These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows, #1)

by Lexi Ryan

Whatever this power of mine is, it blossoms in the Unseelie palace.

“What is the Grimoricon?” “You may know it as the Great Book. It’s the sacred text of Faerie, and it contains the earliest spells and magic from the Old Ones.”

But I can’t imagine spending my life with anyone else. You’re the one who’s always made me laugh. You’re the one who makes me feel like I can still be me without letting my duty to my crown swallow me whole. And yet that same duty might require losing you.”

He’ll be choosing a bride, and while I should be focused on what this means for my access to the castle, jealousy burns a hole in my gut and demands my attention.

“You can’t have one without the other, Brie.” “Ah,” I say softly. “But the prince is growing on me.”

And if he hates me forever once he learns how I used him . . . well, if that’s the price of saving Jas, it’s one I’m willing to pay.

“I have us glamoured so the humans can’t see that we’re here.” He grins at me. “I wasn’t about to miss out on spending tonight with you.”

“You know I don’t actually like leaving you, but I can’t avoid my responsibilities either.”

“You were curled in the corner of the bed, completely absorbed in that book, as if it didn’t matter that you lived this brutal existence and had only a tiny room to call your own. It didn’t matter that you had to work so hard for everything. When you were reading, you were somewhere else. You were someone else.”

“You’re thinking of the crown, but Mordeus hasn’t been able to find it. In fact, he can’t even sit on the throne without the crown, and until he gets the crown, he can’t tap into the power of either.”

I can’t imagine a life without Sebastian. In Fairscape, he was the color to my black and white existence. He filled me up when I was empty. When every day seemed to be an endless slog of work, thievery, and failure, I still had seeing him to look forward to. “I don’t want to leave you either,” I admit. I just wish a life with you didn’t have to happen here.

Library pixies that live among books and sing. I wonder if I ever could have hated faeries if I’d known such a thing existed.

I want to look away. I don’t want to see this side of Sebastian. I don’t want to believe he’s capable of cruelty against a male I’ve come to know as good and kind. But I force myself to watch every moment.

“Kill me, and she’ll never give you the crown.”

“Tell him he was right about the queen. She is dying, but not fast enough.”

“Curses are made of secrets and sacrifice. We will suffer as long as she pays the price.”

“I think if you go with me, the boost I get from you will give me the power and control I need to do this.” Finn stares at me.

“The princess insisted. I didn’t want to disappoint her when she was in the mood for an adventure.”

“Easy, Princess, focus on the magic. When we’re out of here, you can go back to imagining all the ways you want my hands on you.”

“You’ve barely begun to tap into what you’re capable of. You just need practice. You’re not used to using that much power. You might feel . . . off for a few days.

Wishes were for girls who had parents, for people who weren’t stuck in impossible contracts. If I lose Jas, I don’t think there will be a single star in the sky that feels like mine.”

When Finn stands, his gaze locks on the hand I pulled away from him. “Abriella, every star in that sky shines for you.”

“Show me my mother.” The image shows a tomb, a rotting corpse lying in darkness, her arms crossed over her chest.

I’m not even surprised when I see my childhood home—the one we escaped from almost ten years ago. The one where my father died.

“Heal her.” “Are you fucking kidding me?” another male voice asks. Kane? “This is a blessing. A gift from the old gods. Take it.”

Letting her die when we have the means to save her is as good as murder. Do you want the magic to turn against us?”

Some of them are bad. You die forever sometimes, and the golden queen rejoices. But other times you become fae. Other times you become queen.”

Sometimes the anger is too much and you let it make your insides ugly. Don’t do that. I don’t like you like that. Finn will explain if you let him.”

“Ah. So the truth is revealed. It’s not that you don’t want to be with him. It’s that you think he can’t forgive you for what you’re doing to save your sister.”

“Show me King Oberon’s crown,” I say softly. But the image in the glass doesn’t change, and no matter how many times I ask, I remain staring at my own reflection.

“The problem is that he trusts me and I need him to, but I feel like garbage every time I exploit that.” She frowns. “You’ve been put in an impossible situation.”

“What I feel for Amira I felt long before I met Vexius. Long before either of us married.” The name niggles at my memory. This is the meeting she’s been dreading. “Amira is the queen of the Wild Fae?” Pretha nods and looks away again. “And my brother’s wife.”

“No right to destroy Prince Ronan’s tracking amulet? No right to keep him and the queen from knowing where you’ve been spending your time?”

“I don’t know what he’s told you about me, but I don’t wish your prince any ill will. His mother, on the other hand—”

I’ll find a way to be worthy of this love he offers me. If he’ll have me.

There’s no room for my lungs to expand when they’re surrounded by the shrapnel of my shattered heart.

What I witnessed wasn’t some duty of the crown, but passion and pleasure—the very thing I was offering him when he left me for a “meeting.”

All I need is a little dancing and faerie wine. I’ll give myself one night to shake it off. To lose myself. And tomorrow I’ll be ready to refocus on my task.

“My prince wants you desperately. If he’s with another woman right now, it’s because he was so hurt to discover that you’ve been spending time with Finnian.”

“Sebastian will always find a way to give you what you want.” “I want to dance.” I grab another glass of wine from a passing waiter. “Then dance.” Riaan taps his glass against mine. “It is my pleasure to serve my future queen.”

“MAGIC TASTES LIKE RAINBOWS,” I say, swaying on my feet.

“Finn,” I say, stumbling toward him. “You’re beautiful too. So beautiful it distracts me when I’m around you. Did I ever tell you that? Sebastian would be so mad if he knew that.”

That makes me sad. I don’t want him to look at anyone but me.

“The prince wasn’t around,” Pretha says. “And the queen hasn’t returned to the palace since Litha, though we still have no reason to believe she knows who Abriella is.”

High. Drunk. Drugged. Whatever this is, I’m grateful for it because I’m different right now. This Brie isn’t afraid. This Brie doesn’t have to deal with a broken heart and stupid guilt. She gets to say and do whatever she wants, and she wants to feel her fingers in Finn’s hair.

“Let me out.” “I can’t.” “Fine, then.” I reach forward, tuck two fingers behind his belt, and tug him in with me. His eyes close, and I see the truth in his strained expression. He wants me. Finn wants me and is fighting it.

His chest rises and falls with his heavy breaths, and his gaze returns to my mouth no matter how many times he tears it away.

I saw her in your arms and . . . I wanted it to be me.”

My skin is so hot. Too hot. And the water is too cold. And the only places on my body that feel right are the parts that are touching him.

“I hate you.” “Also not what you said last night.”