“What happened to you?” he asked.
With a ragged sigh, she shook her head. “Ever done something you’re really ashamed of?”
A number of times, but one stood out above the others. “Broke my mother’s favorite dish when I was a boy and blamed my twin brother. Then let him take the beating for it.”
“You’re such an asshole.”
Urian shrugged. “That’s what my brothers tell me.” He’d have felt worse had Paris not done his own share of blaming him for things Paris had done. “Anyway, you were saying?”
Katra pressed her hand to her forehead. “I did something … a favor for my mother. Now … it was wrong and I feel terrible and I think I really screwed up and I-I have no one to talk to about it.”
Carefully, he sat down by her side. “Yeah, we’ve all been there. Well, maybe not there”—he gestured to where she was sitting—“but you get the idea.”
She snorted. “I just don’t know how to fix this.”
“What exactly did you do?”
“I stole the powers of a god.”
His eyebrows shot north as he fought the urge to step away from her. “You can do that?”
She nodded.
“Well, I’m not going to lie. That was pretty harsh.”
“I know!” She started sobbing again.
Urian felt terrible. “There, there.” He patted her awkwardly.
She threw herself against his chest, which only made it all the more awkward since the only bit of clothing he had on was a shendyt.
After a few minutes, she finally got hold of herself and pulled away. “Thank you, Urian.”
“Not sure I did anything.”
“You listened.” She wiped at her eyes with the heels of her hands. “It’s more than most people do. And where I come from, there wasn’t anyone who would do that much. So thank you.”
“No problem.” He pushed himself up and groaned as pain cut through him.
Kat frowned. “Why are you here by yourself?”
Shrugging, Urian didn’t want to tell her the truth. He didn’t feel comfortable with his own family. He never really had. Paris had Davyn. His father was shacked up with three women he could barely tolerate. Archie had gone psychotic after the deaths of his family and stayed in an orgy most of the time. The rest just pitied him for being alone.
And the one woman he wanted lived in the human realm and was banned from here. So he tended to stay as close to Xyn as he could. Which meant sleeping in her bed if he couldn’t sleep with her.
At least here, he didn’t have to worry about waking up with one of his father’s leftover meals groping on him.
Kat scowled as she studied his unbound hair. “Gah, it freaks me out to look at you.”
“Gee, thanks,” he said sarcastically. “Way to bolster my ego.”
“Sorry. You just remind me a lot of someone else.”
Whatever. Urian started back for his cave. But he didn’t get far before Katra called out to him.
“Hey, Uri?”
He paused to look back at her.
