Beauty Within the Fire

Prologue

Nothing fun ever happens here. Nothing ever happens here. Where is here, you ask? Here is hell; my foster home. School is better than here and I hate school. My father is Hephaestus and I can't let anyone find that out. I don't know the people who are here. Maybe they can see through the Mist.

There's this one girl here and I don't think that she's a normal mortal. Her name is Gwen. She is the prettiest girl I have ever seen. She has long, dark brown hair and chocolate brown eyes. Gwen and I are the oldest ones here. We are both 15. Gwen and I share a room. We were both on our separate beds. She was doing her nails and I was sketching down a drawing of a house I actually wanted to live in.

"I know who you are." I say.

"What are you talking about?" She looks annoyed.

"You are way too pretty to be a mortal." I make the outline of the house, darker with my pencil.

"You will stop talking to me." She says.

"Are you trying to charmspeak?"

"What, how did you know?" I hold out my palm. I close my hand into a fist, then reopen it to have flames licking across it. I extinguish them before the fire alarm goes off.

"Our parents are married. This necklace that I made," I pull it out from my shirt. "Makes me immune to your charmspeaking." She closes her nail polish bottle.

"So, why are you even talking to me now."

"Well, I was thinking that-"

I get interrupted by the shaking of the house and a inhuman sound. Gwen and I leave the room to see what was going on. In the living room. Mrs. Pearson, our foster mother was shifting between her mortal form and a form that looked like a monster. Her face was deformed. Large teeth were leaving her mouth. She had wings, but they were burnt. Next to her, a boy with dark hair and a bead necklace around his neck and a blonde girl with the same necklace were standing in front of her.

"Come with me if you want to live." The boy says. "I've always wanted to say that!"

"Percy, come on, stop joking." The girl says. The monster continues growling and charges at the two unknown teenagers.

"WAIT!" I say under pressure, and blast fire at the monster, causing it to fall down. Everyone just has shock and relief across their faces. The boy takes out a pen that turns into a sword? And stabs the lifeless body.

"What?" The boy says. "Can't tell Chiron that I did nothing."

"Oh my gods, Percy."