Page 37

“Flowers. Thousands and thousands of flowers.” He winked at Orion. “That’s why she fights with Corbin so. You know how he only grows vegetables and fruits. Grains.”

“I saw the roses, though. They’re breathtaking.”

Cullen nodded. “Stunning. I like the purple ones the best.”

In a totally non-weird, completely unexceptional sort of way, of course.

“I’m shocked.”

“I thought you would be.”

Orion chuckled, then went to lift the muslin-wrapped tapestry. “Come on, love. Let’s take this upstairs and hang it up, hmm?”

“That sounds wonderful, actually. What do we need to hang it?”

“I have no idea. It’s been years, maybe decades, since it was strung up.”

“Strung up has such old-west connotations,” Cullen teased. “You sound like Poe, or Zeke.”

Orion frowned. “And who are they?”

“Friends. You’ll like them, although you’ll not get too much of a chance to meet them, I guess.” Cullen chewed his lip. “They can’t come in the house, and I don’t know if you can go to Lunastra… Maybe we need a bubble.”

“A what?” Orion stared at him, tapestry in his arms.

“You know, a bubble attached to the house. A catio. If it’s attached, surely you could go sit and the dragons can come talk to you through the glass.”

“You are a nutball, baby,” Orion told him.

“I think about these things.” His cheeks heated. He knew that turned him from lavender or violet to royal purple, but there it was.

“I’m glad. It made me laugh.” They trooped up the stairs, all the way to the second-floor landing, where there was a nice clear floor to unroll the tapestry.

Cullen gasped when he saw it, because it was so amazingly beautiful. It was along the lines of the unicorn in captivity, and he was grateful it wasn’t the hunting kind, with men on horses spearing a unicorn. He’d seen that in a book his mother had when he was a child, and he’d cried for two days.

“This looks almost new.”

“I know. I’m told it was woven by a pair of sisters who used spiderwebs as threads.” Orion shrugged. “They wove magic into it to keep it from weakening, and they infused it with a couple of phoenix feathers…”

His mouth dropped open. “What the?—”

“I’m not teasing. But who knows what the actual method was. What I can tell you is that I’ve owned it since the French Revolution.”

“Wow. I mean. Wow.” He blinked hard. “That’s so cool.”

“Right? I think a tapestry clamp. Does anyone woodwork?”

“Hawk can, but there’s also a master woodworker in the village. The dragon one.”

“Can you order a tapestry clamp?”

“Sure, just show me what it looks like.”

“Here.” He pulled out his phone, bringing up a picture.

“Okay, cool. Yeah. Next time one of us goes down this week, I’ll commission it.”

“Thank you, love.” Orion rolled it back up in the muslin and put it in, yes, the guest room. Cool.