Page 93 of Boundless

“You do, but you are not identical. If I’d have seen the two of you together, I’d have thought she was your big sister.” His smile only widened. “There’s something about your eyes that she lacked, wilding. Yoursoul.It’s different. Wilder. So much more intense.”

“Maybe because she put parts of her in me,” I muttered, looking down between us, suddenly self-conscious about my eyes.

But Rune shook his head. “No part of her is visible where I’m looking.” And he was looking right in my eyes like he could see all the way into my heart.

Did I ever mention how much I loved this man?

“She was still awful,” I muttered, but I’d lie if I said I didn’t feel better already.

“She was. And she hated herself for it, believe it or not,” Rune said.

Taking his hand in mine, I pulled him to sit with me on the edge of the bed. “Tell me everything you remember.”

He did. He told me all about the Ice Queen, the room where she’d sat with him, how she had told him who his father was and everything that had happened. How she’dbeggedhim to kill her, told him the fate of the entire world was in his hands. That if he didn’t kill her, everyone was going to die.

I hated her all the more for it, even though she might have actually been right. She knew who Helem was perfectly—she knew.

But still, to think that she’d put that burden on a six-year-old boy like that, made himkillher with a knife to the chest—it was awful. As much as it finally made sense, it was awful.

“I can’t believe she made the bird first,” I said after a moment of silence, looking up at the black wood of the bed’s headboard where the bird sat and watched in silence, bathed us in its blue light.

“When you asked me for a bird when we were on that horse, a part of me must have remembered seeing it, because they’re almost identical,” Rune said, shaking his head in wonder. “I knew without knowing.”

“And apparently, I did, too. I alwaysfeltthat bird more than any other kind of magic in Verenthia.” It had beena friendto me, that little light, and I never even knew why.

“You’re not her, Wildcat, but she was a good queen before. It killed her having made that deal with Helem. It killed her long before I stabbed her in the chest.”

My eyes squeezed shut and I kissed his lips. “That was fucking unfair.”

“But necessary,” he said, and he was still smiling. He looked…okay.

“She could have had a child.” Which was what all the other royals had done.

“I know. I think she regretted that, too. At least a little.”

“Fuck, Rune.” I lowered my head. “What happens now? I’ve got to get back to the Ice Palace. I’ve got to talk to Vair because I don’t know. I don’t…”

The memory was like a slap to my face.

Vair washerewith us, right on the bedside table—a square piece of white marble, not a snow lynx anymore.

Without thinking, I reached for it and took it in my shaking hands, analyzed the shape of those eyes, the ears, the tail.

“How about we get some sleep first?” Rune whispered, and he didn’t wait for an answer. He put his arms under me and pulled me up on the bed, all the way to the pillows. He put the covers over us and lay with me, never once removing his hands from my body.

There was no more energy in me to cry or hurt or do anything at all but hold that marble cube against my chest and close my eyes.

The Seerof Shadows had come up to the throne room at Rune’s request. Raja was there, too, and so was Jasewine, Maera and her pack mates. There were no soldiers in here, only us sitting at the table near the glassless windows that overlooked the side of the mountain, and the gorgeous waterfall that could hypnotize you if you looked at it for too long.

None of us did, though. We still had a lot to figure out. That’s why the Seer of Shadows was sitting on the other side of the table with her hands over the polished top, looking at me and at Rune and at Jasewine who sat on her left, then Raja on her right. A chair down was Maera and the werewolves, who seemed to be especially restless sitting here at this table, constantly looking out at the darkness, and the muted waterfall beyond the windows.

Silence in the throne room for a long moment, following the story Rune finished telling the seer about everything the Council of The Vale had told us. His hand remained on mine underneath the table. He never once let go, and I didn’t let go of the marble cube in my other hand, either.

“That is everything we currently have,” Rune added when the silence became too much.

“I see,” said the seer with a slow nod. “I have tried to make readings, but the stars haven’t spoken to me on the matter, almost at all. It makes sense that the Council was gathered.”

“The stars have spoken plenty, it seems to me. We know very well what is happening, and what needs to happen in the near future.” Raja looked right at me when she said this. “All thrones must be claimed by their legitimate heirs, and everything else comes second.”