Page 78 of Boundless

“I told you before, I spoke to the Council,” I said, moving closer, hands up to show him that I wasn’t going to attack him, not unless he tried anything funny again. “Lyall, we need to talk. The curse is real, and we need to find the Unseelie heir together. Let’s just…let’s talk, okay?”

I said it as calmly as I could. I meant every word from the bottom of my heart. I was willing to overlookeverythinghe’d done, everything he’d said, because this was bigger than us.

But even after everything, I was still surprised when his hands lit up and his magic shot toward me in the blink of an eye.

Lyall attacked me.

My magic raged, and I was going toexplodein it once more, tear the ground apart, take his breath out of his lungs. At least I would try.

But I never got the chance.

The wall of shadows that rose from the crack on the ground between us stopped the bright golden ball of light coming forme. It was fast, too fast, and my hands were still lit up, and people screamed, but I was in control somehow. I held myself back because all my thoughts had come to a halt.

The darkness. The feel of it. The intensity—it was familiar. My instincts knew it. My skinfeltit before the thought even occurred to me.

Rune was here. This washismagic, his shadows.

My heart slowed down the beating. My eyes refused to blink. There were screams and there was movement, and I planned to jump headfirst into the shadows to get to the other side just when they disappeared. The wall of darkness was gone like it had never been there to begin with, and Rune was on the other side of the hole, in his hand a silver sword, the tip of it against the golden blade of the one Lyall held.

Sorcerers behind Rune, hands raised, whispers leaving their lips.

Seelie soldiers with their golden weapons drawn, ready to attack.

Rune’s eyes locked on mine for just a second before he looked at Lyall again, and I breathed deeply.

He was really here. Alive and well and pissed the hell off—but he was here.

So many things ran through my mind at once. “Rune, no,” I said, hands raised as I stepped forward, because he couldn’t kill Lyall. He couldn’t—we’d all be doomed.

But the magic came at him before Rune could even look at me again.

Sorcerers attacked, three at the same time, one throwing liquid at Rune’s back, others raw magic, invisible to my eyes—until it crashed onto the darkness that rose around Rune’s side, attached still to the shadows slipping out of his fingertips. He still held his sword in his other hand, a shield of shadows with the other, and the sorcerers were chanting louder.

I couldn’t even remember how I ran, how I jumped, just that I was in front of those sorcerers before they threw their spells and their potions at Rune again, screaming, “Stop!”

They did.

My hands were raised, palms burning with the light of my magic, and it hurt, but I was getting used to it, I thought. Behind me, the wall of darkness that had risen around Rune disappeared, and now we were back to back, him facing Lyall, and me facing the sorcerers.

The sorcerers who were lividall of the sudden. They still had their hands up and looked at me likeIwas the one who’d lost it.

“Stop it! Do not attack,” I said—both to them and to Rune.

“The Midnight King is not welcome in Mysthaven,” a sorceress said, looking down at me with a sneer as she was at least a head taller than me.

“We keep our end of the treaty—we stay off their land, and they stay off ours,” said the man behind her, his blue eyes wild as he looked behind me, probably at Rune’s head.

“The Midnight army cannot cross into Mysthaven! This is an attack!” a woman called from the crowd of sorcerers, and I couldn’t even see her face from the one standing in front of me.

“He’s herefor me,” I said, and before any of them could reply, Rune spoke.

“No Midnight soldier has crossed your border, sorcerer.”

The sound of his voice sent shivers up and down my body.

“I’m not here as a king—only as a fae,” he added, and the sorcerers seemed confused as they exchanged looks.

“If you attack, Iwillstop you,” I said, and the magic burned bright in my hands. They saw it, but I didn’t think they were afraid.