Chapter 83 83
Kaelen's POV:
The cabin was bigger than I expected.
We pulled up around midnight, headlights cutting through the trees to reveal a two-story structure that looked like it had grown out of the forest floor. Dark wood, wide porch, windows that reflected nothing because there was nothing to reflect out here except more trees. The river was somewhere to the left, I could hear it, this low constant sound like white noise.
Marcus was already out of his car, standing at the front door with a key that looked ancient, the kind with actual teeth instead of those modern flat ones. He didn't wait for us, just unlocked the door and went inside. Lights flickered on behind the windows.
"Wake up," I said, reaching back to shake Lucian's knee. "We're here."
He jerked awake with that confused look kids get when they've been sleeping too hard. Marlen was already unbuckling her seatbelt.
Annabeth hadn't let go of my hand. I realized that now, that we'd been holding on for the last hour without either of us acknowledging it.
"Ready?" I asked her.
"No." She squeezed my hand once, then let go. "But that's never stopped anything before."
We got out. The air hit me first, that sharp clean cold that only exists in forests far from cities, the kind that makes your lungs feel brand new. Lucian stumbled out behind me and immediately started looking around like he was expecting bears or wolves or, I don't know, Bigfoot.
"This is insane," he said. "There's nothing here. Like, literally nothing."
"That's the point," Marlen said flatly. She grabbed her bag from the trunk and headed toward the porch without looking back.
The inside was... okay, it was actually nice. Old furniture but solid, the kind that lasted fifty years because nobody made furniture like that anymore. A big stone fireplace dominated the living room, wood already stacked next to it. Kitchen to the right, stairs going up to the left. Everything smelled like pine and dust and something underneath that might've been woodsmoke from fires lit years ago.
Marcus was standing in the middle of the living room, arms crossed, surveying the space like a general inspecting a battlefield.
"Two bedrooms upstairs," he said. "One bathroom up there, one down here. There's also a small room off the living room, used to be a study." He nodded toward a door I hadn't noticed, set into the wall maybe eight feet from the couch. "It has a bed now."
"So three sleeping spaces total," Annabeth said. "And five of us."
Marcus looked at her, then at me, then at Marlen and Lucian who were standing by the door looking like they wanted to be anywhere else.
"Marlen and Lucian take the room on the left upstairs. It has two beds." He pointed at the stairs. "I'll be in the room at the back, near the service stairs that go down to the basement. Emergency exit through the root cellar if we need it."
Of course there was a secret exit. Of course Marcus had thought of everything.
"Annabeth," Marcus continued, "you take the room down here." He gestured toward that door off the living room. "It's small but it faces the river. Quiet."
"And me?" I said, even though I already knew the answer.
"Couch." Marcus nodded at the massive thing against the wall, a brown leather monster that looked older than me. "It's more comfortable than it looks."
Annabeth made a noise that might've been a laugh or might've been frustration. She was staring at the door to her room, then at the couch, measuring the distance. "The living room is right next to my bedroom."
"Yes."
"The wall is—" She stopped. Looked at me. Looked at Marcus. "Never mind."
I knew what she was going to say. The wall was thin. These old cabins, they weren't built with privacy in mind. The wall separating her room from the living room was probably thin enough that she could hear me breathing from her bed, that I could hear her turning over in the night, that we'd be separated by about four inches of old wood and nothing else.
Marcus knew too. His expression didn't change but something in his eyes said he was perfectly aware of what he was doing and he had opinions about it. Keeping her close to the main room, close to the front door, close to where he could get to her fast if something went wrong. And also, not so coincidentally, making damn sure I couldn't sneak into her room without him knowing about it.
"Get some sleep," he said. "Tomorrow we set up a proper perimeter and I show you the area."
He headed for the stairs. Lucian was already halfway up, dragging his bag behind him. "Dibs on the bed by the window."
"There is no window bed, idiot. Marcus said the room has two beds."
"Then dibs on whichever one is better."
"That's not how dibs works—"
Their voices faded as they disappeared down the upstairs hallway. A door opened. Closed. Muffled arguing, then quiet. Marcus's footsteps went further down the hall, another door, then nothing.
And then it was just us.
Annabeth dropped her bag on the floor before I could even process that everyone was gone. She crossed the space between us in three steps, grabbed the front of my jacket, and kissed me.
Not soft. Not careful. The kind of kiss that said I've been waiting to do this for three fucking hours and I'm done waiting. Her mouth was warm and demanding and her hands were already sliding up my chest, pushing the jacket off my shoulders.