“I see. And Uncle Chris?”
Crossing her legs, she bit her lip at the perplexed frown on his face.
“No. No, Erik! Don’t kill your brother. You might need bail money one day and I might not be available for it, and Phoebe could hold that whole Barbie incident from last year against you. Just calm down and breathe. Your brother’s life is worth more than a video game, I promise. I know it doesn’t seem that way right now, but in an hour, you will move past this.”
She heard someone yelling on the other end.
“Yeah, okay. I’ll talk soon. Love you.” Laughing, he lowered the little rectangle.
“Should I ask?”
He used his finger to swipe at the box, then held up a painting of a dark-haired boy with a huge, exaggerated smile on his face. “My nephew Erik.”
“He’s adorable.”
“Some days.” He pulled it back to swipe again. “He was about to kill this little guy.” He showed a brown-haired boy with similar features who was a few years younger. “Tyr.”
“Which of your brothers do they belong to?”
All the humor left his face then, and a deep, dark sadness swallowed the light in his eyes. The turmoil was so tragic that it made her gut tighten. “Urian?”
He flipped to another image. This one of a beautiful girl with reddish hair. “Little Phoebe.”
“She’s beautiful.”
Urian drew a ragged breath. “I thought you were dead, Xyn.”
“I know. You had no way of knowing what had happened.” And then she saw the guilt in his eyes. “You found someone?”
He nodded.
Anger shot through her. For the merest instant she feared Urian had tricked her, but she caught herself before she reacted. Urian wouldn’t do that. Granted, she’d been gone a long time. Still, integrity like his didn’t vanish. And she had her own guilt to carry, even if it had been to help her family. She couldn’t imagine the pain and sorrow that Urian had experienced for the centuries that they had been apart.
She knew that. Plus, he’d told her that he hadn’t been with anyone. Not in a long while.
“What happened?”
“Phoebe died fourteen years ago.” A tear slid from the corner of his eye and he quickly wiped it away.
Grateful she hadn’t reacted, Xyn pulled him against her. “I’m so sorry.”
“It’s okay.”
No, it wasn’t. Not the way her Urian loved. She held him close and rubbed his back.
“Their mother is her sister.”
“And you watch over them?”
He nodded. “I promised her I would.”
“What of your brothers? How are they?”
Urian drew another ragged breath. “All gone.”
“What?” she gasped in shock.
He nodded. “Atreus was the last to fall. I lost him in 1962 to a Dark-Hunter.”
