Neither of us spoke until we were on the road and over a mile away from the farm.
“So…” Oakley cleared their throat. “They’re having an auction on Friday.”
“That’s my takeaway, yeah.”
They ran a hand over their shaved hair. “Right. So… what do we do? Can we break it up on Friday? Save all those people? Or… or do you think Dad’s gonna want to let them, um, let them be bought so we can follow the trail further?”
I thought about it for a few minutes, then shook my head. “I’m not sure, but I know what I want to do.”
“What do you want to do?”
“Save those poor people as soon as possible.”
They blew out a breath. “Okay, good. That’s what I want too. Maybe that’s not the smart move overall, but I can’t watch anyone suffer when we have the means to help, you know?”
“Mhm.”
“But we’ll have to wait until Friday so we can arrest as many people as possible who’re involved in this.”
“Agreed.”
“So that’s what you’ll recommend to Dad?”
“Yep.”
“Thanks, Rome.”
Without much thought, I reached over and gave their knee a light squeeze. “You know he’ll want to hear your thoughts about it too, right?”
They sighed. “Yeah, it’s just… he values your opinion way more than mine, so… I’m glad we’re on the same page.”
I wasn’t so sure that was true, but I could understand where Oakley was coming from, so I didn’t argue. “Me too.”
Chapter Seven
Oakley
Convincing my dad to let us save those people and arrest everyone else on Friday had been easier than I’d thought it’d be. I’d been sure he wouldn’t want to risk them realizing we were onto them, but he valued the lives of those people just as much as I did.
That was something I had to try to remember.
I wasn’t with my mother’s people anymore. I wasn’t with that cult—the Emissaries of Gepisha’s Iron—that only cared about gaining power, no matter who was hurt in the process. I wasn’t with my mother, who… who…
Closing my eyes, I tried to push away the memories, the phantom aches and pains, the phantom fingers on my skin, digging into my flesh, stealing my blood, carving out my scales—
I shook away the thoughts before I could go down that very dark path of memories and nudged Roman with my shoulder, happy he was beside me. He’d help keep the darkness away. He always did.
We were sitting on the couch, watching TV—Circle of Living, a show about humans and different supes learning to live together that I’d been forcing Rome to watch with me—and munching on sandwiches while we waited for our backup to arrive. They’d be here any minute now.
“You okay?” I asked him since he seemed to be staring past the TV and not watching it. Truth be told, I wasn’t really paying attention to it, either.
He sighed and rubbed his face before sending me one of his soft smiles. “Yeah, just… tired. We’ve been at it for two months now. I miss being home.”
“Me too.” I gave him another nudge, then I leaned into his side and rested my head on his shoulder.
After doing it the one time, I’d decided I already did the hard part—testing his reaction the first time. He hadn’t pushed me off, so… I did it again. If it worked out this time, I could maybe move on to other cuddles.
Like before, he tensed up, then slowly relaxed.
