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“I’m taking another twenty.” Without asking, Owen added a couple more eggs to the bowl, and waited until Trey had coffee in his hand. “If you’ve got twenty, I’ve got a story this time.”

Chapter Nineteen

Before Trey could respond, Sonya came in. Something in the beat of silence had her gaze moving from man to man.

She said, “Uh-oh.”

“Nothing like that.” Owen held up the bowl. “Want scrambled eggs?”

“No, thanks.” She went for coffee.

“I was about to tell Trey about this weird dream I had.” As he spoke, Owen poured the eggs into the hot, melted butter in the pan.

Despite the lack of coffee, she whipped straight around. “You went through the mirror.”

“No. And yes, I’m sure,” he added before Sonya could ask. “I woke up in bed, with Jones still snoring. When my feet hit the floor, he’s up. I leave the room, he’s with me. It’s how we roll.”

“This is true,” Trey confirmed.

“It’s like he needs to be right there in case he has to help me fight off a horde of roaming zombies or invading, eye-sucking aliens.”

“I saw that eye-sucking alien movie.” Reassured, and boosted by coffee, Sonya dropped bread in the toaster. “It was terrible. I liked it.”

Trey just shook his head. “Good to know. So you had a dream.”

“That I don’t think was just a dream. About playing chess with Collin.”

Now Trey smiled. “He’d double-dare you with chess, then beat the crap out of you.”

“That’s why he double-dared me. It wouldn’t have been so weird ifthat was it, even though it was way lucid. Like I could feel the chess pieces in my hand, smell the fire, taste the beer. But what really hit the weird is he was young. Like our age, Trey. His still had blond hair—not a trace of gray.”

“Like my father,” Sonya murmured.

“Yeah, I guess so. And his face—it’s not how I see him when I think of him. I’ve seen pictures, sure, but it’s not how I remember him.”

He finished the eggs, plated them as he told them about the dream. Sonya added toast to their plates, put in more for herself, and topped off their coffee as they listened.

“It sounds like he wanted to explain to you why he left the house to Sonya. Not to you or the other cousins.”

“Not necessary, but yeah, I think that was part of it.”

“And the more important part? To warn you,” Sonya added. “The black queen. It’s a good symbol for her. He thought about my father, and I’m what’s left of my father. But he clearly loved you, both of you.”

“Family,” Owen said simply, “and the Doyles were family to him as much as the Pooles. Maybe more. And this house? A lot more than a house for him. He took the history, the legacy, all of it to heart, and whatever he added or changed, he kept that in mind. Anyway, I sure as hell never had a dream like it.”

“You’re a Poole,” Sonya pointed out. “And sleeping in the manor. Now that it’s happened, I realize I should be surprised it hadn’t happened before.”

“And it could be because you’ve gone through the mirror now,” Trey added. “But you’re both missing an important point. A key point.”

“Says the lawyer.” Owen got up to take his plate to the sink.

“That’s right, and the evidence supports that if you dreamed about Collin, and in the now, Owen—since you talked about a boat Poole’s building now as well as about Sonya—Collin, some part of him, is still in the manor.”

Sonya’s phone erupted with “You Got That Right.”

“Lynyrd Skynyrd,” Owen muttered. “Never wrong. I missed that.”

“Right there with you,” Sonya told him. “And it makes sense. I mean if you follow manor logic, it makes sense. He’s here, too. I… What aftershave did he wear?”