The Oath We Give (Hollow Boys, #5)

by Monty Jay

“Life left you empty so that you’d have room to fill it. We are only hollow if we allow ourselves to remain that way.”

“They say I’m dead on the inside.” “They call me cursed. I wonder which is worse?”

I’ve always believed love is like water, the way it flows between bodies and souls. You can’t stop the flow of it because one pathway is closed off. It just finds another exit.

Silas Hawthorne is the keeper of secrets. The unstoppable force and immovable object. Silent water, with unknown depths filled with mysteries he will take to his grave.

Silas Hawthorne owns the term dead eyes. They hold an unsettling stillness, like the windows into his world are devoid of emotion. Hardened beauty and sheer masculinity that he wears almost better than his fitted black tee. What did he look like when he was alive?

Silas is the quiet type of handsome. It is not shouted. It’s whispers in your ear in the dark. He’s the sound goosebumps make when they appear along my arms, an allure mirrored only by cold air skating across warm skin.

The town may call this man a villain, but inside, he’s a lover boy. It gives off a smell. Good intentions and romance. His tender heart bleeds all over the ones he cares for.

I’m not afraid of a curse, especially when they look like Coraline Whittaker.

For years, I had been told the Hollow Boys were villains. That their reign of terror had tainted this well-respected town known to house the nation’s most prestigious university. But you can’t corrupt something that is already rotten to begin with.

This town tells me I’m dead. For a while, a part of me was. Coraline Whittaker has awoken something in me.

Desire, longing, need. An ache I’ve never felt for anyone before. I don’t need her to love me. It isn’t about love. I need her to be mine.

She says that likes it’s enough. Like one secret of hers is all I want from her.

“I don’t want one secret from you, Hex. I want them all.”

for the first time in a long time, she makes me feel alive. There is a spark inside of me that didn’t exist before, that I never believed could.

“Silas, I promise to be your peace when the world provides only war. To be your secret keeper and safe haven. Today, I vow to be the one person who accepts you for who you are and who you will become.” She glances up at me, holding my gaze as she speaks the last line. “Till death do us part.”

“On this day, I vow to make your rage my own, to weather the storm of your revenge and keep you forever safe. I promise to stand by you. No matter what comes, you will never be alone. Till death do us part.”

“You’re my wife, Coraline Hawthorne. If I want to cover myself in the blood of a thousand more men to protect you, I will,” I tell her. “They cannot hurt you without having to answer to me.”

“No one cares like Silas Hawthorne. We all have a curse, Coraline. That’s his.”

I’ve never believed in words the way I believe his.

Silas is better than any Ecstasy I’d ever taken. There’s no drug that could equal this. Nothing bad can touch me here. With him.

But Silas takes his time with my name, like it’s his favorite word he wants to keep in his mouth for as long as possible. He does not rush it like a bad omen. He instead speaks it like a prophecy that was destined for his mouth. Silas does not make me feel cursed. He makes me feel loved.

No matter what she says, I’ll believe her because I know how painful it is when no one else does.

“I think you might be my love language, Hex.”

If I could physically remove my soul just to stitch it to hers, I would. And yet, I doubt I’d be close enough.

But she’s worth it. Worth the pain, worth the fear, worth the grief if she goes before me. Worth her weight in gold, and I’d like to destroy anyone that made her feel like she wasn’t. Like loving her is a hard thing to do.

Loving Coraline Whittaker is worth inevitable death.

“Nothing about us has ever been fake, Coraline.”

They say The Hollow Boys are pure darkness, rotted evil. Those people have never loved one of them. Never peeked beneath the veil and saw just how blinding the light beneath is.

"I'm your favorite color?" "You're my favorite everything, Hex."

Silas loves me like breathing, easy, naturally, like he was made for it. And I love him carefully, tenderly like he's the only thing keeping me alive.

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I am more than words no one believes. I'm a voice to som...