Page 22 of Boundless

I thought I said something, and then she was gone. But even when I stood up and put the fae light off, washed my face and changed into a fresh pair of clothes, I still felt like I was walking inside a dream. The air had a strange feel to it. Even the scent of eggs and bacon was different from what I thought I remembered.

I blamed it on the beer I’d drank the night before, though I knew it wasn’t it.

Dad and Fiona barely said a few words as we ate. This was strange, too—to sit at a table and eat food that I hadn’t made myself. It had been so long since Dad had cooked for us. I took over the kitchen when I was twelve or thirteen years old.

Strange.All of it, so fucking strange.

Just like their smiles.

“Have you thought about it?” Dad asked when we were done eating but still lingering at the dining table.

“About what?” I asked, just to stall because I knew exactly what he meant.

“About staying, Nilah. About staying home.”

Both he and Fiona watched me with their breath held and their eyes unblinking.

“I can’t do that, Dad. Not yet.”

A nod. He looked down at his empty plate.

“But you’ll come back, right?” Fiona asked, and my God, I could have sworn that she knew. I could have sworn that I read the thoughts in her head, and she believed I wasnevercoming back home again.

Which was so fucking wrong.

“Of course, I’m coming back, Fi. There are a few things I need to take care of in Verenthia, but nothing could stop me from coming back.” That, at least, was the truth. I hadn’t stopped trying to come back to them since I healed Lyall, and no matter what happened next, that wasn’t going to change.

“And…if you can’t?” Fiona asked.

“If I can’t, I’ll just bring you over to me—how’s that sound?” I said, pretending I didn’t feel how my own body turned against me at the thought. Bringingtheminto Verenthia when I now knew exactly what having magic really meant?

Fi’s face brightened up. “Promise?”

“I promise,” I said reluctantly.

“Then I’ll take it,” she said with a nod.

Luckily there was a knock on the door, and my dad went to answer it, almostranall the way to it like he was desperate to escape for a moment. He came back into the kitchen with Betty, who looked both panicked and excited at the same time. She was paler than usual, her blue eyes bright, and she didn’t know what to even say as she paced about the kitchen, refusing to sit down when Dad and Fi asked her to.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” she told them. “What about you? You ready? Packed?”

Packed,she said. “I don’t need to pack. I’m good to go,” I said, and I was. I had the mirror of the Ice Queen with me, and I didn’t even care about a change of clothes, because things were different now. So damn different.

When I went back to Verenthia, I wasn’t going to remain on the streets—I was going to the Midnight Court because Rune was king now.

Rune is king.

And the Ice Palace had revealed its throne tomethe same way the Midnight Palace had revealed it to him when he killed his father.

Just like every other time I thought of this, my brain went haywire and my mind about collapsed on itself, so I automatically searched for a distraction.

There were plenty around me at the moment—like the look on my dad’s face, and the forced smile Fiona was giving me.

Fuck, it was hard. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what it was going to feel like to part ways with them, to saysee you later,knowing that I had no fucking clue when thatlaterwas. I couldn’t, and so I panicked, and I said, “Are you guys going to see me to the Aetherway?”

Because another hour was going to be long enough for me to gather some courage, I figured.

“Of course,” they said, almost at the same time, and I figuredtheyneeded the courage, too.