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Finally, she drifted off to sleep. It was then that the dream returned and this time, it was more frightening than before. There was an uneasy feeling that it meant something, but she couldn’t figure out what that something might be. All she knew now was that it was horrifying in a way she had never experienced before. There had always only been her, but now she had children to protect and she knew she would do that with her own life.CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHTAileen awoke to find Yakov gone from her bed again. Wandering downstairs, she found him in his study working.
“You’re up early.”
“Yes, I have to go meet a client in town. He sent me a text early this morning.”
“Oh, okay,” she said, feeling disappointed.
“I’m sorry. I know I told you that I would take you into the caves today and I still will, but I just need to take care of this. I’ll be gone a couple of hours and when I get back, we’ll go.”
“That’s fine. It’ll give me time to get dressed.”
“I tell you what. If you promise me that you will not go into the tunnels, I’ll give you the codes so you can look around at your leisure. When we get back, I’ll take you up the tunnel that leads to the lake and we’ll have a picnic. In fact, have Hannah pack one up for us and take it down when you go. You can drop it at the mouth of the left tunnel for when we go up. Sound good?”
“Sounds fantastic!”
“Okay then,” he said, writing something down on a piece of paper and handing it to her. There was a numerical code and some words that looked almost like gibberish to her. “Can you pronounce them?”
“Just the numbers,” she joked.
He took a moment to help with her pronunciation and let her practice it a few times before assuring her that it was right.
“Alright, let me get going and I’ll be back before you know it. Enjoy your snooping in my medieval quarters, but be careful. Oh, and make sure you are shifted and clear of the door within ten seconds unless you have your hand on the frame. It’s like an elevator. The doors will shut if there isn’t something heavy enough to stop them.”
“Got it.”
“See you soon, then,” he told her, standing to kiss her on the cheek and leaving.
She wasted no time in letting Hannah know she needed a picnic lunch for the two of them, along with a bottle of sparkling water and glasses. While that was being put together by the kitchen, she grabbed a shower and put on loose clothes she could strip off and stick in the picnic container for their trek up the tunnels. She was ready in record time, excited to get a gander at the huge cave that passed for Yakov’s bedroom.
“Hannah, everything ready to go?” she called out as she approached the kitchen.
Instead, a man’s voice responded.
“Hannah wasn’t able to finish up the snacks you ordered, princess.”
Aileen drew back instinctively, catching sight of Hannah’s legs lying sticking out from the other side of the counter. She flinched as Kevin suddenly emerged from the shadows.
“What are you doing in here? How did you get in?”
“You should tell your husband that if he is going to hire extra security, he should be sure that none of them are close friends with the main person he is trying to keep out.”
Aileen glanced around quickly, looking for anything she could defend herself with. As a dragon, he was bigger and stronger, but he couldn’t shift in this small space and she had at least half a chance with him in human form. Everything happened too quickly to even wrap her head around after that. She spotted a cast-iron skillet sitting on the counter and grabbed it, swinging it as hard as she could as he bore down upon her.
It connected heavily with his skull with a sickening crack and he went flying backwards, blood and spittle flying from his mouth and nose.
“You bitch!” he hissed, trying to get up but finding himself too dazed.
Aileen used the opportunity to throw the skillet at him and ran. He managed to dodge it this time and it clattered loudly to the ground beside him. Running down the hallway without looking back, she headed straight for the only place she knew she might hide from him. Flinging open the doors, she hurriedly punched in the numbers that she luckily remembered from the paper in her pocket. There was no time for the words to get the voice activated lights on, but she could worry about that once she was down below.
The doors began sliding open and she wasted no time waiting for them to get completely flush with the walls before scampering through and over the edge. She was in freefall, her body twisting around toward the doors. They were open and he was coming through. She noted the skillet wedging them open just before she began a rapid descent and was forced to shift quickly in order to prevent her death from the crash onto the hard cave floor below.
