“That’s not what I’m talking about,” my father snapped, sitting down beside me with his dark brows furrowed so tight they made a V on his face. “It’s White Snake. I know she knows I’m there. Even if the barrier blocked all sight, sound, and smell, I know she can sense me, but she doesn’t react at all.”
I shrugged. “Maybe she’s drugged. If I was keeping a dragon prisoner, I’d load her down with as many handicaps as possible.”
“She’s not drugged,” Yong said with absolute certainty. “There are only a dozen substances on this planet strong enough to incapacitate a dragon. I’ve learned to identify all of them by taste, scent, and symptom because to not do so is asking to be poisoned, and I didn’t detect anything.”
“Maybe the DFZ punched her harder than we thought,” I suggested. “Or maybe she has picked you up and just knows better than to let you know she knows. She is famously suspicious.”
“That last one is more likely than anything else you’ve suggested,” he said, scraping his hands through his long hair with an exasperated sigh. “But it’s so frustrating. I’d hoped to talk to her in advance since we likely won’t have much time to explain anything during the extraction, but I couldn’t even get her attention. I thought perhaps the prison acted as a sensory block, but she saw and spoke to the guards who came down to feed her.” His eyes narrowed. “She’s up to something.”
I laughed out loud. “Of course she’s up to something. She’s a caged dragon! If she wasn’t spending every waking moment plotting her escape and revenge, I’d worry she was dead.”
That seemed obvious to me, but my dad just kept shaking his head. “It just feels wrong,” he muttered. “I’ve never been close to my sister, but I’ve still known her all her life. This isn’t how she usually behaves. I don’t like it.”
I sighed. I’d been so busy practicing to make sure I could break the Gameskeeper’s magic, I hadn’t had time to think about all the steps that came before that. Assuming the plan worked and we could get to White Snake without the Gameskeeper noticing, I was reasonably certain that I could crush whatever spellwork Kauffman was using to hold her. After that, I was hoping freedom would make its own argument, but I should have known it was never that simple with dragons.
“We’ll figure it out,” I said, letting my tired eyes droop shut again. “Whatever else she’s got going on, White Snake’s not going to say no to a no-strings-attached prison break. I’m way more worried about how we’re going to stop her from eating us the second she’s out.”
“She won’t eat us,” Yong said confidently. “Even in this compromised state, I can still put up too much resistance, and if the guards stick to the same just-in-time schedule they’ve used for all the arena’s other acts, we’ll be setting her free minutes before they come to fetch her for her fight. She’s too selfish to waste that precious time fighting us instead of saving her own skin. If we give her the chance, she’ll run. She always does.”
That was comforting, I supposed. Honestly, I was just happy my dad was the one worrying about this, because I didn’t have a brain cell to spare. There was so much to do and so many ways it could go wrong. It was good to have a dragon to help me keep track of it all. More specifically, it was good to have a father I could trust. A miracle I hadn’t had time to fully appreciate yet.
“Thank you.”
My father scowled. “For what?”
“Everything,” I said, forcing my eyes open again. “Staying. Helping. Working so hard. This isn’t your fight or your city, and you’ve got plenty of your own problems to deal with. I wouldn’t have faulted you if you’d gone back to Korea the moment your magic stabilized, but you’re still here and working as hard as anyone, and I’m grateful for it.” I smiled at him. “Thanks for sticking it out with me, Dad.”
Yong stared down at me, his perfect face appalled, which was not the reaction I’d expected. “Do you think so little of me?”
“What?” I cried, pushing myself up. “No! I was trying to give you a compliment!”
“Opal,” he said in his sternest voice. “I am your father. From the day I first called you ‘daughter,’ I accepted a sacred obligation to defend your life and your happiness. I don’t always understand why you make the decisions you do, but I will never leave you to face them alone, for you are my child. My daughter, my joy, and my treasure, forever and always.” He glared at me. “You should know this by now.”
I did. He’d said it in such a stern, lecturing tone of voice, it would have been easy to miss, but I didn’t. I didn’t even care that he’d slipped back into the old possessive language, because I understood that my father wasn’t trying to control or own me anymore. He was trying to tell me how precious I was to him. How important. For the first time in twenty years, I felt like we were finally speaking the same language, and it felt like coming home.
“I love you too,” I whispered in Korean, leaning over to rest my head against his shoulder. “Thank you.”
“Do not thank someone for doing their duty,” he scolded, but there was no more harshness in his voice. Yong sounded as close to giddy as dragons got, enough that I felt comfortable teasing him.
“Well, it’s not as if you’re doing it for free. I’ve dumped how much of the DFZ’s magic into you so far?”
“The side benefits are quite nice,” he admitted, looking down at his hands, which were finally no longer skeletal. “But I would have helped
