Page 56 of Boundless

“The queen slayer,” said a man with long hair framing his square face.

“The queen savior,” said the woman next to him, skin as dark as his, eyes so yellow I was tempted to believe they were fake.

“Yes,” I choked, and I didn’t understand why it was so hard to speak these words out loud, but I did it anyway. “He killed the queen when he was six. And he saved my life countless times. But like I said, I was banished by his father seconds before he died. I haven’t seen or spoken to him yet, so I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I don’t know anything.” I stepped forward, looked up at each and every one of them. “Do you?”

They do.They did know—otherwise I wouldn’t have been here.

They really had come together tonight because ofme—andnotbecause I’d used the ley lines.

“We do,” said the first woman. “We’ve received visions throughout the day, ever since the stars called for our gathering. We are knitted with the ley lines of our world, the veins of the stars of our creation.”

“A royal is not meant to rule forever. The stars have said it plainly since creation, though the scriptures have conveniently been lost through the centuries by the fae who stand to benefit from ignoring their commandments,” one of the women said. From down here, they looked almost the same because all I really saw with clarity from the light of the ley line on the floor was their eyes. Identical.

“Fae kings and queens have ruled for decades and centuries more than they ought, and the stars have allowed it—until their greed became the rot of the land. Until power became more important than life,” a male voice said before another picked up to finish.

“Then the stars saidno more.”

Another heartbeat of perfect silence.

“Queen Oreya of the Seelie Court took the life of her husband, King Trogen, the very day she found she was pregnant with his son.”

It was like a knife buried deep into my gut all of the sudden. The face of the Seelie Queen was in the center of my mind, her golden eyes and that smile, those words she said to me once.

And then I saw Helid with the same clarity, moments away from death, face covered by a dirty beard, a wound on him that was also cursed to open and bleed for exactly one hour every day.

A curse no doubt put on him by his sister.His sister.

The same woman who’d killed Lyall’s father while Lyall was still in her womb.

My God, what the hell kind of a monster was she? Because now I felt bad for Lyall, and that didn’t sit well with me at all.

“His death marked the beginning of the curse,” said one of the Council members, but I was too lost in my own head to even care whospoke. Too lost in the words Helid had said to me before dying—my sister has set the curse in motion.

He’d known.

Helid had known the truth.

“But that was only the beginning, indeed. Royals know that their sins cost more to Verenthia than any other. It comes with the power Verenthia gives them to rule over its people. But when they disobey the rules, when they stay in power for longer than they ought, and when they abandon their responsibilities as royals…”

“The stars have no choice but to intervene.” Shivers ran down my skin. “With prophecies. With clear signs. To test. To watch. To measure,” the woman continued. “The Ice Queen’s end was foreseen, and she made the wrong choices in the face of it. She tried to postpone the inevitable for a long time.”

“Then she finally made the right choice,” said another man.

“It wasn’trightby any means, Balor,” said the first woman from two seats down. “But it did bring hope.”

“The Midnight King didn’t, though. He never chose right, not even at the end,” said that man—Balor. “He stayed in power for almost two centuries. Killed seven of his own sons to ensure that he would never be threatened, under the guise of adealwith the Ice Queen.”

This time I gasped, and they all heard it. “What?” Because he did not just saysevenof his own sons. No way.

“The deal with the Ice Queen. She gave him control over her army and resources, and he killed any male son born by him so she would never be threatened,” said a woman, and it felt like the floor was suddenly sucking at my feet, trying to pull me under.

The wordmonstercame to mind, but it just didn’t fit. Not with the face of that man and not with my own.

The face of the Ice Queen.

She’dagreed to this? She’d fucking agreed to killingbabiesso she didn’t have to die?

Bile rose in my throat. I was so disgusted with myself so suddenly, you’d think I thought myselfher.