Pulling her into his arms, Dancer cradled her head with his hand. “No, baby, she didn’t.” He hated to lie to her, but the truth would serve no purpose other than to make her feel worse. He placed a kiss to her forehead. “Aksel owns enough of your soul. Don’t let him take any more from you. He’s not worth one molecule of your tears.”

She hugged him then. “Thank you. For everything.”

He nodded. “Love you, Thee.”

“You, too.” She kissed his cheek before she followed after Darice and Bastien.

Sumi moved to help Dancer. “You look like you’re about to fall over.”

Draping his arm over her shoulders, he gave a light squeeze as they walked toward the door. “I’m fine.”

She didn’t believe it for a minute. “Your eyes are still as red as they can be.”

He said nothing as they left the building. The kids and Bastien were at the airbees. There were four of them, but only three had enough fuel in them to go very far. And that was only after Bastien siphoned the tank on one of them to add to it.

Dancer handed Bastien a bag of additional weapons. “Did you get your things?”

“Yeah.”

“Good.” Dancer pulled out a small handheld control then pressed it. An instant later, the entire building blew apart.

Bastien gaped indignantly. “My porn! You Andarion bastard! You didn’t tell me you were going to blow my shit up.”

Dancer cut a dry stare toward him. “Be glad I let you get out first.”

Sighing, Bastien rolled his eyes. “You are Fain’s brother. Just like him… bastard. All right, so what are we doing?”

“I’m taking the four of you to the Point then coming back for Illyse. I’ll be on the move until the others get here.” He handed Bastien one of the trackers that was set to his TD. “Give this to Thia’s father and they’ll find me.”

Sumi moved to stand in front of him. “I’m not leaving you. You’re wounded.”

“Let’s argue about this later. We need to get out of here in case some of the Boldorians are around to see the explosion.”

She wanted to argue, but knew he was right.

Sumi took the first airbee. Thia climbed on the back of hers. Bastien pulled himself on another and Hauk took the third. Darice went to sit behind his uncle. When he wrapped his arms around Dancer’s waist, she noted the softening of Dancer’s features. He patted Darice’s arms then took off.

They followed him to a small oasis at the base of Mount Grenalyn. In spite of the desert climate, it was strangely lush and green, with a rapid stream that ran through it.

Dancer parked and helped Darice off as they joined him.