"I miss him," Jake said. His voice was still soft, but the emotion straining his voice was love and loneliness. "I miss him so much." The boy hadn't curled back in to her, but he clung as he could, holding tightly to this feeling. "My parents, my real parents, they were nothing, just a waste. I don't think they hated me, because that would have taken effort. They just didn't care. Didn't know how to care."
Oy shifted in the boy's lap, curling up tighter. The billy-bumbler could no doubt feel the echoes of emotion coming off Jake, possibly moreso than Niki could. Jake curled one hand in Oy's fur, keeping the other wrapped around Niki.
"Roland loved me. Not just our dihn, he was my Father. Eddie and Susannah we ka-tet, we were allka-tet, but Roland..." Jake bowed his head, eyes squeezing shut. "I would have died happy knowing that he called me his son in his heart. I did. I saved Sai King, and I saved my Father, but instead of dying, I came here."