Demon Forged

get Charlie, and take her to where Castleford and Lilith are looking over Savi for the day.
    Irena frowned. Drifter’s vampire partner and Jake had developed a relationship that reminded Irena of siblings, and he was almost as protective of her as Drifter was. But Charlie lived in Seattle—and because she didn’t have the same taint in her blood as Ames-Beaumont and Savi, wasn’t a target in the same way that they were. And Drifter often left her alone in her daysleep, with just a protection spell around her room. Why had Jake thought that wouldn’t be sufficient today?
    I did the same for Lucas, Selah said. Which might be an overreaction, I know, and maybe I’ll have him back in Ashland before the sun goes down—but I want to make certain that he knows what has happened as soon as he wakes up. Not worrying, and waiting for a call.
    Irena closed her eyes. She didn’t need to see what they’d sign next. She knew. Anaria had made her portal to Chaos, and the Guardians would be going in to stop her.
    They might not all return.
    Alejandro’s palm flattened against her lower back, warm and supportive. She opened her eyes.
    Drifter was signing, Ames-Beaumont is still in the mirrored room, giving Michael an account of what Anaria and her nephilim are doing. They’ll be here shortly. I figure once the gathering is over, Ames-Beaumont will be opening his portal, and we’ll be heading through.
    Irena nodded. Fear coated the back of her throat, but she would do what had to be done.
    Alice and Jake arrived by air rather than teleporting. Irena guessed that Jake must have retrieved Alice from the Archives or her quarters, and told her about Anaria on their way here. Alice’s narrow face seemed pinched, but she made a visible effort to clear her expression as they landed. They looked at each other for a moment, then parted. Jake walked to where the novices waited; Alice searched out Irena, and moved toward her with an inhumanly graceful stride instead of her disjointed one.
    Irena almost laughed. Like Drifter, Alice must have decided to wait until after the gathering to speak about Anaria—and in the meantime, she made an effort not to creep everyone out. Alice probably did not care that the unexpectedness of her gliding step drew almost as many looks as her spidery movements did.
    She slipped between Drifter and Irena, and linked her bony elbow with Irena’s. Her long skirt brushed Irena’s leggings.
    “You have heard?” Alice murmured.
    Irena nodded.
    Alice’s pale blue gaze remained on Jake, who’d reached the novices—and who, until only a few months ago, had been one of them. After the Ascension, Pim and Jake’s friendship had formed the heart of that close-knit group. The dynamics had changed since Jake had been promoted, but Irena saw their friendship had not. Pim looked up at him. The brave face she’d been wearing suddenly collapsed. Jake hugged her to him, and the young healer sobbed against his chest. Becca wrapped her arms around them both.
    Irena swallowed hard. “You have been a fool now and then, Alice. But you chose well with that one.”
    “Yes.”
    “I reckon the kid’s the one who got lucky,” Drifter said.
    Irena gave him a look that put color into his cheeks. Selah laughed and bumped him with her hip.
    “How obvious you are, Ethan,” Alice teased him. Her gaze rested on Irena’s face for a second, before moving beyond her to Alejandro. When she looked ahead again, a slight smile curved her mouth.
    Irena smiled, too, and looked out over the terrace, to the horizon. In all her years, she’d had many friends, but she’d never had this before. Olek, silent and strong on her left, his hand a comforting pressure on her back. Her closest friend stood on her right, and next to her, two Guardians that she’d been proud to train and to serve with, and whose opinions she valued as much as Olek’s, as Michael’s. They gathered with her, and she’d never before felt how much she had. And what was missing.
    Her gaze fell to the novice’s red shoes. “Dru had a reason for wearing those shoes.”
    As if the name were magic, the conversations around the terrace quieted. Beside her, Alice drew up a little straighter, her lips trembling before they firmed.
    “Tell us,” Alejandro said.
    It was a signal to start. Michael wasn’t yet here, but many things, Irena had learned, began in their own time. As difficult as it was to say each word, she also could not hold them back.
    “I’d never