Chapter 9

Chapter

Nine

I t turned out that there actually had been a series about the last century on this thing they called the History Channel.

Hawk had learned many things in a very short period of time, the main of which was that magic had become something called technology in this world.

That seemed fine. More available than magic and less specific, but fine nonetheless. He approved.

So long as it stayed where it belonged.

The triplets had screens on everything. There were screens that showed pictures of anything you wanted to see. He could see stories and history. He could listen to a book and read a book on a screen. It seemed very odd.

The video games interested him very little, but the puzzles? There were thousands of puzzles that he could do at will anytime he'd like.

That was fascinating.

And he could ask this man, Google, anything, and he would bring up Web books like a library.

He had asked the triplets about this Google person and his vast library, but they didn't seem to know what the man looked like.

In the deepest part of his brain, Hawk imagined him as an enormous leviathan swimming in this ocean of information, huge tentacles pouring things into different pockets so that one gets it. It was quite the pleasant thought.

Less pleasant was the idea that Cosmo could go out into the dragonland and become hurt, and Hawk couldn't go and rescue him.

Cosmo pointed out, and he told himself as well, that his worries just weren't true. Should something happen to Cosmo on the other side, he could absolutely go in and rescue him.

He just couldn't come back here to his home.

He was curious to meet these dragon children that the triplets told him about, though. And to see how his world had grown and changed in the last millennia.

It was good to be curious. It kept a man alive.

Also concerning was the fact that although they had spent many, many, many hours in bed making wild, passionate love, Cosmo did not seem to be pregnant.

These things took time, of course, and he had no idea how long it took a fae to become with child, but autumn was upon them.

From what he knew of the human lands, it got cold here in the winter, and he wanted Cosmo to be safe. So now maybe he didn't want Cosmo to get pregnant until it was closer to spring. That way, he wouldn't be growing large during the winter months.

"What are you thinking about so hard?" Cosmo asked, coming in to find him scrolling through an electronic book.

"Hmm? Oh, I was simply thinking about information." Hawk wouldn't mention the pregnancy thing. He didn't want Cosmo to get self-conscious.

"There's a lot of it. I'm proud of you for learning so much."

"Mmmm. Are you? I feel as though I still have a great deal to process." He had watched a movie with Cosmo where the men could put jacks in their head and send the information directly. That might be easier. That way no one had to process it. It was just there as whole knowledge.

"But you just do it. You just soak it all in. It's really cool."

Cosmo bounced a little bit, looking odd.

"What's wrong?" Hawk asked. "What do you need?"

"I know that all of this electronic stuff is super interesting to you right now, but…do you want to go explore? I mean literally, physically, right now. Find a stairwell and go down it and see what's at the bottom."

"I would love that." He was feeling the urge to stretch his legs and to poke his nose into things that it may not belong in. "Where should we start?"

Cosmo grinned hugely. "So, I was in the room underneath the tower room, and I found a secret door."

"Intriguing." He didn't remember a secret door, but that meant very little. "What was in it?"

Cosmo vibrated with his excitement. "I don't know! I was waiting for you. I thought we could go explore it together."

If Hawk hadn't been in love—which he was—he would be now, because that joy?

Was everything.

"Lead the way." All of this screen stuff would be there later. This was the real magic.

Cosmo stood with him, grabbed his hand, and oddly enough, took him to the kitchen.

"Mate?"

"What if we get lost? What if we don't know where we're going? One, we have to make sandwiches and tea. That's a rule."

"Is it?" He was learning so many things.

Cosmo nodded. "The last thing that you need in any given situation is to be hungry or thirsty if you're lost. Also, we're going to bring a piece of chalk so that we can mark our way. That way, we're less likely to get lost."

"You are an incredible explorer."

Cosmo's pink skin warmed. "Thank you, I try. These are the things that we have agreed—the three of us—when we go exploring without each other. It would be a terrible thing to have two in one universe and one in the other and not be able to find each other."

"Oh, my sweet Rosie, that would never happen."

"No?"

"No." Hawk smiled for him. "The three of you are a force of nature. You're meant to be on the same plane no matter what. It's part of the magic of you." He wasn't blowing smoke up Cosmo's ass, either. He meant it. No matter what, the three of them would be together.

"I hope that you're right. Regardless, I think we'll bring chalk." Cosmo grinned at him and winked. "Which sort of sandwiches do you think we should bring?"

He gave that the serious contemplation that it deserved. "Well, we could have cream cheese and cucumber sandwiches."

"I like those." Cosmo pondered. "We could have tuna fish."

"There could be stinky and enclosed places."

Cosmo's eyes lit up. "That's a good point. Let's make peanut butter and jelly. There's blackberry jam."

"Excellent." They cut huge slabs of white bread, slathered them with peanut butter and blackberry for Cosmo, strawberry for him.

Then they wrapped them in paper, put them in a pack with a canister of water. Then they added some chalk that went in their pockets.

"All right, so now—let's find a door." Cosmo took his hand and squeezed. "How did you explore before? Did you just pick a room?"

Had he explored before? Hawk wasn't sure. He didn't particularly remember exploring.

He'd built this house, but he had to admit that even in his wing, some things were just different.

The magic seemed to have been confused when it was recreating the house. Maybe the physical building just didn't fit in the space that the magic needed, and so things got shifted. Maybe he was just really, really old, and he couldn't remember how the hell the place looked to begin with.

"How do you normally do it?"

Cosmo closed his eyes and went very still for a moment. Then he sucked in a quick breath and grinned. "Let's go!"

Then they were off and running, barreling down the hallways like they were children. They made it right to a big door at the end of a hall that he didn't remember having seen there before. "Did this hallway change?"

"Define change."

Hawk fastened Cosmo with a stare. "The definition of change is when something isn't the same as it was only moments before."

"Oh. Then yes. This hallway did change. Let's go. Rawr." Cosmo grabbed the doorknob and yanked it open.

The room Cosmo chose was his library. Oh, glorious. It was still there. The shape of it was different. It had been partially a tower room, so one wall had been rounded, the one with the loft with the walkway and ladders. Now that wall was a straight line, and the balconies were longer and wider, the bookshelves rising a floor higher.

Fascinating.

"Ooh…look at the pretty books!" Cosmo headed for the stacks, eyes alight. "Are they all yours?"

"I think so?" He had no idea. "We should have a look, because who knows?" Hawk chuckled, because Cosmo was already digging in.

Hawk knew what he would find: history, science, magical tomes, and penny dreadfuls. He'd always loved having books to snuggle with of a winter.

"Ohhhh." Cosmo lifted an old leather-bound volume off the shelf. "It's a magical bestiary."

"Is it? How fascinating. Now we need to put it on a table near a sofa so we can read after our explorations."

"Oh, yes. One with a window and a fireplace."

It was as if asking for it made it so. It wasn't. It was much more likely that he knew the nook existed, so his mate saw.

"That sounds perfect. It has to be here somewhere, hmm?"

When they found the couch, tucked away in a nook with a lovely sofa, a table with a tea set just for them, the teapot steaming.

"Look at that!" Cosmo put the book down carefully, keeping it away from the tea and sweets. "Do you have brownies serving your household or something? I haven't met them."

"Or something." When a dragon lived as long as he had, he attracted all sorts of magical beings. Some good, some bad. Brownies, domovoy, nisse…they were all helpful. The boggarts and banshee not so much.

"Oh… Or what? That's exciting. Do you think that they like the fact that you have a mate? Because I'm not going anywhere. In fact, I'm going to be with you forever. I am willing to be friends though. I'd love to be friends."

That he had absolutely no doubt of. Cosmo was quick and friendly, more than willing to reach out.

"Yes, this house has been a place of magic for many, many years. There are many spaces for magical beings to be welcomed. And there are many magical beings in the Lunastra as well."

Cosmo nodded. "It was like that in the Land of Summer, my mother's home. Not many different kinds of magic, but everything there has been touched with light and music, laughter. It's not always happy laughter, though. There can be darkness." Cosmo cuddled into him after pouring them both a cup of tea. "You know, not everyone was happy when my mother mated with my father. Not everyone loves dragons, and not everyone loves the idea of half-breeds."

"That's ridiculous! Half-breeds? That's just…no. You're a special magic all your own. The joining of two magics in love is…well, I simply cannot see that it would be bad."

That wasn't exactly the truth, of course. Hawk could admit to himself he had seen two magics joined together to make a greater, more evil magic.

But this wasn't the time or the place for that nonsense. This was the time to reassure his mate that he found part-fae, part-dragon folk absolutely irresistible.

Especially pink ones.

Most definitely pink ones.

"I know. It's just—Believe me, in a land of very small fae, dragons can seem extremely…large."

"Oh." He leaned back, his teacup in hand. "Yes, I can imagine."

"Right. That bull-in-a-china-shop story has nothing on a dragon in fairyland."

He chuckled. "Oh. I can see that. I mean, nisse are only a foot tall, maybe less. I always worried that I might smoosh them if I was in dragon form." He loved holding Cosmo in his arms, loved having tea and cookies in this little nook.

"So tell me about the nisse."

"They come from the far north. In fact, many believe that's where Santa's elves originated."

"Oh, cool. I mean, I know the rock gnomes live with the Santa Fe clutch. And the Estes clutch has brownies…"

"Yes, you see? When the magic needs to come together, it does."

"Mmm." Cosmo pulled back to look at him. "So wait. Dragon form? Is there a place in your house where you can dragon out? Like be all the way dragon? I want to see you."

"Well, once upon a time, I did. I assume that I still do. I had a basement. It was very deep in the mountain. My hoard was there…"

Cosmo frowned. "Do you have a pool? We really need a pool."

He shook his head. "No, I'm a fire dragon. I really don't care for the water a lot." So, no pool. "There is a sandpit. It's very nice for rolling around in and massaging your scales."

Cosmo tilted his head. "That would be fun. I like sand, I think. I don't see why I wouldn't like sand. Is it warm sand? Because that sounds…wait. Did it get into, like, weird places?"

He started chuckling. "Not in dragon form that I remember, but it's been a very long time, so perhaps. Perhaps, no, surely not."

"Oh, that's good. That's very good. So we should make a plan to go and search for your sandpit."

"We should. I would like to see your dragon as well."

"I'm not sure about that." Cosmo sort of winced. "We are not the most impressive dragons. I mean, don't get me wrong, we are magical and clever and quick, but not particularly impressive."

"No?" Now Hawk was curious. "Can you explain?"

"I'm sure I could, but I really don't want to." Cosmo rolled his eyes. "You see…well, one, we're half fae, and two, we're half dragon, and three, there's three of us and so… To be perfectly honest, if you put all three of our dragons together, we're not the size of a whole dragon. We're little. Like, little ."

Hawk frowned. "How little is little?" He held his fingers about six inches apart. "Little?"

"Here." Cosmo's sighed and rolled his eyes. Then suddenly, immediately, instead of a man, he held a lean, perfectly formed, very, very little dragon. He was exactly the size of Cosmo as a man. Pink and sparkling.

Hawk was absolutely stunned.

I told you I wasn't a very impressive dragon.

His mouth opened and closed, then opened and closed again. He simply couldn't speak.

At least not until he could feel Cosmo pulling away, then he found his voice again.

"Oh my rose, you're beautiful." He'd never seen anything or anyone more perfect in all of his life. "Such a lovely dragon."

He ran his fingers down along Cosmo's scales. He found them cool and smooth, and he swore he could hear music as he petted the long spine. "The tip of your tail is shaped like a heart."

The tip of Cosmo's tail was shaped like a heart.

Hawk couldn't be more in love if he tried.

You don't think I look strange? Cosmo asked.

"Of course not. I think you're amazing." He couldn't believe how stunning Cosmo was. He had never seen such a thing in his life, and he'd had a pretty long life.

Cosmo ducked his head, just snuggled in. I wanna be amazing for you.

"Oh, love, you're perfect. Now shall we read our book and have our tea?" Maybe they just needed to relax together.

Cosmo nodded, his head dipping again. I think that's a wonderful idea.

So Hawk grabbed the book. And they read about magical beasts. And had tea. Careful not to spill it on the book, of course. And Hawk thought that Cosmo relaxed. He would have to think about this, about how to make Cosmo understand that he was wonderful, magical. And his.