Page 66 of Boundless

“Yes. Forme,mind you. I speak only for me,” she said. “This is my home. I want to see it thriving. I want to help you, and I know how much this mortal means to you. Let me go. I will find her. Iwillbring her back here safely no matter what I have to do. You have my word.”

So many emotions ran through me at the same time. I did not trust this woman because sister or no sister, I did not know her. But I was looking at possiblydayslocked up in this palace.

Jasewine would only need three to get to the Neutral Lands. Just three days to find Nilah, keep her safe until I got there.

Unfortunately, things were much more complicated than that.

“There’s a lot you don’t know,” I told her. She kept calling Nilahmortal,and she thought she understood, but she didn’t.

There would be nothrivingof her home, not ever. This kingdom could not be saved, with or without me. All of Verenthia was already doomed.

So why couldn’t I say that to her?

“And you may tell me everything when I come back with her.” She turned to face me with her whole body. “I know how to fight. Most importantly, I know how to use magic.” Both her hands rose and the black of her fingernails extended into perfect tips—with shadows. Controlled shadows. “Helem never let us learn, but I did. Despite his punishments, I learned through the years. I’m strong. I’m a royal, after all. I can keep her safe, and I will protect her with my life.” Her shadows became larger and spread around us, wrapped us up in a circle. It was just a show of strength, and I did feel the magic. She was right, it was strong. She had power.

I raised a hand to touch the wall of shadows she’d created around us, dipped my fingers into the energy, memorized it with mine so that I could find it. I could search for it. I could connect with it the way I did with Raja’s.

“What about the others?” I asked her as the thoughts in my head turned, gave shape to a new idea, dared to allowhopethat it might actually work. “Are they spying on me, too?”

Jasewine looked at me like she suddenly didn’t think I was all well in the head. “No,” she said. “I could never get any of them to read a single book, let alone study something.”

“Are you sure?” Because ifshehad done all this without my knowing about it, then who was to say others couldn’t, too?

“Rune, how do you think Father found out each time I practiced magic, or with a sword, or spent the night downstairs in the Great Library?”

There was a hint of sadness to her voice, in her eyes, but it disappeared too quickly. Suddenly I was curious to know more about her, so much more about what it had been like to grow up in this palace with King Helem.

But all of it would have to wait.

“The palace allowed your shadows in the throne room with me. You claim it listens to you. You’re…connected.”

“It does,” Jasewine said. “We are. Not the others, though. I spy on them, too—believe you me, they could not care less about controlling anything. They’re too busy complaining. That’s how they go about all their days.” A flinch and she rubbed her arms like she had goose bumps under the sleeves of her dress. “I don’t say this lightly, either—they’re my sisters. But they are boring as hell.”

Once again, I smiled. “You’re not going to the Neutral Lands, Jasewine.”

She leaned back like my words assaulted her physically. “I am trustworthy, Your Highness. But you’ll never know that if you don’t allow me toproveit.”

“And I will.” I looked at the ceiling, prayed once more that it would work, that this insane idea that had taken shape in my head was actually doable.

“How?” my half-sister demanded, and she had more fire in her than most people I’d met. She reminded me so much of Raja, who was her actual distant aunt from her mother’s side.

“By staying here,” I told her, and every inch of her body froze in place. “By taking over this throne room, this kingdom. By wearing the crown in my stead, until my return.”

This kingdom I trusted her with. But Nilah? Never. Not her, not anyone.

Not yet.

It took Jasewine a long time to process what I told her. She was in shock for real, and it was easy to see by the way she opened and closed her mouth, looked at me, at the ceiling, at the floor, at the sky outside, unable to utter a single word.

“I think—hopethe palace will accept, if you do,” I said eventually, and I did feel sorry for her. She looked like a fish out of water standing there in front of me. “So, do you?”

Our eyes locked. Her hands stopped shaking. “I do,” she breathed with barely any voice.

It was enough for me.

I moved toward the dais again, to the edge of the armrest of the throne made of shadows where I hung the crown King Helem had worn all his life. I kept meaning to changethat,too, but all in due time, I figured.

My intentions were perfectly clear. The palace felt them, no doubt. And if it wanted me to stop me when I reached for the crown on the armrest…