Forge of the Gods 2

by Simon Archer

  “You’re not excited, Daniella?” I asked. I was interested to see what my friends thought of the dance, considering this was the first time I had seen either of them since the announcement went up.

  “Not really,” Daniella said with a shrug. “I mean, I didn’t like dances in high school. Why would I like them here?”

  “You don’t think this will be different?” Jade wondered, wistful and full of hope.

  “No,” Daniella said pessimistically. “There will be loud, annoying music, people grinding everywhere, people will get drunk, and then you’ll get made fun of for being a wallflower. Not my scene.” Daniella took a sip of her coffee as if to emphasize her point and conclude her argument all at the same time.

  “I liked dances,” Jade said with a little shimmy. “It was a great time to hang out with your friends and just party. And you got to get all dressed up. But I’ve never been to a masquerade. This should be exciting!”

  Daniella rolled her eyes. “Maybe I’ll volunteer to take a shift at the med bay that night.”

  “You will not!” Jade demanded, holding out her hands defiantly. “Because you’re coming with me and Cameron to the dance.”

  Daniella nearly spat out all of her coffee. “I am?”

  “Well, I mean,” Jade rushed to correct. “I mean, all three of us are going together. We are in a relationship after all. With Hailey? Right?”

  “Actually,” I said, drawing out the word with hesitation. Before I could finish, the daughter of Hebe jumped in with a whine.

  “Oh no, not you too, Cameron!” Jade complained, her face contorting into a pout. “I know you both think being Tainted Love is complete shit, but I think it’s going to do some good for the Academy. Bringing some much-needed fun. And you two are special to me and I want to have fun.”

  Jade huffed out a sharp exhale and then crossed her arms over her chest. Daniella and I shared an exasperated look and let her wallow in her dramatics for a moment before I spoke up.

  “What I was going to say,” I pushed my annoyance into my voice without shame, “is that I’m actually in charge of the dance.”

  “You’re what?” Jade blinked in complete astonishment, her hands falling away from their tight place across her chest.

  Daniella’s eyes bulged out of her head. “How did you land that job?”

  “It’s a long story,” I said, doing my best to wave off the details for now. “But I get to make a committee of people to help with everything, and I thought…” I trailed off, hoping they would fill in the blank. Unfortunately, Daniella looked completely clueless and stuck out her neck, indicating I should finish. At least Jade seemed to be on the same page because she was absolutely buzzing with excitement. Though she clearly wanted me to ask her outright.

  “You all could help me?” I asked, my voice rising on every word.

  “Yes, yes! A thousand times, yes!” Jade shrieked like she was accepting a marriage proposal. She promptly hopped up from the bench and dashed around the long table so she could collapse into my lap, yanking me into a deep kiss before pulling away swiftly. “This is going to be so amazing! Thank you, thank you, thank you!”

  Jade rocked our bodies back and forth, almost giving me motion sickness. This new position forced me to look directly at Daniella, who wore a completely unamused expression. I widened my eyes and turned my lips down into a pouty frown.

  “Please?” I mouthed at her as Jade continued to squeeze the life out of me.

  Daniella shook her head in response.

  “I’m just so excited because this is the perfect excuse for all of us to hang out together again,” Jade chided, still hugging me. “I’ve missed not having class with you all.”

  I glanced over at Jade’s head, making my eyes wide and my expression apparent so that Daniella could read me loud and clear. Was she really going to say no to spending time with all of us? Especially our dear friend Jade? Who hadn’t gotten drafted in the first round and really needed this right now?

  The healer huffed and rolled her eyes as though I were torturing her instead of simply asking for a favor. She rolled her lips over her teeth and scrunched up her nose like she smelled a skunk. Finally, Daniella’s expression softened, and she adjusted her glasses.

  “It should be fun,” Daniella sighed.

  Jade gasped loudly and swiveled her body so she could include Daniella in our bone-crushing hug. I felt her chest bounce as she laughed with reckless abandon. A smile crept onto Daniella’s face, too, and I whispered, “Thank you,” to let her know I appreciated her doing this even though it clearly wasn’t her thing.

  Daniella’s expression softened, and she wrapped Jade and me in her long arms, squeezing us once before letting us go. Before she could get far, Jade leaned over and kissed her as well, causing Daniella to blush. Jade sighed contentedly, now in between the two of us. She pulled her tray over to our side of the table and chose to remain there for the rest of the meal. Not that I was complaining.

  “So,” Jade said as she scooped up a forkful of scrambled eggs. “Who else is going to be on our committee?”

  “And are you going to tell us how you got assigned to do this?” Daniella asked, leaning back on the bench so she could see me when she asked the question.

  “Yes,” I answered Daniella first. “Just not here. And I don’t know. I was told I have to include someone named Sasha Manuel, but I’ve never heard of her.”

  I could barely finish the rest of my sentence because upon hearing Sasha Manuel’s name, Jade gasped.

  “What? What?” I prompted, suddenly worried. “Is that bad?”

  “No, it’s amazing,” Jade said through her hands on her mouth. “I just didn’t know she was on campus. I thought she stopped teaching.”

  “Who is she?” I ventured the question, though it felt oddly dangerous to ask.

  “She’s the old drama teacher,” Jade reported, showing off her own knowledge.

  “The Academy had drama classes?” I balked. “That seems so counterintuitive.”

  “I know, right?” Jade agreed. “But it’s true. It used to be a thing, but instead of performing, we just study drama now. Sasha didn’t really quit because of the Academy equivalent of tenure or something, so she went traveling for a while, or so the rumors say, but apparently, now she’s back.”

  “The drama teacher is going to help me plan a masquerade ball?” My lips pinched together skeptically. “Great.”

  “It’s going to be great,” Jade hugged me with the same enthusiastic fervor as before. “Can I be in charge of the menu?”

  “Absolutely,” I agreed, leaning over to kiss her softly. “You can handle all of that.”

  “Yay!” Jade clapped her hands together. “I can’t wait to pick fresh new fruits and veggies from my garden.”

  “How is your garden going?” Daniella asked, apparently desperate for a change in subject.

  “Really well,” Jade crooned like a proud mother. “I know the Agriculture class is going to help us harvest it when the time comes.”

  “Oh, that’s good to know,” I said, appreciating the insight. “So, I’ll make sure I’m sick that day.”

  Jade shoved me playfully. “Stop. You’ll have fun, I promise.”

  “Just as much fun as Daniella is going to have planning this dance with us,” I joked.

  Daniella’s face fell into a scowl while Jade and I burst into laughter. Daniella playfully scooted down the bench away from the pair of us. And stuck her tongue out, “No kisses for either of you.”

  “Cameron,” someone said, interrupting our fun.

  I recognized the voice right away, I hadn’t seen her since being at the med bay together. It was Hailey standing behind us.

  I turned on the bench to face her. “Hi Hailey,” I smiled brightly.

  “Can I talk to you for a minute?” she asked with a vulnerable look in her eye.

  Hailey’s eyes were open and asking. It startled me to see the wall down in such a public venue. It made my
heart thump faster, and my mouth go dry.

  “Sure,” I answered, surprising even myself.

  I could feel the dozens upon dozens of eyes on the pair of us as I rose to my feet. I looked into her deep green eyes, and the rest of the cafeteria melted away. I couldn’t recall the last time I felt like this. We were back up in the sky, just the two of us in the chariot, with nothing else up there with us but the clouds and the blue vastness.

  The soldier released my hand once I rose to my feet, and everything fell back into place. The whispers rippled around the room, and I felt them shiver down my skin. I wanted to get out of there as fast as possible, out of the judgmental eye of the soldiers and students, so I picked up the pace and fast-walked out of the cafeteria.

  Once outside, Hailey caught up to me and walked side by side for a moment. We felt the full effects of the changing seasons right away. Fall had crept its way into the atmosphere. The grass paled and grew stiff, breakable with a single step. The trees on campus started changing colors to bright reds and oranges, with still some green ones hanging on. The wind was crisp and brisk, catching on my sash. I had to adjust it as I walked along, to make sure it didn’t flap off.

  When my hand dropped back to my side, Hailey slipped her hand into mine.

  “I thought you wanted to talk to me about something,” I said as I stopped in my tracks.

  “I do,” Hailey said as she stopped with me and faced me, our interlocked hands between us. “I wanted to see if you would like to go to the dance with me.”

  “What?” the word escaped my lips, propelled by surprise.

  “Would you like to go to--?” Hailey repeated, but I held up a hand and cut her off.

  “I heard you, I just don’t know why you’re asking me,” I said. “What about Daniella and Jade? They could have come out with us. I had just agreed to go with them. We could all go together. Don’t you want that?”

  Hailey smiled softly and took several steps closer to me so that our breaths were mixed into one another with the crispy air. I didn’t pull away. I let her approach and let her put her hands on my neck. I was memorized by her eyes and her closeness. We pulled together against the wind, and I relished in her warmth. Her silence was all the confirmation I needed.

  I ran my hands up her arms and felt the muscles I had so admired in the med bay. As I thought back to that moment, I wondered what her results showed. Since I never caught back up with her, I had no idea how it turned out for her. Was the sudden surge of affection a cause of being infected with Tainted Love?

  I knew she and I already had a connection, and that Jade and Daniella and I were all exploring our strange relationship. But I didn’t want to have Hailey throw herself at me because of some infection. She was worth more than that.

  So I took a step back.

  “Did you test positive?” I asked softly.

  “For Tainted Love?” Hailey wondered, as if she had never heard the term before.

  She raised our intertwined hands and kissed the back of my hand, keeping her eyes on mine.

  “Yes,” Hailey said, but her gaze didn’t falter from me as she admitted it, “but that doesn’t mean anything. Everyone has a taste of it.”

  “Not me,” I said knowing she deserved to know. “I don’t.”

  Hailey cocked her head to one side, her hair swaying in the breeze. “What do you mean?”

  I held out my arms. “I had no signs, tested completely negative. They even said I was immune, but everyone else is caught up in this thing, somehow.”

  “Cameron, that doesn’t change how much I want you,” Hailey tried to argue, but I wouldn’t let her.

  “Yes, it does, Hailey,” I insisted. “Don’t you see? I’m not going to take advantage of you being extra affectionate because of some disease. That’s not who you are. Don’t you feel the strangeness of this?”

  Hailey blinked at me and I sighed as I slowly slipped my hand out of hers to cradle her face in my palms.

  “I still love you and I promise when this is all over I’ll kiss your damn face off.”

  At least that line made her chuckle, and while I relished in her laugh, I continued on.

  “I’ll do more than kiss you,” I said, unable to hold back my own laughter. “But it can’t be now. Not while all of this is going on. It’s not who you are.”

  I felt like I could breathe again. Even though the air was cold, it felt like a refreshing glass of water. However, I watched a resolve come over Hailey as she made up her mind on something.

  “But I don’t want to avoid you,” Hailey demanded. “I want to hang out, to be close to you.”

  I thought about her proposal. I could manage that. It wouldn’t be too out of character for her. I felt a smile grow on my face, and I felt the warmest that I had since stepping outside.

  “Be on the dance committee with me, Jade and Daniella,” I offered.

  “The dance committee?” Hailey said like it was a joke, a snort at the end of her sentence. But then she realized I was serious, and she looked stunned. “How did you get on the dance committee?”

  “Immunity, remember?” I said with a cheeky point at myself. “Which, if you could not share that information, that would be great.”

  Hailey pretended to zip her mouth shut. “Your secret is safe with me.”

  It was a funny moment as it occurred to me that the roles had reversed. Around this time last year, Hailey had asked me to keep a secret for her. The fact that she had exploded in a burst of sun fire when the Academy thought she had it under control. Now here I was, asking her not to tell anyone that for some unknown reason, I couldn’t be claimed by Aphrodite’s Tainted Love. It strengthened the bond between us.

  “So, what does this dance committee involve?” Hailey said as she sauntered up to me and closed the gap once more.

  “Well, the first line of business is trying to recruit the elusive Sasha Manuel to help us,” I said as I bit the corner of my lip. I didn’t know what kind of reaction Hailey would have to hearing Sasha’s name, but I wasn’t expecting full-on panic.

  You would have thought I brought a python or some other big scary thing out of a box, Hailey’s eyes got so big. The muscles in her toned body tensed defensively, like a deer ready to run.

  “What the hell is wrong with you?” I asked wearily.

  “Sasha Manuel is back on campus?” she asked in a whisper like she was muttering Macbeth in a theatre.

  “Apparently,” I confirmed.

  “Shit,” Hailey cursed through her teeth. She turned away from me and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as if she could erase the curse word. “You’re trying to recruit her to help with the dance. Of course, you are, it makes sense.”

  “So, what’s the deal with Sasha?” I wondered, unable to stop myself from asking.

  Hailey blew out a breath and hung her head. “Drama was cut my first year at the Academy. I had her my first semester, and her class nearly made me quit.”

  “Quit?” I said, completely baffled. I’d never known Hailey to quit anything.

  “Yeah, full-on abandon ship and lose my memories, all of it,” Hailey said, sweeping out her hands in a wide gesture. “I’m not a particularly emotional person. Or I guess, like I told you, I don’t like people controlling how I feel, and that’s exactly what drama class felt like. It messed with me, and I don’t have a creative bone in my body, so that didn’t help.”

  “Your dad’s the god of music,” I pointed out. “You didn't inherit any of that.”

  “Wouldn’t seem so,” Hailey said, resigned to the fact. “I just got the fire stuff.”

  “And the good looks,” I said unthinkingly.

  Hailey smiled bashfully. She stuffed her hands in her pockets. “I’m happy to be on the committee with you, but please don’t make me go meet Sasha.”

  “I don’t want to go by myself,” I argued. “She doesn’t know who I am.”

  “You’d be surprised how many people know who you are on campus,” Hailey said wit
h a scoff. “Hephaestus’s only son, the only male demigod in the Academy aside from the Stratego, I mean, come on.”

  “I’m going to pretend I didn’t hear that,” I said pointedly. Then I released a resigned sigh. “Fine, it’s okay. You don’t have to come. I’m headed over to the instructor's house, though, so I’ll see you around?”

  “See you around,” Hailey said, suddenly shy.

  I walked past her, letting my hand trail down her arm as I passed.

  Just as I was thinking about how to talk to this Sasha character, there was a rustle of dying grass behind me. I turned to look over my shoulder and saw Hailey running up behind me.

  “I wasn’t quite ready to leave you yet, so I’ll come to find Sasha,” Hailey explained. “Is that still okay?”

  “Yeah,” I said with a smile and a nod. “It’s perfectly okay.”

  17

  We walked toward the south end of campus, where the trees were thickest. When we stepped through the trees, it was like stepping into another world. The sun glistened through the gaps in the branches and cast an orange-tinted light on the ground. Some leaves had already fallen, completed their season early, so there was a delightful crunch beneath our feet when we walked. Some lingering birds, not yet migrated south, chirped in the distance.

  The trunks of the trees were thick and a deep brown, something out of a fairy tale. There was no clear path, so we navigated our way deeper into the wood without a clear sense of where we were going.

  “Did Genesis and Makayla tell you where to find her?” Hailey asked me as we ventured onward. She seemed to sense my hesitancy, though I made it rather obvious when I stopped every so often and looked around aimlessly.

  “They wrote me this morning,” I said as I pulled the note out of my pocket. I unfolded it and handed it to Hailey. “They said to venture south beyond the treeline. If we went far enough, she would find us.”

  “That’s immensely unhelpful,” Hailey commented.

  “Exactly,” I said through pursed lips. “So, we’re just headed into the woods.”

  “It’s strange,” Hailey said as she hopped over a thick root that jutted out from the ground dangerously. “I never took Sasha for the outdoorsy type.”