These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows 1)

I step forward. “Pretha? Are you okay?”

She drops her hands and does a full body shudder. “Like I said,” she says, her voice hoarse, “I cannot.”

“Are you somehow spelled to not be able to speak of it?” I ask.

She doesn’t nod, but I see it in the way she holds my gaze. She physically cannot say more.

“Okay.” I don’t want her to hurt herself again. “I understand. Tell me what I can do to help.”

“Find the Grimoricon and return it to the Unseelie Court.”

The Unseelie Court. Mordeus. “Mordeus has magic,” I say. “I’ve seen him use it again and again. Does this disease not affect him?” Because surely he wouldn’t shorten his own life by using his magic on things so trivial as making a decanter of wine appear in his hand.

“Mordeus has proven he’ll go to any length to maintain his power—and even greater lengths to get more. Magic is a big part of that.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know.” She sighs and turns toward the door. “I used to think it was better that way, but now I’m not so sure.”

“Pretha,” I say as she wraps a hand around the knob. “After I get the final relics for Mordeus, I have a lot I need to figure out, but whatever I decide, I hope you . . . I hope everyone understands that this isn’t easy for me. I’ve had feelings for Sebastian for two years, but Finn . . .” I swallow. My gaze slips to the kitchen window. Inside, Finn is cleaning Lark’s knee and making her laugh. I think of the way he refused me last night when I was drugged out of my mind and begging. Of his cocky grin this morning. “Finn is my friend. I don’t want to lose either of them.”

When she turns back to me, her smile is sad. “In the end, you will have to choose.”

I think of Sebastian and how badly it hurt me to see him with that other girl. I think of how tempting it is to excuse it, just so I don’t have to sacrifice the little time I have left with him before he finds out that, of the two of us, my betrayals might run the deepest.

Pretha doesn’t realize she’s wrong. There will be no choice for me.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

I SNAP A THREAD ON MY BRACELET, and before I can prepare a lock of hair for Bakken, he’s sitting in my bedroom in the Golden Palace, legs crossed, eyes closed, and palms turned up on his knees. I think I caught him meditating.

He sighs heavily, then flashes those pointed teeth in a horrific grin when he sees me. “Fire Girl. I told you not to summon me inside the queen’s palace.”

Indeed he did, but I’d forgotten. I shrug. “Too bad.”

He stands with surprising grace and extends a hand. “Payment, then?”

I grab a lock of hair from the back, pulling it from along my hairline near where I cut the last one. I shear it off quickly and hand it over. “What do you do with it?”

“Is that what you wish to know today?”

“No!” What a waste of hair. I don’t actually care. I probably don’t want to know, truly. “I have another question. Tell me about the disease that makes the Unseelie age and heal like mortals.”

“There’s no disease.”

“Then tell me why! Why do they heal like mortals?”

He strokes my orange-red hair between two fingers, saying, “She grows wiser.”

“She grows impatient,” I say, watching my bedroom door. I’m supposed to leave for the summer palace with Sebastian tonight. When I returned to the palace, I sent my maids down to tell him I was preparing to go and needed another hour. I can’t risk Bakken being here when Sebastian comes to my door, but I can’t wait any longer for answers either. “Tell me.”

“Twenty years ago, when King Oberon returned from the long night in the human realm, Queen Arya rushed to him, desperate to be reunited with her first and only love. But Oberon rejected her. While the king was locked in the mortal realm, he had fallen in love with a human woman. He said he couldn’t be with the queen when his heart belonged to another. Heartbroken and angry that he would choose a weak mortal over her, the queen cursed the Unseelie king and all his people. Under the curse, they were no longer immortal, as before. They would age and be weak like humans.”

“Then why does Mordeus have so much power? Isn’t he Unseelie?”

“Ah, but the queen was vindictive. She wanted mortals punished alongside Oberon and his people. So she provided the Unseelie with a way to maintain their powers and their life. If the king didn’t want to die or become weak, he would have to take the life of a human—many humans if he wanted a long life, and many more if he wanted to use his magic during that life.”