Born in Beauty

by Melody Rose

  Mom and I looked out the window and didn’t see anything. But we heard the rumble of something coming close. As the noise drew closer, I realized it wasn’t anything like an engine, but instead, the clomping of hooves. Lots of hooves, running quickly, straight towards us.

  “Is that…” Mom turned her head to one side as if that would allow her to hear better. “Is that what I think it is?”

  “Are you thinking stampede, because I’m thinking stampede?” I asked, only half kidding.

  “Horses,” Mom said as she closed her eyes, focusing on the noise. “It’s definitely horses.”

  “Oh god, if a herd of pegasuses round the corner, I’m freaking walking to campus,” I declared.

  In our effort to rescue Ansel and some fellow soldiers, Darren and I rode away on a pair of pegasuses. While it was an efficient ride, it was not my favorite experience. I preferred to keep my feet on the ground as much as possible, thank you very much.

  But it wasn’t pegasuses that crested up the hill. Though, Mom had been right about the horses. Four beautiful, cream-colored horses, with golden manes streaming behind them, galloped into view. They rode all in a row, completely blocking both lanes of traffic. Behind them was a large chariot, made entirely from gold. A sun was engraved on the front while rays of flame were sculpted along the sides.

  At the helm stood Ansel, looking better than Apollo himself. The wind swept his hair back from his face, and his tan skin glimmered in the extra light from the chariot. The whole thing looked like an elaborate parade float, though I knew, somewhere in the recesses of my brain, that this was a completely legitimate chariot.

  Mom’s mouth hung completely open, unashamed and unabashed. Khryseos and Argyreos barked again, in reaction to Ansel’s dramatic appearance. We couldn’t do anything but watch as Ansel parked the chariot, pulling the horses to a stop as if they were casually refueling at the gas station. The soldier dismounted and waited by his vehicle, with his hands on his hips.

  When neither Mom nor I made a move to get out of the car, Ansel’s eyebrows crinkled together in confusion. He sauntered over to us and bent to knock on the window.

  “Hello?” Ansel said, his voice coming through the glass as if it were from underwater. “Earth to Cheyenne? You plan on coming back to the Academy or what?”

  “Uh…” I blinked myself out of my astonishment, long enough to gather some semblance of sense. “Yeah, yeah, I’m coming.”

  I shooed Ansel away from the car door, which he did, and opened it. Next, I let Khryseos and Argyreos out of the back. The two of them bounded over to the soldier, and he crouched on one knee to welcome them with open arms. I stuck my head in the back seat to grab my stuff when I saw my mom still sitting, stunned, in the driver’s seat.

  “Mom,” I called to her with a sharp voice.

  “What?” She blinked and looked back at me.

  “Aren’t you going to see me off?” I prompted, hoping that would be enough to break her out of her recovery.

  “Oh yeah,” Mom said as she scrambled to get out of her seat. I straightened up, righted the bags on my shoulders, and turned back to Ansel, who continued to pet the dogs.

  He looked so dreamy, even sitting on the dusty ground, making silly faces at my dogs. His muscular body moved with grace and ease that shouldn’t be that easy for a man with that much strength. He wore his uniform, a completely black ensemble with his orange Fotia sash slung across his shoulder. Ansel looked up at me, tearing his gaze away from the dogs and shooting me a winning smile.

  I smiled back, though I was sure my sheepishness made it look something more like a grimace. This was the first time I’d seen him since leaving for the summer, three whole months. If I thought time would cure me of my crush, I was completely wrong. Now more than ever, I wanted to tackle him to the ground and kiss him right there, even with my mom and my dogs watching. In fact, if I thought about it, my mom would probably approve.

  Instead, I stayed silent as Ansel got to his feet and brushed himself off. He looked at the ground and then at the top of my head and then back to the ground. Finally, he swallowed audibly and seemed to gather enough courage to look me in the eye.

  “Hi Cheyenne,” he said, his voice calm.

  As I caught his green eyes, I could see he was looking at me with his whole self. Ansel had a variety of sides to him and mostly stayed behind a wall built from his years working with the Academy, even during their summer classes as a child. But there were some moments I cherished when he let me beyond his guard, and I got to see him for the good man he really was.

  “Hi Ansel,” I said, my own voice soft and timider than I wanted it to be.

  “It’s good to see you again, son of Apollo,” Mom said, breaking our intense eye contact.

  Part of me was relieved, and the other part was severely annoyed at my mom’s well-timed cockblock. I coughed nervously and hiked my bag up higher on my shoulder.

  “It’s good to see you again, Ms. Paulos,” Ansel said politely with a little bow of his head.

  “I figure you’re going to be in my life for a while. You might as well call me Cassie,” Mom informed him. Her invitation to Violet had been much more welcoming, whereas this one was more resigned, almost as if someone was forcing her to. Also, I really wanted to know what she meant by “You’re going to be in my life for a while.”

  “Cassie?” Ansel cocked his head to one side. “Like Cassandra the Seer?”

  “The very same,” Mom confirmed with a proud nod. “My mother named me after her, in the hopes that I could give a better legacy to that name than that Cassandra did.”

  “I’m sure you already have and will continue to do so,” Ansel said, turning up the charm.

  Even if Mom could see right through his compliment, she took it with a smile. “Thank you for saying so, dear. From what it looked like, you’re going to be taking my daughter on that?”

  Mom pointed with her thumb towards the chariot as if it were a motorcycle, and he was some leather-wearing bad boy preparing to take me on a date. I wanted to scream in mortification. I loved my mother, I really did, but she was still my mother, and prone to all of those annoying things mothers did, like saying embarrassing shit like that.

  “I’m sure it’s perfectly safe,” I reasoned with a casual gesture to the chariot, although the prospect of riding it made me want to hurl.

  “It is,” Ansel assured the both of us.

  Mom scoffed. “I liked the Land Rover better.”

  “This is my father’s chariot,” Ansel said as if that would help his argument.

  “Wait a second,” I said as I held up a hand in astonishment. My geek was about to show, and there was no way I could hold it back. “This is the chariot? Like Apollo’s chariot that made the sun rise every day?”

  “Yes,” Ansel answered with pride.

  “That should really be Helios’s because he really did all the work.”

  Ansel’s face fell. “Well, technically, I mean… it’s still Apollo’s chariot.”

  “And those are Aethon, Pyrois, Phlegon, and Eous?” I asked, pointing to each of the horses in turn.

  Ansel’s mouth opened slightly, and he let out a scoff. “Your random knowledge of the Greek mythos never ceases to amaze me.”

  “It gets annoying after a while, trust me,” Mom said as she leaned back on one hip and crossed her arms.

  “Rude,” I commented, slightly offended.

  “But to answer your question,” Ansel said, “yes, those are the actual horses.”

  “How the hell did you get away with this?” I asked, my nerves rising by the second. “Should that be, like, in use? Or locked up in a museum somewhere?”

  “It’s a tradition that all returning students come in a Grecian mode of transportation,” Ansel explained. “We only bring new students in cars because they are more familiar with it. Don’t want to shock them all at once.”

  “Consider me still shocked,” I said with complete honesty.

  “Even t
hough you’ve seen centaurs, ridden a pegasus, fought a chimera and harpies, and played with Eternal Fire?” Ansel said with a raised eyebrow.

  “Yes,” I said defensively. “Mainly because I know this thing can fly, and I have a sinking suspicion that we’re not going to be riding it on the ground all the way to campus.”

  My nasty fear of heights was coming back to bite me in the ass. It stirred in my stomach and instantly made me want to hurl up all of the BLT I’d gotten on the ride over.

  “Are you picking up any additional students?” Mom asked. “I know Violet lives around here. I’m sure Cheyenne’s not the only one.”

  “The other two demigods in this area opted for a ride with the Nero branch on the Argo,” Ansel said with a shrug.

  “But…” I hesitated, thinking I might be asking a dumb question. “This state’s landlocked. How are they sailing anywhere?”

  “They can lake jump,” Ansel said as if that was the most natural answer.

  “I’m sorry,” I blinked at him. “They can what?”

  “Lake jump,” Ansel repeated. “They appear in one lake, travel down and then can pop up in another lake, like the one on campus.”

  “I wasn’t aware that the infamous Argo was a submarine,” I replied, still shocked by the physics of it all.

  “It’s magic,” Ansel said by way of explanation. “I thought, because of your affinity for fire, that you would prefer this to the underwater lake jumping.”

  I didn’t answer right away. Because on the one hand, Ansel was absolutely right that one of the last places I wanted to be was underwater. But I also didn’t want to be soaring through the air either.

  “Can’t I just teleport there, with Khryseos and Argyreos?” I said, not bothering to hide the whine in my voice.

  “Your dogs can teleport?” Mom gaped at me. “They lived with us this whole summer, and you never mentioned that they can teleport?”

  “It never came up!” I defended with a shrug.

  “I’m afraid that you know as well as I do that they can’t transport you when they teleport,” Ansel explained. “If you really don’t want to ride with me, then I’m sure I can get a hold of the Argo and see if they can pick you up at the nearest body of water.”

  His words snagged in my ear and gave me pause. Ansel was offering to bring me to the Academy. Just him and me. In the chariot. Completely alone.

  I wasn’t sure what that meant exactly, but my heart leaped at the prospect of being alone with him, without being under the scrutiny of the Academy and their rules. My breath caught in my throat, and I licked my lips expectantly.

  “I guess this will be fine,” I said as casually as I could, trying to hide my girlish excitement.

  4

  We tucked my bags into a hidden compartment near the helm of the chariot and made sure we gathered everything from Mom’s car. The next step was saying goodbye to Khryseos and Argyreos.

  I bent down to be on their level and looked at each of them in turn. “I’ll see you on campus, okay, boys?”

  Both of them nuzzled their heads under my chin, and I closed my eyes in order to relish in their warmth fully. Then, in the next instant, my arms fell down to my sides, and the heat from their bodies disappeared. When I opened my eyes, my companions had vanished.

  “Holy shit,” Mom whispered to herself.

  “Yeah, that’s a thing,” I commented.

  “It’s just…” Mom shook her head slowly. “One second, they’re there and the next, poof! They’re gone.”

  “Yeah, sorry,” I said lamely. “I probably should have warned you.”

  “You think?” Mom looked at me sideways and shook her head again. “I thought I had gotten used to all this magic, mythic stuff when I was with your father, but it turns out that there really is no getting used to it.”

  I grabbed my mom and pulled her into a tight hug. She swallowed the rest of her complaints and hugged me back. We stood there for a moment, simply holding one another.

  “I love you, Cheyenne,” Mom said into my ear. “You come back to me in one piece, you hear?”

  “I hear,” I confirmed. I held back tears as I pulled away to look at her in the face. “I love you too, Mom. And come hell or high water, I’m coming home for Christmas this year.”

  “Okay,” Mom said as she put her forehead to mine. “Go be great.”

  She squeezed my upper arms and released me, giving me a small but encouraging shove. I bit the inside of my cheek to keep from crying. I didn’t want my mom to remember me with tears in my eyes. I took a large breath in and crossed back to Ansel with a glance over my shoulder. Mom offered me a small wave, and I returned it.

  “You ready?” Ansel asked sincerely.

  I nodded before I could change my mind. “Yeah, I am.”

  “Okay,” Ansel said as he stepped into the chariot and took up the reins.

  When I didn’t immediately follow, Ansel shot me a curious look. “You’ve got to get on the chariot, you know. In order to ride it.”

  “Right, right,” I said more to myself than to him. But even after that, I still didn’t move.

  “Cheyenne,” Ansel said seriously, “look at me.”

  I swallowed and did as I was told. His green eyes bore into mine, and I wondered which Ansel I would see behind them. It was his soldier self, as it bore deep into me. It reached for my courage and pulled it out with a yank.

  “Get on the damn chariot,” he commanded.

  I didn’t respond verbally. Instead, I placed one foot, then the other, up onto the golden platform. The inside was more spacious than I would have thought, enough room for both of us to ride side by side up at the front. There was a bar just below the edge of the chariot, on the inside, to grip when things got bumpy. I didn’t want to think about things getting bumpy, especially when there wasn’t a back to this thing.

  The whole journey seemed ridiculously dangerous to me, and I wanted to hop right back off, but before I had a chance to second guess myself, Ansel slapped the reins against the chariot, sending a ripple up to the four majestic horses.

  “Ha!” he cheered, excitement filling him as we darted forward.

  I bumped into the front and then nearly lost my footing due to the intense acceleration. My hands found the bar and gripped it with white knuckles. My knees bent into a crouch as I ducked behind the front of the chariot, shielding myself. Automatically, my eyes closed, and I put all of my weight into my feet in an effort to keep myself steady.

  Like the rising of an airplane, we ascended into the air. It was a slow incline, but I immediately felt the change as my body tipped backward. There was a violent rush in my ears, and I hollered out to counteract the feeling. My voice joined Ansel’s excited whoop as we climbed higher and higher into the air.

  Lunch stirred in my stomach, and I fought to keep it down inside me. It felt like an eternity before we leveled out. My ears adjusted to the altitude, and it took me a second or two to pop them properly. Once I did, the rush of the wind came back and filled my head with cotton. It was impossible to concentrate from down here. The chariot created a sort of wind tunnel, and from my lower position, the noise was much more severe.

  I had a decision to make. It was either stay down here and blow my eardrums out or rise up and possibly lose my lunch. Reason told me I needed to stand up, but my knees shook so badly that I wasn’t sure my legs could hold me even if I could get upright.

  “Cheyenne,” Ansel’s voice broke through the roaring. “Are you alright?”

  I couldn’t answer him right away. I did what I could to respond by nodding, but I wasn’t sure he saw me.

  Suddenly, I felt a slight pressure on my hand. I opened my eyes ever so slightly and glanced up to my arms, which remained over my head, hanging on to the safety bar.

  Ansel’s hand rested upon my own. The weight of it was comforting while simultaneously sending tingles down my elbow and up to my shoulder. Slowly, he peeled my fingers, one by one, off the safety bar and took my hand i
n his. He looped his fingers through my own and squeezed.

  “Stand up,” Ansel said, his voice breaking through the onslaught of noise. “Come on, Cheyenne, you can do it.”

  Gods, I wanted to stand up. I wanted to enjoy this alone time with this hot man who was an excellent kisser and who I had been dreaming about more often than I wanted to admit over the summer. I wanted to experience the exhilaration of riding in Helios's chariot as it blazed across the sky.

  My fear held me down like a rock in my stomach. Slowly but surely, like I would a piece of metal, I chipped away at that rock of solid fear. With each bit I broke away, my knees subconsciously rose an inch. I took my time, and Ansel didn’t rush me, for which I was immensely grateful. He just continued to hold my hand. It let me know he was there. It was a solid presence, something to anchor myself as I rose to my full height. However, my eyes stayed closed, though I was now standing.

  “Good job, Cheyenne,” Ansel whispered in my ear.

  The roaring was much quieter now that I wasn’t in the wind tunnel of the chariot. I could feel his breath on my skin, and more shivers raced down my body. This time they traveled from behind my ear to my spine and settled at the lower part of my body, warm and soothing.

  “Now, do you think you can open your eyes?” Ansel asked gently.

  I shook my head and rolled my lips over my teeth. “Nuh huh,” I muttered through my closed mouth.

  “Okay,” Ansel said, not pressuring me. “Take your time. Right now, I’ll just tell you what it looks like. Is that okay?”

  I thought about his offer for a moment and considered it. Then I nodded, declaring that to be safe enough.

  “Alright.” Ansel took in a big breath, preparing himself. “It looks like fresh fallen snow along gentle hills. They roll across in waves and reflect the light of the sun off their fluffiness. Parts of it look like cotton candy, without the food dye. Just white. All white.”

  Ansel inhaled, and I found my breathing matching his. Inhale for inhale. Exhale for exhale. “And the sky, my gods, Cheyenne, the sky. It is the most beautiful blue you’ve ever seen in your life. I don’t think there’s a word for this type of blue. It’s like the ocean at its purest. But the whole thing is still, unlike the clouds which keep moving. It’s almost as if you can see the dome of the Earth when you look at it, staring up into a bowl of blue.”