Page 255 of Boys Who Hunt

I open more of them, searching through each one of them until I finally find my answer inside a small box that Océane also brought to my room.

I sit down on the bed and open it up on my lap.

Inside is a knife, covered in blood.

Fresh blood.

I swallow away the lump in my throat as I pick it up and inspect it.

This is … this is Silas’s knife.

The knife drops from my hand and clatters to the floor, spilling droplets of blood everywhere.

But something at the bottom of the box draws my attention the most. A letter stained in blood.

Silas

Ten yearsago

I suck on my straw,sipping my coke, while watching my mother pierce through balloons with a few darts at the fair.

Of course, I’m not allowed to do this particular stand. I can hit some clowns with a few balls, but the second I go near any sort of sharp object, no one ever trusts me not to try and hit the guys behind the stands instead.

And I suppose they’re right. It is fun watching them squeal their heads off as I ‘accidentally’ pierce their thighs with a dart.

Grinning at the thought, I take another sip of my coke.

“Yes!” Mom high-fives Mavis and Aspen after she’s knocked out all the balloons in one go.

“Knew you could do it,” my dad says, winking.

The guy in the stand laughs. “Well done. You win. Pick whatever you want.”

Mom points at a plastic flower in the back of the stand, and the guy brings it to her.

“There you go.”

“A flower?” I mutter to myself. Mom turns to look at me, and I shrug. “Whatever.”

She holds the flower in front of me. “For you.”

I scowl. “For me?”

This doesn’t make any sense. Aspen likes flowers, not me.

“Yeah, because I love you, silly.” She attempts to kiss me on the forehead.

“Gross,” I say, wiping it off immediately.

She chuckles. “Don’t be so scared of a little bit of love, Silas.”

“He doesn’t know what to do with it,” Aspen says, sticking out her tongue at me.

“Shut up!” I yell back.

“Silas …” Mom grabs my shoulders. “Just ignore it.”

“It’s getting on my nerves.”