Chapter 117 117
Kaelen's POV:
They were supposed to stay outside. That was the plan, that was what Marcus had told them. But of course they hadn't listened, of course they'd seen the chaos and felt the fear and decided fuck the plan, our family is in there. And somewhere between the entrance and here, they'd transformed for the first time in their lives.
My thirteen-year-old sister was a dragon. My fifteen-year-old brother was a dragon. And they were PISSED.
The surviving guards tried to regroup, tried to raise their weapons, but Marlen was faster. She opened her mouth and golden fire poured out, catching three of them before they could even aim. Lucian swept his tail and sent two more flying into the wall with crunches I could hear from here.
"Now!" I grabbed Annabeth's hand and we both transformed, the shift faster and easier than it had ever been, bones cracking and scales pushing through and suddenly I was massive, powerful, my dragon form filling the corridor alongside my siblings. The walls began to crash, we were going to destroy the whole place.
Annabeth was next to me, red scales against my gold, smaller than me but just as fierce. She roared and threw fire at a guard trying to crawl out from under the rubble, and I joined her, golden flames mixing with red.
My parents couldn't transform, still too weak from years of the drug, but they didn't need to. Dad was throwing fire from his hands, Mom too, and the two other dragons from the east wing did the same, all of us attacking at once, and the elite squad that had seemed so threatening thirty seconds ago was just... gone.
Burned. Crushed. Broken.
When it was over, the corridor was filled with smoke and the smell of charred meat, and the four of us stood there in dragon form, breathing hard. Me, Annabeth, Marlen and Lucian. Four dragons, two gold and one red and one more gold, and I couldn't believe this was real, couldn't believe my baby siblings had actually done it.
Marlen turned her massive head toward me and made a sound, low and confused, and I realized she didn't know how to change back. Neither did Lucian, who was shifting his weight from foot to foot, his tail accidentally knocking chunks of concrete loose from the walls.
I focused on being human. On being Kaelen. On the feel of Annabeth's hand in mine, on the sound of my mother's voice, on all the small things that made me ME and not just a dragon. The transformation reversed, painful but familiar, and I was human again, naked and shaking on the concrete.
"Marlen, Lucian, listen to me," I said. "You need to think about being human. Think about... I don't know, your room, your bed, your favorite food. Something that grounds you."
Annabeth changed back next to me, grabbing clothes from the dead guards without hesitation, tossing me pants while she pulled on a shirt. Marlen's dragon form shuddered, started shrinking, scales receding, and she whimpered through it but kept going until she was just a girl again, naked and crying on the floor.
Lucian followed, his transformation messier, and when he was human he just sat there for a second, staring at his hands like he'd never seen them before.
I got some clothes for them, and helped Lucian to his feet. "You good?"
"I... yeah. I think so." He looked at me with wide eyes while dressing up clumsily. "Kael, I was a fucking DRAGON."
"I know. I saw."
"I was a DRAGON."
"I know, buddy. I know."
And then Mom was there, and she wasn't looking at me anymore. She was looking at Marlen, at this thirteen-year-old girl wearing an oversized uniform and shaking like a leaf, and her face just... crumpled.
"Marlen?" Her voice came out broken. "Baby, is that... you're so big, you're so..."
Marlen looked up, and for a second she just stared at Mom, like she couldn't process what she was seeing. And then her face twisted and she was running, crashing into Mom's arms with a sob that echoed through the destroyed corridor.
"Mommy," she choked out, and she sounded eight years old again, sounded like the little girl who'd cried for months after her parents disappeared. "Mommy, mommy, you're here, you're actually here—"
"I'm here, baby." Mom was crying too, holding Marlen so tight, stroking her hair. "I'm here, I'm here, I've got you."
Dad had Lucian, pulling him into a hug that Lucian tried to resist for about half a second before he broke too, burying his face in Dad's shoulder and shaking.
"You got so tall," Dad said, his voice cracking. "Lucian, god, you were ten years old when I... you were just a kid, and now you're..."
"I'm fifteen," Lucian mumbled into his shoulder. "And I just turned into a dragon. I don't know what's happening."
"I know. I know, son. It's okay. It's all okay now."
I stood there watching them, my parents holding my siblings, everyone crying, and Annabeth slipped her hand into mine. She didn't say anything. Didn't need to.
My family. My whole family, back together after five years.
Mom pulled back from Marlen just enough to look at her face, really look, and she laughed through her tears. "You look just like your grandmother. The same stubborn jaw." She touched Marlen's cheek. "My baby girl. My fierce, brave girl. You came for us."
"Of course I came." Marlen wiped her nose with the back of her hand, still shaking. "You're my mom. Did you really think I was gonna just wait outside?"
"No." Mom laughed again, wet and broken. "No, I suppose I didn't."
Dad had one arm around Lucian and was reaching for Marlen with the other, pulling her into a group hug, and Mom joined them, all four of them tangled together, crying and holding on.
I felt like I should give them space, but then Dad looked up at me over Lucian's shoulder. "Kaelen. Get over here."
I didn't need to be told twice. I joined the pile, arms around whoever I could reach, and Annabeth hung back until Mom noticed her and said, firmly, "You too. You're family."
Annabeth hesitated, but only for a second. Then she was there, pressed against my side, part of the tangle of bodies and tears.
"Okay," I said after a minute, my voice rough. "Okay, we gotta move. Marcus is still up there. We need to get out."
Nobody wanted to let go. I got it. Five years was a long time.
But we had to move.
I helped pull everyone apart. Lucian was steadier now, though his hands were still shaking.
"The exit," I said. "Let's go."
We moved. All of us together, finally, heading for the surface.