Chapter 19
Alarge metal door pulsing with fire magic looms ahead of us. “Is that the door you found before or where you located the hammer?”
“The hammer was down that hall.” Kira points at a wall to the right. “What? There was a hall there before.”
“Hmm, I wonder if she was able to get into the forge at all. Maybe she couldn’t bypass his magic even with the hammer in her possession.
” I touch the cold stone wall. “It doesn’t look like anything has ever been there before.
The magic she put on it must have snapped as soon as you retrieved the hammer. ”
The ground rumbles again and debris and dust shake free from the ceiling of the cavern onto my head. “That’s not important right now. We need to get through that door. Do you think you can open it now that you have the hammer?”
“Maybe. It might have been a failsafe or something because the queen tried to get in before.” Kira steps closer to the door, her own palm pulsing with that same fire magic.
I hold up my hand and warn everyone to step back. We haven’t done anything like this before and I don’t know what will happen when Kira opens that door. Will there be booby traps or lava spewing out the door?
“I think we should stay back just in case. Kira can handle the fire god’s magic. We can’t. She’s not even breaking a sweat in here and we’re a bunch of drowned rats.”
“Speak for yourself, B. I make the drowned rat aesthetic look good.” Raven flips her hair over her shoulder.
“Yeah, okay.” I swipe the sweat from my forehead, turning back to Kira.
Her palms glow white-hot against the metal door. Designs of great Greek creatures glow and pulse as she attempts to open it. The groan of metal on metal filters through the room as the ground rumbles again. I stumble into Raven just slightly before planting my feet and catching my balance.
“The ground is cracking again. They are widening,” Draven whispers.
“Don’t rush her. We don’t want her to make a mistake and end up hurt because of it,” I hiss back at him.
“We’re running out of time, though,” he says.
“I know, but she will figure it out.”
“I may be using magic, but I can still hear you.” Kira slams her hands against the metal door.
It creaks and groans as it slowly swings open into a cavernous space. Gold automatons stand sentry at the other end of what can only be a storage facility.
“What is all this?” I ask.
There are hundreds of automatons standing in neat rows like soldiers ready for battle. They all have shields with Hephaestus’ mark in the center.
“This is why the door was locked,” Kira breathes. “Can you imagine what the queen would have done if she got her hands on these?”
I shudder. “We would have never stood a chance against an army like this.”
“It would have been a bloodbath,” Raven says. “They all have different weapons on them. Do they have different strengths? Weaknesses?”
“I don’t know,” Kira admits. “They aren’t animated yet, just built without orders from their master. What will he do with them?”
“I hope he plans to help us in the war. Maybe Apollo told him long ago to start building an army. You know he saw all this millennia ago.” I step deeper into the room.
“It still blows my mind that he saw all this coming and put everything in place so we had a fighting chance. Even Orion being lost to the stars.” Raven shivers.
“That is something I’ll always be thankful I wasn’t blessed with.”
“Agreed,” Raven says.
“The sentries are blocking something.” Kira steps forward. “I wonder if they’re guarding the entrance to my father’s workshop.”
“We have nothing to lose so lead the way.” I wave her forward.
Kira glances back at us before walking directly between two sentries which don’t even flinch in her direction. Shrugging, I try to follow when golden swords cross from both sides, blocking my path.
“Okay, well, what do we do now?” I rub my forehead.
“I don’t know.” Kira walks over to me, passing the same two sentries without a problem and wraps her arm around mine. “Let’s try this.”
We walk side by side, but once again the sentries cross their swords, barring my entrance.
This is bullshit. The whole world is going to end if we don’t get to Hephaestus and his stupid golden guard dogs won’t let us pass.
We can’t send Kira in alone this time because we all need transport back to the academy.
Gripping my charm, I pull my sword from the ether and crouch into a fighting stance. “I need to speak with your master, now.”
“No one but his own are allowed to disturb the master in his workshop.” A robotic voice comes from the sentry to the right.
“The war has already started, and we need to get back to it. Go tell your master the daughter of Zeus is here, and we have a gift for him.” I raise my sword to its golden throat.
“No, I will not disturb the master. Only those of his blood may enter.”
“They have some ridged programming. Maybe we should tell Hephaestus he should program some buzz words in the hardware that will alert him when there’s a fucking war to fight and we need his help,” I growl.
“You must let us all through.” Kira glares at the automatons. Her irises flicker with the flames of her wolf. “We need to get to the final battle before we lose and all is lost.”
“Only those of his blood may enter. Now, step away before I’m forced to attack those who wish to intrude on the master’s important work.” The automaton on the left shoves me back but I spin away, thrusting my sword up at the sentry beside me.
“Initiating attack sequence. Intruders are present in the main hall.” A robotic voice sounds around the entire space like surround sound.
“Um, that can’t be good.” I call my whip as the sentry on the left lunges for me with a blunt metal club of some kind.
It swings but I duck low and sweep my leg out, catching it at the ankles. The sentry falls to the ground with a clunk, and I wince, not wanting to hurt these things that are just following orders, but also not having a choice now but to fight them.
“Is there anything you can do, Kira? Like work the same mojo you did before? Can you get them to stand down?” I shout.
“I don’t think so.” She blocks a sword with her own. “There are too many of them. Hopefully my father heard the attack sequence initiated and it will bring him out of his tunnel vision.”
“What’s plan B if that doesn’t work?” I ask.
“We will have to destroy the sentries but only as a last resort.” Kira swings her sword again, fighting off a sentry with an ax.
Double doors that I hadn’t noticed before on the left wall swing open and more automatons pour into the room.
“Isn’t this a bit overkill for five demigods just wanting to speak with Hephaestus?” I roll, just barely dodging a sword to my throat.
These guys are fighting to kill while we’re worried about damaging them. Isn’t that just the hardest part of fighting a fucking robot.
“Watch out, B,” Raven shouts.
I flip backward just in time for the sword to swing over me instead of through me the way the automaton surely intended.
“I don’t know how long we can fight these things with a fear of damaging them, Kira. They are going for kill shots.”
“Can you use your magic to stun them the way you did before?” Draven asks.
“There are too many of them. The sandwich helped but it wasn’t even a top up on my magic levels.” I sweep my leg out in a circle, taking two different sentries out at the ankles.
“Do you need another?” Greyson calls out.
“A little busy trying not to die, snack mom,” I shout back.
It’s a second before Draven and Greyson are standing around me, swords raised, defending me against the sentinels. Greyson tosses me a sandwich he pulled from his pack and even in this bad situation, I can’t help but laugh. Greyson takes his snack mom duty seriously.
“Thank you,” I mumble around the big bite of sandwich, already feeling my magic building back up to normal levels.
“I’m not always able to help much with the Greek monsters and stuff, but I can help with this.” He swings his blade, blocking two that arc toward him.
“It’s appreciated and I’m already feeling almost to full strength.” I jump from the floor and call my whip and sword that I dropped.
“Maybe if we can get around them while fighting. Like herd them to the center of the hall with us by the doors to the workshop? We might be able to end this,” Draven whispers.
“That might work but we may have to take some of them out first. We can’t possibly herd them all to the middle.” I scan the room.
Kira and Raven are fighting back-to-back, inching their way toward the door, but a wall of automatons forms along the back wall, blocking any path we may be able to take through to the workshop.
The ground rumbles harder than it has before and a chunk of rock falls from the ceiling. I shove Greyson out of the way, rolling with him as the rock shatters on the ground where we were just standing.
“Get up, Beth. There’s a crack forming under you.” Greyson tugs my arm.
The heat sears my skin as the crack widens. A scream bubbles up my throat as bubbling lava pops at my side. I roll away from the fiery inferno that just opened up beneath me, but my shirt is burned along with my skin that’s charred and black.
“Fuck, we have to get out of here. The place is gonna blow,” I shout, holding on to my charred side with one hand while brandishing my sword with the other.
“There’s no way out,” Draven hisses. “They’ve blocked all exits.”
“Hephaestus,” I scream. “Get out of that tunnel vision and call off your pets. We’re going to die in here.”
Nothing changes. The automatons attack even more viciously. The blows almost come too fast for me to dodge.
“What did you think that would accomplish? We’re in a literal war zone of his making right now and he hasn’t stopped what he’s doing yet.” Draven dodges a club and slices the center of an automaton. “We can’t hold back anymore. We need to end this.”
“I know, but look how vicious they are. I would hate to lose allies for the war once Hephaestus gets his head out of his ass.” My shoulders slump.