Chapter 32 Parental confusion
As the sun set they found a small cave and decided to shelter there for the night, building a fire small enough to provide warmth without being visible from far away.
Adrian slept for some minutes before hunger woke him up.
Elara gave him half a granola bar while her own stomach growled.
"We'll find more food tomorrow," she promised him.
"I'm scared," Adrian whispered. "The bad men are still coming."
"I know baby," Elara said. "But mama and your dada are going to keep you safe."
Adrian looked at Kai. "Are you my dada, like my real dada?"
"Yes," Kai said quietly. "I'm sorry I wasn't there before, but I'm here now."
Adrian just made a little sound like a mumble and curled up between them, falling asleep within minutes, as nobody said a word again.
Elara stayed awake watching the fire and listening for sounds of pursuit, and after an hour Kai spoke.
"I keep thinking about what my father did," he said. "How he encouraged me to reject you, what he was going to gain from all of this."
"He did plan everything," Elara said. "Including having us killed, but I'm also as confused as you."
"I should have seen it," Kai said. "I should have questioned his advice, maybe even stood up to him."
"You were young and desperate for his approval," Elara said. "I get it."
"That doesn't excuse what I did," Kai said.
"No, it doesn't," Elara agreed. "But at least you're trying to fix it now."
"Am I?" Kai asked. "We're hiding in a cave running from armed men with a my two-year-old heir, and I'm not sure this counts as fixing anything."
"You chose us over your father," Elara said. "That's something."
Kai looked at Adrian sleeping peacefully. "He deserves better than this."
"He deserves better than both of us gave him," Elara said. "But we're here now and we're trying, that has to count for something."
They sat in silence watching the fire burn down until Elara's eyes grew heavy and she dozed off leaning against the cave wall.
She woke hours later to complete darkness and Adrian's absence beside her.
"Kai?" she whispered urgently. "Where's Adrian?"
"I'm here," Kai's voice came from the cave entrance. "Adrian needed to pee so I took him outside."
Relief flooded through her and she joined them at the entrance where Adrian was finishing up.
"You scared me," she said.
"Sorry," Kai said. "I thought you needed the rest."
They were about to go back inside when voices echoed through the forest nearby.
"Search this area," someone commanded. "They can't have gone far."
Flashlight beams swept through the trees and Elara grabbed Adrian, pressing back into the cave's shadows.
"They're too close," Kai whispered. "If they search systematically they'll find this cave within minutes."
"Then we run," Elara said.
"Where?" Kai asked. "They're between us and the valley."
"Then we go up," Elara said, pointing to the rocky hillside above the cave. "We will climb higher and circle around them."
"With Adrian?" Kai asked doubtfully.
"You have a better idea?" Elara challenged.
Kai didn't, so they moved out of the cave as quietly as possible and started climbing, using roots and rocks as handholds while Adrian clung to Kai's back.
The voices below grew louder as the searchers approached the cave and Elara's heart pounded so hard she thought they'd hear it.
"There's a cave here," someone said. "Check it."
Flashlight beams illuminated the cave entrance and Elara held her breath, pressed flat against the hillside fifty feet above.
"It's empty," the searcher called out. "Just animal tracks."
"Keep moving then," the commander said. "They're somewhere in this area."
The search party moved on and Elara allowed herself to breathe again.
They climbed for another hour until they reached a plateau that offered a view of the valley below, and in the distance she could see lights from a small town.
"There," she pointed. "That's where we need to go."
"That's at least ten miles," Kai estimated. "And the search parties are between us and it."
"Then we wait until morning and move during daylight when we can see them coming," Elara said.
They found shelter under an overhang and huddled together for warmth as temperature dropped, and Elara held Adrian close while he shivered.
"We're going to make it," she whispered to him. "I promise."
But even as she said it, she heard helicopter rotors in the distance and saw searchlights sweeping the forest below.
Whoever was hunting them had just escalated their efforts, and Elara knew their chances of escape were getting smaller by the hour.