Chapter Thirty-Five

Sarah

M y mind was still reeling, trying to process the implications of what Levi had just said, when the second half of his sentence came rushing in.

"We are?" I asked, grateful for the shift in topic.

Love? I wasn't ready to talk about love. Between the two of us? He was crazy.

Wasn't he?

"We are," Levi confirmed.

I frowned, listening to his speech. It was tight, a little gruntier than his usual self. He was distracted by something. Was he already working on our way out?

A moment later, I felt the air stir.

"Levi?" I called. "It's getting warmer."

"I know," he grunted. "Working on it."

I retreated from the edge of my cell. Jakub clung to my side, and I squeezed him tight. "You about ready to go home, baby?"

He nodded, clinging to my pants. "Home, please."

"Soon, little buddy," I reassured him, hoping I wasn't lying. "Soon."

The air was again growing warmer, even nearer to the back of the cell. I inhaled, slow and deep, but it wasn't a gratifying motion. Instead, my chest gave a minor complaint.

It wasn't the heat, though that continued to grow almost exponentially. It was something else.

My eyes went wide as I breathed again.

" Levi!" I shouted. "You have to stop. Stop what you're doing!"

"Need to … save you," he grunted. "Gotta get … out."

"You're not saving us!" I yelled, panic growing. I squashed it firmly, shoving it down far out of sight.

Pores all across my skin broke open with sweat as the heat intensified to an entirely different level now. My neck grew slimy as my hair plastered itself to the skin.

"Mommy," Jakub complained. "I'm tired."

"Levi!" I shouted again. "There's not enough air! You're using up the air! We can't breathe!"

My chest grew pained with each breath. I resisted the urge to clutch it, knowing the motion would not do a thing.

All at once, the temperature began to cool.

"Sarah? Jakub?" It was Levi. "Are you okay? Talk to me!"

I coughed. "We're fine," I said, my knees a little wobbly. "We're okay. What were you doing there?"

"Melting the bars," he said. "Or at least, I was trying to. It didn't work. I needed more heat, more time."

"Malakai is no idiot," I said, thinking swiftly. "He must've known your fire would melt the bars eventually. So, he sealed the chamber airtight. You'd have knocked us all out and killed us before you got through them, I bet."

Levi was silent. I pursed my lips. I hadn't meant to be so accusatory.

"Probably not entirely airtight," I amended. "Otherwise, we'd die automatically, and he would gloat. But it's definitely a controlled rate of flow. Otherwise, your plan would have worked."

"Maybe." Levi didn't sound impressed with himself.

"There's got to be another way," I muttered to myself. "Some way to get out of here."

"Damn it!" Levi shouted. His voice rang out in the silence, echoing off the rock walls.

I frowned. Something about that thought. The silence? No, not that. His voice. Echoing. Off the walls.

That was it! The rock walls!

"Levi," I said excitedly. "The wall. Between us. It's just rock. It can't be that thick. I could reach your hand."

"Yes?" he sounded confused.

"I saw you shift your hand into a claw before. Could you not just dig through to us at least?"

Booted feet scrambled on rock as Levi got to his feet. "Yes, I can. Stand back!"

Taking Jakub, I retreated to the far side of the cell. "We're good."

"Mommy!" Jakub cried as loud scraping noises filled the dark. "What's going on?"

"Daddy is digging through the wall to come to us," I said, raising my voice over the sound of rock clattering to the floor.

Soon, a dark-red dragon claw punctured the wall. It was pulled back. Then three of them burst through, the wall collapsing into our cell as Levi broke through.

"Dad!"

"Hey, little dude!" Levi said, bending down to scoop Jakub up as he broke from my side and ran across the distance.

By the time he'd picked his son up, his hands and arms were human once more, wrapping tight around the blur of motion that had leaped at him with utter trust.

He held our son with one arm, the movement natural and easy looking, as if he'd done it a million times. "Did you stay out of trouble while I was over there?"

Jakub looked back at me. "I think so."

I laughed, causing Levi to switch his gaze from our son to me. I trembled as I met his gaze, letting him see my face. I knew what he was looking for. What he wanted to see. To hear. But I wasn't sure I could give it to him.

I cared about him—that much I knew and wasn't afraid to admit to anyone. But love, love was way more than that. It was something bigger. More immovable. And something I just hadn't thought about yet. Not until he'd uttered those words.

Did he even mean them? It had come out so fast and casual, nothing like how I'd pictured it happening. Now that he could see me again, would that all come crumbling down?

"I meant what I said," he rumbled before I could speak, reading my mind. "But right now, let's focus on getting out of here."

I nodded, hoping it wasn't as jerky and unsteady as it felt. It probably was, but I couldn't do anything about it.

"You're the one with the training," he said, all business. "I'm sure you've gamed out all sorts of different scenarios as part of your job. Time to start dredging all that information up and applying it to our current scenario. Including the fact I'm a dragon and can do things no human can."

I stared at him. He sounded just like some of my bosses.

"Well? Come on, Agent Detfield. Think! I'm just the muscle. You're the brains."

My jaw worked slowly, the gears in my brain squeaking as they tried to shed some of the situation-imposed rust. Think. Right. What sorts of situations had I been in before that could apply? What about a dragon added to the mix?

"I'll be honest. We didn't do many prison-breakout drills in the Secret Service. We did the basics of picking cuffs, breaking ties, tape, rope, that sort of thing. But actual prison-cell escapes? Not sure I ever did one."

"So, you're telling me you don't have any ideas?"

"Not unless you have the magic key to the door."

"Tried that already. Nearly used up all the air in here. Not gonna work. Not at the rate it replenishes. Malakai thought of that."

I kicked a chunk of rock in frustration. It clattered across the floor, bouncing off some of the larger chunks littering the area thanks to Levi's digging.

"Did he think about you digging through the rock to get to us?" I asked abruptly, head snapping up. "Was that part of his plan?"

"Maybe? I don't know," Levi admitted. "That man isn't the Malakai I thought I knew. I can't read his mind anymore."

"I'm willing to bet he didn't. Because why bother trying to dig through if you aren't close to the other person. Or if there's no one else, you'd never known the other cell even existed."

Levi was watching me closely. "Where are you going with this?"

"Dig," I said, pointing. "There. Between the cells. Maybe he forgot to put bars there. It could be enough for us to slip out."

Already moving, Levi struck the rock hard with his claws, digging deep. He scraped and pried away the rock, hammering it into pieces and batting it aside as it fell.

"Holy shit," I said as the front fell away, revealing a gap between the bars more than large enough for us to get through.

"Holy shit."

I jerked upright in shock as the tiny voice echoed me. "Holy shit. Holy shit. Holy shit!"

"Jakub," I scolded, trying to stifle my laughter while also parenting. "That is not appropriate. Mommy shouldn't have said that. You don't say those words, okay?"

He looked at me with the innocence only a child could have. "Don't say holy shit?"

Levi was unable to stifle a guffaw. I shot him a glance, and he immediately looked stern.

"Listen to your mother, Jakub," he said gruffly, turning away.

His shoulders still shook.

"Come on, time to go," I said, taking my sons hand and heading for the opening.

"Wait," Levi said, sticking out a hand. "Let me go first. There could be fighting."

I came to an abrupt stop, waiting with Jakub as Levi slipped out of the cell, glancing left and right, before heading off to the right, where Malakai had disappeared. Silence followed for half a minute.

It was broken by the most horrendous screeching as something metal was torn apart. I clamped my hands over Jakub's ears as he cried out at the assault on his senses.

Fresh air flooded the area, removing any last traces of difficulty breathing, for which I was very grateful. I assumed, from the sound and the air, it was a door that had given way under Levi's assault.

"Let's go," he said a moment later, appearing with such silent swiftness I nearly leaped out of my own skin.

We moved down the corridor, past the mangled door.

"Cover Jakub's eyes," Levi said as we neared an intersection of hallway.

I swung Jakub up into my arms, pushing his face into my shoulder, using my other hand to shield his view.

The scene was … not pleasant. Two shifters lay on the ground, slumped against the wall. They were both dead. One's neck was clearly broken, and his face was anything but peaceful in death, his eyes open wide, tongue lolling out to the side.

The other didn't have a face anymore. Giant rip marks on his scalp indicated where four very sharp claws had torn the skin that used to be there. I looked away swiftly as my stomach started to churn.

I was no stranger to death. In the Secret Service, we'd trained for it and watched videos and many had military service backgrounds. But that didn't make it easy or enjoyable.

"Thank you for the warning," I said as we cleared the bodies and continued down the corridor.

Levi nodded, then looked back, raising a finger to his mouth, indicating silence. I nodded, instincts kicking in. We weren't out yet. There could still be more danger ahead.

One more guard waited for us outside the tunnel system. He was obviously not expecting any trouble because Levi found him lounging against the exterior wall of Malakai's house in the hills, staring off into the distance.

Dispatching him was a simple matter.

"Levi," I asked as we rose into the air, Jakub firmly seated in front of me at the base of the red dragon's neck. "Just where are you taking us? Isn't the city that way?"

I didn't bother pointing. We could both see it in the distance,. He knew where I meant.

"Yes. But there's no time to waste. We have to get there first."

"Get where, first?"

"To the palace. To warn the sovereign and stop Malakai from killing her."