Page 38 of Chaos and Crowns

It wasn’t the most graceful of maneuvers, but Antony cupped the back of her head as he lowered her to the backseat, keeping her from hitting the doorframe. She crumpled into the back of a car.

“Millenium Park,” Antony ordered, voice harder than Odelle had ever heard it. “The Bean.”

“I think she needs a hospital, dude.”

Odelle couldn’t see Antony’s face when he looked at the driver, but whatever it held was enough to convince the cabbie not to argue.

Once the cab lurched into motion, Antony turned his attention back to Odelle. His panicked fingers scrambled at the buttons of her coat. Odelle squirmed to help him remove it, and it fell to the floor of the backseat with a sodden plat. Antony’s fingers immediately started searching for the zipper to her dress.

“I thought if I were going to get hypothermia, I would have done it earlier,” Odelle attempted to say, but the chattering of her teeth got in the way. She chuckled anyway, more than halfway delirious with shock.

At the distinctive sound of the side zipper of Odelle’s dress coming undone, the cab driver perked up again.

“Hey, no funny business in the back of my cab, especially not with an unwell woman,” he barked. “And if you’re gonna try something, at least pretend to be discreet.”

“You were the one who wanted me to get her help for hypothermia,” Antony snapped without looking away from his task of trying to divest Odelle of her dress, a project similar to playing pool with a rope. “This is what you do for hypothermia.”

Finally vanquishing the dress and pulling it off over Odelle’s head, Antony paused. He stared down at her as if realizing for the first time that undressing somebody resulted in them being naked. Even though she still had her underwear on, she was sure they didn’t exactly leave a lot to the imagination in her current state. She wanted to giggle at the stricken look on Antony’s face, but she couldn’t seem to catch her breath. He had seen her naked before, after all. Maybe the thought of undressing her himself or the cab driver sitting just inches away was why he hesitated.

Antony wrenched his eyes away from Odelle, instead reaching for his sweater and pulling it off over his head, revealing a dark T-shirt underneath. She helped Antony shove her arms, which felt like overcooked spaghetti, into the garment, and sighed in relief as the wool encompassed her body. She wasn’t warm, but this was certainly an improvement. Still, she trembled. Antony furrowed his brow, then nodded to himself. Without further preamble, he scooped Odelle up and crushed her to his chest.

Antony was probably a perfectly reasonable temperature, but the heat rolling off him felt like a furnace to Odelle. She squirmed, trying to get as close as possible. Antony jumped as her frigid nose brushed the hollow of his throat. Odelle just pushed closer, attempting to crawl into Antony’s much warmer skin.

Much too soon for Odelle’s liking, the cab came to a stop and Antony swung the door open to let in another gust of winter air. She scrunched closer to him in protest, but Antony looped her arm over his shoulders once more.

“Just a little bit farther, then Thad will be able to help you.”

Before Antony slammed the door, the cabbie grumbled, “Guess this one counts as charity then.”

They made their way to the statue of the Bean in the same half-walking, half-dragging manner as before. Odelle and Antony tumbled through its mirrored surface, collapsing onto the grassy hill. The warm air and sunshine felt like heaven, and Odelle just laid there, soaking it in.

Antony left her, stumbling up the hill, shouting for Thad—a mirror to how they had entered the Sanctuary a week ago with the roles reversed. Odelle didn’t know how long it was before Antony and Thad returned. They carried a stretcher, which they helped her onto. She was just grateful that she didn’t have to move much. Still, she wanted to reach up and smooth away the worried creases on Antony’s face as they carried her inside the Sanctuary.

* * *

Odelle believed in modern medicine, but she had to admit that there was something to these magical herbs. She sat propped up by far too many pillows in an impossibly fluffy bed and took another sip of the concoction in her mug. Even though the liquid was room temperature, it seemed to warm her from the inside out as it slid down her throat, heat radiating from her core to her fingertips. She expected magical potions to taste foul, but this one was mild and vaguely herbal, like gin but with none of the bite. The drink chased the lingering taste of river water from her mouth.

Thad took the now empty mug from her.

“Feeling better?” he asked.

Odelle nodded emphatically, and a brilliant smile split his friendly face.

“Good,” he responded in his deep voice. “I seem to be making a habit of helping the Zvezda sisters recover from encounters with the Shadow. Luckily, this one didn’t poison or wound you, just took you for a very cold swim. There aren’t any more Zvezda siblings I should be prepared for though, are there?”

“No,” Odelle reassured. “Although I’m sure if you ask Irina, she will assure you that two of us is more than enough.”

Thad chuckled, making the gold drop earring he wore in one ear shimmer and catch the light.

“You should feel completely yourself in no time. Drew, the distinctly non-magical doctor, could have fixed you up from this one. It’s a shame you didn’t bring him along.” Thad shot her a sly smile.

She thought about what Drew had said about Thad the day before. “You can thank Antony for bringing me here instead of to a hospital. To be fair, I’m not sure he would have known how to get me to an emergency department.”

“I would have figured it out.” Antony stuck his head around the doorframe into the room at that very moment, as if summoned by Odelle mentioning him. He had changed back into his more traditional Greek attire. “We learned the hard way with Nora that hospitals aren’t the best at treating injuries inflicted by the Shadow.”

As Antony approached Odelle’s bedside, Thad backed toward the door.

“I’m going to go mix up some more herbs, just in case. Call me if you need anything.” He looked pointedly between Antony and Odelle as he backed out of the room.