Page 4 of Boundless

They’d seen me. They’d followed, and they’d seen me try and scream and fail. It looked like I wasn’t going anywhere, after all.

My mind shut down all the way before I hit the ground on my side.

three

Rune Kalygorn

The shadows escaped me.

They were slippery,exactly like shadowsweren’tsupposed to be, but every time I gripped them in my hands, they slipped right through my fingers, disobeying my orders. Like they could not feel my power. Like they could not feel the magic coursing through my veins, and my need, bright as day, to bring her back to me.

Now.

My eyes were open, but there was only darkness around me. I was on one knee in the middle of that drawing of shadows on the floor, and I refused to let it retreat. I refused to let go of the magic that had wrapped around her, those shadows that had taken her away. Banished her.

The same shadows that had banishedmewhen I was six years old.

And I knew there was no taking them back. The ritual was completed. A king’s banishment was irreversible. I’d read a lot about it when I was young and had nights to kill. It would takea massive amount of power to undo it—and even then, it would require physical contact.

These shadows were not going to bring Nilah back to me no matter how forcefully I ordered them or how much magic I used.

“Rune.”

Colors against the darkness.

Raja stepped into the shadows only halfway, her eyes wide, bloodshot.

“That’s enough,” she told me.

And it was. This wasnotthe way to get her back, not now. And before I lost my mind and tried to go after her through the shadows, I stood up.

The shadows retreated the same moment I pulled back my magic, and the throne room of the Midnight Palace came into view again.

We were not alone.

Soldiers with armor splattered with blood, wounds all over their bodies. Dead ones sprawled on the marble floor.

The king on the stairs of the dais still, the top of his head touching the floor, his eyes half open, my knife that I’d made with my bare hands still buried in his chest.

And a group of six Midnight fae who wore no armor, but uniforms. Dark purple velvet that looked near black, with plaques decorating their chests.

The doors to the throne room were open. I wished they were closed.

That’s all I did—wishedthey were closed so that nobody could spy on me without my knowledge, and the doors swung the very next second. I used no magic. I used no will. Simply a wish, and the throne room answered.

Sick.

My insides were on fire. I looked at the group of newcomers I’d never seen before, all of them Midnight. How strange wasit that I was one of them, yet it surprised me to see so many dark-haired people in the same place like this. Must have been because I hadn’t had a place in my own home because of the very man who lay dead on those stairs now.

My father.

Nobody spoke. Raja stood with her chin up near the last stair of the dais, her unblinking eyes on the newcomers. I went around her and to the body of the Midnight King.

FormerMidnight King.

The shadows moved even if I wasn’t fully aware of my own thoughts—of anything that wasn’t Nilah. The throne room held an abundance of them, all over the floor and walls. They were advanced royal protection, sources of their own, ready to be used by the king or queen, and any member of the royal family when needed.

Of course, I never knew this until I was here. Until Itried.