He blew out a breath, stood from the table, and walked over to me before tugging me into a big bear—dragon—hug. “I love you so much, Oak. I can’t lose you. Please. Please promise me you’ll be careful and come back home to me.”
“I will. I promise I will.” I cleared my throat, my eyes watering a little. Had I ever had someone care about my well-being this much before? “And I love you too.”
He let out a soft huff that might’ve been a laugh and squeezed me tighter.
I was ready to be done with the hug, but he wasn’t letting go, so I awkwardly patted his back, and after another minute, I said, “Dad? You can let go now.”
“Nope. Never.”
I snorted and gave him another firm back pat. “Come on. I’m not even leaving yet. We have until the morning, but I need to pack my bag and make sure my gear’s clean and ready to go and—arghhh.” I groaned when he squeezed harder. “Can’t… breathe.”
Finally, Tan came over and had to pry my dad off me, making me laugh even as my dad grumbled about not wanting to let me out of his sight or something. It was… nice, actually. Weird, my dad was so fuckin’ weird, but it was nice. Knowing I had him here, waiting for me to come home, waiting to give me another hug—hopefully not as long and awkward as this one—was oddly comforting.
“Promise you’ll let me hug you again before you leave in the morning?”
I rolled my eyes at him. “Aren’t you seeing us off?”
“Of course.”
“Then you can hug me then.”
“Good.” He took a deep breath. “I should come with you. I can—”
“Nope,” Roman said, coming to stand beside me, shoulder to shoulder. “You have a meeting with the council in the morning, and tomorrow night, you have that dinner party—more like a ball—with the dignitaries from the other territories. You have to be here for that. You can’t miss it.”
My dad opened his mouth, looking like he was about to argue, but Roman kept talking, not giving him a chance to speak.
“And no, you cannot reschedule it. It took us months to get every single leader to agree to a date, and the meeting the next day is something we need. If you want to continue fighting for the fae people of Gauhala, you have to take this meetingandattend the fancy dinner party.”
My dad frowned, staring at Roman for a moment before he gave a terse nod. “Fine.”
Roman rolled his eyes. “You’re doing good for our entire country, Gar. This is just as important as catching the traffickers. You’re trying to make all people equal in all territories. This is a good thing.”
Dad huffed. “I know it is. But I want to keep you two safe.”
“We’ll keep each other safe.”
That made me grin, but I didn’t interrupt them.
Dad nodded. “I know. But maybe we could move the mission, wait a few days before we—”
I cut him off. “We can’t wait for the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron to move their operation. They’re clearly onto us, and waiting even one more day could be the difference between catching them and missing them entirely. We have to go as soon as possible and get eyes on these guys.”
Dad sighed. “I know. I just… I want to protect you.” He glanced at Roman and grumbled. “I want to protect you both.”
“Hey, Dad?” I waited until he looked at me. “Rome and I will protect each other, and so will Phae, Shiro, and Jed. We all have each other’s backs, yeah?”
He nodded with a sigh, then pulled me in for another hug, but this one was shorter and allowed me to breathe. “I know you do, I just worry.”
“We’ll check in often, yeah?”
He nodded. “Fine.” He clapped his hands together. “Okay, then. Go pack your bags and then come to my place for dinner.”
A huge part of me wanted to simply stay in with Roman, cuddled on the couch, for one more night, but I knew my dad needed this, and the truth was, I did miss him. I’d barely seen him since I’d been home, and before that, I hadn’t seen him in months.
“Yeah, Dad, we’ll be there. Both of us.” I raised a challenging eyebrow.
His lips twitched in amusement. “Yes, child of mine, I meant both of you.”
