Cormac heard the door, and unlike his brother he took his time. One look at himself in the hallway mirror, one sleeve pushed up, and then the entrance, where the light out of the kitchen fell in a line across the floor.

He leaned against the doorframe with his arms crossed and let his gaze land on you properly.

Auden looked straight at him from the middle of the hallway.

Cormac's grin did not move. He had been about to, and both of them knew it.

Behind him, Dex hit the bottom of the stairs at the speed of somebody with nothing left to lose, and Lowell came out of the kitchen with a mug and said twelve seconds, which Cormac ignored.

he said instead, tipping his head toward Auden.

You were still holding your coat. Cormac was the one who noticed that first, so he crossed the hallway, took it off you, and hung it on the hook by the door as though the hook had been waiting for it.

The grin came back, slower this time.