Chapter 4 4

Annabeth's POV:

I brushed my teeth thinking about the boy's eyes, not because I was obsessed or anything like that, just because it had been weird, the whole thing had been weird, and my brain always got stuck on weird things until I found a logical explanation.

My aunt was already asleep when I got home, she used to go to bed really early, her door closed and the light off. Just as well. I didn't feel like explaining why I was half an hour late or making up excuses about helping strangers beaten up in dark alleys. She would worry, give me a lecture about safety, and I would end up feeling bad for worrying her.

My room was small, but I had decorated it with posters of the human circulatory system and the periodic table, because, yes, I was that kind of nerd. On my desk was a stack of biology books I had been reading over the summer, preparing for college as if it were some kind of Harvard entrance exam and not a public university in a remote town.

I put on my old pajamas, the plaid pants and worn T-shirt, and crawled under the covers. Outside, the cicadas made that constant noise that had driven me crazy at first but now I found almost relaxing.

I closed my eyes.

And suddenly I was flying.

Not like in those weird dreams where you float around uncontrollably, but really flying, like I knew what I was doing. The wind hit my face, cold and sharp, and I could see the village spread out below me, the yellow lights of the street lamps like scattered dots in the darkness.

My arms... no, they weren't arms. They were wings. Huge and powerful, beating against the air with a force I felt in every muscle.

I rose higher and the feeling was incredible, intoxicating. As if I could do anything, go anywhere. Power ran through my veins, hot and electric, and when I opened my mouth, a roar came out instead of my voice.

Fire.

I was breathing fire.

The flames came out red and orange and bright, lighting up the clouds in front of me, and I could feel the heat in my throat, but it didn't burn me. It was part of me, it was...

I woke up with a start, gasping for breath.

My room was dark and quiet. The periodic table was still on the wall. The clock read 2:47 AM. Everything was normal.

But my heart was beating as if I had run a marathon.

I put my hand on my chest and took a deep breath, trying to calm down. It was just a dream. A very vivid and very strange dream, but a dream nonetheless. Probably because of the ridiculous conversation with Mara about magic and guys with glowing eyes. My subconscious had taken all that and mixed it into a surreal nightmare.

I got up to wash my face and get some water, my legs still a little shaky. In the bathroom, I went to the sink and looked at myself in the mirror.

And I froze.

My eyes...

For a second, less than a second, they glowed red. Bright red, intense red, like embers.

I blinked hard and the color disappeared. Normal brown. Boring brown. Same as always.

What the hell?

I moved closer to the mirror, opened my eyes as wide as I could, examined them from every angle. Nothing. Just me, looking tired and disheveled and completely human.

Light tricks. It had to be that. The bathroom light was awful, yellowish and flickering, probably not even from this century. And I was tired. And scared from the dream. And my brain was playing tricks on me because tomorrow... today, technically, was my first day of college and I was nervous.

That was it.

There was no other logical explanation.

I drank some water, went back to bed and forced myself to close my eyes, breathe slowly, think about boring things like photosynthesis and the Krebs cycle until finally, finally, I fell asleep again.

This time without dreams.

Morning came too quickly, and with it the sound of the alarm clock I had set for six because I wanted to have enough time to get ready, eat breakfast, and arrive early on campus.

My aunt was already in the kitchen when I came downstairs, making coffee and scrambled eggs.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," she said, even though it was 6:30 a.m. and I wasn't sleepy at all. "Ready for your first day?"

"I think so. Nervous, more like."

"That's normal." She poured me a cup of coffee, and I put too much sugar in it because coffee without sugar was disgusting. "You'll be fine, Beth. You're smart. Smarter than most of the kids you'll meet there, I promise."

I smiled. My aunt was one of those people who thought I was a genius when in reality I was just good at memorizing things.

"What classes do you have today?"

"General Biology, Chemistry, and I think an introduction to something. I don't remember."

"Sounds exciting."

"Sounds like a lot of homework."

We had breakfast together while she told me about her job at the municipal library, a boring job that paid little but she liked because it allowed her to read in her spare time. My aunt was simple in her tastes: books, coffee, and being left alone. That's why we got along so well.

I didn't mention anything about the night before. Not about the guy, not about the drunks, not about the weird dreams or the eyes that definitely didn't glow red.

I drove to campus with the windows down, letting the fresh air clear my head. Emberdale looked different in the daytime, less picturesque and more... ordinary. Old houses, cracked streets, businesses that had seen better days. The university was on the northern edge of town, a cluster of brick buildings surrounded by trees that were probably the prettiest thing in the place.

I found a parking spot after circling three times, grabbed my new backpack that still smelled like the store, and walked toward the main building. Other students were arriving, some looking as lost as I did, others walking with the confidence of those who had already spent semesters here.

The campus was bigger than I thought. Gardens with wooden benches, stone paths branching off in different directions, signs pointing to buildings with names that meant nothing to me yet.

I felt out of place. Small. As if everyone knew something I didn't.

I decided to explore a little before classes started. According to the map I had downloaded, the science building was at the back, past the main gardens. I took one of the stone paths and...

I saw him.

The boy from last night. The one I saved. The one with eyes that glowed gold, except they didn't glow because that was impossible.

He was sitting on a bench under a large tree, reading something, completely focused. The morning light hit him from the side, and I could see that he was fine, completely fine, with no marks or bruises or anything to indicate that he had been used as a punching bag less than twelve hours earlier.

How?

I stood there like an idiot, staring at him, my brain trying to process the impossibility of his recovery while my heart did that stupid thing of racing for no reason.

And then, as if he could feel my gaze, he lifted his head.

Our eyes met.