These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows, #1)

by Lexi Ryan

The thing about desperation is that it steals the right choice from our list of options.

Hope is addictive, and you start relying on it. In a world this cruel, I won’t be caught needing a crutch.

“Wait for me,” he whispers. I won’t. I can’t. And I feel a stab of guilt at how good his words feel anyway.

A dry laugh bursts from my lips. “If you say so.”

I lift my chin, but his words hardly sting. He’s right.

“I know you never wanted to be my bride. I know that’s not what keeps you here. When you were missing this morning, it was a painful reminder that you’ve always intended this stay to be temporary—a means to an end. 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.”

I will lock my guilt away tight and get whatever information I can out of Sebastian. 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 step closer to him. When I take his hand, I feel every bit the traitor I am. “It means, I hope you won’t give up on me yet.”

Slowly, he lowers his mouth to mine. “My heart is in your hands, Abriella,” he says, a breath before our lips meet.

But soon I will be better. Soon.

The sight before me slams into my chest. I gasp but can’t breathe. There’s no room for my lungs to expand when they’re surrounded by the shrapnel of my shattered heart.