Page 76 of Boundless

Magic in the air. Things were being thrown from the trees toward the Seelie soldiers, not just fromthisside of the crack, but from the other, too. Vials. Fruit. Bones. Small animal carcasses.

Sorcerers had surrounded the small army of Seelie soldiers from all sides. Some were hanging on trees, but most were on the ground, and they were chanting, whispering, raising their hands, throwing their things—my God, it was madness!

“Nilah, we need to run!”

Maera was trying to pull me back, and she did. I moved because I had no control over my legs just yet and I let her drag me away while I watched in horror as more and more sorcerers gathered, pushing us away. It was chaos. People screamed and people laughed—it was fuckingnuts.

“Maera, let go!” I shouted with all my strength because there was a fire burning right where Lyall had been, and my heart about burst right out of my ribcage.

By some miracle, Maera let me go, cursing loudly as sorcerers pushed her back—and I ran. I elbowed my wayforward, barely breathing. My hands were lit up, the light so bright they looked like fucking crystals, my skin damn near transparent as I grabbed sorcerers and pulled them aside.

Until I was in front of the crack on the ground, and I saw.

Magic in the air. Weapons. Potions spilling. Men and women screaming, some still laughing.

And Lyall had a sorcerer on each side pulling at his arms, while a third was trying to push the ball of fire in his handsonto his face.

Invisible magic stopped him, of course. And there was a part of me that insisted that Lyall could handle himself, that his soldiers would come to his aid any second now, that sorcerers could never beat a Seelie king.

There was a very good chance that that was the truth, too, except I was afraid. I was enraged. I wasnot thinking—I was only feeling.

“STOP!” I shouted at the top of my lungs, and I didn’t think I’d ever produced more voice in my entire life.

With the sound came the magic, and itexplodedfrom my hands with such strength that it pushed me back.

The light, the silver-colored shimmer,fellright into that crack on the ground that the sorcerers must have somehow created when Lyall was about to attack me.

The light spread. It filled the crack like I’d never seen it do before, as if it were liquid, as if it was coming from underneath the ground now, too. Itspilledout of it, spreading like frost that wasn’t really frost onto the ground in ribbons,crawlinglike a living thing on both sides, making everything and everyone move back.

The air was thick with magic. The screaming stopped, and the fire that had been burning on the ground near Lyall’s feet was consumed by the frostfire that was white, and it wasn’t a fucking fire at all!

No more sorcerers on Lyall. No more sorcerers on the soldiers. They were moving back on both sides of the hole, slowly, watching the magic as it continued to spread onto the ground like a wave of water that wasn’t quite water, either.

Somehow I found my voice again. “That’s enough! Don’t you dare attack anybody—I will kill each and every one of you!”

Lies.

I couldn’t kill them if I tried. This burst of magic was the best I had, and it wasn’t going to kill anyone. Vair said frostfire didn’t kill—it merely cleansed.

No, I couldn’t kill them—but I could maybe knock them out. Not exactly surehowI would go about it, since I wasn’t exactly in control of my mind or my emotions or my body right now, but I was going to try. God help me, I wouldn’t stop.

But…they did.

The sorcerers had stopped, and the soldiers had stopped, and Lyall was looking at me with his crown in his hand—it must have fallen off his head when the sorcerers attacked him. He was looking at me and shaking his head, and he was pissed off. Just as pissed off as I was, until…

A choking sound came from somewhere behind me.

Lyall’s eyes went to it instantly.

The next second, every single Seelie soldier standing behind him looked behindme.

Impossible not to turn.

When I did, it was almost impossible to believe my own eyes, too.

Because Vair said that frostfire didn’t kill, but there was a sorceress on her knees on the ground, her body almost completely covered by the silvery white magic. Tendrils of it slippedinsideher open mouth while she shook and tried to breathe in, eyes wide open and on the sky—and she most definitely look like she was dying.

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