Demon Forged

the point of pain.
    Four hundred years.
    She could not be sorry for all of it. She’d needed time after the demon had almost shredded her into nothing. Olek had needed time to regain his pride. But a single vow, a word to each other would have brought them back together long before this. A single vow, and she’d have known he’d fight for her; he’d have known she’d intended to return to him.
    Olek stopped midsentence, looking at her over the top of the page.
    His face had softened and blurred, and she spoke through the ache in her throat. “We are both fools, Olek.”
    He reached for her hands, pulled her to him. “I will not argue that.”

CHAPTER 21
    The novices all wore red tennis shoes.
    Irena smiled as she watched them swoop gently to the ground, their wings spread wide to slow their descent, their landing almost soundless. For the past fifteen minutes, Guardians had begun gathering on the eastern shore of Caelum, where the city’s marble edge seamlessly met the smooth blue plane of the waveless and silent sea. Overhead, the cerulean vault of the sky stretched cloudlessly to an infinite horizon.
    Irena stood where she had a view of the Guardians coming in by air and on foot. Laid out before her, flat marble pavers extended to the curving edge of the city and created a long, crescent-shaped terrace, a hundred feet deep at the center. Behind her, its walls forming the crescent’s interior arc, a round tower jutted into the sky, crenellated at its crown like the battlement of a castle. Dru’s quarters comprised the upper levels of the tower, a location she’d chosen because her rooms overlooked the sea, and so Irena felt no surprise that the healer had requested her body be laid to rest beneath the waters. Some Guardians chose Caelum; others, Earth. Irena had no preference for hers, but she knew the ceremony would be important for anyone she left behind. She’d chosen the tundra, and a pyre. A big pyre. Alejandro had probably chosen a ceme—
    Her heart gave a painful jump. She couldn’t finish the thought. She glanced over at him, standing quietly beside her wearing his customary black. She looked away again, quickly, and for a moment the small crowd of Guardians swam in front of her vision.
    No. She could not even contemplate it.
    She shifted closer to him, until she felt the heat of his hand against hers. Glancing up again, she saw the query in his dark gaze.
    She might as well set it in stone now. “I will go first.”
    He looked out over the sea, his jaw white. “No.”
    “Do not argue.”
    “Do not pretend you can determine which of us will—” He shook his head, sharply. “No. I will be first.”
    “I will drag you down from the laps of the angels Above and kill you for leaving.”
    “You threaten me?” He narrowed his eyes, and humor came into their depths. “We will never agree on this, Irena. Admit defeat.”
    She sneered. “I will eat spiders in Hell first.”
    “Then you might as well surrender now. Even a woman of your deep hungers could not chew beyond the second leg.”
    She looked away before her laughter burst out. Two dozen Guardians quickly glanced in other directions. Most were smiling—or trying to suppress one. Good. Much better than quietly running as far out of the line of her and Alejandro’s fire as possible. And now they would all know why he stood at her side instead of watching her from a distance, as he had at every other gathering.
    Wearing a gauzy dress the same color as the sea, Selah teleported in to the center of the terrace, bringing Drifter with her. The tall Guardian looked around, spotted Irena and Alejandro. He touched Selah’s arm, and they teleported again, reappearing next to Irena.
    Irena’s stomach rolled into a hard stone. Selah’s greeting was as sunny as usual and Drifter offered a smile, but his demeanor struck her as too casual. And although his posture was long and easy, she read his tension in the barely-perceptible twitch of muscle at the side of his neck.
    “What is it?”
    He blinked, as if it’d taken him by surprise, then glanced out over the terrace. He shook his head, and turned his back to the terrace so that his body blocked the movement of his hands. It can wait. Selah and I decided not to cast a shadow over—
    I’ll be wondering now, anyway, Irena interrupted.
    “As will I,” Alejandro said.
    Drifter sighed. He exchanged a look with Selah, who nodded.
    All right, he signed. About twenty minutes ago, Jake came to