When he started to leave them, Sumi caught his arm and held him in place. “You are hurt and bleeding. If you think for one second that I’m going to stand here and watch you leave without those wounds being tended, you’re… even more insane than I think you are. And I will follow you.”

Laying his hand against her cheek, he stroked her chin with his thumb. “I refuse to endanger you.”

“You know, Dancer. Heroic is one thing. Moronic is quite another.” She turned his airbee off. “Now get your ass over there, soldier, and sit!” She pointed to where Thia was unpacking their things. “And let me see how bad you’re hurt. Then we’ll revisit this whole death quest you seem to have.”

He shook his head at her. “You are so bossy. I’d eat anyone else who talked to me like this.”

“Promises, promises. Now move!”

Hauk wanted to argue, but honestly, he couldn’t muster the energy or drive. So he obeyed her orders, even though it wasn’t in his nature to do such. Sighing, he slung his leg over the airbee and allowed her to lead him to a softer area near the water.

In the back of his mind, he knew Darice was watching and making mental notes for Dariana. Yet he no longer cared. Darice already thought him the lowest of the low. He’d tried over the years to salvage his nephew’s opinion of him, and it was time to realize that he couldn’t. Darice would think what he would. There was nothing Hauk could do about it.

Lying down, he stared up at the side of the mountain where he’d once dangled helplessly and almost fallen to his death. Come to think of it, Keris had landed just a few feet from where he currently lay.

But he didn’t want to think about the past. It was too brutal a place to dwell.

Sumi sat down next to him and opened his shirt. She gasped at the sight of the wound across his ribs that stung like Tondarion fire scorpions. “Dancer!”

He didn’t speak as she cleaned it and continued fussing at him over it. Sick as it sounded, he enjoyed her anger over his injuries. Rather he dragged his knuckle along her jaw and watched her with hooded eyes. She was so incredibly beautiful and even more so while wearing the painted pattern of his family on her face.

All he wanted was to go back to this morning and make love to her again. To taste her lips and nibble every inch of her body.

Strange, he knew he was in pain, but with her so close, he didn’t care. The only thing that mattered to him was keeping her safe and protected. Making sure that no one ever hurt her.