These Hollow Vows (These Hollow Vows 1)

Mordeus snaps his fingers, and his goblin appears before me, sniffing delicately. “You reek of my kin,” he mutters.

“Do humans die when they bond with faeries?” I ask the creature.

The goblin looks to his master, whose jaw is tight.

“Answer the girl’s question,” Mordeus says.

“Not always,” the goblin says, stroking its patchy white hair. “But sometimes.”

Not always, because not all faeries are cursed. “When a human bonds with the Seelie, do they die?”

The goblin glares at me. “No.”

“And when a human bonds with Unseelie fae?”

The goblin looks to Mordeus again, but I don’t need him to answer. Now I understand the truth. That is the pure evil of the curse. To prevent Oberon from bonding with his human love, the queen cursed the Unseelie so that bonding with a human would kill the human.

I spin on Mordeus. “You say I must bond with you, but you really mean I must die.”

The goblin cackles softly, and Mordeus scowls at him until he disappears in a flash of light.

“Oberon’s crown saved your life,” Mordeus says. “It gave you life when yours was gone. So, no, you cannot continue this mortal life without the crown. Through the bond, you would shift the crown to me the same way humans have shifted their life force to the Unseelie for the last twenty years.”

That’s what Finn wanted from me—what Sebastian was warning me about, why he said Finn could take me away from him forever if I bonded with him. Because a bond with Finn would mean my death. I shake my head, and the room spins. “Even if I was willing to die to fulfill my side of the bargain, how would I know you freed my sister?”

King Mordeus smiles. “I swore that promise on my magic, so you can be sure it isn’t one I will break.”

I stare at my feet. I need to think, but between the pain in my shoulder and the countless implications of this new information, my mind is fuzzy.

“Since you’re so clever,” Mordeus says slowly, “I could offer you an alternative. A gift.”

I lift my head. I fear my desperation for another solution is all too clear in my face.

“If it’s death that bothers you, but you’re planning to make good on your promise to return the crown . . . What if you didn’t have to end your existence, only your human life?”

“What?”

“Surrender your life to me, and with it the crown, and I will revive you with the Potion of Life.” He steps down from the dais and takes my hand. I’m so stunned by all this information that I let him. “This doesn’t have to be the end for you. This could be the beginning.” A pile of rune-marked stones appear in his open palm. “All you have to do is bond yourself to me.”

My head spins, the room blurring around me. Mordeus smiles, and I sway toward him.

“Choose the stone that will represent our bond and accept your fate, my girl.”

It’s so simple. Choose a stone. Accept my fate.

I reach for the pile of runes in his hand and feel like I’m floating. So familiar, this feeling. I’ve felt this before . . .

At the Golden Palace. When I was drugged.

“I need the restroom,” I blurt.

Irritation flashes in the king’s eyes, but he smooths it away quickly. “Of course. My servant will assist you.”

I nod, careful not to let on that I know I’ve been drugged.

A young human servant with a scarred face appears and leads me out of the throne room under the watchful eye of a dozen of Mordeus’s sentinels. She keeps her head bowed as she opens the door and steps in behind me.

“Could I be alone, please?” I ask.

The girl darts a glance over her shoulder, hesitating. “I shouldn’t . . . I mean, the king wouldn’t like it if . . .”

“I will only be a moment,” I promise, fighting to stay steady on my feet.

“Okay.” With a bowed head, the girl backs away.

When the door swings shut, I pull Finn’s elixir from my darkness. With a quick look at the door, I drink. I drink, and then I sink to the floor and try to figure out how to fix this mess I’ve gotten myself into.

I can’t give Mordeus the crown. I can’t do that to Finn or to Sebastian. If the two are united in anything, it’s the belief that Mordeus will bring nothing but destruction to Faerie. But I can’t abandon Jas either. Even if . . . even if she has been safe thus far. Maybe she could wait a little longer. If I just had more time, I could figure out a solution that doesn’t end with this crown on Mordeus’s head. After all, the conditions I’ve seen in the mirror showed Jas—

The mirror.

I’ve spent all this time believing that my sister is safe and happy in his care, but I’ve believed that because of what I’ve seen in the mirror. But once, for just a flash, I saw Jas in that dungeon. But then the image shifted to what I desperately wanted to believe. And then, when I wished so desperately to not be going through this alone, the mirror showed me my mother—not because she was there, but because I wanted her to be.