Page 30 of Chaos and Crowns

“To the lake we go then” Odelle sighed, already dying a little bit inside at the thought of that much more walking. At least they had a destination now.

This time, Odelle led the way, pushing towards the reflected patch of sky. At first, their pace was brisker, energized by having a goal and having raised their body temperatures. The exhaustion set in quickly though, slowing the pair to a mournful trudge. It was the middle of the night, and they needed rest, but to lay down in the snow would be to send an engraved invitation to hypothermia. They had to keep moving.

As they closed the distance between them and the lake, it seemed to warp, growing both closer and farther away. Maybe it was bigger than they had thought it was from a distance. After an hour of walking, Antony was the first to realize.

“It’s a salt flat!” He exclaimed.

Indeed, Odelle could see that they approached a giant mirrored plane, stretching out endlessly before them. It wasn’t long before they stepped out onto the smooth surface. It appeared so much like glass that she expected it to crack under her weight, but instead she looked down to see her own reflection backed by colored lights. Tonight, Odelle had swam in the sky, and now she was standing on it. The aurora borealis twinkled beneath her feet.

Antony fell to his knees beside her, running his fingers over the surface and glancing between it and the sky. He hummed and muttered to himself as if performing some mental calculations. Odelle tried to be patient and not interrupt his thinking, but she couldn’t stop herself from shifting her weight from foot to foot as she waited. If this didn’t work, she didn’t have any other ideas.

Finally, Antony looked up with a smile.

“Ok, this should work,” he declared.

“We can use this as a portal?” Odelle sighed in relief.

“Well, I can turn this into a portal,” Antony clarified with a lopsided shrug, as if this were a small detail he had forgotten to mention.

Odelle’s relief evaporated.

“Wait—won’t you have to use the Light for that? Didn’t you say that imbuing something with Light would put you in a coma? That’s not helpful!” Odelle’s voice rose in volume, harsh against the silence of nature.

“I believe I said that it would probably put me in a coma, but that’s a price I can pay for getting us home. Thad has plenty of experience treating Eteria members that overexert themselves.” Antony brushed off her concern, returning to tracing the ground with his fingertips.

“This isn’t imbuing just anything with Light, this is a salt flat…a whole piece of the earth!” Panic rose in Odelle at the thought of something going wrong and being stuck with no shelter and no way to care for a comatose Antony.

“Making magical objects is the one thing I do know I can do,” Antony reasoned. “I can pull this off.”

His tone sounded more like he was trying to reassure himself than her. Odelle opened her mouth to say that Nora had mentioned using too much Light could kill somebody, but he cut her off.

“When I turn this into a portal, I need you to make sure you’re thinking about the Sanctuary. We’re standing on it, so we’ll fall right in, and I’ll probably be…indisposed.”

Odelle nodded. Not that she had much of a choice at this point, with Antony already pressing his palms to the ground. She knelt next to him in preparation.

He closed his eyes and breathed in deeply through his nose. When his eyes snapped open again, Odelle stifled a gasp. They were the color of molten gold, beautiful and captivating and terrifying. Then his skin began to glow, as if the sun were trapped inside him, and the radiance traveled from his eyes down to his fingertips. The Light leaked from him, spiraling out from his hands in whirls and arcs, before shooting out across the ground as far as the eye could see. Antony began panting as the number of gold tendrils on the ground increased until the world around them shone brilliantly.

Still, Odelle’s gaze remained fixed on Antony. Sweat beaded at his temple, and even that shone with Light. He threw his head back as Light poured forth in one more almighty burst, his auburn hair reflecting the color of fire as it was blown back by an imaginary wind.

Then, all the brightness vanished, and Antony began to collapse forward, but Odelle dove for him. Catching him in her arms, she thought desperately of the Sanctuary—of clear skies, sweeping lawns, and elegant white marble. It wasn’t hard with the scent of Antony’s hair filling her senses, smelling like sunshine and gardens.

For one horrifying moment, Odelle thought it hadn’t worked. That Antony’s awe-inspiring display of power had been in vain. Then the world dropped out from under them. As her stomach flew up into her throat from the sudden change in velocity, she crushed Antony to her as hard as she could. She pressed her ear to his chest as they hurtled through the blackness, the familiar satin and sparks running over her body as she listened for a heartbeat. Any lingering resentment she may have held for him evaporated in her need for him to be alive—not to have given his life for hers. She heard a faint lub-dub in his chest as they broke free of the darkness into daylight. She rolled to break Antony’s fall as they tumbled onto lush grass and landed under him, blinking up at a blue sky in relief and astonishment. The dead weight of his body on top of her indicated that he was indeed unconscious, and Odelle rolled them over as gently as she could manage, trying not to let his head loll too forcefully against the ground.

She wavered, unwilling to leave his side to get help but desperately wanting Thad to come tend to him. Her decision was made for her as pounding feet approached. Odelle looked toward the Sanctuary entrance to find a small group of people charging toward them. Nora, brown hair flying and combat boots beating the earth, was in the lead. Tears pricked the back of Odelle’s eyes at the sight. They were safe. They had made it home, and Antony had saved them.

13

Nora fussed over Odelle like a mother hen, tucking blankets around her and making sure the tea Adam had brewed was to her liking. Odelle was too busy laying on the plush rug and warming her legs by the fire crackling in the hearth to protest. After a full day wearing a skirt in the wilderness, her thighs were ice cubes, and this felt like heaven.

Nora bustled around Adam’s—well, her and Adam’s room—chattering. All the built-up tension and worry about Odelle being missing seemed to be bubbling out in a constant stream now that she was home.

“We flew straight back as soon as Thad called telling us he couldn’t find you. We were worried at first that the Shadow had taken you and Antony, but we figured they would be rubbing it in, wanting to feed off our fear and pain. We were combing the entire city, but it never occurred to us that you had gone across the world!”

Odelle took a sip of the tea and smiled as lemon and honey coated her tongue. It was just how Irina had made it when she or Nora were ill.

Nora flopped down on the floor next to Odelle, fixing her with wide green eyes.

“I wish I could have been here to help, to keep this from happening,” Nora admitted.