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“I don’t know, can you?” Orion had managed to walk right into Lunastra without the slightest bit of anything terrible happening. “If you want, I can pretend to have an emergency, throw you Elliot, and you can run through.”

“Okay…” One of Orion’s eyebrows winged up. “Do you want me to be naked while I’m doing it?”

“Well, you could, or you could just be a big horsey and run clip-clopping through the house.” He frowned at himself. “Whoa, that was really grumpy of me, I’m sorry. I’m not angry with you at all.”

Orion, who had started to look really hurt, relaxed and came right up to him. “Well, I’m glad you’re not angry with me. It’s the magic, is it?”

“Yes, I don’t like not being able to control it. This is like being a teenager. So frustrating.”

Orion frowned at him. “Hormones, you think?”

“Maybe. I want to go see my mom, and I think you should come with me. I’d like it if you could.”

“All right, well, let’s do it. I mean, you said if I can’t come in, I just can’t come in.”

Cullen nodded. “Absolutely. No one’s ever gotten hurt. If you can’t come in, you just can’t come in. You end up right back where you started.”

“All right, then you take Elliot with you. If I can’t come, then I’ll see you when you get home.”

“Yeah, exactly. If you can’t, then I’ll see you when I get home, and I won’t be long. And I’ll bring honey.”

“I love honey.”

They walked through the house to the back door, opened it, and it smelled so good.

Elliot laughed. “Go, go, go!”

As soon as he started calling and waving, Cullen could see hundreds of tiny pixies hurrying over to see who it was. Their bodies were invisible, just the tiniest little sparkles letting them know that they were there.

“We’re coming to see Mother. If you’d like to tell her we’re on our way, I’d appreciate it.”

There was a distant laughter, like a giggle that was more like bells tinkling than anything else, and then the mass of pixies winged off to tell Mother that they were on their way.

He walked through the door. “All right, Orion, let’s?—”

There was Orion standing next to him. “Huh. Well, okay, we know that this works. You’re the only one who can go everywhere. Well, I mean, there’s us and Elliot.”

“But Hawk can only go back and forth to the dragonlands?”

“And the human world.”

“Interesting.” Orion grinned at him. “Are you okay with me meeting your mom? This wasn’t just to see if I could come out here?”

“No. Not just to see. I want you to meet my folks. Though where my dad will be, I have no idea.”

“Can he go back and forth?” Orion asked.

“Dad? No. No, he got a one-time pass into the Land of Summer, and he can’t leave or he won’t be able to come back in.”

“Ouch. Is he mad?”

“No. I mean, I think he misses dragons, but he loves my mom, and he has us.” Cullen’s hands had gone back to normal, and he was so glad. The hairy thing was weird. And not like him at all. Not since puberty.

Orion’s hand landed on the small of his back, and he breathed in deeply, smelling the flowers and grasses and trees. The very earth here was rich and deep, and it felt like his body was falling into harmony with it as his feet touched it.

“This is amazing,” Orion said. “It’s a lot like the Glade.”

“You’ll have to tell me about that place.”