These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows 1)

He blows out a long breath and opens his eyes, pulling one of my hands off the muslin to grip between both of his. “Please promise me you won’t go searching for her. I can’t bear to think what might happen to you if you went to Faerie.”

“What about what’s happening to Jas there now?”

“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. I won’t deny his help, even if I don’t believe he can save her.

He releases my hand and looks around the room I’ve shared with my baby sister for the past nine years. “Where will you go?” he asks.

I don’t have much in the way of possessions. I could pack up everything and be out of here by sunset. “My friend Nik owes me a favor. I’ll stay with her.” Until I can come up with a plan to get Jas back.

Nik will feel awful about what Madame V did, maybe even blame herself, but I know in my gut that if we hadn’t missed today’s payment, we would have missed another in the future. The money I gave Nik couldn’t have saved Jas when a soulless witch held her life in her hands.

“I am so sorry,” he says, his eyes searching my face.

“Me too.”

“I promised Mage Trifen I’d help with his next client. Will you be okay if I go? I’ll come find you later.”

I nod, and another tear escapes. Sebastian watches it roll down my cheek before following its path with his thumb. The touch is so gentle it makes me want to wrap my arms around his waist and curl into him, to bury my face in his chest and pretend none of this is happening.

Instead, I say goodbye, happy to see him go, if only so I can make a plan.

* * *

Madame Vivias’s house goblin lives under the stairs by the kitchen. I knock softly with one hand and pull the tie from my hair with the other.

Goblins love human hair, teeth, and nails—collect them the way the Seelie queen is rumored to collect jewels. If I’m going to get any information out of Bakken, it’ll be by using my hair. I can only hope that denying him all these years has made him want it that much more.

He yanks the door open on my second knock, and the faint odor of rotting fruit wafts from his tiny room. Bakken is a typical house goblin—short and barrel-bellied, with spindly limbs and thin lips that can’t quite close around his pointed teeth. His bulging eyes widen greedily when he spots my hair. I rarely leave it down, and never around goblins. “Good day, Fire Girl. How may I help you?”

I ignore the nickname he’s used for me since the day we moved in with Uncle Devlin and I met Bakken for the first time. He took my hand in both of his and leered at the scar on my wrist—the only evidence left of the burns that should have killed me. That day, I was shocked that he knew about the fire and my unlikely survival, when I knew nothing about him. I didn’t know then that goblins deal in stories—in histories, secrets, and information. They make it their business to know. “Take me to my sister.”

He blinks several times, as if trying to process my request, before shaking his head. “It doesn’t work like that.”

“Cassia said you’re the one who took her to the traders’ market. I need you to tell me who bought her—how to save her.” My heart is racing too fast, and it’s all I can do not to look over my shoulder to make sure that Madame V is still in her office. She wouldn’t want me talking to Bakken and would probably find a way to make me pay for the privilege—or to deny me entirely out of spite. If I don’t talk to him now, I may never have another chance. “Please.”

“There is a price.” Licking his lips with a pointed tongue, he closes the distance between us. He glances down the hall in each direction before pulling me into his tiny room and closing the door behind me. When it clicks shut, he drags one of those long, pointed nails through my hair, from my ear all the way down to my shoulder. Revulsion crawls over my skin, but I don’t let myself back away. He releases a gleeful giggle. “Such a fascinating red. As if your hair took on the color of the fire that day.”

“Take me to whoever bought Jasalyn.”

He frowns. “But why?”

“I want to . . . I’ll buy her back.” I’ll have to raid Gorst’s vaults again to have any chance of finding enough money. Maybe even clear them out this time. But it’ll be worth it.