Page 80 of Her Dragon Daddy Disaster
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.
