Chapter 107 107
Annabeth's POV:
Five years? Two boys and a girl? Golden dragons?
The cold spread further, up into my throat, making it hard to breathe.
"What..." I had to stop, swallow, try again. "What are their names?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Please. Just... please tell me their names."
Another long pause. When she spoke again, her voice was barely a whisper, like saying the names out loud hurt her.
"Kaelen. Lucian. And Marlen. My babies. I don't even know if they're still alive."
The world tilted.
I grabbed the edge of the cot to keep from falling over, my heart pounding so hard I could feel it in my teeth. This wasn't possible. This couldn't be happening. The universe wasn't that cruel, wasn't that fucking ironic, except apparently it was because—
"They're alive," I heard myself say. "They're alive, they're all alive, Marlen is thirteen now and she's so smart, scary smart, and Lucian is fifteen and he makes terrible jokes but he's brave, he's so brave, and Kaelen—"
I choked on his name. Couldn't say the rest.
"How do you know this?" The woman's voice had changed completely, sharp and desperate now. "How do you know my children? WHO ARE YOU?"
"I'm... I was..." The tears were coming now, hot and unstoppable, running down my face. "Kaelen and I, we were... bonded. Soul-bonded. He was... he was my mate."
"Was?"
That word. WAS. Past tense. Because he was dead, wasn't he? The harpoon through his chest, the blood everywhere, his heart stopping. I'd FELT it stop through the bond before they drugged me, felt that horrible silence where his heartbeat used to be.
"He's dead..." I whispered. "The Order killed him. Trying to protect me. He transformed and fought them and they shot him with this... this harpoon thing, designed to kill dragons, and he fell and there was so much blood and I couldn't get to him, they were dragging me away and I couldn't..."
I was sobbing now, ugly heaving sobs that shook my whole body. All the grief I'd been pushing down, all the rage and loss and despair, it was pouring out of me and I couldn't stop it.
On the other side of the wall, I heard a sound. A keening, broken sound. The sound of a mother learning her son was dead.
"No," she was saying, over and over. "No, no, no, not my boy, not my Kaelen, no..."
"I'm sorry." The words were useless but I said them anyway. "I'm so sorry, I tried to save him, I tried to—"
"How?" Her voice cut through my sobs. "How did they kill him? You said a harpoon?"
"Through his chest. He was in dragon form and they shot him and he... when he changed back to human, the harpoon was too big, it got pushed out through the wound, and there was a hole, this massive hole, and so much blood—"
"But he changed back," she said, and there was something in her voice now that sounded almost like hope. "He was alive enough to change back to human form."
"He wasn't moving. His heart stopped. I felt it through the bond."
"Golden dragons don't die that easily." Her voice was stronger now, more urgent. "We heal. Even from wounds that should kill us, we heal. If he changed back, if his body was still trying to survive... Annabeth. Annabeth, listen to me. Was anyone else there? Anyone who could have helped him?"
I thought about Marlen and Lucian, hiding in the basement, running through that root cellar to safety. "His siblings. But they were supposed to run. The plan was for them to escape if anything went wrong."
"Marlen would never leave her brother to die." The woman, Kaelen's MOTHER, said it with absolute certainty. "She's been protecting them both since she was four or five years old, even though they were supposed to be protecting her. If there was any chance, any chance at all that she could save him..."
"You think he might be alive?"
"I don't know. I can't know, not from in here." There was rustling on the other side of the wall, like she was moving closer. "But I know my children. I know what they're capable of. And I know that golden dragons can heal from almost anything if they have help."
Hope... It was a dangerous thing, hope. It could keep you going or it could destroy you when it turned out to be false.
But god, I wanted it to be true.
"What's your name?" I asked. Kaelen never talked much about them. It was too painful for him.
"Kalessi. Kalessi Ellsworth." A pause. "Or I was, before they took me. Before they took everything."
Ellsworth. Kaelen's real last name, not the one he used in the university, but the one they'd stopped using when they started running and that I only had heard them mention once by accident.
"Mrs. Ellsworth—"
"Kalessi. Please. I haven't been 'Mrs.' anything in five years."
"Kalessi." I wiped my face with the back of my hand, trying to get myself under control. "How long have you been here?"
"Five years, three months, and... I've lost count of the days. But approximately that long." Her voice was matter-of-fact, like she was discussing the weather. "They keep me alive because golden dragon blood is valuable. They take it regularly. Not enough to kill me, just enough to keep me weak."
"And your husband? Kaelen said both his parents disappeared."
"Erik is here too. Different section, they separate mates when they can, it makes us easier to control." Something dark entered her voice. "I see him sometimes, when they move us for testing. He's alive. Thin and tired and not the man I married, but alive."
Both of them. Both of Kaelen's parents were alive after five years.
If Kaelen was still alive... if Marlen and Lucian had saved him somehow... if they found out their parents were here...
"We have to get out," I said.
"Impossible. I've been trying for five years."
"Then we try harder." I stood up, ignoring the dizziness, ignoring the weakness in my legs. "You said they drain you regularly. Do they take you out of the cell?"
"Yes. Every three days they take me to the extraction room."
"And what's the security like? Guards? Doors? Checkpoints?"
"Why do you want to know?"
"Because I'm not dying in here." My voice came out stronger than I felt. "And neither are you. We're getting out of this place, and we're burning it to the ground on our way."
Silence from the other side of the wall. Then, slowly, Kalessi started to laugh. It was a rusty sound, like she hadn't done it in a long time, but it was real.
"You sound like Kaelen," she said. "That same stubborn certainty that everything will work out if you just fight hard enough."
"Is that a bad thing?"
"No." Her voice softened. "No, it's not a bad thing at all. It's the most hope I've felt in years."
I pressed my palm against the cold concrete wall, wishing I could reach through it, wishing I could see her face.
"Tell me everything," I said. "Every detail you've noticed about this place. Guard rotations, weak points, anything. I don't care how small it seems."
"It's a lot of information."
"It's okay. We've got nothing but time."