Nora shot me a quick, startled look before lifting both hands in the air, bringing them down with a thunderclap that sent Jim and me flying backwards into the wall, the deafening noise making my ears ring.

“What…good god, what did you do?” I asked a few seconds later, as soon as my wits returned. I used Jim to haul myself to my feet, looking around with astonishment to note that all the fox creatures had disappeared.

“I banished them. Are you bleeding?” She spoke the last word as if it was inconceivable.

I touched the spot on my head that had collided with the edge of the large square garbage bin, not surprised to see that my fingers came away red. “Yeah, but it’s OK, I’m not hurt badly. Just a little cut.”

A group of people charged around the corner to the alley, a couple of strangers and my family all asking questions about the loud noise.

“It’s nothing. Just…er…I accidentally slammed a brick into the garbage bin,” I yelled down to them, pointing at the large square object. “Sorry to startle everyone.”

Rene stepped forward, his eyes moving from the cut on my face, to my dress, to Nora. He nodded and said something to my stepparents before herding them back toward the street. Uncle Damian was thankfully nowhere to be seen.

“You shouldn’t be hurt at all, not from a banishing,” Nora said with a frown. “Aisling, I know we are no longer mentor and pupil, and thus you do not owe me any explanations, but why did you refuse to use fire to destroy the demons when I asked? Destroying them that way would have caused much less notice than using a group banishment.”

My lovely lace dress was filthy with blood and muck from the alley, torn in several places where the huli jing had attacked, and pretty much destroyed as a wearable garment. I sighed and yanked off one chunk of it that had been torn, using it to mop up the blood that was streaming down my face from the cut on my head. “I didn’t refuse. I can’t use Drake’s fire anymore. Not since that night.”

Her eyes went to mine, her lips thinning. “The proscription?”

“No. Fiat and his damned meddling. I can’t use Drake’s fire anymore because I’m no longer his mate,” I answered, limping over to pick up my sandal. The heel on it was broken. I put it on regardless. “I’m afraid the only power I have is my own.”

Not true. You have me. I will make you strong again.

I gritted my teeth.

“Big bad talking to you again?” Jim asked.

“Yes.”

“Big bad?” Nora asked, looking slightly startled.

“The dark power talks to Ash. She gets testy when it does.”

Her eyes widened behind the lenses of her glasses. “It…it talks to you?”

“Um…maybe. Sometimes. Not all the time, just now and again.”

She backed up a couple of steps, a look of horror on her face. “Aisling—that is not normal. The dark power is not a living being. It cannot speak.”

She does not know anything about me. She has no idea of what abilities you have with me, of what future you could write, the voice said. I closed my eyes for a moment, suddenly exhausted, overwhelmed with the events of the day and the constant battle I fought to keep from using the dark power. I swayed slightly as part of my mind urged me to give in to the hypnotic lure the voice held out in front of me. I wasn’t a bad person; I wasn’t evil. Couldn’t I change the power from bad to good?

You can do anything you want.

Jim touched its cold, wet nose on the back of my hand, bringing me back to reality. “Aisling?”

I opened my eyes and straightened up, squaring my shoulders. “I’m OK. Get my purse, will you?” I limped over to Nora and bit my lip. I wanted to hug her, to thank her for saving me. “Nora, I don’t know what to say. Thank you for everything.”

You can save yourself, you know. You’ve done so in the past. You are not weak.

“And thank you for coming to the wedding. I just wish there had actually been a wedding for you to see.”

You do not have to subordinate yourself to her. She has little compared to you.

“Lastly, thank you for being my friend, even though I know things are difficult right now.”

It doesn’t have to be that way. You can change your life to whatever you want. Right the wrongs, Aisling Grey. Be what you were meant to be.

“Aisling…” Nora took a step forward, one hand extended as if she was going to take mine, but she stopped, her eyes filled with pity. “I’m so sorry. I blame myself for this. If I’d had the time to warn you…but hindsight will do no good now. I must be off. The Guild will not be happy to know I was here in the first place, and I mustn’t linger. My best wishes to you and Drake.”

Hot, painful tears started up again behind my eyes as a wave of self-pity washed over me. Dammit, it wasn’t fair!

Make it right. Fix it.

“I won’t give in to you,” I said softly, dragging my mind from the knowledge that the voice was right—using it, I could do anything. “I am a Guardian. I protect people. I am not an instrument of vengeance. I’m good, dammit!”

“Yes, you are,” Nora said softly, reaching for me again, her hand stopping a hairsbreadth from mine. “And that is why you are able to withstand the dark power. Keep fighting, Aisling. Don’t let it win. Don’t take the easy road. Be what you were meant to be.”

That’s all I ask, the voice cooed. Be what you were meant to be.

3

“Well, lookie what the cat dragged in,” Jim quipped as the door to Drake’s study was thrown open with enough force to make the pictures rattle on the wall. “Hmm. No blood, no signs of a fight…not good, man, not good at all. You should at least have made it look like you guys had been roughed up. You might have scored some sympathy points that way, but looking like you stepped off the cover of GQ isn’t going to win you any friends.”

“Be quiet, annoying one,” I said, my heart doing its usual somersault at the sight of the dragon of my dreams.

Drake stormed into the room, his jaw tight, his eyes blazing. The pupils were narrow elongated vertical slits set in emerald that glittered a warning to all that the man behind the eyes was more than he seemed.

“Your eyes are all dragony. I take it—Oh, hello. I’m sorry, it was a false alarm. He just came home. Thank you for checking the emergency ward.” I clicked off the phone, sliding off the top of the desk to face the furious man in front of me. “I take it that there was a problem?”