Chapter 41 41
Annabeth's POV:
The river spot Kaelen took me to was different from anywhere we'd trained before. Deeper in the woods than our usual clearing, past even the stone well with the golden flowers where he'd asked me to be his girlfriend. The water was clear enough to see the rocks at the bottom and the trees hung over it in a canopy that filtered the afternoon sun into golden patches on the surface.
"Another secret place?" I asked, looking around at the beauty of it. "How many of these do you have hidden in these woods?"
"A few. I like exploring when I can't sleep." He smiled at me. "But I'm running out of places to show you. You're learning all my secrets."
Not all of them, something in his expression seemed to say, but the shadow passed quickly. He set down the bag he'd brought and turned to face me. "I brought you here because we need to work on something different today. Something more intense."
The serious tone in his voice made my stomach flip with nerves and something else, anticipation maybe. "How intense?"
"I need you to access your fire fully. Not just control it or hold it back, but really let it out. Let it burn as hot as it wants to burn without being afraid of it."
"That sounds dangerous."
"It is. But you're ready. I've seen how much stronger you've gotten and I think the only thing holding you back now is fear. So today we're gonna get rid of that fear."
I wanted to argue, wanted to say that fear was a reasonable response to having literal fire inside my body that could kill people. But I also knew he was right. I'd been holding back during training, terrified of losing control and hurting him or burning down the forest.
"Okay," I said. "What do I do?"
"Stand in the clearing over there. Close your eyes. And instead of trying to contain the fire, invite it up. Ask it to come out and show you what it can really do."
That sounded absolutely terrifying but I walked to the clearing anyway, my heart pounding. Kaelen stayed back near the trees, giving me space, trusting me not to accidentally incinerate him... even if technically that wasn’t possible.
I closed my eyes and took a breath. The fire was there immediately, always there, living in my blood and bones and waiting to be called. Usually I acknowledged it and then pushed it back down, kept it locked away where it couldn't hurt anyone.
Today I was supposed to let it free.
Come on, I thought at it. Show me what you can do.
The response was instant and overwhelming. Heat exploded through me, racing up from my core and spreading through my limbs so fast I gasped. My hands ignited first, red flames bursting from my palms and climbing up my arms. Then my whole body was burning, fire everywhere, and I could feel it wanting to escape and consume everything around me.
"Don't fight it," Kaelen's voice came from somewhere far away. "Just breathe and let it be."
I breathed. The fire grew hotter, brighter, red flames that turned orange at the edges and then almost white in the center. The grass around my feet started to smoke and catch, small fires spreading outward in a circle.
"Good. You're doing great. Now pull it back slowly, bring it back into yourself without extinguishing it completely."
Pulling it back was harder than letting it out. The fire didn't want to return, wanted to keep burning, keep spreading. But I focused on Kaelen's voice and imagined gathering the flames back into my body, reeling them in like a fishing line.
Slowly, agonizingly slowly, the fire receded. First from the grass, then from my arms, then from my hands until I was just warm instead of burning.
I opened my eyes and looked down. The grass around me was scorched in a perfect circle maybe ten feet in diameter, smoke rising from the blackened earth. My clothes were intact but there were scorch marks on my jeans and my shirt was damp with sweat.
"Holy shit," I breathed.
Kaelen was grinning when he walked over to me, pride written all over his face. "That was incredible. You burned hotter than I've ever seen you burn and you pulled it back under control. Do you realize how amazing that is?"
I was shaking, adrenaline and residual fire making my whole body tremble. "I felt like I was gonna explode."
"But you didn't. You controlled it." He pulled me into a hug and I collapsed against him, letting him hold me up while my legs remembered how to work properly. "I'm so proud of you."
Those words again. The ones that made my chest ache in the best way.
We stood there for a minute, me breathing hard against his chest and him running his hand through my hair. When I finally felt steady enough to stand on my own he pulled back and looked at me.
"You deserve a break. Wanna cool off?"
"How? We're in the middle of the woods."
He smiled and started pulling his shirt over his head, revealing the muscles and skin I'd been getting very familiar with over the past week. "The river. Water's probably freezing but it'll feel good after all that heat."
"Kaelen, it's October. That water's gonna be like five degrees."
"So use your fire to keep yourself warm. You can regulate your temperature now, remember?" He kicked off his shoes and socks. "Come on. Let’s live a little."
He walked to the edge of the river and dove in without hesitation, disappearing under the surface for a few seconds before coming up with his hair plastered to his head and water streaming down his face.
"It's actually not that bad," he called. "Get in here."
I hesitated, looking at the water and then at him, and then said screw it and started stripping down to my tank top and underwear. The air was cold against my skin but I called up my fire just enough to keep warm, that low simmer that didn't burn but kept my core temperature steady.
I stepped into the river and yeah, okay, it was freezing. But I adjusted my internal heat and within seconds it felt manageable, almost nice.
Kaelen swam over to me and I went to meet him in the deeper water, both of us treading water in the middle of the river. He was smiling, that genuine happy smile that made my heart do stupid things.
"See? Not so bad."
"You're a terrible influence."
"You love it."
I did. God, I really did.
He reached for me and I let him pull me closer, wrapping my arms around his neck while his hands found my waist underwater. The celebration mood shifted into something else, something charged and inevitable.
"Annabeth," he said quietly, and there was a question in his voice.
I answered by kissing him.
His mouth was cold from the water but heated up fast, his lips moving against mine with an urgency that made me wrap my legs around his waist. He made this sound low in his throat and pulled me tighter against him, one hand sliding up my back while the other gripped my thigh.
"Underwater," I said against his mouth. "Can we...?"
He nodded and we both took a breath before submerging, sinking down below the surface where everything was silent and blue. I opened my eyes underwater and saw his eyes glowing gold, the dragon in him responding to the dragon in me. I knew mine were doing the same, red light visible even in the depths.
We kissed underwater and it was surreal, beautiful, our bodies suspended and weightless while our mouths found each other again and again. When we had to surface for air we were both breathing hard, the space between us crackling with tension.
"Annabeth..." he started, but I kissed him again before he could finish.
This time was different, more desperate. His hands moved from my waist to my hips, pulling me closer until there was no space between us. I could feel every line of his body against mine, the heat of his skin even through the cold water, the way his breathing changed when I bit his lower lip.
My hands explored his chest, his shoulders, the muscles of his back that flexed under my fingers. His hands were doing their own exploring, sliding under the edge of my wet tank top and making me gasp against his mouth.
The water around us was literally steaming, our combined body heat raising the temperature until it felt like we were in a hot spring instead of a cold river. I could feel the bond between us pulling tighter, that invisible connection that made every touch more intense.
I reached for the hem of my tank top, ready to pull it off, and Kaelen's hand closed over mine.
"Wait," he said, his voice rough. "Annabeth, wait."
"Why?"
"Because if we keep going there’s no turning back. And we agreed... we said we'd wait until you were ready for the bond."
He was right. Damn it, he was right. The bond completion, the permanent connection, that was supposed to be a decision we made consciously, not something that happened because we got carried away in a river after training.
But God, I wanted him. Wanted this. Wanted to say screw the waiting and just be with him completely.
"I know," I said finally, resting my forehead against his. "I know we should stop. I just... I don't want to."
"Me neither. Trust me, stopping is the last thing I want right now."
We stayed like that for a long moment, wrapped around each other in the steaming water, both of us breathing hard and trying to calm down. Eventually he loosened his grip on me and I unwrapped my legs from his waist, the loss of contact almost painful.
We swam back to shore in silence and got dressed in our damp clothes, neither of us quite looking at each other. The tension was still there but manageable now, something we could live with instead of something that demanded immediate action.
"Same time tomorrow?" I asked as we walked back to where we'd parked.
"Yeah. If you want."
"I don’t even know why you keep saying that. Don’t you see? I always want everything if you’re involved!"
He smiled and took my hand, threading our fingers together. "You did really good today. With the fire. I mean it."
"Thanks to you. You're a good teacher."
"You're a good student."
We drove back separately but texted the whole way, stupid flirty messages that made me smile at my phone like an idiot. When I got home my aunt took one look at my damp hair and clothes and raised her eyebrows but didn't ask questions, which I appreciated.
That night I fell asleep thinking about glowing eyes underwater and Kaelen's hands on my skin, and wondering how much longer I could wait before I said yes to everything the bond offered.