Page 13

Chapter thirteen

N ora 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.

Odelle’s shoulders drew up towards her ears in preemptive defense. “Are you going to scold me for not calling you and Adam as soon as we found out that the Shadow was after the crown? ”

Nora hesitated but shook her head. “You were handling it really well. Honestly, I’m impressed with all the fake identities you made to pull off the switch, but the shit hit the fan, as it normally does with the Shadow.”

Odelle tugged at the furry rug they sat on and nodded.

“I want you to know though,” Nora continued haltingly, “You don’t have to feel bad asking for help here. You have nothing to prove. I know that I’ve started fighting the Shadow with the Eteria, but it’s ok if that’s not for you. I don’t want you to feel like you’re being forced to join this fight, just because I’m in it now.”

“Be real, do you think I could know that all of this battle between the Shadow and the Light was happening just beneath the surface of reality and go about my life like nothing has changed?” Odelle asked. “Besides, these people are your family. I don’t want to get in the way of an important part of your life.”

“ You’re my family.” Nora bumped a shoulder against Odelle’s. “And you don’t have to charge at the Shadow with a spear for me to want you to be involved in this new part of my life. I’m sure the Eteria are happy to have you around, immortal sorcerer or not.”

“Yeah well, I don’t think Antony sees it that way,” Odelle huffed, although now she was just disappointed, no longer capable of being stung by his rejection. Not after what they had just been through together. What she had learned about his past.

“I doubt that,” Nora argued. “I thought you guys really hit it off. I could have sworn there was something between you.”

Odelle buried her face in her hands, making her voice come out muffled. “Yeah, I thought that at first too. Antony made it clear that I was wrong.”

Nora’s touch landed on Odelle’s shoulder and pulled her face free.

“What happened? ”

Odelle sighed and stared into the fire as she relayed the events of Christmas eve. Her face burned hot with embarrassment as she recalled her silly actions—the reason she hadn’t told Nora what happened sooner. How she had kissed Antony like any other man at a party, when she should have realized he belonged in a different league. Shame stung her chest at the rejection, amplified by sharing it with somebody else. Now that she couldn’t bring herself to be mad at Antony anymore, her heart felt tender and bruised. The shield of anger she had built around her feelings by telling herself that he was just cruel was waning, and now she had to face the reality of the situation. She still didn’t know why he would be so callous, but her indignation had been replaced by confusion.

Nora was silent when Odelle finished. Odelle continued to pick sullenly at the shaggy carpet.

“So I guess I did have something to prove—that I wasn’t worthy of the Eteria.”

“That’s not right,” Nora interjected sharply. “And that’s not like Antony, there must be more to the story.”

Odelle sighed. “Just because there was more to your story with Adam and you got your happily ever after, doesn’t mean I will. Sometimes things just don’t work out.”

“True,” Nora conceded, “But not with somebody who stares at you the way I saw Antony look at you. Maybe you gave Antony your legendary cold shoulder prematurely.”

Odelle shot Nora a glare out of the corner of her eye, and Nora held up her hands placatingly.

“Look, I’m just saying, you seem confident most of the time, but you and I both know that when it comes to rejection, you bruise like an overly emotional banana. Probably because you don’t have much practice with it. ”

Odelle narrowed her eyes, and Nora shrank back despite being one of the few people that could stand up to her younger sister’s temper. The fact was, Nora had struck a nerve. Odelle’s normal assuredness in her abilities was a double-edged sword. While it usually allowed her to face challenging situations with fire in her veins, it left her floundering on the occasions where she was unsuccessful.

“There might be more to his rejection than meets the eye,” Nora pressed on, even as she held up her hands like Odelle was a snarling mountain lion she was trying to tame. “Did you give him a chance to say more than one sentence before you stormed off?”

Odelle shook her head to which Nora held up her hands in a way that said s ee? Odelle wanted to believe her. She wanted to believe that Antony’s soft smiles—those beautiful legs he had made for her—were a sign of how he felt. After being so thoroughly burned by him once though, she shied away from the thought of making another advance.

“I can’t promise anything,” Odelle hedged. “But I think we can at least be…comrades now. After a wilderness survival bootcamp, you can’t help but feel bonded with somebody. Harrowing experiences and all that.”

The look that Nora gave Odelle implied she thought they might be “bonded” by more than a night of arctic camping, but she let it drop.

“So the crown…” Nora started.

“I assume you and Adam are going to make it a priority to find it?”

“Actually, I was hoping you and Antony would continue to work on it,” Nora explained. “Of course we’ll help, but with your job, you naturally have your ear to the ground on all the happenings in the city. You’d be the first to hear about anything abnormal.”

Odelle’s insides warmed from more than just the tea. She could be an asset to the Eteria after all .

“And Antony,” Nora continued, “If the Shadow really has somehow corrupted the crown, he’s the only one who will know how to fix it.”

Odelle nodded, tugging at a loose strand of hair in thought and then grimacing at the greasy texture. Her arctic expedition hadn’t been great for her look.

“So what kind of things do I need to be watching out for?” Odelle asked. “I’ll keep an eye on the incoming stories, but how will I know if it’s the Shadow?”

“They’ll be wanting to cause pain and chaos.” Nora chewed her lip as she thought. “Anything that would breed fear, that seems out of the ordinary.”

Odelle snorted without humor.

“Nora, those are two separate concepts. We get news about shootings that cause pain and chaos every day. It’s not out of the ordinary,” Odelle pointed out.

“Ok, well then anything that causes an abnormal amount of panic or division.”

Odelle nodded in agreement but was interrupted by a yawn so wide that her jaw popped and her eyes watered.

Nora gave her an apologetic smile. “I shouldn’t be throwing all this at you right now. You need to sleep. Do you want me to find you a bed here? There are plenty.”

“No.” Odelle shook her head. “After the adventure I’ve had, I want to sleep in my own bed.”

She pushed to her feet and reluctantly relinquished the blanket she’d been holding around her shoulders. Nora made to come with her, but Odelle waved her off.

“I can get myself home,” she insisted. “I’m just going to catch a cab, since my car was impounded when I left it on the sidewalk. I swear, I’ve taken more cabs in my life since this mess with the crown than I have in my entire adult life before now.”

As Nora gave her a hug goodnight, Odelle refrained from mentioning the stop she was making on her way out, knowing her sister would give her a hard time.

Once Odelle left Adam and Nora’s cozy quarters, she turned down a hallway in the opposite direction of the exit, toward where Antony had been carried away on a stretcher. Thad had assured her he would be fine as Nora whisked her away to get her warm and fed. Still, the blue tinge on his pale lips haunted her. He had saved her life. The least she could do was check on him one last time before she went home.

As Odelle moved down the hallways, she poked her head through doorways until she saw the back of a golden blonde head bending over a bed. Odelle stepped around the corner and Seraphina looked up from where she had been applying a compress to Antony’s forehead. Odelle stood there, staring at his face, unsure what to do now that she was here. Thankfully, Seraphina didn’t object to her presence.

“He’s going to be all right you know,” she explained softly as she began grinding some herbs with a mortar and pestle.

Odelle nodded and stepped closer to the bed, looking down at Antony’s unconscious form. In sleep, he sprawled out like a starfish, despite Seraphina’s obvious attempt to tuck him snuggly under layers of blankets. It made Odelle smile, despite the crease between her brows caused by the shallowness of his breathes and the waxiness of his complexion.

Odelle reached out to push a copper curl from her face but snatched her hand away when Seraphina stepped up next to her. The smile Seraphina offered seemed to say that she shared in some secret, but Odelle refused to acknowledge it .

“I’m just…thankful that he saved me,” Odelle justified.

“What he did was quite impressive,” admitted Seraphina, “None of the rest of us would have been able to manage it.”

“Yeah.” Odelle swallowed thickly. “He told me that he’s the only surviving Smith.”

“It’s not just that. The amount of Light he used—it would have been astounding even before the Defeat. Now…most of us lose consciousness after use of the Light that would have barely taken a thought before, even though it seems to be becoming slightly easier to use the Light as the Shadow grows in power once more. What he did would kill any but the most powerful among us.”

“So…Antony is—” Odelle stammered.

“He has the largest capacity to channel Light in all of the Eteria,” Seraphina said with a sage nod. “Even before the Defeat, his raw power…it was some of the greatest the Eteria has ever known.”

“I had no idea,” Odelle admitted. She would have thought Adam was among the most powerful, or perhaps Ezra with his superhuman fighting abilities, moving faster than the eye could see. Antony seemed to think very little of his powers as well, criticizing his fighting skills and carrying so much guilt for the deaths of other Eteria members. But Antony, this beautiful unconscious man, channeled the powers of the universe through his fingers.

“It’s easy to forget,” Seraphina admitted. “He mostly channeled the Light in his workshop, away from watchful eyes. When you see him work though, there’s no denying it.”

There had been no refuting the awe Odelle felt when the entire world around her gleamed with the Light pouring off Antony. Now, he looked so fragile in comparison. It made Odelle’s chest tighten.

Seraphina put a hand on her shoulder as Odelle swayed with exhaustion.

“Why don’t you go get some rest.” Sensing Odelle’s hesitation she reassured, “I’ll stay with him.”

With a nod, Odelle shuffled from the room, weighed down by her fatigue and the heaviness of the feelings Seraphina and Nora had dragged up from where they’d been buried out of sight. The feelings needed to be revisited though. In all she had learned of Antony, from her experiences and that of others, it was out of character for him to dismiss Odelle for being outside the Eteria. Not when he nearly killed himself to save her, and his own humility spilled into the territory of self-deprecation.

Just as Odelle was stepping out of the doorway, Seraphina’s voice came from behind her.

“Feel free to come visit tomorrow. I’m sure Antony would like that.”

Well, that settled things. If Nora and Seraphina actually managed to agree on something, Odelle couldn’t ignore it.