Free advance copy: Hollow Boy by Mark Hampton

Mark Hampton · 2026-11-08T17:59:01+00:00

Every power has a price. In Vellmouth, magic is lent, borrowed and sold. Theo Ashby has none of his own. He was left in a fish basket as a baby, with a note: He is Hollow. Keep him quiet. Now fifteen, he runs other people's powers across the city as a courier. Then a dying woman puts her fire into his hands. It doesn't fade. Suddenly Theo is at the Ledger, the college where students trade powers for credit. He is living in a bell tower and hiding a secret: Cinder, a copper-red dragon who grows b...

Free advance copy

Hollow Boy

Mark Hampton

Mark Hampton Author of this book

22 hours ago

Every power has a price.

In Vellmouth, magic is lent, borrowed and sold. Theo Ashby has none of his own. He was left in a fish basket as a baby, with a note: He is Hollow. Keep him quiet. Now fifteen, he runs other people's powers across the city as a courier.

Then a dying woman puts her fire into his hands. It doesn't fade.

Suddenly Theo is at the Ledger, the college where students trade powers for credit. He is living in a bell tower and hiding a secret: Cinder, a copper-red dragon who grows bigger every week and hums a lullaby from the bottom of the water.

But under the canals lies the Undercounter, where stolen powers are sold in glass bottles. And someone has posted a notice: KEEPER WANTED. ALIVE. UNDAMAGED.

Theo is starting to suspect he was never Hollow at all.

If he can keep any power he touches, who will try to own him?

Perfect for readers who love dragon companions, found family, magic schools with dark secrets and heroes who start with nothing.

Book 1 of 7 in The Borrowed series. YA Fantasy, ages 13+.

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