Page 7 of Boundless

I wasn't sure how long it took them, or if my impatience got the throne room to help them, because the shadows carrying the dead looked darker at one point, but I didn’t really care. I wasfinding that my limbs were locking down more and more, and this wasn’t exhaustion. It was something else.

“Raja,” I said, but I wasn’t sure how to explain it to her when the doors closed and we were all alone with the dead king.

“Now is not the time to rest, boy,” she said, and when I met her eyes, hers were wide and terrified.

“I need to?—”

“She’s coming.”

Raja’s words hung in the air for a moment, refusing to connect with me, to make any kind of sense.

The next second, the doors of the throne room opened for the third time—only this time, I didn’t wish for it. They opened all by themselves—or at the hands of the woman who stepped inside with her chin up, bright blue eyes on me, a small smile playing on her thin lips.

Her wrinkles were deep. Her dress that changed color like the fabric of it was made of different kinds of shadows floated about her as she moved deeper into the throne room.

I had never met this woman before, but I’d practically seen her when Nilah described her to me. It was the Seer of Shadows, and the energy that was coming from her made me uneasy.

The doors closed once more, and the lynx who’d been sitting by the wall came forward, following the seer. Somehow, I’d made it down the stairs of the dais, too. It was an unusual throne, the Midnight one, and the old king had created this dais on purpose—seven stairs up, and just enough space at the top for a single chair. The message of it would be clear to anyone who entered this room—he ruled alone.

“Your Highness, congratulations. I see the throne has already accepted you. I am glad.”

The seer spoke. She stopped a few feet away from me and bowed her head, both hands to her chest.

“Raja, you’ve taken your place, too—good, good.”

The Seer of Shadows was the most powerful seer in the realm, and didn’t all of Verenthia know that she was loyal to the old king, had been for decades? Because right now she seemed pleased, not an ounce ofsorryflashing in her eyes when they skimmed over the dead body lying on the box of shadows to her right. In fact, she seemed more curious about the lynx who’d stopped just at her side and watched her with those eyes that were the exact same color as Nilah’s. The exact same.

And I continued to burn.

“Helem challenged him to a duel.” Raja’s voice was dry, hushed. “He won?—”

“With the help of Nilah Dune, yes. A fair win, nonetheless.” The seer smiled. “If it weren’t, the throne room wouldn’t have accepted you as the new Midnight King, Your Highness.” Again, she bowed her head.

“Nilah,” I said, and I found my jaws were locked. I wasn’t only burning—I was also freezing. My limbs were heavy, my bones cold.

“A banishment from Verenthia. Such a cruel fate.” The seer stepped forward and raised a hand. “But it is time, Your Highness.”

Those words.

I couldn’t stomach those two words. I’d be tempted to thinktheywere making me sick if any of this was normal. If I’d felt it before, even in my darkest hour.

I hadn’t.

“Time for what?” Raja asked as the view in front of me turned darker and darker.

The seer looked at her as if surprised. “To remember, of course.” And she’d been much closer to me than I’d realized. That’s why, when she tapped me with her fingertips on my forehead, my body jerked back on instinct.

I was moving again, climbing up the dais backward, looking at the seer, trying to get myself to speak once more, but I couldn’t. It was impossible.

The back of my legs hit something, and I fell back on the throne chair. Raja spoke—I could just see her waving her hands about as she told the seer something, but their voices were lost on me. Nilah’s face was the only clear memory in my mind—and that awful thought:I lost her.She was a world away from me and I couldn’t even force myself to stand up.

Then the darkness claimed even the memory of her and showed me another that had been stolen from me a long time ago.

four

It wasa small bird made of light that was white—but not the same white as my mother’s, or the other fae who lived in the palace and served the royals. This light was more silver than blue, and the energy of it was different, too, which was why I couldn’t decide what to make of it.

Fae light shaped into a bird. Mother used to make them into stars for me when she read my bedtime stories. I kept my eyes on them until I fell asleep, and now that they were gone, I couldn’t sleep anymore.