Page 273 of Boys Who Hunt

Overpowering.

All-consuming.

I swiftly draw some signs in the air.

You can sign?

That same vicious smile I used to hate now makes me fall.

He opens his mouth to say the words along with his signings because they’re still choppy, like how a beginner would use them, and I read his lips to fill in the missing words.

I learned it because of you.

I want to be inside your mind even when you can’t hear me.

Because you made me feel my heartbeat for the first time in my entire fucking life.

The tears roll down my cheeks right onto his lips, which he gleefully sucks in like it’s nourishment to his soul.

“I. Love. You.”

He says it out loud and in sign language.

But I heard.

Not with my ears but with the entirety of my soul.

I look up at Heath, who also signs to me while saying the words, trying his very best.

I learned it from Max’s book, so I will never miss out on a vital piece that makes you who you are ever again. Because I love you too.

Max smiles.

I’ve always loved you, you know that, and there is nothing in this world you could ever do that could make me unlove you.

Their signings are rudimentary, but it matters. It matters to me because I feel seen in my needs.

And I realize now I’m not the only thief. I never was.

These boys have seized my soul … And I never want them to give it back.

CHAPTER 65

Silas

“Wow,you fixed up this place real quick,” Ivy says, looking around the Skull and Serpent Society house, which is looking brand new after a quick fixer-upper and a lick of paint.

I casually saunter up the stairs. “You think no one will notice a bomb went off?”

She snorts while walking beside me. “The new wood on the walls makes it pretty obvious.”

“Well, shit,” Heath mutters as he follows us. “Guess Dean Rivera will be pissed.”

“He’ll be fine. He’s trashed this house on multiple occasions himself,” I reply.

“How do you know?” Heath asks.

I frown. “Because he told me. Duh.”