Page 165 of Lifebound

She came slowly all around the huge bed, walking gracefully like her feet didn’t even touch the wooden floor at all.

She stopped at the side of the bed, wrapped a hand full of rings around one of the pillars at the corner without a word.

Rune bowed deeply then, letting go of my hand for the first time since we came here.

And now I was fucking falling.

“My Queen,” he said, and every inch of my skin crawled.

“I don’t believe it,” said a man coming closer from the far left of the room where he’d been sitting with others—two men and a woman.

It was Helid, the prince’s uncle, the very man who’d convinced me to come to this place days ago. “Nilah?!”

My lips opened to speak. I couldn’t say a single word.

“What is the meaning of this?”

The woman spoke.

Thequeenspoke.An actual fae queen with a golden crown over her head, her blonde hair the same golden hue, long and braided over her shoulder, the tip reaching her thighs.

“She is the prince’s Lifebound,” Rune said as Helid continued to come closer and blink his eyes as if he couldn’t believe them for real.

“Yes, yes—but why areyouwith the Lifebound?” A step forward, and the queen suddenly looked enraged as she looked at Rune. “Why—speak at once and tell me—why areyouwith the Lifebound?!”

Holy fuck—what the hell was her problem?

“He saved me,” I said before I could help myself, and somehow my voice worked. Dry and small, but it worked. “He brought me here alive. If it wasn’t for him, I’d have died in the Neutral Lands.” I turned to Helid. “Whereyouleft me.”

Queen or no queen, she couldn’t talk to Rune like that, not whenhehad risked his life to save mine over and over.

“By Reme,” Helid said, bringing his hands to his chest. “Itisher, sister! It’s the mortal!”

But the queen looked at Rune still as she came closer, and Rune lowered his head, and it fucking killed me—because why in the fuck would she be pissed off right now when I had made it? I was here! I was going to heal her son!

“I did not give you permission to leave the Court, bastard,” the Queen said, and it was a goddamn miracle I didn’t burst out laughing or start calling her names.

“I didn’t think I needed one, My Queen. I went with Sir Helid to make sure they had help if they needed it,” Rune said, his voice calm, that same tone as always, not a whisper and not fully voice. He wasn’t pissed off in the least.

“Smart boy,” Helid said, but the queen didn’t care. She stopped three feet away and folded her hands in front of her, raising her chin as she looked at Rune.

“Without permission,” she said.

“I—” Rune started, but that was about enough for me.

“Hesavedme,” I said, and the queen turned to me, shocked. “Rune saved my life over and over again. If it wasn’t for him, I wouldn’t be here at all, but I am. I came to awaken Lyall, who I assume is your son, the man lying there on that bed. Iwouldn’t haveif it wasn’t for Rune.”

I couldn’t even decipher the look on her face, but she was not as happy as I thought she would be. As sheshouldhave been to see me there.

“Why?” she said instead, again, the question aimed at Rune. “Why did you take it upon yourself to bring the Lifebound here, bastard?”

You fucking bitch,I thought in my mind, but I didn’t say it.

I would only come to be thankful for that later on.

“Because the prince saved me once. I wanted to make sure that he came back to us in any way I could,” Rune said, and his words rang true.

The queen waited a heartbeat, then looked at Helid, who nodded his head slowly.

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