The Oath We Give (Hollow Boys, #5)

by Monty Jay

“You’re going to ride my face and soak my tongue like a good girl, baby.” He hums, making me shiver. “And then you’re going to ride my cock and let me fill that tight pussy up.”

We are art and destruction. Everything beautiful in between, lost in one another.

“If you don’t believe in the curse, why call me hex?”

“Hexadecimal.” “Huh?” “It doesn’t mean cursed, baby. It’s short for hexadecimal.” He mumbles, rubbing his nose against mine. “From the moment I

saw you leaving that fucking hell house, there was this secret connection between us. I understood you, saw your pain, and wanted to take it away. Like I knew what you needed before you asked. I’m not calling you cursed, I’m saying you’re a special language only I can decode.”

He has always seen me as just Coraline, and that’s always been enough for him. My heart cracks. What’s left of it shatters. I love this man. I love him and that scares me. I love him and it’s the only reason I know I have to leave him.

“She went to Stephen.” I say the words, even though they taste like poison in my throat. Fear and rage creating a toxic acid in my stomach because she’s so stubborn, but I also know she’s scared right now. Scared and without me. Scared and fucking alone when she doesn’t have to be.

This is the good thing about knowing Coraline Whittaker. I’ve known she was a flight risk since the moment I met her and I knew that when I told her about Stephen and our plan, I’d need insurance on her wings. So, while the nipple rings I’d gifted her had been innocent, they were also microchipped. “God damn it.”

Now? I knew who I was, and that person would never, ever belong to Stephen Sinclair. No matter how badly he hurt me physically, he would never have me. Never have the person I am

with Silas Hawthorne, that would forever belong to him.

"They say using a gun removes the personal aspect of a kill." Silas says smoothly, "This is personal."

"No games tonight. This ends with you and me."

"You can't kill my memory. I will live in her forever." "Watch me."

I never expected his death to be at the hand of the man I love. "Look at her, I want you to remember her face and know you'll spend an eternity in hell paying for what you did to her."

"If I could kill you twice. I would."

That darkness in him that frightens others. But never me. He's not killing for pleasure or revenge, but for justice. For closure. Death enters the room with cold hands, it fills the air and Stephen Sinclair's body finally goes limp.

Any of them without each other felt wrong. Out of place and, I guess, that went for me to now as well.

It was this trauma. A horrible, nasty evil that would live with us forever, but also brought us together.

A few years ago, all I wanted to do was die. Now, I can feel my heartbeat slowing. Now, I am dying and all I want is another day with her. Just one more day so I can soak in her laugh, feel her touch, experience her love. One more cup of lavender tea. One more scoop of honey in my coffee. One more day.

“This way we find a way back to each other.” He looks at each of us, jaw set, “We steal. We burn. We bleed. We promise that no

matter what, we make our way back, even in death.”

Like, no matter where we go or what happens, I’ll remember this. I’ll remember I had friends who cared enough in this moment to make this promise. It feels good. It feels like enough. “To the Styx?” I say the question, and they respond in tandem. “To the Styx.”

"I–I love you."

“I promise, Si. I swear on the Styx, I’ve got her.”

"Rosie?" I choke on her name, tears slipping down my cheeks in a stream. Joyful tears that she's okay, that she's happy, that she's here. But they are also soaked in misery, in sadness because that means I'm dead. I died, and I left Coraline alone.

"I wanted to come say goodbye." She tilts her head, the freckles dotting her cheeks crinkling as she grins at me, "We never got to say goodbye last time." My body, my soul, has felt heavy for years. Weighed down by the grief of never telling her goodbye, of being the last person she trusted to see her before she was killed.

"I'm sorry, Rosie. I'm sorry I let you walk home alone."

"I'm sorry I didn't protect you, when I promised I would." "It wasn't your fault, Silas. I died ...

"You're not to blame for my death."

"I died and it's okay to forgive yourself."

I want to go back to Coraline because I can't leave her alone. I'm her curse breaker. I can't be another person she loses. I want to be the person who proves that she can be loved, loudly and endlessly, without it killing me.

“Can you carry me one last time?”

“Always, Rosie Girl.”

I know I should’ve never let him love me. I knew this would happen, and yet I couldn’t fucking help myself. Tears burn my eyes. How am I going to face his parents? How am I going to face the boys? When I know in my heart, I’m the reason Silas died.

“1852, the Evergreen Game. Adolf Anderssen sacrificed a queen for checkmate.” I lift my head toward the hospital bed. “Why are you crying like I’m dead, baby?”

“Because you did die.” I stand from my seat. “Twice on the table. You’ve been out for a few days.”

“I killed you,” I whisper, tears slipping down my face. “I told you⁠—” “Easton shot me,” he corrects. “You’re not cursed, baby. I’m right here.”

“Ask me again what my favorite color is,”

“What’s your favorite color, Silas?”

“dd4a3d?”

“It’s a hex code.”

“For the orangish-red color named Coraline. I want you. I’ve wanted you for a...

“Curse me. I’ll live my entire life cursed as a reminder that I loved you. That you let me love you. That you love...

"You're my favorite everything, Hex." “I’m scar...

“I know you are, Hex. But don’t let that stop you from being with me.” He smiles. “Besides, I’m t...

He was the person life left me empty for. To give it room for him to fill.

"Silas says being a night owl is a sign of intelligence,."

Silas died twice during surgery. He died and came back to life twice. He'd died and come back to me, just to prove I wasn't cursed. I argue that it was him defying death that broken my wicked spell. Silas was willing to cross the grim reaper just to show me I was worth the return.

I wanted to spend the rest of my life returning the favor. Proving I was worthy of a love like his.

That what I a...