Page 65 of Boundless

“Exactly. Is that a bad thing?” With her hands on her hips, she looked up at me and raised her thin brows as if she were daring me to answer.

I stepped back—she was quite intense. “It’s asuspiciousthing.”

“Not really. You’re my half-brother. My king.”

“And you expect me to believe that that means something to you.” Being her half-brother, I meant. Not her king. I wasn’t delusional.

Again, Jasewine followed me all the way to the throne. I stopped in front of it, and I figured now was as good a time as any to make that change I’d been meaning to make. So, I raised my hands toward it, released my shadows to merge with those of the palace.

“What I expect you to believe, Rune, is that I have been raised by a father, a king who did everything in his power to make sure I remained dumb, uneducated, a fragile little thing with no real magic skill or combat skills orany skillsat all, so I didn’t pose a threat tothat.” Her finger pointed up at the chair atop the dais, and then the stairs began to collapse one after the other.

Way too high. The dais was unnecessarily far from the floor, and that’s why I didn’t stop until only two stairs remained. I left those only because I felt the pressure of the throne room. I’dhave brought it level with the floor, but two stairs were better than seven.

And then the marble, the completely black marble brightened up everywhere with small white lights I lit up from within. Those stairs had looked likenothingbefore. Nilah would like the little change, I thought.

“Rune.”

I stopped. Turned to Jasewine. Felt like my own self for a second.

“He was a bad man.” These words she whispered. Her eyes were wide and dark, glistening with unshed tears. It was impossible not to stop. “I don’t thinkyouare.”

There went my mind, turning completely blank again.

I turned around, made for the glassless windows beyond the dining table, slowly this time, knowing she’d follow. The air was cold going down my throat, but it was still much hotter than it ought to be at this time of night.

I had yet to even begin to understand how the court had changed, and now that I knewwhyit had, I thought it would be easy to identify it all, record it for history books. I thought it would be easy once I had the space in my mind to think it through.

“A sky without a sun. It’s strange,” I found myself muttering for no particular reason other than to hear one thought clearly without having the tangled mess in my head take over.

“I find it beautiful,” Jasewine said, leaning over to rest her elbows on the windowsill.

The higher up I looked, the smaller I felt. “If it wasn’t for the stars, it would be…nothing. Just nothingness.”

She laughed almost completely silently. “Isn’t it curious how we romanticize the stars but vilify the darkness that makes them visible? You wouldn’t see the stars at all without it,” she said. “Ifyou stare at it for long enough, you’ll find that it’s notnothing. It’severythingthat hides up there.”

Certainly food for thought.

For a moment, we were both silent, looking at the same sky though we saw different things in it, looking at the water pouring soundlessly down the mountain, some of it spraying my side every now and again.

A waterfall without sound—how…wrongit seemed to me now that I paid it a little attention. The sound was a part of it and without it, it was…half. Like me.

“What is it that you want, Jasewine?”

She did not hesitate. “Freedom.”

I looked at her, and for the first time I began to understand the kind of a life she’d led in this palace. I began to understand that she’d been more a prisoner than a princess. Suppressed by her own father, just like I was banished by mine.

“You have freedom. You can do whatever you want. I will not get in your way of anything.”

“I know that,” she said and smiled. “Like I said, I think you’re a good man, Rune Kalygorn. I think you can do great things for the Midnight Court.” A hand over my forearm. She’d painted her long nails a matte black, and they suited the rest of her aesthetic perfectly. “But you can’t do it all alone. Not even with Aunt Raja. She’s good—the best, but this is a kingdom. Ruling it requires people.”

Didn’t I know it. I’d come to the same conclusion countless times in the Seelie Court. A team was needed to rule a kingdom. Not a single man or woman.

“I thought you said he kept you dumb and uneducated.”

Laughter, and I was beginning to get used to the sound. “I said hetriedto keep me dumb and uneducated. I never said he succeeded.”

“Is that so.”