I sucked in a breath and nodded. “Sure. We’ll be ready in an hour.”
As quickly as I could, I walked into the kitchen where Oakley was eating and goofing off with Jed, and made my plate before joining the group at the kitchen island.
Oakley bumped their shoulder against mine. “Soooo… I was thinking—”
“Oh no, you better look out. A thinking Oakley is dangerous.” Jed fake-shuddered.
Oak threw a piece of scrambled egg at him without missing a beat. “What if we fly home? I know having a dragon sighting around here might give away our game, but it’s cloudy today, so we could fly straight up into the clouds for cover. If we’re high enough, we’ll be mistaken for birds or planes.” It was true. Since it was difficult to tell how high something truly was, we could disguise ourselves in plain sight.
I nodded. “I’d love to stretch my wings.”
Oak grinned at me, and something warm gathered in my chest, knowing I was the one who put that look on their face.
Jed said, “Oh man, I wanna fly home too.”
Oakley blinked and slowly moved their gaze away from mine to face Jed. “You can ride me.”
A low growl started in my chest, making Oakley and the others startle.
Oak’s eyes went wide as Jed burst out laughing, and my viramore said, “For fuck’s sake, not like that. I can carry you on my back in dragon form to go home.” They threw another egg at him.
Jed was still laughing. He opened his mouth to say something pervy—I could tell by the look on his face—but I let out a small warning growl, and he snapped his mouth shut, took a breath, then asked, “Are you sure you don’t mind?”
From the living room, Tan said, “I have harnesses for flying in the car. You guys could take a few of us home, and the others can drive the cars back.”
Oak and I exchanged a look, and they gave me a small nod, so I said, “We can carry all of you.”
“What about our bags? I’m not sure I want to leave them with the cars, just in case.” Tan walked into the kitchen and began fixing a plate for himself.
“You can either tie them onto our backs, or we can carry them.” Oak shrugged. “No big deal.”
Phaeron asked, “Are you sure you can handle all our weight?”
This time, Oak and I both rolled our eyes, waved him off, and said together, “Of fucking course we can.”
My eyebrows lifted, and I met Oak’s gaze before we both cracked up.
Through our laughing, I heard Beshiro fake-whisper to Jed, “That was creepy.”
It only made us laugh harder.
“You two have been spending way too much time together.”
Oak smiled as they met Beshiro’s eyes and shoulder-bumped me. “That could never happen.”
My heart sang.
Chapter Thirteen
Oakley
Getting to spread my wings was fantastic.
I wasn’t happy we were being sent home when all I wanted to do was finish what Roman and I started, but at least being up here, high in the clouds, I felt… free.
Plus, it was a lot of fun.
Especially with Roman flying right beside me and our friends—our family—on our backs, yelling and laughing away.
