Chapter 22 22
Kaelen's POV:
I tried to sleep that night but my brain wouldn't shut up. Every time I closed my eyes I saw that moment in the kitchen when Marlen laughed, then immediately after I saw the black car from nights ago. The two images kept trading places until I gave up around one AM and pulled on jeans and a hoodie. Might as well do something useful if I was gonna be awake anyway.
The house was quiet when I slipped out the back door. I locked the door behind me and stood on the porch for a minute, letting my eyes adjust to the dark and my senses expand outward the way my mom had taught me years ago. Listen for heartbeats, smell for anything wrong, feel for that particular wrongness that came when you were being hunted.
Nothing immediate. Just the normal night sounds of a residential neighborhood: someone's TV through an open window, a dog barking three streets over, the hum of the power lines.
I walked the perimeter of our property first, checking the fence line and the spots where someone could hide. The grass was wet with dew and soaked through my sneakers within a minute, but I kept going. I needed to check everything to make sure we were safe and then go to bed knowing I'd done what I could.
Except tonight I wasn't gonna feel safe. I knew it before I even reached the street.
The black car was back. Same sedan, same tinted windows, parked at the corner about fifty yards from our house. Closer than before. Way closer. Close enough that whoever was inside had a clear view of our front door and probably the driveway too.
My heart kicked into overdrive. Every instinct screamed run, grab your siblings, get out now. But I forced myself to stay still, to think. If I ran, we'd be running forever. If this was the Order, they'd just follow us to the next town and the next and the next until we were too tired to keep going.
Maybe it was time to stop running and start confronting.
I moved off the sidewalk into the shadows between houses, using the darkness and the parked cars for cover. My dragon senses made me better at this than humans, let me move quieter and see better in low light. I circled around, coming up on the car from behind and to the side, staying low.
Fifty yards became forty. Thirty. Twenty...
The engine was running, I could hear it now. See the faint exhaust coming from the tailpipe. Someone was definitely inside but the tint was too dark to make out details.
Fifteen yards. I could read the license plate from here, started memorizing the numbers. California plates, the frame from some dealership in LA. Ten yards. My muscles tensed, ready to sprint forward and yank the door open if I had to.
Then the car moved.
Not fast, not peeling out like they'd been caught. Just smoothly pulling away from the curb and into the street, the movement deliberate and calm. Like whoever was driving had known exactly where I was the whole time and had chosen this moment to leave.
I stood there watching the taillights disappear around the corner, my fists clenched so hard my nails cut into my palms. They'd been toying with me. Letting me get close enough to think I had a chance, then leaving to make a point: we see you, we're not afraid of you, we'll leave when we want.
The rage that hit me was physical, made my vision edge with gold and my body temperature spike. I wanted to shift right there in the street, wanted to chase that car down and flip it over and drag whoever was inside out through the windshield. Make them tell me if they had my parents, if they were coming for my siblings, if Annabeth was in danger because of me.
But I didn't. I forced the shift back down, made myself breathe until the gold faded from my vision and my hands stopped shaking. Then I walked back to the house, memorizing everything: the car model, the plate number, the direction it had gone, and the time according to my phone.
Inside, I went straight to my siblings' room and knocked. Marlen opened the door in her pajamas with her hair messy, immediately awake and alert. "What's wrong?"
"The car's back. Closer than before."
"How close?"
"They're watching the house."
Her face went pale. "We need to leave. Tonight. Grab our bags and go."
"Hang on—"
"No, Kaelen. This is exactly what I was worried about. They found us, they're watching us, the next step is they come for us."
"We don't know it's them. Could be—"
"Who else would it be? Some random person just happens to stake out our house multiple nights in a row? Stop lying to yourself."
Lucian woke up, his voice thick with sleep. "What's going on?"
"The Order found us," Marlen said. "We're leaving."
"No we're not." Lucian came fully into the hallway. "We just got here, I'm not running again."
"You'll run if I say you're running."
"You're not my mom, Mar."
"And you're an idiot, so you don't get a vote."
"Guys," I said, trying to get between them before this turned into a full fight. "Everyone calm down. Let's think about this rationally."
"Rationally?" Marlen's voice went sharp. "Rationally we should have left the first time you saw that car or when they broke in. Rationally we should never have stayed anywhere longer than a few months. Rationally you should have stayed away from Annabeth and not drawn attention to us."
That hit harder than it should've. "This isn't about Annabeth."
"Isn't it? You started seeing her and suddenly we're being watched. You really think that's coincidence?"
"They've been hunting us for five years, Mar. This was gonna happen eventually whether Annabeth existed or not."
Lucian crossed his arms. "I'm not running. I'm tired of being scared all the time. If they want us, let them come. We'll fight."
"We can't fight the Order," Marlen said. "They have resources, numbers, weapons. We're three kids."
"We're dragons."
"We're three kids," she repeated, harder. "And if we fight, we lose. The only way we survive is by staying hidden, staying mobile. That means running."
They both looked at me, waiting for a decision. Marlen's face was set in that stubborn expression that meant she'd already decided what the right answer was. Lucian looked defiant but underneath it I could see the fear he was trying to hide.
I thought about Annabeth, about the dinner we'd just had, about Marlen laughing in the kitchen. Thought about how close we'd been to something like normal, like a real life instead of just survival.
"We stay," I said.
"Kaelen—"
"We stay, but we're careful. Even more careful than we've been." I said.
"That's not enough," Marlen said, but her voice was quieter now. "They’ll come for us."
"Then we fight," Lucian said.
"Or we run," I added. "Whatever makes sense in the moment. But we don't run preemptively. Not this time."
Marlen stared at me for a long time, her jaw working. Finally she said: "Fine. I'm going back to bed. This is a terrible idea and you're both idiots." She went back into their room and shut the door harder than necessary.
Lucian grinned at me. "She'll come around."
"Maybe."
"You really think we can fight them if we have to?"
Honestly? I had no idea. The Order had been hunting dragons for centuries and we were just three kids who'd been running scared. But I couldn't say that to Lucian, couldn't let him see how terrified I actually was.
"I think we're stronger than they expect," I said instead. "And smarter. We'll figure it out."
He nodded and went back to their room, and I stood in the hallway alone with the weight of that decision pressing down on my shoulders. We were staying, which meant we were targets. Which meant every day we stayed here was a gamble that they wouldn't come for us yet.
And I still hadn't told Annabeth.
That thought followed me back to my room, kept me awake even after I lay down. I should tell her. Should warn her that being close to me put her in danger, that the Order might already know about her. But she was just starting to understand her powers, just starting to accept what she was. Loading her down with more fear seemed cruel when I didn't even know for sure what was happening.
I'd tell her soon. Just not yet. Not until I had more information, more certainty.
I finally fell asleep around four AM and dreamed about the black car following us down an endless highway with no exits.