Page 44 of Boundless

“Nerith, yes,” she cut me off. “That is where this circle banished her to.” The seer leaned forward and pressed her hand on the marble, but her expression didn’t change.

“Can you connect to her?”

“No, I’m afraid not.”

“Why can’t I?” I asked. “Helem banished her with these very shadows.” The same ones that layered the floors of this very throne room, ready to obey my every whim. “Why can’t I find them?”

“Because she’s in another realm, Your Highness. You would need something much closer to her to connect to her—like her blood.”

“I don’t have her blood.” Which she knew.

“I know,” the seer said. “And I would help you if I could, I really would. I’ve tried to test the palace myself—it will not budge. Your father remained king for almost two centuries, and that was far too long. The palace has become somewhat…paranoid, if you will.” She looked up at the tall ceiling, and I did, too. A paranoid palace was not in my best interest right now. “You keep it on edge, too, with your refusal to cooperate. It cannot see into you yet, I think.”

Even though I understood her words, I still couldn’t picture it in my head. I thought this place would be like the Queen’s Palace in the Seelie Court—always so composed. Always perfectly responsive to the queen.

But this one continued to block paths and hallways, and leak shadows from the bedroom door whenever it felt someone coming, or shut down windows when it felt like it, too. Highly unstable.

“It will need its time. It will need to understand you as its new king. Then you will be free to go to Nerith—if you think that is the best course of action for Verenthia right now.”

I don’t care,I thought, but I bit my tongue before I said it. “There is nothing at all that you can do to help me find her,” I repeated, just to make sure it hadn’t changed.

“There is nothing I can do, Your Highness,” said the seer, and she stood up. “And I’ve had no sights and no visions to report.”

“Thank you,” I forced myself to say.

“You’re very welcome,” the seer said and slowly retreated toward the doors.

They opened without my needing to tell them to, and…

“Before I go, a word of advice. If I were you, my King, I’d accept his help and see what happens.”

I paused, turned to the seer. “What?”

“The pet,” she said, still smiling. “I would accept the pet’s help. After all, he’s got her eyes.” And she slipped out the door almost perfectly silently.

The door closed, and the silence returned in the throne room once more. I looked at the lynx, who was sitting now and looked wide awake, unblinking eyes on me.

“Are you here to help?”

No word. He gently walked off the dais and came toward me, thick tail raised and moving to the sides.

“Do you know how to find Nilah?”

A turn of his head to the side as if he were but a confused animal, nothing more. And I knew that wasn’t true. He was much more than that. Like the seer said, he had Nilah’s eyes.

Identicaleyes in shape and color.

He used Nilah’s voice to speak, too.

“You can connect me to her, can’t you,” I said, but it wasn’t a question. I rose on my knees, shaking with a brand new wave of energy.

Shadows slipped from my fingers and rushed for the door—to close it, lock it, make it impossible to spy on me, something I did not need to do. All I had to do wasthinkit, and the throneroom would make sure I wouldn’t be interrupted, but it was an old habit, and I was too excited already to think clearly.

“Sit over there, in the very middle,” I said, pointing at the middle of the remains of the banishment circle.

And the lynx didn’t hesitate.

He stood up, moved slowly like he had all the time in the world, and he sat in the very middle, never once looking away from me.