozen Court that the palace had brought me at my request, but this was something else. This was warmth and love and memories. Good memories. I ate until I couldn’t push down another bite.

Then I told my family, “I’m going back to Verenthia.”

Of course, they didn’t like it. I didn’t think they would, but the look of pureaccusationthat I got from the both of them broke my heart all the same.

“You only just got back,” Fiona whispered.

And Dad shook his head. “So, you pop up in a-a-aball of darknessin my front yard after eighteen days of being on another planet, and then you tell me that you want to go back?” A second of silence. “No, Nilah.No.”