Page 29 of Boundless

I racked my brain for what I knew about golems, what Rune had told me—that they lived in Bloomsridge and dealt in flowers, could communicate with them the same way lizard-tongues communicated with lizards. I’d once seen a golem being bullied by an imp, too, and had tried to intervene. I’d actually thought I’d won, but instead I’d ended up being transported into the Enclave with Rune by said imp.

“What the hell—what is that?” Betty stepped to my side. “Whatis that, Nil?!”

“Golem,” I said absentmindedly, analyzing every inch of the creature, trying to figure out if we were going to be attacked any second now, but…

“That’s right. I’m a golem, and golems have names, too. Mine is Arez, like I just said.” She turned to Betty. “And yours is?”

“Attack it,” Betty whispered in my ear, like she thought the golem couldn’t hear her. “Attack it, Nil, c’mon.”

The golem raised pale-colored brows and looked at me. “It? Seriously?”

“Nil, att?—”

“Betty, stop,” I said with half a heart, then turned to the golem. “I’m not going to attack ifyoudon’t.”

The golem sighed. Actually sighed—and it was incredible to see it. The only imp I’d seen from closer up before had been trying to make himself smaller, had been crying, shaking while the imp screamed at his face—but this one was something else. She held her shoulders back and her chin up, and she wasnotafraid in the least.

“You think I’m stupid? Why the hell would I want to attack a fae? I ain’t got a death wish, if that’s what you’re thinking,” the golem said. “And it’sshe, notit. I’m not a thing, Betty. Don’t be rude.”

My mouth opened and closed a thousand times.

I had no clue what to say, and even Betty was silent for a good moment.

Then she suddenly stepped to my side, looked at the golem and said, “I think I like you.” Like she’d just made up her mind about the most important thing in her life.

“Can’t blame ya. I’m likable like that,” said the golem with a shrug, and any other day I’d have proclaimed I liked her, too. Any other day, I’d have still found it weird as fuck to be face to face with a creature who looked like that but spoke like a human being.Exactlylike everybody else around here did. A true American.

Instead, I was caught on the one thing she said that made chills rush down my back more than anything, so the only thing I could say was, “I’m not fae.”

Now the golem looked surprised. “Right,”she said, in a way that made it pretty clear that she didn’t believe me.

“She can still kick your ass, though. Just in case you do plan to attack us,” Betty said. “And also, sorry for calling you anit.I was just about to shit my pants. You’re scary at first sight, but I totally dig the hair and that skirt.”

A smile—and her teeth were all straight and white and so…human.It was so fucking weird to witness, and I couldn’t even tell you why.

“I’m a golem. I can sense magic. I can senseyourmagic, Nilah Dune, and I know you’re fae.”

The way my stomach twisted and turned, even before Betty said, “She’s really not.”

“She is.”

A pause from Betty. “Look, I don’t care what you think you’re feeling—Nilah is human.”

“I can?—”

Before the golem could finish speaking, I grabbed my hair and pulled it up, away from my ears. Myroundears.

The golem saw.

“Holy shit,” she ended up saying, and she sounded like a deflating balloon.

“See? No pointy ears. She’s human,” Betty said.

“But…how?” She seemed genuinely confused. Suddenly on the brink of tears as she looked down at my body, analyzed every inch of me slowly.

“I think it’s timeyouanswered some questions first,” I said because I was definitelymoreconfused than she. She was a golem, here on Earth, and she had pink hair and sequins on her skirt—which I was willing to bet was madehere,not in Verenthia. “Why are you here and how do you know my name?”

“Your post,” she told me. “I saw your post and the keywords you searched for online flagged my systems. I deleted everything before somebody else caught them. You’re welcome for that.”