Chapter 40 40
Kaelen's POV:
The text came through at eleven-thirty PM, just as I was getting ready for bed. No name, no explanation, just coordinates and the word "now" in all caps.
Marcus.
My stomach dropped. He never contacted me before, but I knew it had to be him. And I also knew that he wouldn’t send me a text unless something was seriously wrong, and the urgency in that single word made my hands shake as I pulled on jeans and a hoodie.
Marlen was already asleep but Lucian was still up playing video games in the living room, the glow from the TV washing his face in blue light. He looked up when I came out of my room.
"Where are you going?" he asked, pausing his game.
"Just need to take care of something. I'll be back in an hour."
"This late?"
"It's important. Lock the door behind me and don't answer it for anyone, okay?"
He studied my face and whatever he saw there made him nod without asking more questions. "Be careful... Please."
"Always."
The drive to the coordinates took twenty minutes, out past the edge of town where the houses thinned out and the streetlights disappeared into darkness. Marcus was parked on a dirt road that led nowhere, his black car barely visible against the trees.
I pulled up next to him and got out, the night air cold enough to make my breath visible. He was standing outside his car instead of sitting in it, pacing back and forth with restless energy that I'd never seen from him before. Pure dragons didn't pace. They were too controlled, too confident in their power to show that kind of anxiety.
This was bad.
"What happened?" I asked, walking over to him.
He stopped pacing and looked at me, his red eyes almost glowing in the darkness. "The Order is here. Not scouts, not explorers, actual operatives. I've killed three of them in the past week."
Jesus Christ. "Three?"
"Two were watching your house, one was near Annabeth's college. I eliminated them before they could report back but more will come. They always send more." He ran a hand through his hair, and I noticed it was shaking slightly. "They know she exists. They're actively looking for her now."
The fear that hit me was visceral, every protective instinct I had screaming at once. "How do you know they were looking for her specifically?"
"I interrogated one before I killed him. He had photos, Kaelen. Photos of Annabeth walking across campus, getting into her car, sitting in the library. They've been surveilling her for at least two weeks, maybe longer."
My vision went red at the edges, rage mixing with terror. Someone had been watching her, taking pictures of her, tracking her movements while she went about her normal day completely unaware.
"But how did they know about her?" I asked, confused.
"I don’t know, probably they heard about the fire in their house. Or maybe her eyes glowed in public at some moment. It doesn’t care anymore, the thing is that they know about her. Or at least they are suspecting."
"Why didn't you tell me sooner?" I demanded.
"Because I was handling it. But they're coming in greater numbers now and I can't be everywhere at once. I can protect her from individual scouts but if they send a team..." He trailed off, the implication clear.
If the Order sent a full team, even Marcus with all his power couldn't fight them all off without exposing himself. And if they got their hands on Annabeth, if they took her to one of their facilities...
I couldn't finish that thought. Couldn't let my mind go there.
"What do we do?" I asked.
"Her training needs to accelerate. She's getting better at control but she's not ready to defend herself, not against humans with tranquilizers and nets designed specifically for dragons." Marcus looked at me directly. "You can't teach her what she needs to know, Kaelen. You're golden, your fire is different, your instincts are different. Red dragon fire requires a completely different approach and if she doesn't learn to weaponize it properly she's defenseless."
"Are you saying you need to train her?"
"I'm saying I need to reveal myself. Need to tell her who I am so I can teach her properly without all this sneaking around and watching from a distance bullshit."
Everything in me recoiled from that idea. Not because it was wrong, Marcus was absolutely right that she needed better training, but because I knew what it would mean.
"She'll hate us both," I said quietly. "When she finds out I knew you were alive and didn't tell her, she's going to feel betrayed. And she might never forgive me for that."
"Then you shouldn't have agreed to keep the secret in the first place."
The words hit like a punch. He was right, God, he was right. I'd made the choice to lie to her, to protect Marcus's timeline instead of Annabeth's right to know the truth, and now I had to live with the consequences of that choice.
"I need more time," I said, hating how desperate I sounded. "Just a little more time to figure out how to tell her without it destroying everything."
Marcus studied me for a long moment, his expression unreadable. "You love her."
"Yes."
"And you think waiting will make this easier? That there's going to be some perfect moment where finding out her father's been alive for eighteen years won't devastate her?"
"No. I know there's no good way to do this. But right now things are good between us, she's happy, and I just... I just want her to have a few more days of that before her world falls apart."
"Selfish."
"I know."
He sighed and looked away, staring into the darkness of the trees. "One week, Kaelen. That's all I can give you. In one week I'm approaching her whether you've told her or not, because her safety matters more than your relationship or my guilt about abandoning her."
One week. Seven days to figure out how to tell the girl I loved that I'd been lying to her for weeks, that her father was alive and I'd hidden it from her.
It wasn't enough time but it was better than nothing.
"Okay," I said. "One week."
"And in the meantime you train her harder. Push her past her comfort zone. If the Order comes for her before I can teach her properly she needs to be able to fight back with everything she has."
"I will."
Marcus nodded once, then got back in his car without another word. The engine started and he drove away, leaving me standing alone on the dark road with the weight of too many secrets pressing down on my shoulders.
I sat in my car for maybe ten minutes before I could make myself drive home, my hands gripping the steering wheel so hard my knuckles went white. Three Order operatives dead. More coming. Photos of Annabeth, surveillance, active hunting.
And I couldn't tell her any of it without revealing Marcus, without admitting I'd been lying to her face every single day while she opened her heart to me and accepted to be my girlfriend.
The guilt was suffocating.
When I got home Lucian was asleep on the couch, the TV still on. I turned it off and covered him with a blanket, then went to my room and lay down fully clothed, staring at the ceiling.
My phone buzzed with a text from Annabeth: "Can't sleep. You awake?"
Every fiber of my being wanted to call her, hear her voice, pretend everything was fine. But I couldn't trust myself right now, couldn't talk to her without the lies choking me.
"Yes, but barely," I typed back. "Talk tomorrow?"
"Okay. Love you."
"Love you too."
For real, I wanted to add. I knew that was maybe just a typical way to say goodbye between boyfriend or girlfriend for her. But for me it was the undeniable truth.
I did love her, with every inch of myself. That’s exactly why I was so terrified.
I set the phone down and closed my eyes, but sleep was impossible. All I could see was Annabeth's face when she found out the truth, the betrayal in her eyes, the way she'd look at me and realize the person she trusted so much had been lying to her all along.
One week.
Seven days until everything I'd built with her came crashing down and I lost her maybe forever.