Page 3 of Chaos and Crowns

“Do I know you?” The woman’s voice was cold.

“Odelle Zvezda. I’m a reporter for channel three.” Odelle offered a smile along with her hand to shake. The woman ignored both.

“Yes, they probably hired somebody like you to make themselves seem progressive.” The woman glanced down her nose at Odelle’s leg where it emerged from the slit in her dress.

Odelle opened and closed her mouth a few times like a gobsmacked goldfish. In her nightmares, people whispered such things behind her back, but they rarely said anything like it to her face. Luckily, the woman didn’t seem to expect a response from Odelle and pressed on as if she hadn’t just launched her campaign for asshat of the century.

“You do have good taste, though. This crown is an antique.” She lovingly stroked the bronze leaves nestled in her hair.

Odelle half expected them to flutter under her touch; they were so realistic.

“My husband purchased it for our private collection of classical Greek antiquities after it was excavated last year,” the woman continued. “Normally I wouldn’t think to wear something over two-thousand years old, but it’s in such perfect condition.”

“It was excavated last year?” Odelle pressed for more information. “Where was it found?”

“My husband’s the history aficionado, I don’t know the details. I just know that with how much money he spent on it, I’m not going to waste an opportunity to show it off.”

Odelle chanced leaning in to examine the piece more closely, anticipating being shooed away. The woman just tilted her head this way and that to show off how her accessory shimmered exquisitely in the light. Odelle mentally marked her as being vain in addition to rude. She had just craned her neck to see the threadlike wires supporting the bronze olive leaves in greater detail when a flicker of movement in the shadows behind the woman caught Odelle’s eye. Something about the movement struck her as familiar.

“Sorry for interrupting you,” Odelle said quickly. “I must excuse myself.”

She shouldered around the woman, who huffed indignantly. Odelle ignored her, far more focused on what she had seen. Her eyes firmly fixed on the dark corner, she almost missed the silhouette ducking out of the adjacent doorway.

Partygoers shot hostile glances at Odelle as she pushed through the crowd. She moved as fast as she could without breaking into a run. Causing a panic before she knew if anything was wrong would create more problems than it would solve. She always checked her facts.

Finally, she broke free from the crowd and darted around the corner into a service hallway. Only bland linoleum and the buzz of florescent lights greeted her, but heat prickled on her skin. Her mind supplied her with a memory of the last time she felt that heat, right before a Shadow grabbed her out of a snowy alleyway, prepared to use her as bait in a trap for her sister.

The heat intensified at the nape of her neck. Odelle whirled around just in time to spot a dark tentacle slither out of a high window. The Shadow was here.

She dashed back into the ballroom, not worried about breaking into a run this time. As she burst into the crowded room, the people near the door turned to stare. Still, only a fraction of the people in the room paid her any heed. A sea of partygoers stretched out before her, completely unaware of the danger they were in, waiting to become prey for the Shadow. Odelle might not be able to swing a spear like her sister, but she couldn’t let that happen.

She cast about for the stage, where the band would have a microphone she could commandeer to make an announcement. Instead, a red box on the wall next to her grabbed her attention. A fire alarm.

Hands flew over ears in response to the ringing that pierced the air as soon as Odelle yanked on the lever. The few guests who had seen Odelle pull the alarm started yelling, but she paid no attention to their words as she hurtled back out into the service hallway. The window the Shadow had disappeared through was still open, but much too high and small for Odelle to climb through.

She ran a few steps down the hallway to an open door, pushing into what turned out to be a bustling kitchen. Harried cooks and white-gloved servers gawked at her, but she pushed past them towards a back door. The flames from the stoves and ovens full of hors d’oeuvres raised a film of sweat on her skin as Odelle navigated the crowded room. The caterers seemed unperturbed by the fire alarms, hustling from task to task and forcing Odelle to duck around sous chefs with hot pans and trays laden with stuffed mushrooms and crab balls. Finally, she slammed through the red emergency exit door, and cold winter air slapped her face. She gasped at the contrast as she pushed into a snowy alleyway. It appeared deserted and she glanced around for which way the Shadow might have gone. Seeing no movement, she huffed in frustration. Then she noticed it.

At the far end of the alley, melted snow formed a trail, as if somebody had taken a blowtorch to the ground. The tracks led across the gap between the buildings and to a solid wall. Scorch marks and melted icicles sketched a path up the bricks and windows in the side of the adjacent building. Odelle tipped her head all the way back, craning her neck to see if she could still spot the Shadow climbing. It had escaped.

Odelle’s breath hung visible in the frigid air as she huffed out a sigh of both frustration and relief. Nobody was hurt—not that she was aware of—but the Shadow targeted a conspicuous event in the city. Whether it was related to her presence or not, she couldn’t guess. As far as she could tell, the Shadow was generally averse to people enjoying themselves, but it also seemed to have a vendetta against Nora and people close to her. Now it had reared its fearsome head on Odelle’s watch, and she was unsure if she had claimed a victory by chasing it off. It felt more like a stalemate.

She set off down the alleyway toward the sound of traffic and honking cars. Odelle would have to do something, and if she went back through the hotel ballroom, she was sure to be detained for pulling the fire alarm. Not that she didn’t know how to talk her way out of a sticky situation, but it would slow her down considerably.

Emerging onto the street, she paused. Her phone hovered in her hand, ready for her to dial Nora. Nothing had really happened, though. Nobody was hurt, and Odelle had averted any major crisis. Sure, the Eteria needed to be informed about the Shadow’s activity, but Odelle could do that without interrupting Nora and Adam’s romantic getaway. Maybe if she could handle this incident without Nora, it would assuage the feeling that she was stuck on the sidelines of a whole new world. She would no longer be constantly aware of an age-old war raging around her, but unable to help her sister. Besides, Odelle was a journalist. Investigating a situation and uncovering answers was what she did.

It was only a few blocks from the Palmer House to Millenium Park, but violent shivers wracked Odelle’s body by the time she got there. She clutched her lacey wrap more tightly around her bare shoulders as the cruel winter wind tried to pry it from her fingers and longed for the wool jacket she’d left at the hotel’s coat check.

Odelle paused once she stared into the mirrored surface of the Bean. The curved shape of the massive sculpture warped her reflection as she stood under it. She liked how it made her look impossibly tall, the feeling of towering height bolstering her confidence. Still, her breath came faster as she reached up, fingers hovering inches from the mirrored surface. Nora had assured her that all you had to do was picture the Sanctuary as you stepped into the mirrored side of the Bean, but Odelle still shivered when she imagined what might happen if she made a mistake.

Just when it looked as though her fingertips should encounter frosty metal, the surface of the Bean rippled at her touch. Odelle took a step forward, satin caressing her face and electricity sparking across her skin as she was plunged into darkness. A moment later, Odelle blinked in clear silvery moonlight, no longer buffeted by wintry winds.

She stood at the base of a grassy slope leading up to a white stone building. Fluted pillars surrounded the mammoth structure at regular intervals, and an open archway topped by ancient carvings beckoned her inside. Odelle remembered to start breathing again. Even though she had been here once before, stepping into the pocket dimension that was the home of Eteria was still a heart stopping experience. The Sanctuary had stood frozen in time for over two thousand years, since the days of the Greek empire, and it looked more like something out of a storybook or a dream than an actual place. Even the air here took Odelle off guard; it was warm and soft in her lungs. Nothing like the biting city air, a lake breeze laced with smoke and pollution.

She had no idea how Nora had gotten used to being here. Odelle was struck by the feeling of intruding as she passed under an arched entrance, gazing up at carved words in a language she didn’t recognize.

Now that she treaded into the dark and building though, she wasn’t quite sure where to go. Being here by herself for the first time, the empty halls impressed on her how vast the place really was. She supposed she could wander and see if she could find a friendly face. She had met Thad, the stylish and outgoing Healer, before and she knew he lived here. He would help her.

Of course, Antony lived here too.