Born in Beauty

by Melody Rose

  “I’m going to take him with me, and if you don’t let us go, you will never see him again,” I threatened, continuing my gravelly sound.

  Then, I guided Benji towards the door, walking backward so Zach could keep his eyes on the pair of us. Benji’s heart was racing so fast I could see his pulse jumping out from the artery in his throat. I made the conscious move to shift the knife farther away from actually harming him because it was just the illusion I needed. There was no reason to put my friend in actual life-threatening danger.

  “Benji,” Zach cried, his voice weak and his eyes on the verge of tears.

  “It’s okay,” Benji assured the soldier. “I’m going to be okay.”

  The sincerity in their voices nearly broke me. But I held true to the notion that my friend wasn’t thinking rationally, for whatever reason.

  We made it to the door, and like a true kidnapper, I commanded Benji to open it. He did as he was told, while I kept the knife to his neck. It took a solid minute for us to navigate out the door, looking more like a comedy show than an actual hostage situation, but we broke out into the hallway. I released Benji and shut the door behind us, hoping that the separation would clear his mind.

  For a moment, my friend just stood there, looking rather dazed. I held the doorknob in one hand and the knife in the other, just looking at him.

  “Benji?” I asked with caution.

  Suddenly, Benji charged me with heavy fists. I ducked out of the way, and his hand smashed into the solid oak door behind me. The crack of the wood and of his knuckles echoed in the empty hallway. Despite the injury, Benji went after me again. I stood my ground and blocked him from the door as he dove for my hand, which still gripped the handle.

  With a swift movement, I lifted my knee and struck Benji in the groin. The son of Demeter keeled over, unable to resist the urge to cower and cup his nuts. I caught him as he teetered over in pain, preventing him from collapsing on the floor.

  “I’m so sorry, Benji,” I muttered, low enough so he couldn’t hear me.

  Then I slammed my fist down on the back of his head, knocking my friend unconscious. He collapsed into my arms like a rag doll, and I struggled to keep him up. I maneuvered his limp body into a fireman’s carry over my shoulder. With a grunt, I hoisted him up in the air and ventured out of the art building.

  By the blessing of Tyche, we made it to the med bay without being spotted. Or if people did see us, they didn’t say anything of it, letting us pass by without comment.

  I kicked open one of the double doors leading to the lobby of the med bay. One of my least favorite people in the world sat at the counter. Alexander was one of those brown-nosing students who took his job way too seriously. He pretended that guarding the entrance to the med bay was the ultimate responsibility and liked to follow protocol to a tee. The one time I managed to talk him out of his rigid rules was when I had Khryseos and Argyreos with me because Alexander was afraid of dogs.

  “Cheyenne, oh, what’s happened?” Alexander asked as he stood up from his chair.

  “Benji fell and hit his head,” I made up on the spot. “I think he has a concussion, so I brought him to see Darren and get all healed up.”

  “Let me call him, and we can get a gurney down here for him,” Alexander said as he reached for his office phone.

  “No worries,” I said, “I’ll just take him back there. I’m already carrying him.” I didn’t want them to admit Benji without me giving some sort of explanation beyond “He fell,” which any real healer would know in an instant wasn’t true.

  “I can’t let you do that,” Alexander shook his head. “I know you’re concerned about your friend, but we’ll take good care of him, I promise.” He tacked on a not-so-reassuring smile for good measure.

  “Fine,” I relented. I dumped Benji’s unconscious body in one of the waiting room chairs. “Call Darren and tell him something’s wrong with Benji.”

  “That’s not how it--” Alexander began, but I was fed up with people feeding me excuses. I was already in a go-mode, and I decided to roll with it.

  “If you don’t call Darren down here right now, I will call Khryseos and Argyreos and have them wait with me,” I said as I crossed my arms in front of me, giving him the ultimatum. “Your choice.”

  “You… you wouldn’t do that,” Alexander said, though the doubt was already planted in his mind.

  “All it takes is a whistle, and then they teleport right to me,” I bluffed. I had no idea if I could command them anywhere. I made a mental note to test that later.

  As if in slow motion, I raised my fingers to my lips, pointer finger and thumb connected. My fingertips just grazed my bottom lip when Alexander scrambled for the phone. I heard him press a series of buttons before he held the phone to his ear with a grimace. His eyes never left me, keeping them trained on my fingers.

  “Uh, hi, Darren? Yeah, it’s Alexander… Uh-huh, I know I’m supposed to call the nurses, but it’s Cheyenne… Yes, she says something’s wrong with Benji… yep, they’re up here at the front… Okay, good, thank you. Bye-bye.”

  Alexander nervously dropped the phone before placing it back in its cradle. I smiled at him sweetly when he met my eyes again.

  “Thank you,” I said with a cheeky grin.

  Alexander didn’t say anything and instead sat back down at his desk with a grumble.

  It only took Darren a couple of minutes to get down to us. He burst through the doors that led to the rest of the med bay and searched around the room before spotting the pair of us by the front doors. He wore his white healer’s coat and pushed his glasses up his nose before reaching us.

  “Cheyenne,” Darren said with shock in his voice. “What happened to Benji? Is he okay?”

  Darren went to check Benji’s pulse, and as he leaned down, I leaned over to speak in his ear. “Something’s wrong with him, but I can’t tell you here.”

  Instantly understanding, Darren adjusted his stethoscope around his neck and coughed nervously. “I’ll get a gurney.”

  Together, we loaded Benji onto the gurney all the while Alexander watched, never offering to help. I felt bad about threatening him, but I couldn’t risk going through protocols with this weird ailment. Darren and I pushed him through the hallways, me acting like the concerned friend when anyone passed us. We managed to get him into a private room, but we didn’t unload him from the mobile bed.

  Immediately, Darren set to examining him once we knew we were alone. “Start talking, Cheyenne.”

  “It was bonkers, Darren, I’m telling you,” I said, not even really knowing where to start. “And you’re going to think I’m crazy.”

  “I’m already starting to,” Darren said wearily as he lifted Benji’s eyelids and shined a light in them. “Gods, he’s out cold. What happened to him?”

  “I punched him,” I said through gritted teeth.

  “You what?” Darren gawked. “What the hell?”

  “Darren, just listen,” I assured him, holding out my hands urgently. “I think he’s under some kind of love spell.”

  The healer’s body froze, hovering over Benji, mid examination. He straightened up, slow and deliberate. I waited for him to speak first, but Darren couldn’t seem to find the words as he opened and shut his mouth several times. When I realized that nothing was coming out, I decided to step in.

  “Hear me out,” I started. “I caught him fraternizing with Zach, the new Gi leader.”

  “Fraternizing?” Darren asked, sounding out the word as if he didn’t know what it meant.

  “Yeah, you know,” I said. Then I added a crude hand gesture to clarify.

  Darren’s eyes grew almost as wide as the rims of his glasses. He took them off his face and then rubbed them on his coat, mouth hanging slightly open. I nodded slowly at him. “Yep.”

  “I just can’t believe Benji would jeopardize his spot in the Academy like that,” Darren said as he adjusted his glasses back on his face. “For a fling.”

  “That’s w
hat I said,” I agreed, encouraged by the fact that we were on the same page. “But when he wakes up, you can ask him. He believes he’s in love with Zach.”

  “Love?” Darren gawked. “It’s been, like, twenty-four hours.”

  “Less than that, I think,” I continued, the thrill of being on a roll propelling me forward. “But what really threw me off was that he said the exact same words that Janet and Rick did when they were defending their relationship.”

  “Hold on.” Darren stopped me by holding out his hands. He came closer to me and lowered his voice. “You also caught Janet sleeping with an officer?”

  “Yes,” I said, drawing out the word. I was vindicated that Darren was picking up what I was putting down. I could see it in his eyes that while this whole situation was crazy, my friend believed me. “The same words. Something about connection. But it was bonkers, the whole thing. And here’s the really crazy part.”

  “It gets crazier?” Darren asked, his tone unsure if he wanted to hear any more.

  “Temperance, the fourth year? Daughter of Hypnos?”

  Darren nodded and waved his hand forward, telling me he knew her and should continue.

  “She just got kicked out, get this.” I leaned in, my thumbs and pointer fingers pressing into each other urgently. “For fraternizing with an officer.”

  Darren leaned back his head and exhaled deeply. He pushed his coat back with a swift movement and put his hands on his hips. My friend reached under his glasses and pinched the bridge of his nose as he glanced down at the white-tiled floor.

  “If what you’re saying is true,” Darren started.

  “It is true!” I insisted. Darren held up his hand, and I swallowed my words, letting him finish.

  “Then something seriously powerful must be affecting them,” Darren concluded. “There’s no way this many affairs are happening like this. Especially when they are using the same excuses when you talk to them.”

  “Can’t you test him?” I grabbed for something to do, some sort of solution. “Do anything in order to see if I’m right?”

  “I wouldn’t even know where to begin testing for something like this,” Darren admitted. The confusion was apparent in his eyes. It was almost as though I could hear his thoughts whirring at warp speed to think of something that might work.

  “Can’t you do that scanning thing?” I held out my hands, mimicking how Darren used his powers. “Wave them over him and diagnose what’s wrong with him?”

  Darren looked disapprovingly at my impression of him. I lowered my hands and put them behind my back. I rolled my lips over my teeth and waited for him to finish.

  “I work with the body,” Darren said firmly, “not the mind. This is definitely a mental thing.”

  I exhaled and went to sit down in the empty chair in the small patient room. However, Darren reached out and gently grabbed my arm, preventing me from sitting down.

  “Why don’t we let him be and head out here?” Darren suggested. “I have the feeling he’s going to be out for a bit.”

  “I didn’t hit him that hard, did I?” I winced.

  Darren tilted his head back and forth in a noncommittal way as he opened the door for me.

  I rubbed my hands up and down my face, elongating my cheeks and massaging them. We walked out together, and Darren shut the door behind us, so we huddled in the hallway. As I watched my friend shut the door, a sense of hopelessness struck my chest and made it hard to breathe.

  “What are we going to do, Darren?” I asked, looking up at my friend with wide eyes.

  The hopelessness deepened when Darren met me with the same doubtful look. It hurt to think that we might not be able to solve this together. We’d been through so much, the pair of us. Since we were the ones who snuck off-campus, borrowed a pair of pegasus, and saved a group of Fotia third years. Darren had trusted me then, and I knew that was a bond that would forever be in my life.

  So when we both confronted the fact that we were in over our heads, out of resources, it was a weight I didn’t want to bear.

  “I’m scared they aren’t the only ones,” I said, voicing my biggest fear aloud.

  “What makes you think that?” Darren scratched the side of his head.

  “Just that it’s too big of a coincidence,” I murmured. “Three love-struck couples on the first day of the school year? I bet if we looked, we’d find others hooking up.”

  “Well,” Darren released the word with a heavy sigh. “We can’t do anything until he wakes up. I’ll do some research in the meantime and see if there’s something I’m not thinking of.”

  “Or maybe I’m wrong,” I ventured, unable to leave the possibility unsaid.

  “Or maybe you’re wrong,” Darren said, giving the option valid weight. “But we’ll find out soon.”

  I matched Darren’s heavy sigh as I leaned back against the wall and tipped the back of my head against the cool stone. As I looked up at the ceiling tiles, I reran the events of the last day over in my mind.

  “Hey Cheyenne,” Darren said, his tone changing to something lighter as if he weren’t sure of what he wanted to say.

  “Yeah?”

  “What happened to Zach when you took Benji away?”

  As if the healer had summoned the man himself, Zach burst through the double doors from the waiting room and into the main hallway of the med bay. He wore an expression of murder on his face as he charged towards me. To my horror, the General and other Olympic Officials followed in the wake of the Gi soldier. Suddenly, Zach’s finger was in my face with an accusing point.

  “There she is!” Zach shouted. “There’s the girl that attacked me.”

  12

  I flattened myself against the wall as if I were trying to slip through it. Darren got between the Gi soldier and me and shielded me from the onslaught of Zach’s anger.

  “You bitch! You broke my wrist, do you know that? Do you know what that means for you? They’re going to kick you out of here so fast that you won’t know what hit you. Blink and then all your memories will be gone,” Zach snapped his fingers, the click echoing in the hallway. “Just like that.”

  My own surge of anger fueled me forward, and I pushed myself off the wall. “Not if all your fucking gets you kicked out of here first.”

  Darren turned to me and pulled me out of Zach range while Officers Min and Buck dragged Zach to the opposite wall. Some other med bay staff peeked out from other patient rooms and around corners to get a look at the commotion. The General stood between the two opposing packs, his arms stretched out all the way, palms facing each of us.

  “There has been enough fighting,” the General announced.

  My chest heaved with heavy breaths at Zach’s comments. Unfortunately, the General’s presence didn’t do anything to calm me down. I pushed the air out of my nose like a bull, ready to charge. Darren strong-armed me, pinning me against the wall. He didn’t budge, and I noticed a physical strength I hadn’t ever seen in my friend before. Only under the weight of his arm did I calm down. The protectiveness of his touch reassured me that I wasn’t alone in this.

  “Cheyenne,” the General addressed me in his gruff, but authoritative voice. “Zachariah tells us that you struck him.”

  “I had to,” I defended, my voice weaker than I wanted it to be.

  The General’s salt and pepper eyebrows raised at my response. “You had to?”

  “Yeah, he wouldn’t let Benji…” I swallowed the rest of my words, uncomfortable with the number of eyes on me.

  “Ah yes,” the General said with an amount of smugness that I didn’t appreciate. “He also told us that you threatened the son of Demeter’s life?”

  “Again, only because I had to,” I said, the words coming out sharp. I leaned forward, urgency propelling me onward. But my body slammed into Darren’s arm, which still held me back.

  “You didn’t have to do anything,” Zach cried from across the way, where the other two officers were still keeping him at bay. “You just cam
e into the art studio, waving a knife around out of nowhere.”

  “It wasn’t even my knife,” I argued back, pushing myself against Darren even harder. My thrusts caused Darren to teeter a bit, but he held his ground. “You pulled it on me first.”

  “General,” Min interrupted. “Maybe we can take this somewhere more private?”

  For the first time, the General seemed to notice the observers to our situation. He glanced about, his eyes shifting from the onlookers to Zach and then to me. I narrowed my gaze, making sure to harden my eyes as much as I could.

  “Darren,” the General said, not once looking away from me. “Is there somewhere we can go?”

  “There’s a conference room just down the hall,” Darren replied. For the first time since Zach and the Officers charged in, my friend released me. I exhaled in time with his arm as it lowered.

  Zach shrugged off Min and Buck with an unnecessarily violent jerk as he traipsed down the hall. He cradled his wrist as he tucked his arm under his elbow and lifted it above his head to let gravity help with the swelling. A flash of pride sparked through me as I saw the bruise that was already forming beneath his skin.

  As the group of us walked down the med bay hall, the nurses and other staff members skittered away like mice. The effect the General had rippled like a rock thrown into a lake. He didn’t even have to say a word, and everyone listened to him as if his mere presence was enough to make everyone follow orders. It was as impressive as it was intimidating.

  Before one of the nurses had the chance to get away completely, Darren called out to her. “Reese, there is a patient in room 105. Can you please check on him and let me know when he’s awake?”

  “Absolutely Darren,” Reese said, though she wouldn’t catch his eye.

  Darren scurried ahead so he could unlock the conference room door. We entered a white-washed room with a long rectangular table that had eight chairs around it, like a dining room table. There was a wall of windows, all with the shades drawn down to block out the afternoon light.