“What's eating you, kid?” Dad said, sitting up and watching me intently. He acted like nothing was wrong—like I had no reason to be mad at him.

“It’s nothing,” I muttered.

“Heh, are you sore about that Ceilos guy showing up and ruining things for you with the alien girl?”

I froze, my right boot halfway off my foot. “How do you know about Ceilos?”

Dad grinned, looking obnoxiously pleased with himself. He rose from the bed and strolled over, stopping directly in front of me. “Well, I figured that was his name when you all kept saying it over and over.”

“That’s not what I meant,” I said, my voice unreadable even to me. “Were you… were you spying on me?” I thought about the way I’d turned tail and fled the minute Gitrin turned up with Ceilos, and my face got hot. That was the last conversation I wanted my dad eavesdropping on.

The grin faded off Dad’s face. “I wouldn’t call it spying, necessarily. Oh, come on, Isaak, don’t look at me that way.” He sat on the foot of the bed next to me, putting a hand on my knee. “After what happened earlier… I wasn’t sure if you were going to come back here at all. I wasn’t sure if I was ever going to see you again. And…” He trailed off, then said in a small voice, “I didn’t want that, Isaak. So I just was looking for you. That’s all.”

Guilt crept up from the pit of my stomach. Maybe I was being too hard on him. He didn’t know what we’d all gone through over the last two years. Maybe… maybe he really was trying, and I needed to give him a chance.

“It’s okay, Dad,” I said, smiling tightly.

He smiled back, ruffling my hair like he used to when I was little. Then he said, “So, does this mean you’re not slobbering over Tamara anymore? Or are you just sowing some wild oats?”

I groaned, my shoulders slumping. “Dad, don't be gross.”

“Ah, come on, niño. You’re not still on about that oddball demigod thing, are you?”

“Demisexual, Dad,” I corrected him through gritted teeth. “And it’s not an ‘oddball’ thing, thanks so much. It’s normal. Lots of people feel this way.”

Dad rolled his eyes. “Right. And that’s why you have to make up a weird, complicated name for it.”

I jumped to my feet, pushing away from him. “It’s not weird, and I didn’t make it up! I’ve told you a million times. It’s completely simple: I just don’t feel sexual attraction that much. Not unless there’s a bond first. That’s all there is to it.”