Page 47 of Chaos and Crowns

Once their breathing had leveled out to heavy panting, Antony tried the door and looked like he was going to bang his head against in frustration when it was locked.

“They don’t give roof access to just anybody, that would be a safety nightmare,” Odelle pointed out.

Antony looked dubiously at the ID scan pad next to the door.

“How many doors am I going to have to fry just to get on a roof?” he asked in exasperation.

“No need. I’m not ‘just anybody.’” Odelle brandished the ID card she had grabbed off the maintenance man in the lobby under Antony’s nose victoriously.

“Good to know you don’t actually grope random maintenance workers without good reason,” Antony commented, as Odelle reached past him to scan the ID.

Her hand hovered above the scan pad for a moment as she met Antony’s eyes. They both seemed to ask the other if they were ready without words. After a jerky dip of Antony’s chin, Odelle tapped the card on the pad with a faint beep, and they pushed out onto the roof.

Immediately, the wind buffeted them, the normal Chicago lake breeze amplified to gale force at this height. Both instinctively bent over in response, bracing themselves as they took in their surroundings. No Shadows were visible, but Odelle’s gaze roved continuously across the rooftop as they crept towards the antenna.

Odelle had known they had to be larger than they appeared from the ground, but she still hadn’t been prepared for the white monoliths before her. They made the towering stone columns at the Sanctuary look like toothpicks. Antony reached out and pressed his palms to the nearest one, scrunching his eyes closed as if listening carefully. Odelle wrapped her arms around her torso to shield herself from the cold and continued to scan the area as he worked. She had been colder these past two weeks than she had in the whole two winters before this.

“The Shadow has jammed up the energy pathways,” Antony shouted to be heard over the wind “I should be able to flush it out with the Light, but I’ll have to go slowly to not accidentally knock myself out.”

“I’ll keep a lookout,” Odelle promised with a nod.

Antony shut his eyes again, and gold glimmered where his palms met the antenna. Odelle tore her eyes away to make good on her end of the promise. She stood for long minutes, teeth chattering, tensed against both the cold and the threat of the Shadows. Maybe all the creatures had been killed in Antony’s stunt with the elevator, but it seemed unlikely. Still, the rooftop remained empty. Odelle snuck periodic glances at Antony out of the corner of her eye, making sure he didn’t overexert himself. He simply stood as if frozen, eyes closed and gently pulsing with incandescent Light.

Odelle had just torn her eyes away from the way the Light accentuated the hollow of his throat when movement caught her eyes. She whipped her head towards where she thought she had seen the Shadow, only to catch it out of the corner of her eye once more. Then, it showed itself, slinking around the base of the far antenna, gliding sickeningly across the rooftop like an oil spill across water.

She glanced back and forth between Antony and the approaching Shadow, but he didn’t seem to have sensed it.

“Antony, we’ve got a problem,” she shouted, but he didn’t move a muscle.

She tapped his shoulder and then shook him, but whatever trance he had entered to fix the antenna was strong. Still, the Shadow closed the distance between them heading straight toward Antony, unholy fire glimmering in the caverns that served as eyes.

“Hey, over here,” Odelle shouted, waving her arms in the air like an over-caffeinated air traffic controller before she could process what she was doing. Better to have the Shadow focus on her, considering she could at least attempt to fight back.

The Shadow turned its horrifying gaze on her, and she immediately regretted her decision. Still, she was in it now.

“You didn’t kill me before, what makes you think you can finish the job now?” Odelle taunted, surreptitiously patting her pockets for anything she could use as a weapon, only to come up dismally blank. She didn’t even have her keys on her.

The Shadow drifted towards her, and Odelle backed up, leading the Shadow away from Antony. Her back was to the edge of the roof, and a one hundred story drop would greet her if she fell. She raised her chin defiantly and took another step.

“What, are you scared to attack me? I don’t even have a weapon!” Odelle raised her empty hands as proof. She sensed more than saw that the edge was mere feet behind her.

A rip formed in the Shadow’s head, revealing more white fire inside the demented imitation of a smile. For one moment, Odelle thought the Shadow might not fall for it. Then, it leaped.

As the Shadow jumped toward Odelle, she threw herself to the side, covering her head with her arms. The creature soared overhead, unable to control its momentum. It scrabbled and slid towards the edge of the roof, but it was too late. The bulk of its body toppled over the edge. A metallic screeching noise cut over the wind and set her teeth on edge as taloned fingers dug into the roof, arresting the Shadow’s momentum and leaving it dangling from the edge.

Odelle took two steps towards it, then stopped, overcome by a horrifying vision of the other arm snaking over the edge and yanking her into the abyss. Then the Shadow started to haul itself up, and she snapped into motion again. She dashed to the edge of the roof and stomped on the deformed hand that prevented the creature from falling to its doom. An earsplitting shriek tore from its deformed mouth, but it didn’t let go. She stomped on its fingers again and again, smelling burning rubber as the heat from its fiery flesh melted the soles of her shoes. With one more stomp so hard that it rattled her skull and drove her calf painfully into the socket of her prosthetic, the Shadow lost its grip.

Odelle stared over the edge, transfixed as it tumbled towards the earth, no longer able to hear its screaming by the time it hit the pavement. She wanted to step back, but she couldn’t. Not now that she’d looked over the edge and saw how far down the sidewalk really was. Not until Antony’s voice came from behind her.

“Odelle!”

She carefully turned, finding his eyes open but his hands still pressed to the antenna. She moved to join him, scanning the rooftop for any more unwelcome visitors and finding none.

“I’ve dispelled most of the Shadow, but I’m going to have to send a pulse of Light through to clean out the residual,” Antony explained as she approached. “It should send out a broadcast signal to all wavelengths when I do it—that is if I’m actually understanding how radio and television work. Is there a message you think I should transmit?”

“Oh—um…sure,” Odelle said

Antony closed his eyes again and nodded. “Just say it to me and I’ll transmit it exactly as I hear it.”