Chapter 33 33
Kaelen's POV:
I knew something was wrong around three AM when I woke up with my heart racing and this feeling in my chest that wasn't mine. Fear, panic, something sharp and overwhelming that made me sit straight up in bed and reach for my phone even though I didn't know why.
No new messages from Annabeth. She hadn’t answered the one I’d sent her before falling asleep a couple hours before.
That wasn't right. She'd said she'd text me, and she always did what she said she'd do. I sent her a message asking if she was okay, then another one an hour later when she didn't respond, and I tried to sleep but the wrongness kept pulling me awake every thirty minutes until I gave up around five-thirty and just lay there watching the ceiling get lighter.
The partial bond we had, the connection that came from being destined mates even before completing it fully, it wasn't strong enough for specifics. I couldn't read her mind or feel exactly what was happening. But I could sense her, could feel the edges of her emotions when they were intense enough, and what I'd felt last night was terror.
Something had scared her badly enough that it bled through to me across town in the middle of the night.
By six AM I was in my car. By six-fifteen I was pulling up to her house, the sun just starting to come up and the neighborhood still quiet. Her aunt's car was in the driveway which was normal for this early, but something about the house looked wrong and I couldn't figure out what until I got closer.
The upstairs window, the one I was pretty sure was Annabeth's room, had the curtains missing. Just gone. And the frame looked... darker than it should be, stained with something.
I knocked on the front door, maybe harder than I should've, my heart in my throat.
Her aunt opened it after a long minute. She looked like she hadn't slept at all, her hair a mess and her face pale, still wearing what looked like pajamas and a robe.
"Kaelen." She said it flat, surprised but also exhausted. "It's six in the morning."
"I know. I'm sorry. Is Annabeth okay? She didn't text me last night and I just... I had a feeling something was wrong."
Her expression softened slightly. "She's okay. She's... it was a rough night. Come in."
I followed her inside, my dragon senses picking up traces of smoke and burned fabric that still clung to the air. She led me to the living room where Annabeth was curled up on the couch in sweatpants and an oversized hoodie, her knees pulled to her chest.
She looked up when I came in and the relief that crossed her face was immediate and overwhelming.
"Kaelen." Her voice cracked on my name.
"What happened?" I asked, moving toward her. "Are you hurt?"
"I'm fine. I just... I had a nightmare and I lost control of the fire when I woke up. Almost burned my room down." She said it matter-of-factly but I could see the fear underneath, the guilt and shame written all over her face.
Jesus. That's what I'd felt through the bond. Her panic as fire erupted around her, uncontrolled and dangerous.
I sat down next to her and she immediately leaned into me, her head dropping to my shoulder. She was warm, way warmer than a human should be, her dragon nature still too close to the surface.
"I'm okay now," she said quietly. "Aunt Sarah helped me get it under control. The room is kind of trashed but nobody got hurt."
"You should've texted me. I could've—"
"I fell asleep before I could text you. I was so tired after training and I just crashed and then the nightmare started and..." She trailed off, her breath hitching.
I wrapped my arm around her and pulled her closer, and that's when I felt it. The heat building inside her again, the dragon fire rising in response to stress and fear and exhaustion. Her body went tense against mine.
"Kaelen," she said, her voice tight. "It's happening again. I can't—"
"Breathe," I said automatically, but I could feel it too, the way her temperature was spiking, the air around us getting warmer. "Just breathe, you can control it."
"I can't." There was panic in her voice now. "I'm trying but it's too much, it's—"
Aunt Sarah stood up from the chair she'd been sitting in, her face going pale. "Annabeth, not again, you need to—"
The heat exploded outward from Annabeth in a wave that made the air shimmer, and I didn't think, just moved on pure instinct. I grabbed her hands and pulled the fire into myself.
It wasn't something I'd ever done before, wasn't something I'd been taught, but golden dragons could heal and absorb damage and apparently that extended to absorbing fire from other dragons because I felt it the second I touched her. The excess heat rushing from her body into mine, burning as it came, settling into my chest and stomach and spreading through my bloodstream.
Fuck, it hurt. Not like regular fire that would just bounce off my dragon skin, but deeper, hotter, red dragon fire that was never meant to be inside a golden dragon's body. It felt like swallowing molten metal.
But I didn't let go.
"Kaelen, what are you—" Annabeth tried to pull away but I held on.
"It's okay," I gritted out, even though it really wasn't. "Just let me take it. Don't fight me."
I could feel her fire, wild and powerful and barely contained, and I pulled it deliberately into myself, giving it somewhere to go that wasn't her room or the house or her aunt standing there watching with terror on her face. The heat built in my chest until I thought I might combust from the inside, but slowly, gradually, the fire coming from Annabeth weakened.
Her breathing slowed. The panic in her eyes faded. The temperature dropped back to something manageable.
When I finally let go of her hands, my whole body was shaking and I was sweating through my shirt, but she was calm. The fire was gone, absorbed into me instead of destroying everything around her.
"How did you..." Annabeth stared at me, then reached up and touched my face. Her eyes went wide. "Oh my god, Kaelen, you're burning up."
I was. My skin felt like I'd been standing in a furnace for an hour. But I forced a smile and pulled back from her touch before she could feel exactly how bad it was.
"I'm fine. Just residual heat. It'll pass."
"You don't look fine."
"I'm a dragon, remember? I can handle it." That was technically true. I could handle it. It was just gonna suck for a while. "Are you okay now? Feeling more stable?"
She nodded slowly, still looking worried. "Yeah. I think so. But you—"
"I'm fine," I repeated firmly. I looked at Aunt Sarah. "Are you staying home with her today?"
"Yes. I already called in to work. I'm not leaving her alone."
"Good. That's good." I stood up, which was a mistake because the room tilted slightly and I had to grip the back of the couch to steady myself. Annabeth noticed immediately.
"Kaelen—"
"I should go. Let you rest." I looked at Annabeth, forcing myself to focus through the heat pounding through my body. "Text me later, okay? Let me know you're alright."
"I will. But are you sure you're—"
"I'm fine. Promise."
I wasn't fine. Not even a little bit. But I needed to get out of there before she realized exactly how not fine I was, before I collapsed in her living room and scared both of them even more.
I made it to my car through sheer willpower, my hands shaking as I started the engine. The drive home was a blur of trying to focus on the road while my temperature kept climbing, sweat dripping down my back and my vision occasionally doubling.
When I got home I went straight to my room, barely nodding at Lucian who was making breakfast in the kitchen. I closed the door and collapsed onto my bed fully clothed, my whole body shaking with fever.
This was bad. This was really bad. Red dragon fire wasn't meant to be inside a golden dragon, and I could feel it burning through me, my body trying to process energy that was fundamentally wrong for my system.
I must have passed out because the next thing I knew Marlen was shaking my shoulder, her face pale with fear.
"Kaelen. Kaelen, wake up."
I opened my eyes with effort. My sister's face swam in and out of focus.
"What time is it?" My voice came out rough, barely recognizable.
"Almost two in the afternoon. Lucian and I got worried when you didn't come out for lunch. You've been asleep for like six hours." She put her hand on my forehead and jerked it back immediately. "Holy shit, you're burning up. Like, actually burning. I can't even touch you."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine, you look like you're dying." She turned toward the door. "Lucian! Get in here!"
My brother appeared in the doorway a second later, his eyes going wide when he saw me.
"What the hell happened to you?" he asked.
"Nothing. Just... training thing. It'll pass."
"Training thing," Marlen repeated flatly. "You look like you're about to spontaneously combust. That's not a training thing, that's a you're-about-to-die thing."
I tried to sit up and the room spun violently. Lucian rushed over to help me stay upright.
"Did Annabeth do this to you?" he asked, and there was an edge to his voice I didn't like. "Because if she hurt you I swear—"
"No. She didn't hurt me. I helped her and it just... it took more out of me than I expected. I'll be fine by tomorrow."
Marlen crossed her arms, her expression skeptical. "You better be. Because if you die on us I'm gonna be really pissed."
"Noted."
They stayed with me for a while, Marlen sitting at my desk and reading while Lucian sprawled on the floor playing on his phone, both of them keeping watch like they thought I might actually die if they left. Maybe they were right.
The fever kept climbing through the afternoon, red dragon fire still burning through my system, and all I could think about was how Annabeth had looked when I absorbed it. The relief on her face, the way she'd calmed down immediately, the fact that I'd been able to help her when she needed it most.
Yeah. This was worth it. Even if it felt like I was being cooked from the inside out.
My phone buzzed somewhere on the nightstand. I didn't have the energy to check it, but I knew it was her. Knew she was worried.
Tomorrow. I'd explain everything tomorrow.
If I survived the night.