Heart Pierced - Kayla Knowles (1)

XVIII. Percabeth Is A Thing (And I Think Percy Got Us Both Killed)

That being said, the knowledge that he was probably having a tougher time with Annabeth right now made me smile, even as I walked through the corridors, the sound of my shoes taking one step after another along the stony floor of the labyrinth being the only sounds I could hear most of the time, other than the occasional monster, the voice in my head, and the rustling of my gear.

Honestly, I didn't want to spend any more time in this treacherous place than I needed to. I had stopped to talk with Kelli although that was not initially my intention, but that would about it. I had to find Hephaestus' forge, I had to get those magical weapons, and then I had to somehow get back through the labyrinth to camp with said weapons. I wished I could just go back to camp to Kayla right now, I really did.

But the threat of Luke, Kronos, and their forces destroying camp and killing what family I had left in this world and the only home I had left drove me to keep going. I had no other choice.

This was a war now.

A war to decide the future of America, and probably the whole world as well. A war for the survival of the Gods. A war for the future of demigods. A struggle for existence, if you may.

So I had to do this. For Percy, For Annabeth, For my siblings, For Clarisse, For Kayla, for the mortals, for the gods, for Camp Half Blood. It was for them all that I had to do this.

I had a feeling that I wasn't going to die from this, given the nature of my prophecy, but then again, when you're a demigod, you never knew. All I could do was fight to the best I could give and hope it would be enough to live and survive another day, or in this case, prevent camp from being destroyed and my friends - and Kayla - from meeting horrible fates.

So I pressed forward, following the voice in my head to its source, hoping that I would succeed in my mission.

- — - — - — - — -

I could tell that I was at least getting close to something after maybe two more hours down here, because the heat started to rise, and I could smell a bit of sulfur in the air. I was getting close to lava, it seemed. Hopefully where the lava was, that's where Hephaestus' forge was too.

Good, child. You are almost there.

I still hadn't figured out who in the world that voice talking to me was. I could at least definitely rule out the possibility of it being Kronos at this point though. It seemed to want me to come to it for reasons other than destroying Olympus and what not, to be honest.

Eventually, I came to a corridor that ended in a doorway. I could feel the presence of whoever was speaking to me being on the other side of that door somehow. It also was really hot by now, and I could hear lava churning. I guessed I was under maybe a volcano now, though I couldn't tell. Hopefully the forge was on the other side of those doors.

So I walked up to the doors, and pushed one open a little, taking a peek inside. There was a metal bridge that extended a good distance forward of me as I noticed that on the other side of the door was a massive sized cavern. A complex web of metal bridges weaved and connected various locations around the cavern, including more doors similar to the ones I was opening and to a rock ridge that flowed around the cavern, to a central area of machines, cauldrons, a massive anvil - everything you would expect in a forge.

I couldn't help but smile. Hephaestus' forge. I had found it, thanks to that weird voice.

I pushed the door opened more, and slipped on inside, taking cover along the boulders on the crest of portion of the rock ridge next to the bridge that was past the doors I had entered, and peered over the edge a tiny bit.