Page 163 of Lifebound

I had never felt smallerin my life. Instinctively, I stepped closer to Rune and gripped his hand with both mine.

We’d made it.

We’d actually made it all the way down that rock that could be considered a damn mountain, and we’d gone all the way up the golden bridge. Now we were in front of those large stairs some hundred feet above the water, waiting for someone to come for us. To open those gates that looked even bigger from closer up. They were made of white—could have been marble or rock or wood, I don’t know—and engraved with gold everywhere.

The fear in my chest became more and more intense with every passing second. Rune could probably feel it in the way I tightened my hold on his hand, so he turned his head to me and said, “Don’t be afraid, Wildcat. You’re safe now.”

He believed that with all his heart—I could tell by the way he looked at me.

The problem was, Ididn’tknow this place at all, and it looked far too good to be true—or even real. All my instincts demanded that I turn back now and run while I still had the chance. Run all the way back to that tunnel and to Blackwater and to the Neutral Lands, and never look back until I was home again.

I knew it was just the fear speaking, but it had never been so loud, that voice. Not even when I was staring death in the face.

“I know,” I told Rune because I didn’t want him to worry. And I tried to distract myself with the water below, and the moon in the sky, and the giant walls of this Court ahead of me, but nothing worked until the right gate actually began to slide backward.

My heart stood perfectly still for a good moment, until three men stepped out with swords around their hips, wearing dark velvet and gold—and two of them wore golden helmets, too.

Not the one in the middle, though. He held his under his arm, his other hand on the handle of his sheathed sword as he slowly came down the wide stairs. He was blond and tall and beautiful enough to make anyone stare at those deep brown eyes that came alive when he waved his hand up and golden lights burst into existence in the air.

He stopped when he was still five steps above us.

“Rune?” he said, and my heart jumped again.

“Hello, Delias,” Rune said with a nod. “Sorry to make you open up the front. I couldn’t go around back tonight.”

The Seelie fae shook his head, and he looked perfectly confused, even more so when his eyes landed on me. “What’s the meaning of this? I didn’t know you were out—what…where were you? Are you well?”

He scanned Rune’s body up and down, and he genuinely looked concerned.

“I am,” Rune said. “Delias, this is Nilah Dune.” He stepped a little to the side and looked at me. “She’s the prince’s Lifebound.”

The look on the man’s face could have been funny. His lips parted and his eyes became even more golden as he took me in, shook his head, tried to speak but couldn’t.

And finally, he lowered his head deeply, and so did the other two guards behind him as soon as they took their helmets off.

“Welcome, Nilah Dune,” Delias said in half a voice, wide eyes on Rune again. “We…we thought she died. Sir Helid returned two days ago.”

“She’s very much alive,” Rune said, stepping closer to me again, and I instantly felt a little better. “And we’d be really grateful if you could take us to the prince.”

The fae didn’t hesitate at all. They stepped aside to let us through, and Rune led me forward like he knew I wouldn’t be able to walk if he didn’t pull me by the hand. But my body moved for him even when I didn’t have control over it, so before I knew it, I was inside the gates.

Before I knew it, I was in the Seelie Court of Verenthia, surrounded by impossibly beautiful people with golden hair and golden skins, with glowing lights floating about the air, with houses and flowers and gorgeous colorful trees everywhere I looked.

Yet I couldn’t shake the bad feeling in my gut for a second.

They put us in a carriage, Rune and I, and they asked us if we wanted food or anything else while they took us to the castle. I only asked for water, and they brought me a gold-colored metal bottle like the one we’d had with in the tunnel.

In the tunnel—where we’d been together for the last time.

The carriage wasluxuriousto say the least, with large velvet seats and enough space to call it a small room. The doors were grilled with bars of gold that reminded me of those golden cages in the Enclave, and the outside was so open, sobrightthat I couldn’t look away for a long time while the white horses took us forward, led by Delias himself.

But even the wonderful things I could see through the windows, the music that came our way every few feet, the lights, the children playing, the flowers that grew on the surface of the buildings—even though this entire place made me feel like I was traveling right through a dream, I couldn’t help but feel sad. Desperate. In pain.

Because of Rune.

“You’re safe, Wildcat, I promise you,” he said to me when I continued to tighten my grip on his hand.

It wasn’t because I wasn’t feeling safe, though. But we’d already decided that I would speak to the prince first, so I had to bite my tongue.

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