Chapter 34 34
Annabeth's POV:
I'd sent Kaelen maybe fifteen texts over the past twenty-four hours and he hadn't answered a single one. That wasn't like him. Even when he was busy or dealing with his siblings or trying to sleep, he always texted back eventually, usually within an hour. Silence for a full day meant something was wrong.
And I knew exactly what that wrong thing was. Me. My uncontrolled fire that he'd absorbed into himself, taking it on so I wouldn't burn down my house for the second time in twelve hours.
The guilt had been eating at me since yesterday morning when I'd watched him leave my house, seen the way he'd gripped the couch for balance, the sweat on his forehead that he'd tried to hide. He'd been sick because of me, because I couldn't control my own powers, because I was a walking disaster.
My fire had been stable since then, weirdly enough. Like whatever he'd done had reset something inside me, given my dragon nature a chance to calm down and settle. I'd practiced the breathing exercises all day yesterday and this morning, and the heat stayed manageable, controllable. No accidental fires, no surges of panic.
But the cost had been Kaelen getting sick, and that wasn't acceptable.
I drove to his house around noon, my stomach in knots. Aunt Sarah had wanted me to stay home another day but I'd convinced her I was fine, that I needed to check on him.
Marlen answered the door when I knocked. She looked tired and stressed, her hair in a messy bun and her expression immediately hostile when she saw me.
"What do you want?" she asked. No hello, no pleasantries, just straight to the point.
"I want to see Kaelen. He's not answering my texts and I need to make sure he's okay."
"He's not okay. He's been sick since yesterday because he did something stupid trying to help you." The accusation in her voice was clear.
"I know. That's why I'm here. I need to see him, Marlen. Please."
She stared at me for a long moment, and I could see her weighing options, deciding whether to slam the door in my face or let me in. Finally she stepped back.
"Fine. But if you make him worse I'm kicking you out myself."
"Fair enough."
I followed her inside and down the hallway to Kaelen's room. She knocked once, then opened the door without waiting for an answer.
"You have a visitor," she announced, then looked at me. "Fifteen minutes. Then you leave and let him rest."
She left, closing the door behind her, and I turned to look at Kaelen.
He was in bed, propped up against pillows, wearing sweatpants and a t-shirt that was sticking to him with sweat. His skin had this weird glow to it, flushed and too warm, and when he saw me his expression shifted from exhausted to something that might've been happy if he wasn't clearly feeling like death.
"Annabeth," he said, his voice rougher than normal. "You didn't have to come."
"Yes I did." I moved closer to the bed, my guilt intensifying with every step. "You're sick because of me. Because I couldn't control my fire and you absorbed it and now you're..." I gestured at him helplessly. "Like this."
"I'm fine."
"You're not fine, you look terrible."
"Gee, thanks."
"You know what I mean." I sat on the edge of his bed, careful not to jostle him. "Why aren't you healing? Golden dragons heal fast, right? You should be better by now."
"It's complicated. Red dragon fire isn't... it doesn't process the same way in a golden dragon's system. It takes longer to work through."
I felt tears burning in my eyes and blinked them back. "I'm so sorry. I didn't know that would happen, I didn't know helping me would make you this sick."
"Hey." He reached out and took my hand, his skin burning hot against mine. "It's okay. I'd do it again."
"You shouldn't have to. I should be able to control my own powers without needing you to absorb the overflow like some kind of... I don't know, fire extinguisher."
He laughed at that, which turned into a cough. When he recovered he was smiling at me. "Fire extinguisher. That's a new one."
I wasn't smiling. I was staring at where our hands were connected, feeling the heat radiating from his skin. It was wrong, way too hot even for a dragon. Yesterday he'd said it was just residual heat but it had been over twenty-four hours and he was still burning up.
Something clicked in my brain. The scientific part that always needed to understand how things worked.
"Take off your shirt," I said.
Kaelen looked at me surprised, but his eyes started to glow in the dim light. "Excuse me?"
"Yesterday you were burning up. Literally. Your skin was hot enough it should've killed you, but here you are." I stood up from the bed. "I need to see."
A smile spread across his face as he pulled off his shirt, revealing defined muscles and skin that seemed to glow with its own light, flushed with the heat still working through his system. There were no visible marks or burns, but I could see the way his skin shimmered slightly, like heat waves rising off pavement.
"Is this really about science, Annabeth?" he asked, and his voice had dropped lower, rougher.
I walked closer, unable to stop myself even though I knew this was a bad idea. My hand lifted almost on its own, reaching toward his chest, and I placed my palm flat against his skin.
He tensed under my touch, every muscle going tight. The heat of his skin burned my fingers, way hotter than it should be, and I could feel his heartbeat racing under my hand.
"Shit," he muttered, his voice rough. "Don't do that."
"Why not?"
"Because you don't know what you do to me when you touch me like that." His hands closed into fists at his sides, trembling with the effort of keeping them there. "My control is already shit when you're around."