Page 2 of Boundless

Even Betty was shocked out of words, which had never happened before.

And the neighbors were gathering, too, on the other side of the street.

Too much.

“I…I’m sorry,” I barely choked out.

Then I ran.

Call me a coward. Call me heartless—a proper fuckingbad personfor not being interested in spending a little time with the people that I loved, the people that I’d spent so long trying to get back to.

Call me whatever fits, but I still ran.

Dressed in the clothes of the Ice Queen, and wearing an apron still, brimming with magic that had no place in this world, I ran as fast as my legs allowed while the others came after me. The three of them ran, too, calling my name, telling me to stop, but I didn’t. I wouldn’t.

I could imagine what it must have been like for them. I could imagine how terrified they were to have had me popping out of thin air in front of them like that and refusing to even stop to talk to them—but Rune. Vair. The Ice Queen.

There simply wasn’t enough time.

That’s what I told myself as I went through the trees of the forest at the back of the house I grew up in, focused only on the magic that I could feel around me, the magic that would be there surrounding the Aetherway. The portal that had taken me to Verenthia then. The same portal that was going to take me to Verenthia now, too.

To the Neutral Lands or to wherever—I couldn’t care less. My legs would carry me. I would run all across the continent to the Midnight Court. Rune would still be there. I was sure of it. Rune would wait for me forever.

I wasn’t sure how long I ran for, or how fast, but when I finally felt the energy shifting in the air, I slowed down. Green trees—and I found them so fucking fascinating, just like I did the trees on the other side that first time I laid eyes on them. The smell, the sound of leaves rustling, of the animals running and flying all around me—it all made me feel likethiswas a magical world, not Verenthia.

Maybe it had been all along, and I just hadn’t realized it.

Not that it mattered now.

I was alone when I stopped in front of those trees between which was the Aetherway.

The first time I’d come to this part of the forest, I hadn’t felt the magic until I’d been but a foot away. I hadn’t seen the shimmer in the air, until it had been right in front of me, either.

Now I did.

Two oak trees, their trunks almost parallel to one another, their branches touching like they were reaching for each other. Like they were lovers forced by their roots to be apart forever.It made my stomach twist uncomfortably, that idea, but the shimmer took my attention next.

The magic was soobviousnow. Incredible how it had looked almost invisible to me then, yet now I felt it with such clarity. I felt every thread of magic that existed between those two trees, and I heard it buzzing lightly, pushing and pulling at my body the closer to it I got, until I was right in front of it.

“Nilah!”

Betty. I heard her voice and turned for a moment, but they must have been too far still because I couldn’t see them. By the time they got to me, I’d be long gone, in the forest of the Neutral Lands in Verenthia.

I’d be gone—again—and this time, I had no illusion that I would ever make it back alive. This time, all I could convince myself of was that I’d get to Rune in time and make sure he was okay.

He’d killed a king, with my help. He’d stabbed his own father, and even though the throne room had given him his throne, and even though those soldiers had called Runeking,there was an entire court there. An entire fucking kingdom that could hurt him, accuse him of treason, or find any reason at all to end Rune.

That was the only thing I needed to know to step straight into the magic of the Aetherway with my chin up.

Forgive me,I thought—to my family, to the whole world. But I wasn’t ready to come back home yet.

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The magic was familiar,and my own reacted. The cold under my skinstabbedat me from the inside, and I kept my eyes open on purpose because I wanted to see the transition. I wanted to see when the world around me changed from Earth to Verenthia.

But it wasn’t meant to be.

That same magic that had welcomed me the first time nowfeltme. It touched my skin as if it weretastingme—a warm wave that went from the tips of my toes and all the way to my head.