Demon Forged

into it and wasn’t letting go. And she’d have wagered he wanted to know now so that he could judge Taylor’s reaction to whatever they learned. They were obviously close, and moved together with the ease of longtime partners. Like Taylor, he was creased and worn. But unlike Taylor, who looked pale and shadowed, Preston just looked comfortably lived in.
    She turned to Alejandro. “Do you have the translation?”
    Although she’d made Alice read the prophecy to her until she’d memorized each line, Irena didn’t carry a copy.
    “You do not wish to recite it?” His eyes held amusement.
    Somewhere, she thought, after some time in Lilith’s office, they’d both lost the burn of anger that had followed them from the conference room. Perhaps it was only knowing that he was as frustrated as she was by how little the Guardians could help the vampire communities targeted by the demons.
    Perhaps it was that she wanted to let the anger go.
    “It is too stupid to say aloud,” she told him.
    “At what point do you begin laughing?”
    He knew her well. It was not just that the prophecy was stupid; she could barely make it through the recitation. “Caelum’s voice.”
    “Ah.” Triumph filled his tone. He produced a single sheet of paper, held it out for Preston. His gaze remained on her. “I last longer than you.”
    Her eyes narrowed. As Preston took the paper, she said, “You will not provoke me into reciting it. I will not be your amusement.”
    “Not my amusement. Enjoyment. That is your laughter: the most incredible pleasure.”
    She drew in a breath, and held it. Everything inside her seemed to be waiting. She would laugh, she thought. Laugh, just from the pleasure his words gave her.
    His voice lowered, inaudible to human ears. “And the deepest pain. I do not know why I ask for it.”
    Her heart jolted and squeezed, as if he’d dropped it to the floor and stepped on it as he strode past her. Heading toward Selah, she realized. Irena hadn’t been aware that the other Guardian had teleported into the hallway with them.
    Her breath would not steady. Her emotions rebounded between anger and hurt, but her reaction went unnoticed. Preston and Taylor quietly read over the prophecy. Preston’s psychic scent churned with confusion; Taylor’s mind was shielded, as usual. Making certain her own shields were strong, Irena looked at Alejandro again, found his gaze on her.
    When had this happened? The balance they had maintained for so long, the sharp edge they’d walked . . . it had disappeared beneath their feet. She didn’t know whether to find it again, or keep stumbling until they fell to one side or the other: everything, or nothing.
    Both options gripped her throat with fear. She signed to him. What is happening between us?
    His hands briefly clenched at his sides. I don’t know.
    “So what does this all mean?”
    Preston’s voice filtered through the heavy silence that seemed to surround them. Alejandro blinked slowly, like a human waking, and unsure if he was still sleeping. Irony filled his reply. “We don’t know.”
    Selah scoffed before vanishing and reappearing behind Preston. Standing on shoes that were nothing but ribbons and spiked heels that put her at a few inches over his height, she looked over his shoulder. The detective glanced up at her. Then peered up again, as if once hadn’t been enough to take in the waves of light blond hair and the perfection of Selah’s features, warmed by the smile she gave him. His gaze dropped a little more slowly, and his lips formed a soundless whistle as soon as he was facing away from her.
    “We know some of it,” she said, reaching around him to run her fingers over the first line. “ ‘She waits below’—that is Anaria, Michael’s sister. And she’s not waiting anymore, because the nephilim found her.”
    And the rest was nonsense , Irena thought. “And you can explain the next part . . . all the way to the ‘dragon’s blade’?”
    She watched Alejandro, and didn’t feel the urge to laugh as Taylor quickly read the lines aloud.
    “ ‘The dragon will rise before the lost two. The blood of the dragon will create one door and destroy another. Caelum’s voice will sing it closed with ice and fire and blood, and be lost until she claims her new tongue and the dragon’s blade.’ ” She finished and looked to Selah, who shook her head.
    “I have no idea,” the Guardian admitted. “But the rest we do know. ‘The blood that heals