Chapter 111 111
Kaelen's POV:
I landed harder than I meant to, the impact jarring through my legs and up into my chest. I stumbled, caught myself against the wall, and forced myself to keep moving.
Third door on the right. Third door on the right.
First door: some kind of storage room, shelves lined with boxes. Second door: locked, keypad glowing red. Third door: also locked, but this one had a window, and through it I could see exactly what I was looking for.
Banks of computers and monitors, blinking lights, and a console in the center with a big red button that probably did something important.
The control room.
A guard was inside, one guy in tactical gear who was staring at the monitors and talking into a radio. He hadn't seen me yet, too focused on whatever was happening at the front of the building.
I didn't have a keycard. Didn't have a code. And definitely didn't have time to figure either of those out.
So I did the only thing I could think of: I stepped back, took a breath, and kicked the door as hard as I could right next to the lock. The frame splintered but didn't give. I kicked again, and again, and on the third try the door flew open and the guard spun around, reaching for his weapon.
But I was faster.
Not because I was better than him, but because I was desperate, and desperate beats trained every time. I crossed the room in two steps and slammed my fist into his throat before he could get the gun up. He made this horrible choking sound and doubled over, and I grabbed his head and brought my knee up into his face.
He went down. Didn't get back up.
My hand was throbbing, I'd definitely done something to my knuckles, and my chest felt like it was on fire. But I was in. I was HERE.
The console. The suppression system. That was all that mattered.
I looked at the monitors, trying to make sense of what I was seeing. Camera feeds from different parts of the facility. One showed the front entrance, smoke and fire and chaos. Marcus, in dragon form, massive and red, tearing through a group of guards like they were made of paper.
Jesus Christ... I’d never seen any dragon so powerful in my life.
But I didn’t have time to admire him now, I had to focus. If he entered a bit more he’d lose his dragon form too.
Another screen showed what looked like a control panel, with labels I didn't understand. "Sector A Containment." "Sector B Extraction." "Sector C Medical." And at the bottom, in red letters: "SUPPRESSION SYSTEM - ACTIVE."
There was a keyboard. A mouse. I didn't know the password, didn't know how any of this worked, but I remembered what Marcus had said.
Turn it off. However you have to.
I looked around the room. There were cables running from the console into the floor, thick bundles of wire that probably connected to whatever device was generating the signal. I grabbed one and pulled.
Nothing happened.
I grabbed another, braced my foot against the console, and yanked with everything I had.
The cable ripped free with a shower of sparks. Half the monitors went dark. And somewhere in the building, something big made a sound like a generator dying, this deep groaning whine that faded into silence.
The red letters on the screen flickered.
"SUPPRESSION SYSTEM - ACTIVE."
"SUPPRESSION SYSTEM - ACTIVE."
"SUPPRESSION SYSTEM - OFFLINE."
I felt it immediately. The fire in my blood woke up, hot and ready, and my eyes burned gold because I could feel my dragon form right there, just under my skin, waiting. The system had been blocking my powers too, I realized. Even through the vents, it had been dampening everything.
Now it was gone.
And something else came rushing back, what I'd been reaching for every day since the attack, what had been silent for so long I'd almost forgotten what it felt like.
The bond.
It slammed back into place like a door being thrown open, and suddenly she was THERE. Annabeth. Alive. Not words, not thoughts, but HER. Her presence flooding into that empty space in my chest where she'd been missing for days. I felt her shock, her relief, her fierce desperate joy that matched my own. She was alive. She was here, somewhere in this building, and she knew I was too.
I sent everything I had back through the bond. I'm here. I'm coming. All of it wrapped in emotion rather than words, but I knew she'd understand. The bond carried meaning even without language.
Her response hit me like a wave. Fear, yes, but also determination. Fire building inside her, I could feel it.
She wasn't alone. And she wasn't waiting for rescue.
I sent reassurance back, felt her acknowledge it with a pulse of warmth before her attention shifted. She had her own mission now.
I turned toward the door, ready to run, ready to tear through every guard between me and her.
And that's when the second explosion hit. Closer this time, strong enough to shake the floor and send dust raining from the ceiling.
Through the monitors that were still working I saw it: Marcus, in full dragon form, INSIDE the building now. The suppression system was down, which meant he could stay transformed. He was tearing through the main corridor, walls crumbling around him, guards scattering like ants.
He was clearing me a path.
I started to run.