Page 61 of Boundless

The light then pulsated onto each line and each shape engraved on them. It wasn’t exactly what I’d imagined before when I thought of the wordmagic,but it came close. This came the closest.

“This is where it happened. That is where the fae king killed the dire wolf in front of his people.” Maera waved a hand toward the left, and I was almost surprised to find a wolf carved out of that same stone, looking at the moving light—no.

At the statue of a man that was on the other side, right across from the wolf. A fae with a crown over his head, the face long erased by time, a sword in his hand, his ears pointy.

“There are nine gates in Thornevale, and the fae king wanted to open this one. You remember the story. The king then slaughtered the dire wolf, and his people saw. The stars created these statues to forever remember what had happened here and trapped the people and the wolves into these tombs to forever bear witness of the slaughter. The same ones raised around the other gates as well. One in each territory of The Vale. Each pack,” Maera said in a hushed voice, like she was afraid she might disturb the dead.

I looked at the stone plaques with a new eye. They’d been fae and wolves once, all of them.

Good bumps rushed down my arms. “Why? Why did the king want to open the gate?”

“Nobody knows,” said Maera. “By the time they’d returned to the village, his wife had already carved out her own heart, and lay dead in her blood.”

“Fucking hell, Maera…” I did not need the image of someone carving out their own hearts to die spinning in my head.

“Suicide is difficult for a fae. Or at least it used to be.”

Now they had that drink—Iyandra,the end.“But she knew? His wife knew?”

“People thought so, but nobody knows for sure. He died, and the stars never spoke to any Council they gathered about it, or a seer.”

I sighed, moved a little closer to the light. It was a proper portal, just like one would imagine, only this one had a lot more blue light anda lotmore magic radiating off it. I found out when it literallystoppedme from going closer.

Then Maera put her hand over my shoulder. “It’s safer if we stay back. We have spells in place now. Magic to keep people away.”

“And itworks,” I said, struggling to draw in air until I moved back a few more steps. “Fucking hell, Maera. This is…this is nuts.” There were no words to do this whole story justice.

“I know. But we still have time to find the Unseelie heir, Nilah. We still have time to make this right.”

The way she was looking at me.

I swallowed hard, bit my tongue to keep the rush of tears back. Angry tears because I was pissed off. That the Seelie Queen thought she could just kill her husband and become queen until her son took over, and that the Ice Queen thought she could get away with postponing her death while she watched babies getting killed in her name. That the Midnight King was a monster worthy of his own fucking horror movie, and that I was here now, stuck once again, though finally with a clear idea of what the future looked like.

Or what itshouldlook like, at least.

Me. Nilah Dune, a human from Earth, sitting on a fae throne.

My eyes closed and I instinctively reached out to press a hand to the stone plaque next to me. It was so cold to the touch that I jumped back instantly in surprise. No charge of magic, though. No nothing—just cold.

“I’m going to the Midnight Court, Maera,” I said reluctantly, rubbing my hand to warm it up again. “I’m not looking for anyone until I’ve seen and spoken to Rune.”

“Agreed. The Seer of Shadows will be there, too. We can send word to the Seelie King to meet us?—”

“No,” I cut her off. “Lyall will not come anywhere near us, not right now.” Not until I’d spoken to Rune. “He’s not trustworthy.”

Maera nodded. “Then we go to the Midnight King first.”

Midnight King. Seelie King.These were men I knew. One I hated with all my being, one I loved with more strength than I ever thought possible. We’d all become so different in a matter of fucking weeks—and I was just beginning to realize now that this wasn’t normal for Verenthia, either. Things didn’t change here the way they did for me always. I ended up here in the worst fucking time for the realm and its people, it seemed, and I had nobody to blame but two queens.

“Are you sure you want to join me? The Council said that the three of us should find the Unseelie heir. This is not your fight, Maera,” I made myself say because it was only fair.

“I can’t sit here and wait to hear if you’ve died every day, Nilah. I won’t.” She took my hand in hers, squeezed my fingers. “And this is everybody’s fight. If I can help, then I will.”

I’d be a fucking liar if I said I wasn’t relieved that I wouldn’t be alone on the way back to the Midnight Court.

“And your people?”

Maera smiled and her eyes sparkled yellow once more. “My people will be all right.”