The Oath We Give (Hollow Boys, #5)

by Monty Jay

"In Greek mythology, Styx is one of the rivers of the underworld." He murmurs, pulling out a bag of frozen peas that he hands to Rook, which he takes happily placing it on his swelling mouth, "In the Iliad and Odyssey, Homer said the gods swear by the water of the Styx as their most binding oath." "Then we swear on the Styx." Rook says quickly, nodding his head, I’m not even sure he knows what it means, but he’s too afraid not to have some kind of binding that keeps our silence. “Wait.” Alistair reaches into his front pocket, digging out a black sharpie marker. He grabs my arm first, jerking it towards him before scrawling a shitty circle with what I think is a skull inside it and words scribbled along the inner lines. It reads, Admit One along the top and Styx Ferryman on the bottom. “What are you doing, don’t draw on me.” Thatcher tries to avoid his touch, but with a little fight Alistair gets him to hold still. “What is it?” I ask, staring at the bleeding ink in my brown skin. “Charon's Obol.” He mumbles around the sharpie cap in his mouth. “To pay our way across the Styx to the afterlife.” My brows furrow as he draws the same image on Rook, then himself. “There.” “What exactly does this shit do?” He shoves the marker back into his jeans, then answers. “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.” It’s a silly drawing. A silly pro...

im so done for oh my god