Page 48 of Chaos and Crowns

Odelle shook herself and pulled her shoulders back. Standing tall always made her sound confident, and that’s what the city needed right now. Confident and calm and reassuring. She pulled out her grave but positive reporter voice and tried not to think about the fact that her largest audience to date was going to hear her speaking from a rooftop while her heart still hammered from fighting for her life against a creature of darkness.

“Hello Chicagoland, this is Odelle Zvezda from channel three news. We would like to apologize for the interruption of your service and inform you that it was due to a technical issue with transmission. We would like to thank you for staying calm during this uncertain period and keeping each other safe. Service on all channels should resume as usual. Thanks for watching your local news.”

The matter of the fact was, Odelle knew that the public had not remained calm during this period of uncertainty. Still, if she had learned one thing during her years as a reporter, expecting the best from people brought out the best in them.

As Odelle fell silent, Antony nodded again. Then, the Light under his palm intensified before shooting up the antenna and scattering into the sky. She watched golden particles dissolve into the sky, now pink and purple from the impending sunset.

Antony sagged, finally dropping his hands and staggering back a few steps. Odelle immediately ducked under his arm, ready to support him, but he held his weight. Instead, he turned to her and grinned, the light from the setting sun caressing his features, making it seem like he still shone with magic.

“We did it.” He sighed. “That went surprisingly well.”

Odelle couldn’t help but grin back at the look of pleased disbelief painting Antony’s features. Like he wasn’t the most powerful living sorcerer in the world. As if he were surprised that he could accomplish something incredible. She bumped her hip against his playfully.

“We make a good team,” she agreed. “You do incredible feats of magic while I throw any Shadows who try to stop you off skyscrapers.”

Antony’s face passed through a series of emotions in quick succession—confusion, disbelief, horror—then settled on concerned.

“You threw a Shadow off the roof?”

“Well, it threw itself technically, I just helped it along. Not to worry though, I’m still in one piece.” Odelle went to take a step forward and then stumbled. Looking down at her foot, she found that not just her shoe had been melted, but her foot was warped and twisted from the heat as well.

“Ok, mostly in one piece,” Odelle conceded. “My insurance is going to start asking some questions if I keep breaking prosthetics this fast.”

“You’re not going to keep breaking them this fast,” Antony declared. “I am going to make sure you don’t have to keep using your body parts as makeshift weapons anymore. I’m going to make you a weapon.”

“See, you can protect me after all.”

Antony looked dubious, but Odelle was having none of it. She pulled him to her and kissed any arguments right off his lips. Her skin still fizzled from the dissipating adrenaline, making her feel drunk and bold. As Odelle tried to push even closer to Antony, he chuckled into her mouth, gently extricating himself from her.

“While I appreciate, and even reciprocate your enthusiasm, I’m not sure this is the time or the place,” Antony pointed out. The tips of his ears were crimson where they peaked out of his hair.

Odelle was forced to agree. They were trespassing, and the sooner they made themselves scarce, the better.

The elevator ride down was much less eventful, but neither of them spoke, ears pricked for any sounds of another sabotage attempt. There was only the gentle humming of florescent lights and a properly functioning pully system. When they reached the lobby, maintenance men still argued with each other in tight knit groups. From the snippets Odelle caught as she and Antony casually picked their way towards the door, they now argued about who was responsible for the signal being restored.

“Clearly, I was the one to fix it, because I was the last one up there.”

“Yeah, and you said it wasn’t even broken.”

Odelle snorted as they pushed through the revolving door and onto the sidewalk. Their equine friend hadn’t waited for them or had been recovered by the police officer. The street had already calmed towards its usual level of disorder. Voices still yelled and car horns still expressed their displeasure, but the frantic nature of the cacophony had dissolved. Odelle was surprised their broadcast had pacified the people so fast, but the chaos seemed to dissipate as quickly as it had formed.

18

The trip to Odelle’s apartment was quick, aided by the fact that it didn’t happen on horseback. Once they were there, Odelle fished the legs Antony had made her out of the back of her closet, finally able to look at them without reopening the wound to her pride Antony’s words had caused at Christmas. As she strapped them on, reveling in how they morphed perfectly to her form, she considered that her pride had wreaked a lot of havoc on her life recently. It caused her to jump to conclusions about a man who had never treated her with anything but kindness, and urged her not to call Nora for help when the Shadows closed in on the crown. One of those mistakes had been rectified, but the other still hung over Odelle’s head like the word of Damocles.

From Odelle’s apartment, they headed to the Sanctuary. She texted Nora and Thad on the way to meet them there. When the entire group was gathered in a sunny courtyard, Odelle finally felt the last flickers of adrenaline fade from her bloodstream. Nobody was injured, although confused expressions adorned many faces.

“Did you encounter any Shadows out in the city while we were restoring the signal?” Antony asked.

It was Adam who spoke first, with a shake of his head. “That’s the odd thing, we couldn’t find any. I would have expected them to be hiding around every corner, instigating violence and fanning the panic into full on riots, but they were nowhere to be found. Maybe it was just a coincidence.”

“Definitely not,” Odelle cut in. “We encountered enough Shadows on our way to the antenna to make it clear that this was their doing.”

“And why didn’t they use the crown?” Adam asked. “It seems odd that they would go to so much trouble to get their claws on it, only to not use it in their next big play.”

“They would be using the crown to corrupt humans,” Antony pointed out. “We only saw Shadow creatures. If they were using a human for their plan, I would have expected the sabotage of the antenna to be more physical, but the Shadow just blocked the energy with its own power.”

“Maybe you restored the signal fast enough that the Shadow didn’t get to enact its entire plan,” Thad speculated.