Page 28

Hawk nodded, because he had no doubt. “It’s here.”

He wasn’t sure exactly where, but then again, he really hadn’t done more than stay up here in the tower room.

Naked.

In bed.

Perhaps it would be wise at some point to go down and speak to Cosmo’s brothers again and explain himself.

Let them know that while he was not in any way stealing their brother, he also intended not to go anywhere without him. Even if that meant just staying in here.

He thought they might let him use other parts of the house, however. They were reasonable types, if worried about their brother. He smiled. How could he blame them? It wasn’t every day that an old dragon such as himself showed?—

“Ow.”

“Sorry, love.” Cosmo kissed his head. “Bad tangle there, but I got it. What are you thinking about so hard?”

Hawk shrugged. “About going downstairs.”

“Oh.” Cosmo slowly worked out another tangle. “That seems reasonable. We could all have supper together, especially now that you have clothes. It’s important to have your own things so that you feel comfortable.”

Hawk didn’t point out that most of the things in this housewerehis things. Not all of them, of course.

Some of them were Cosmo’s, some of them were just totally unfamiliar to both of them.

He assumed that meant they belonged to the poor dragons who had been killed.

“I don’t think so, love.” Cosmo shook his head. “I’m not sure that this house was here when Myk lived here. I’m pretty sure that that’s the part of the house that Corbin’s in.”

“So…how many houses are here?” And why? Hawk couldn’t figure out why on earth, when there was actually space to be had, that his home would become amalgamated with another.

“We think three, but it could possibly be four.” Cosmo started on another braid. “It could be as much as five, if you count the fact that Myk’s family possibly had three that were one.”

“What?” Hawk wasn’t following.

“Okay, so there were three dragons—Myk and his brothers, and they had mates. Not Myk, but the brothers. Then there were babies—again, not Myk, but the brothers. And they each had a place in the house that was theirs, and I don’t know if it was just one house or if it was three houses made one.” Cosmo took a deep, deep breath. “Because I do know that Myk moved to Tyson’s house, which was actually one house, but it kept growing, and now it’s basically three separate houses plus this amazing place for children at the bottom.”

“And this is on the other side of the veil?”

Cosmo kissed the top of his head again. “Yes.”

“And did it start that way?” he asked, trying to get a handle on this.

“No. It started in Estes, in the mountain, and then it kind of mooched across the veil.”

“The house.”

“And the mountain, I think.”

Hawk was developing a headache. “All right. Back to the original question. This house. It was just mine. It was in California.”

“Right. Except that this is not California. This is Colorado, and this is in the mountains.”

Hawk might have to kill him. “Yes, love, but…” Hawk took a deep breath. Let it out. “So, this house. Did it look like this when Myk and the brothers had it?”

“Oh excellent question! Good job! I know this one.” Cosmo waved his hand, and the brush went flying. It had a little bit of his hair with it and that hurt. He was kind of stunned, but he didn’t say anything because Cosmo was having a moment, andHawk didn’t want to interrupt him. “So if you look at this house from the other side, it looks just like Myk’s house, but if you look at this house from this side… Like if you go outside here and look up, then there’s the tower room. There’s no tower room on the other side!”

“Hmm. Well, that’s interesting.”