Page 23 of Lifebound

The one on the right was smiling.

The whole world came to a sudden halt. I was picked up and thrown back in time, to a day that most of me had been convinced through the years had onlyhappened in my imagination.

I was thrown back in that meadow and I was surrounded by trees, and I was bitten by a snake and saved by a golden-eyed boy…

Before he was called away by a grown man.

Thesamegrown man who was standing there in my kitchen now, smiling at me.

“You.”

My eyes were wide open, unblinking. My heart was beating steadily, and my body was no longer shaking. The sense that this was all a dream was gone now—this was most definitely real.

The man spoke. “Nilah Dune, I am so very happy to finally make your acquaintance.”

It’s him, it’s him, it’s him!Same face, same light hair, same voice—it was the same voice! My God, he hadn’t changed a bit, hadn’t aged a day.

“Please forgive us for coming to your door like this, uninvited. Unexpected, I believe.” Something was in my head—an echo or a memory or a thought, I wasn’t sure. “Your father was kind enough to invite us in to wait for you.” He stepped forward. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Helid Sunstinne of the Seelie Court of Verenthia, and I am at your service.”

I blinked my eyes, waited a heartbeat to see if he would start laughing. Or maybe even attack me.

When he didn’t, I turned to Dad, to Fiona, but they were just as clueless as me.

“Dad?” I asked anyway because he was the adult here and he was my father and he had answers when I didn’t. Heneededto have answers right now.

“He…h-he’s the uncle,” my dad said, his chin quivering like he was holding himself back from tears.

“He’s the uncle of the boy who saved you, Nilah,” Fiona said, her voice much louder, much more stable. And her eyes were becoming more alive by the second.

“I don’t…I don’t understand.” I looked at that man again,Helidsomething-something—of theSeelie Court?!

“And that’s to be expected. You’ve never seen me before, but—” the man started, but suddenly I found myself pointing my index finger at his face. The other two men who were in the kitchen with him moved just slightly.

“No, but I have,” I said. The man raised a hand, so the others fell back against the kitchen isle. “I-I-Ihaveseen you before.”

Blond brows rose to his forehead. “You have?”

“That day in the meadow.” I had promised myself that I was never going to speak about this out loud again, but how could I not say anything now? “I-I saw you. I was there when you called for him, for the boy. I saw you—you told him he should have stayed with his mother—Isawyou.”

It was real,a voice in my head whispered.

My God, it had all been real.

Silence.

The man’s smile fell. He paused and it gave me a moment to assess him better—to assessthem. He wore green, too, except his clothes were different, his jacket shorter, his pants visible, and they were threaded with gold. His eyes were a much brighter gold as well, and his hair longer, combed behind his head.

The two men by the isle wore the same long coat as the one in the foyer. I’d almost forgotten about him, but a look back confirmed that he was still there, standing in the hallway, eyes ahead. I’d seen two others outside, but were there more? Maybe around back?

“And where wereyou,if I may ask, Nilah Dune?” the man finally said.

A noise rang in my ears. I focused on his face again, reminded myself how to speak.

“I was there, sitting on the grass,” I said. “You…you looked right at me but didn’t see me because the boy did something with his hands. They glowed, and…and he did something. He hid me.”

The man closed his eyes, released a short breath, and smiled like it all made perfect sense to him now. “Of course, he did,” he said. “My nephew has always been quite the rebel since he learned how to walk. Always the rule breaker.”

I stepped to the side slowly, closer to Dad and Fiona.

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