Forge of the Gods 2

by Simon Archer

  “Oh yeah,” Jade giggled. “The minute someone gets diagnosed, they give them dildos and put them on the pill.”

  “Gods,” I sputtered. “I didn’t even think about that factor.”

  With her free hand, Jade fiddled with her necklace, but she wouldn’t look me in the eye. “You ever want to become infected so you have that infatuation?”

  “No, but what does that matter?” I defended stubbornly.

  It was as though the air deflated out of her. Her face fell, her lips turning downward as if she were disappointed in herself. “Nothing. Absolutely nothing. I’m sorry, I’m just… jealous of all these couples. Like, I know it’s not real, but I want what they have. I want you and me and Hailey and Daniella to be able to show affection all the time. And Beth...maybe. Is that stupid?”

  At her confession, my heart cracked.

  “No,” I said with a slight shake of my head. “It’s not stupid at all.”

  “It feels stupid, I know we all agreed to keep it quiet until the rest of us graduated like Hailey, but I want that obvious love.” Jade whined.

  “Love’s not stupid,” I said, feeling more like a fortune cookie than actually meaning the words.

  “Are you in love with any of us?” Jade asked. She folded her hands over one another and leaned her chin on them, like a nosey housewife with nothing better to do.

  I looked away. I didn’t know how to respond to that. Was I in love? I didn’t know. I turned to face Jade again to tell her as much, but I paused before I could say anything.

  Jade’s face turned serious, so suddenly that it almost scared me. “Don’t you want somebody? Someone to make you feel special? I can make you feel special.”

  My mouth opened and closed, unable to think of an answer.

  I coughed suddenly, choking on my own spit. Jade’s eyes grew worried, and she leaned over the table to slap me on the back.

  “You okay?” Jade asked, and I nodded in response even though my eyes were still watery. Jade returned to her seat and took another couple of bites of her oatmeal.

  “I always wanted a family,” Jade said as she looked wistfully into her breakfast. “I wanted a big family to cook for.”

  “Wanted?” I asked, emphasizing the past tense.

  “No, I still do,” Jade rushed in to clarify. “I just… this whole love disease thing is making me feel like I’m behind.”

  “Jade,” I said as I reached across the table and took her hands. “Daniella’s going to find a cure, and then everything will go back to normal. We can talk with Daniella and Hailey and figure out where we want to go.” I waved my hand out to the rest of the tables, one with a handful of touchy-feely couples. “But you don’t want us to discuss it if we are like this, whatever this is.”

  “I know you’re right,” Jade sighed. “It’s just hard to watch.”

  “You’re telling me,” I chuckled. “Classes with Beth is all ‘Bella this’ and ‘Bella that,’” I moaned. “Especially in Grecian art. She keeps hoping Bella will walk in naked again.”

  Jade released a laugh that made me feel better about this whole conversation. It was nice to hear my friend relax back to a comfortable place.

  “You don’t have Grecian art this morning, do you?” Jade checked.

  “No, but I have to be outside in Agriculture,” I groaned.

  Jade rolled her eyes at me. “That’s not bad. I’m off to Mythology 201 where the curriculum has officially switched to all of the disastrous affairs of the gods and goddesses.”

  “Oh, all the fun sexual exploits,” I scoffed. “Enjoy all that.”

  “Say hi to Ann for me,” Jade leaned across the table and kissed my cheek. To which I cupped her chin and turned her so I could kiss her lips.

  Ann was the only good part of Agriculture. The rest put us out in the fields under the sun. We helped Ann prep for the harvest which I didn’t mind considering I got to have some tools in my hand. But I wanted a roof over my head and soot on my hands rather than the sun on my neck and dirt under my nails.

  However, to my surprise, Alix came to get me for testing. When she first came up over the hill and asked for me, I forgot my name for a hot second.

  “Me?” I pointed to my chest. “But I’m fine.”

  “We’ll know for sure after we complete the tests,” Alix explained. “There’s a chance that people can still be infected, although the disease hasn’t fully manifested yet.”

  “Oh,” I muttered, surprised at this turn of events. I wondered how many people they found positive for this love-struck disease.

  The walk to the med bay was a quiet one. We only collected one more person on our way over, a first-year girl with bushy eyebrows and a square jaw. She grimaced the whole way to the med bay and didn’t say a single word. Not that I was really in the mood for conversation either.

  Once we reached the med bay, there was a short line at the front in the lobby where Marcy worked. Students and guards alike held out their hands, pointer finger extended. There were three nurses attending to the demigods. They used a new device for each person. The instrument pricked their fingers, collected the blood, and then went in a hole in the wall that sucked them up like one of those old bank teller machines that would send my mom’s checks through. Each one whooshed through the air and to the lab at the other end of the med bay.

  “We just start with an initial blood test,” Alix explained as she ushered us into the lines. “Once we examine that, we’ll see what we need to test next.”

  I nodded as if all of this made sense to me, when, in fact, I didn’t know what they were testing. Daniella kept rather hush-hush about the whole thing, and I didn’t blame her, considering how we’d basically stolen the initial results from Bella and Beth from her. So I just followed the other demigods and waited to get my finger pricked.

  It felt like a pinch, and the nurse offered me a small, tired smile and a pink neon band-aid. I wrapped it around my finger and then met Alix on the other side, where she escorted a larger group of us down the hallway.

  The next stop was a wide room with two rows of patient beds. Nurses buzzed around from bed to bed like bees. Some of the pale blue curtains were drawn over the hospital beds, whereas others hung open, revealing students and guards waiting for their turn. The whole area smelled of lemons and bleach, a sharp scent that pinched at my nose.

  As if she were a magnet, my eyes spotted Hailey right away. Her shirt was off, a simple sports bra covering the small bit of her modesty because it was revealing the firm muscles in her back and shoulders as she hunched over the side of her bed. His shaggy blond hair hung in her face as she bowed her head and stared at the tile floor, eyes closed.

  Bolts of electricity zoomed through my body at the sight of her. I swallowed so loudly that the first year I came in with gave me an apprehensive look. I shrugged her off and continued to follow Alix when I realized we were headed directly for Hailey. Or at least, for the empty bed next to hers.

  “You can be here, Cameron,” she instructed.

  At the sound of my name, Hailey’s head lifted. She turned to look over her shoulder and met my eyes instantly. I offered her an embarrassed wave which she returned with a half-smile.

  “Thanks, Alix,” I grumbled, and the nurse moved on without a response, taking the first year with her.

  I didn’t sit on the bed or touch anything in my small corner of the med bay. Instead, I rubbed my upper arms as if the room had suddenly grown chilly. I did everything I could not to look at Hailey, but I could feel her eyes on me like a ray of sunlight on my neck.

  “So, are you infected with Tainted Love?” Hailey asked casually.

  “Tainted Love?” I wondered, picking up on her specific enunciation.

  “That’s the nickname for the love disease,” Hailey explained with a half shrug like she wasn’t that impressed. “Tainted Love.”

  “Oh, like the song. Makes sense,” I said with a slow bob of my head. “But no, I don’t think I am.”

  “
Me neither,” Hailey replied. “Or at least, I don’t think I am.”

  “They’re saying though that they’ve been finding traces in most everyone,” I said, repeating Alix’s words. “It just hasn’t manifested in everyone yet.”

  “That’s terrifying,” Hailey scoffed.

  There was a lull in our conversation, and Hailey switched positions on her bed. She now faced my bed, which I still refused to sit on. She spread her legs over the side of the bed and leaned back, bracing herself with her arms. Whether she meant to or not, it pushed her breasts out obscenely in her sports bra and I had to restrain myself from taking her there in the med bay.

  “I don’t like this,” she confessed.

  “Me neither,” I agreed. Thankful for the distracting conversation. “Give me a flock of harpies or a clay minotaur any day over this.” I mentioned our previous battles meaning it as a joke, but I realized, just then, that all of the monsters I’d faced, I’d faced with Hailey. Those battles were significant markers in my life, and she had been there for every single one.

  “Yeah,” Hailey sighed in agreement. “But it’s more unnerving to me that someone else could be in control of my emotions. I wouldn’t get a say for myself.”

  “You really can’t control your emotions anyway,” I said unthinkingly.

  Hailey’s eyebrow raised. “You have to, as a soldier.”

  “Right, but I just mean…” my voice trailed off. What did I mean? It took a moment to find the right words. “You just feel what you feel. You might be able to hide what you’re feeling, but that doesn’t make the feelings go away.”

  “Are you good at it?” Hailey asked. “Hiding your feelings?”

  “Not really,” I said.

  “There are some feelings I don’t want to hide,” Hailey said, her voice soft as she pushed herself forward and rested her elbows on her knees. She released a puff of air as she interlaced her fingers and placed them in her lap. Contemplation crossed her face and then a flash of worry. I waited for her to speak because it seemed like something was on her mind, and I didn’t want to voice my guess as to what it was.

  “Cameron, I--”

  “Cameron Alpin?” a new voice interrupted.

  I whirled around to see the daughter of Aphrodite looming over me. Even though Artemis was the queen of the Amazons, this woman had the height and beauty of one of those warrior princesses. She wore golden jewelry that accented her white ensemble. Her dark skin gleamed even in the harsh fluorescent lights of the room. However, her eyes narrowed down at me as she crooked a finger and beckoned me forward.

  Even though I had no trouble standing up to authority figures or sassing them directly, this woman intimidated the hell out of me. I chanced a nervous glance back at Hailey, whose own eyes were as wide as saucers. She nodded me onward, and I decided it was best to obey Genesis.

  She didn’t say a word as she led me out of the shared waiting space and down the med bay hall. I lost my way as we navigated through the building, going to parts I’d never gone to. Being a rather healthy individual, I hardly ever came here. Mostly I visited others here, whether or not I was allowed to was a different question.

  We stopped in front of a door with a hazy glass pane in the center. In black lettering, the window read: Dr. Makayla, daughter of Hermes, Chief of Medicine. Genesis rapped on the door with her knuckles, which was met with a click as the door unlocked. Genesis pushed open the office door and gestured that I should enter first.

  I did as I was told. It was a small office with a large oak desk in the center with two generic chairs across from it. The back wall behind the desk held a messy bookshelf with seemingly no organization to it. Papers were stacked high and haphazardly, where are books toppled over one another. There was a golden trophy with a shoe on it, with the iconic wings on the heel. An old computer, like one out of my elementary school computer lab, hung out on the corner, the screen dark.

  The most impressive thing in the office was the Caduceus. It glimmered in the light of the room and hung on the wall, like a piece of artwork other than the weapon it was. It was more of a bludgeoning weapon with no blade, which is why I often didn’t make them or fancy them in my work. However, there was no denying the intricacy of this piece. The two snakes curved along the sides of the rod, ascending upwards to the top orb and outstretched wings, that made the weapon look like a capital T.

  I wondered what it was doing here, considering it wasn’t the typical symbol for medicine. That was the Rod of Asclepius, Daniella’s father. Still, Makayla was the daughter of Hermes, and the Caduceus was his accessory of choice, along with his winged shoes, so I supposed it made some sense in that regard.

  The door slammed shut behind me, snapping my wandering eyes to attention. Genesis walked around the desk and leaned forward on the flat oak surface, using her straight arms to brace herself. Suddenly, Makayla materialized in the chair beside her. Her fingers were long and clasped together, touching her lips in a contemplative posture.

  “Cameron Alpin,” Genesis said my name like it was a curse. “Why am I not surprised that it’s you?”

  “That what’s me?” I asked, thoroughly confused.

  “We got your results back from the initial blood test,” Makayla reported, her voice much softer than Genesis’s accusing tone.

  “Is that why you brought me here?” I asked. “Because I’m guessing not everyone gets the honor of hearing their results from the Chief of Medicine herself. And Genesis, of course,” I added, gesturing out to Genesis, who didn’t look amused. I tucked my hands under my thighs and waited.

  “Your results are different from anyone else’s on all of campus,” Makayla continued, answering my question in a backward manner.

  My eyebrows shot up of their own accord. “They are?”

  “Yes,” Genesis answered with a scowl. “And they’re rather unusual.”

  I kept my mouth shut, even though it was torture not to ask the obvious question hanging in the air.

  “You don’t have a trace of the disease in you,” Makayla said, as though she were offering me a death sentence.

  “I thought that would be a good thing?” My voice turned the statement into a question because Makayla’s manner was seriously throwing me off.

  “We’ve found a trace of the disease in everyone on campus,” Makayla continued. “Even a small dose. Your blood is the only one to come up completely negative.”

  “Which is why we brought you here,” Genesis picked up the conversation. She sucked her teeth. “Because we want you to tell us why you did it.”

  “Did what?” I wondered. Even though I was terrified, I already knew the answer.

  “Why you released the virus in the first place.”

  15

  “Now hang on just a second,” I protested, my hands whipped out from under my thighs and raising in the air like I was at gunpoint. “I didn’t do anything of the sort. I wouldn’t even know how to do that.”

  “Then why is every other student and guard alike infected except you?” Genesis crossed her arms and looked at me expectantly.

  “I don’t know,” I babbled, unable to come up with any semblance of an excuse. “But why would you be affected? After all, Aphrodite is your mother. Maybe you released the virus!”

  “Really?” Genesis raised a perfectly plucked eyebrow.

  “What do you want me to say?” I defended, my annoyance apparent. “I have no idea why I’m immune. I literally don’t know. And I’m starting to feel like I was declared guilty even before I walked in here.”

  Neither of the Elemental Officials said anything just then. Instead, they shared a look that I couldn’t interpret. I had to say something to save my skin, but my mind grasped at straws as it searched for some sort of defense.

  “Look, it’s still Aphrodite’s formula, right?” I asked, begging for an honest response out of them.

  “It looks that way, yes,” Makayla replied.

  “I’d recognize that formula anywhere,” Genesis
said, almost absently, but it was the confirmation I needed.

  “Right, so I don’t know Aphrodite,” I continued, trying for anything to convince them. “I know nothing about the magic behind her girdle. Sure, I might be able to make you a hell of a good piece armor, but as to what to put on it to make people go all crazy like this, I’ve got nothing.”

  “Your father made Aphrodite her girdle,” Genesis commented with a suspicious look in her eye.

  “Yeah, and it’s Aphrodite that enchanted it with the power to make people attractive enough to go crazy,” I replied, throwing the myth right back at her. “My father may have provided the tool, but once it was in Aphrodite’s hands, it was her responsibility.”

  “You have the same philosophy with your weapons,” Makayla said out of nowhere, turning the conversation on its head.

  “Yeah, I do,” I confirmed, my defenses going up even higher now that we were talking about my work. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  “Did anyone ask you to make a girdle for them?” Genesis asked.

  I scoffed and leaned back in the chair. “No. Most everyone here knows I mainly specialize in weapons, not armor. And even if they did, there wouldn’t have been time. These symptoms started the night school started. I didn’t get into the forge until the next day.”

  “You could have made it over the summer,” Genesis reasoned as though she were trying to force a square peg in a round hole, anything to make her theory work.

  “I don’t have a forge at home,” I said plainly, unable to hide the disappointment in my voice. “I didn’t forge a piece of metal all summer. It nearly killed me.” I said, growing quiet on the last confession. I meant what I said, but I added that last bit in the hopes they would see my vulnerability and my honesty.

  Makayla and Genesis shared another one of those all-knowing looks. Genesis licked her lips before continuing, which didn’t ease the eels swirling in my stomach one bit.

  “I still don’t understand why you would be immune to this,” she said sternly. “Even in mythology, Hephaestus has no power or ability to resist love.”