Page 50 of Boundless

And then I remembered I was among wolves.

My eyes opened and I sat up, even more surprised to find that my body wasn’t in pieces. I was whole—and I wasn’t on the ground in an open field surrounded by wolves at all. Instead I was in a room, bigger than my own back home. The sheets of the bed I lay on smelled citrusy, and there were two others on the sides, both empty. Three windows near the ceiling, the blinds drawn, but through the holes in them I could just see the light.Sunlight.

The night must have already passed. It was daylight outside.

And I was most definitely in Verenthia.

Pushing the cover off me, I jumped to my feet without bothering to make sure that my legs would hold me—theywould.I was still dressed in jeans and my torn white shirt, but my sneakers were there by the bed’s wooden leg, and I didn’t even bother putting them on properly. I just stuck my feet in as far as they’d go and shot for the only door in the room.

A hallway outside, wide and with lanterns on the pale grey walls. No windows that I could see, but there were a few in the room to my right. There were people there, too—most wearing white, others old.Reallyold, like the seers.

I moved like I was in a dream, eyes wide open, searching for a familiar face, hoping nobody would see me until I found one or disappeared from whatever place I was in.

But people did see me.

Women and men who were coming and going through the many corridors saw me, and they all watched me, but none of them stopped me when I made for the doors. None of them called my name or asked me for it when I slipped outside.

Sunlight fell on my face. Trees surrounded me as I went down the pathway that led to the fence and looked back at the building I’d come out of—wooden, one story, white exterior. Very…ordinary.

And then there was the street ahead.

There were the people, thewerewolvesmoving about the cobbled street.

When they noticed me there, they stopped. When they noticed me there, they nudged their companions and nodded my way, watched me curiously, sniffed the air from a distance, and some even came closer slowly, like they were hoping I wouldn’t notice.

My magic reacted, wild and cold under my skin. My heart pounded in my chest because I had no idea what happened next, how I’d gotten here, what the hell to expect, when?—

“Nilah.”

A voice I knew well.

A voice that had imprinted itself in my memories the very first time I heard her speak.

I turned to the left to find a group of people who’d just turned the corner, and among them was Maera—with that face and those eyes and that smile, exactly as I remembered it. The stars must have gifted themselves to me—that’s what it felt like to see her. I ran, with no thoughts in my head, no magic, no fear.

I ran and I hugged the shit out of her like I’d only ever done my family and Rune. Not a very touchy person, but this was a a special fucking occasion. I was alive and I’d made it to Verenthia and Iwasn’tgoing to die at the hands—or teeth—of hungry werewolves anytime soon.

“Welcome to The Vale,” Maera said, smiling ear to ear when I finally let go of her.

I almost felt right at home.

The Vale was a vast territory,almost the same in size as Blackwater. It had rivers and hills and mountains—anda lotof forests. I had never seen a more colorful place in the entire realm even though I’d been in Cloakwood, the fomorian territory that bordered The Vale. Here, the towns were smaller, clusters of houses and buildings built between trees, not too many in one place but spread out across the fields, each establishment almost identical in size.

I could see it because I was standing with Maera on the rooftop terrace of her house. A wide round space just as big as the freestanding gazebo attached to my room at the Queen’s Palace in the Seelie Court. I’d come such a long way from there, in such a short time, yet I’d never felt as comfortable there asI did here. Even surrounded by werewolves, people who didn’t exactly look at me in a friendly way, and who sniffed the air and flinched when I passed them by—I felt safe here.

Because of Maera.

“You did it,” I said, hands around the wooden railing of her terrace as we both looked down at the fields full of werewolves, some in their human form, some wolves. Some moving, some sitting or lying under shades. The wind was the only sound we heard up here, but down there it had been quiet, too. Not at all like in the fae courts, or even the maze market in the Neutral Lands. Like even the movement of these people was soundless.

When they spoke, they did so quietly.Tooquietly.

“I did,” Maera said, smiling at me still, her beautiful eyes bright as she took me in. “I came back with my pack mates, challenged the werewolves who’d taken my throne, and I won. I’ve been the head of my pack since the day I returned.”

I nodded, pushing back a wave of tears that suddenly snuck up on me. Fucking hell, I was soproudof her it wasn’t even funny.

“I knew you’d make it,” I said instead, and I had.

“I heard your prayers,” Maera said, and my cheeks about melted off my face.