Page 33 of Boundless

“And?” I insisted.

“And, you know…” she shrugged. “If you get lost in a ley line, you basically…pretty much…get stuck in limbo for eternity. So.” Another shrug.

Nowthatsounded about right. It was in line with everything else I knew about magic.

“And how are these ley lines tied to the werewolves?” I wondered, just to have something to think about while this new information settled into my mind.

Also, I was very curious.

“You said you know the origin story. Well, the fae and the direwolves of The Vale were tasked with guarding the ley lines by the stars. They were supposed to keep them sealed and stable at all times—at least their end in Verenthia. And they did so for centuries, until…”

She looked at me, almost like she was testing me.

“Until the fae king tried to access a ley line, and the direwolf tried to stop him. He slaughtered the animal, and the stars punished him by tying his soul to the wolf’s with the life-bond.” That’s what Maera had said. That’s the story she’d told me on our way to Blackwater.

A small smile on the golem’s lips. “Exactly.”

“Except the person who told me this story called themgates, not ley lines.” I remembered it—unseen places between realms, dreams and death.That’s how Maera had described it.

“Yes, well, here on Earth they’reley lines.It’s the same thing,” said the golem, and fucking hell, I believed her. Not just because the description matched, but because of the way she spoke. “They’re usually strongest near the Aetherways here, andthen they get deeper, hide better underneath reality and various default individual protective magics of every realm.”

“Every realm?Just how many of them are there?” Betty asked before I could.

But the golem shrugged. “Only werewolves are supposed to know the number of ley lines that connect to Verenthia,” she said.

“Where is the other one?” I wondered. “The other Aetherway here on Earth—where is it?” Helid had said there were two, and I had no hope that the other one was going to let me through ifthisone in front of me now didn’t, but it was worth a try, I thought.

Until… “Egypt,” said the golem. “And, yes, I’ve been there three times. It won’t let me through any more thanthisdoes, and the ley lines there are very difficult to access. Something about Egypt that buries them really deep for whatever reason.”

Shivers ran down my back. I imagined myself flying to Egypt the very next day—but even in my imagination, I failed in the end. BecausethisAetherway here wasn’t broken.Itwasn’t the problem—I was. The ink on my skin was. The shadows. The banishment of the king.

Which reminded me of something Vair said while we were in the mining cave underneath Verenthia. He said that Rune’s mark would be gone with the death of the king. Had it?

Why hadn’tmine? Because the Midnight King was dead. I’d seen it with my own eyes. I’d suffocated his shadows with my own magic. His death, at least a part of it, was on my hands.

Yet I remained banished, and the only way it made sense was that Vair had meant the curse that Helem put on Rune’s memories to lock them out of his reach.

It must have been because Runecouldgo to the Midnight Palace after his banishment, and the fact that I couldn’t accessthe Aetherway meant that he wouldn’t have been able to if the banishment was still there.

Raja must have broken it together with the seal on Rune’s magic—that was the only thing that made sense.

My mind spun with ideas, thoughts, scenarios.

“So…are you going to tell me now why you have Ice magic in you when you’re not fae?”

I blinked and met the eyes of the golem again—Arez. It was darker around us just now because I’d sent the fae light closer to the Aetherway without really thinking while I’d been focused on it. But the moment I imagined it hovering overusto better see the golem, it did. It came floating soundlessly, and the light reflected in her eyes, revealing their true moss green color.

“She was actually the Seelie Prince’s Lifebound, believe it or not. Went to the fae realm to save his life because he saved hers when she was like five. She’s no longer bound to him, though, and he’s an asshole, but check this: the Ice Queen of the Frozen Court split?—”

“Betty.” My voice hung in the air for a moment, together with the weight of the golem’s eyes on me.

“It’s only fair. She told us everything we wanted to know,” Betty said. I did trust her instincts, but she hadn’t been around Verenthians before, and she had no clue how perfectly they could play parts. How well they could manipulate you.

“Not everything,” I said and pushed the light closer to the golem with my mind. It still was mind-blowing to me howeasythat was to do. “You didn’t tell us why you were banished.”

She crossed her arms in front of her chest, and her hands were too big so it looked weird, but she didn’t bat an eye. “Because I did something I wasn’t supposed to do. Why wereyoubanished?”

“Like what? What did you do?” Because I already knew that she broke laws—but what kind of laws did she break?