Page 343 of Broken Oath

“I know.”

“I buried you.”

His body went still.

“I stood beside a coffin with nothing inside it, and I buried you.”

“I’m sorry.”

“You’re sorry?”

I pulled back far enough to look at him.

Tears blurred his face.

“You disappear for five years, get yourself imprisoned inside a mountain, and all you can say is you’re sorry?”

Wade studied me.

Then the corner of his mouth lifted.

“What the hell are you doing here? Have you been working out?”

I stared at him.

“Excuse me?”

“Do you have any idea how dangerous this is?”

I laughed.

I couldn’t help it.

Five years disappeared beneath the absurdity of that question.

“You’re standing inside an underground prison after being declared dead, and you’re worried about me?”

“You’re my little sister.”

“I haven’t been little for a long time.”

Wade looked me over.

“You got taller.”

“That’s what you’re going with?”

“You got older too.”

I smacked him again.

Wade laughed.

A real laugh.

The sound broke whatever control I had left.

I threw my arms around him and cried against his shoulder.