“Go on.” Her voice called back eerily from the darkness.

I ran almost blind, one hand out to keep from smashing into something. “They can be summoned by a knowledgeable practitioner of the dark powers.”

A dim yellow glow at the end of the disused hallway showed Nora’s form as she paused in an archway.

I leaped over a pile of disused signs, running the last few feet to her. “They are not generally considered dangerous unless found in great numbers, which seldom happens since they tend to fight with each other.”

Nora said nothing as she peered over the railing to the floor below. I stepped forward to look. We were on an overpass perched above two disused platforms, dusty and dirty and evidently now used for storage of miscellaneous office equipment. Over the broken chairs, scuffed and stained metal desks, and naked metal racks once used in administrative offices, a good hundred and fifty  or so fox-sized red-and-black forms  crawled, snarling and yipping at each other as they milled around. “Oh, dear.”

“This may be a little bit more involved than I originally anticipated,” Nora said slowly, her eyes on the seething mass of blight hounds.

“You want I should go back and get that guy’s paddle?” Jim asked me.

“Huh?”

Its lips pulled back in a smile. “From where I’m sitting, we’re up a creek without one.”

“We’ll start on the left side and work right,” Nora said, trotting across the overpass. “Use your wards to slow down any of them who rush you. Remember the three steps of dispatching.”

“Halt, bind, and destroy,” I said, following her.

“Exactly. Stay behind me, but don’t let any stragglers escape past you.”

“Gotcha. Jim, what’s the policy on a demon attacking demon minions?”

“We’re go for launch,” it panted as it ran after us.

“Great, so you don’t have any issues with helping me wipe them out?”

We stopped short of the platform, the nearest blight hounds about ten feet away. “Not a one. I never liked blight hounds. They have no sense of humor to speak of.”

“OK, but how will you dispatch them?”

“With lots of slobber?” Jim grinned at me as I drew a protective ward over myself. It gave a mock sigh as I narrowed my eyes. “They’re demonic, Aisling. If I destroy their physical forms, they will be sent back to Abaddon. I’ll just do a little neck snapping, and back they go.”

“Ew. No details; just do it.” I slung my bag over my back and unsnapped Jim’s leash, freeing up both my hands to draw wards.

Nora looked at me and cocked an eyebrow.

“Let’s do it,” I told her. “Effrijim, I command thee to wipe out the blight hounds!”

Jim gave a little battle cry as it ran forward into the mass of snarling bodies. Nora followed, her voice raised as she started clearing a path with a couple of high-level incantations.

The next hour and a half was grueling, exhausting, and draining on all levels—and I loved every minute of it.

“Now this is what I’m talking about!” I did a little victory dance as I dispatched the last blight hound, its body turning into a puff of nasty-smelling black smoke that hung heavily in the air. I twirled around to make sure that there were no more little nasties hiding anywhere, but Nora had rousted out the last of them. “Woohoo, we rock!”

Jim collapsed next to an overturned table, its tongue lolling to the ground as it panted, giving me an intolerant look. “Jeez, woman, get a grip. It was just a few blight hounds, not the princes of Abaddon themselves.”

I jumped over a stack of boxes containing clunky dot-matrix printers, pausing to give Jim a well-deserved pat on the head. “Cut me a little slack, OK? It was my first official infestation, and I’m celebrating. How did I do, Nora? I felt good. I felt in control, and even when that big herd rushed me and I got a little frenzied with the binding wards—sorry about freezing you, Jim, that was totally unintentional—it didn’t take me long to get the situation back under control.”

Nora poked a stack of discarded furniture to make sure no blight hounds remained, straightening up to dust off her hands and smile. “You did very well, as a matter of fact. You kept your head despite overwhelming circumstances.”

Even though I was filthy with dirt from the abandoned platform, and covered in demon smoke grit, I glowed with happiness from her praise.

“There is the little matter of the fire,” she added, hesitating.

“I put that right out. As soon as I saw the furniture on fire, I doused the flame.” A pang of guilt zinged through me as I glanced down the platform where the charred bits of rubble remained, the wall now stained black with smoke.

“Yes, you did.” Nora continued to hesitate. I stood before her, anxious to know how my first outing as a Guardian trainee had gone, worried by her obvious reluctance to speak.

“But?” I prodded her, my heart sinking as her smile faded.

“That wasn’t actually the fire I was speaking about.” She looked uncomfortable for a moment, which made me feel even more uneasy. “Are you aware that when you draw a ward, you invoke dragon fire?”

I frowned, mentally going over the ward-drawing process. “No, I wasn’t. I draw the pattern you showed me, add my own little bit, and imbue it with my belief in my powers and abilities, just as you told me. I don’t see where it is I’m drawing on Drake’s fire.”

She pointed at rat that peeked out from under a stack of garbage. “Draw a binding ward on that rat.”

“OK.” I took a deep breath, focused, and drew a symbol in the air that would, when combined with my force of will, bind the rat to the spot.

The ward glowed red in the air for a second, then faded into nothing. The rat gave a squeak of surprise as it tried to scurry away. I started to turn away, but a slight flicker caught my eye. To my surprise, fire suddenly flared to life in the form of the ward I’d just drawn, sending the rat beneath it into a frenzy of horror.

“Oh, my god!” I ran over, ignoring my dislike of rodents to snatch the rat out of harm’s way, swatting out the fire after I released the terrified rat. “I had no idea! I didn’t see any fire with the blight hounds but the one on the furniture ...”

“I believe it manifests itself when you cement the ward with your will,” she mused, giving me a thoughtful look. “By the time you’ve done that and the fire manifests, you’ve moved on to the next being demanding your attention.”