These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows, #1)
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Read between March 31 - April 1, 2025
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These are the hours of spies and thieves. They’re my hours.
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These runes wouldn’t keep me out of the vault. They’d let me in and lock me there, make me a prisoner until the master of the manor could deal with me. A common thief schooled only in protection runes might make the mistake of thinking the wards were faulty when he passed them. A common thief would find himself locked inside. Good thing I’m anything but common.
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I don’t have the time or the coin to spare on training, so I’ll never be able to carry magic at my fingertips with spells, potions, and rituals. I’m lucky to have a friend who’s taught me what he can.
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but if Gorst deals with the fae, he’s shipping humans off to another realm to spend their lives as slaves. Or worse.
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I don’t steal from those who give me honest work, and I don’t work for those who steal from me.
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I don’t work for those who try to blackmail me into prostitution.
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I think of myself more like a shadow, unnoticed and more useful than people bother to notice.
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The contents of this satchel can’t save me and Jas, but they can save Fawn and Nik.
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I’m seventeen, but I’m magically bound to a contract that will, at this rate, keep me in Madame Vivias’s debt for the rest of my life.
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“There are fae who pay a premium for the company of a beautiful human and more if you’ll bind yourself to them. Far more than Creighton can offer.”
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Before they split the sky and opened the portals, the fae visited at twilight in their spirit forms—just a shadow or an outline in the trees that looked like something living.
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Only when the Magical Seven of Elora, the seven most powerful mages from this world, came together did we guard the portals against them. Now they can take a human life only if it’s fairly purchased or freely given—a magical safeguard that the clever faeries have created a hundred workarounds for.
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There are more important things in life than money. Even more important things than freedom—like taking care of your two little girls and not abandoning them so you can run off with your faerie lover.
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“In one day’s time, Queen Arya will open the doors to the Court of the Sun. She’s giving humans safe passage to Faerie to attend the celebration at her castle.” “What? Why?” “She wants to find a human bride for her son.”
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This is the Seelie Court. The good faeries! The faeries of light and joy.”
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You know as well as I do that there are no good faeries. Just degrees of evil and cruel.”
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Sebastian is just a friend, he’d never see a scrappy thing like me as more than that, but no matter how many times I lecture my heart, it refuses to listen.
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They’re cruel girls who wish the worst for everyone but themselves. It’s hard not to delight in the occasional poor fortune of someone like that.
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a faerie from the shadow court got his hands on you . . .” “Make no bargains or ties with the silver eyes,” Jas and I singsong together.
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And if the thrill that rushes through my blood at the thought of stealing from fae nobility is more satisfying than the prospect of finding my mother, so what?
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“When I’m done with you, Prince Ronan won’t be able to take his eyes off you—whether you want him to or not.”
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I’ve never had the courage to risk rejection, keeping my feelings secret from everyone—even Jas.
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Bakken just took Jasalyn to the faerie traders.” She makes fists with both hands and then opens them dramatically. “Poof! Gone. Just like that.”
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“Just give me a chance. Let me try to figure this out.” Sebastian leaves tomorrow for the next part of his apprenticeship. I don’t know what he thinks he can do for her, but I nod.
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Mordeus stole the throne from his brother many years ago and waits for the day when his nephew—Prince Finnian, son of King Oberon and rightful heir to the Throne of Shadows—emerges from exile to claim his crown.
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Every choice he makes is about power—his power.”
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“Where do you think legends begin, if not from truth?”
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Go to the Seelie Court, find the queen’s secret portal to enter the most dangerous place in Faerie, find my sister, and rescue her from a power-hungry king. Child’s play.
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All I care about is my sister.” “Ah yes, and the king knows that.”
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“It’s an amulet of protection. If I can’t be here to protect you myself, then . . .” He flinches, as if the thought causes him physical pain, then gently guides the necklace over my head. “Promise me you’ll always wear it.”
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I have to save my sister, but I don’t want to die. I don’t want to lose him either.
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An undeniable energy buzzes along my skin. As if the air is different here, as if it’s charged—an electric spiderweb waiting to trap humans like flies.
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“I won’t need your money once I’m Prince Ronan’s bride.” She winks at me like it’s a joke and only I am privy to the punch line. “My name’s Pretha.”
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Healthy isn’t the word that comes to mind when I look at my reflection.
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The elven fae nobility meander throughout the crowd, and were it not for their pointed ears and ethereal grace, they could almost blend in with the humans—not that they’d want to.
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“Why are you being so nice to me?” “Maybe I need a friend too.”
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They’re just the kind of idiots who’d believe they could become faerie princesses.
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His dark hair hangs to his angular jawline in a shaggy mop of curls. His silver eyes glow like moonlight and are framed by thick, dark lashes.
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I’m passed from one partner to the next, and I feel as graceful as the fae. I dance and dance and dance until I can hardly breathe, until my lungs burn and my feet ache.
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I want more dancing, more joy, more delicious freedom.
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One side looks like a crescent moon and the other a glowing sun.
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“Don’t let her see your scar.”
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“Get outta here, ya wildling.”
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I reach into a shadow and watch as my shaking hand disappears.
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Does my skill for blending in the normal world become an actual ability to disappear in this one?
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The palace is overflowing with women ready to offer their lives to the Seelie prince, and he couldn’t be bothered to show? How typical of a faerie. Egotistical nonsense.
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The queen’s castle is vast and filled with fae and far more light than is convenient for a girl whose skills revolve around shadows and darkness.
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Don’t make bargains or ties with the silver eyes. He’s from the Court of the Moon.
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And yet I’m drawn to him—something about him calls me to move closer, not run away. Power purrs in my blood, a trace of the same high I felt when we danced. Why did no one tell me that humans have powers in Faerie?
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“Or to know that she’d never take on a handmaiden more beautiful than she is.”
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