Jim bounded over, snarling as it attacked the imps.

Behind me, a man shouted, a dark figure flashing past me as István leaped over Jim and the imps, tackling the foursome who I feared were about to break out of the binding ward. Wards don’t last as long on dragons as they do on people, and mine had been hastily drawn.

Pál raced into the room, glanced quickly at Nora and me, and took in the sight of Drake leaping from tomb to tomb as he fought Chuan Ren, their blades flashing in the light of the lamps, and Kostya doing battle with the other two dragons. He gave a yell and joined the fray with István just as the ward gave free.

I tried desperately to clear my mind of the chaos around us, focusing on the acts needed to seal the portal. Another chunk of the seal exploded, leaving a hole in it about two feet across.

“Ash, I’m gonna need some help here,” Jim yelled, its body covered in imp blood as it attacked the fresh wave of tiny orange beings.

I pulled on Drake’s fire and blasted the entrance of the portal with it, incinerating the imps and stopping their flow for a moment.

Nora drew wards of adjournment, but as soon as they were drawn, they dissolved into nothing.

“What’s wrong?” I yelled across the portal to her.

“This portal is too old. It has too much power. My wards aren’t strong enough. I fear we’re going to have to call for help with it.”

“You go get help. I’ll try to keep it contained until you get back,” I said grimly.

She nodded, racing past me and out the door.

I closed my eyes for a moment as I gathered up every negative emotion I’d felt in the last few weeks. The attacks by the red dragons, Fiat’s evil plots, Kostya’s stubborn insistence, the pain Bael had deliberately caused me, and the thankfully brief grief of losing Jim all roiled together in my gut, churning within me until I allowed it to merge with Drake’s fire.

“Ash! It’s going to blow!” Jim cried, shaking an imp until the little form hung limp in its jaws. “You’re gonna have to seal it now!”

The remainder of the seal exploded upward with a tremendous blast, sending me staggering backwards.

“Mate!” Drake bellowed.

“I’m all right!” I yelled back at him as he twisted just in time to avoid a beheading. “Just take care of her!”

The clash of their swords merged into the chaos of noise from the dragons as they fought around us. I stared with horror at the black abyss that lay open at my feet and knew with absolute conviction that Nora would not make it back in time.

I had to seal the damn thing.

Imps leaped out of the portal, singed and blackened by the dragon fire, their teeth needle sharp as they snapped at my legs.

I had to seal the damn thing now!

“Need a little help here,” Jim snarled, its teeth clamping shut on another imp.

“István!” Pál shouted, going down under a pile of red dragons that suddenly appeared at the door of the crypt.

I pulled hard on Drake’s fire, blasting the portal just as a demon stuck its head out.

“Aisling, close it!” Jim cried.

Behind me, Kostya, István, and Pál flung themselves forward at the incoming red dragons. I didn’t wonder at Kostya helping to fight them; I didn’t have time to do anything but focus on keeping the wave of incoming horror from escaping the portal.

It wouldn’t work. I wasn’t strong enough. I couldn’t do this without the dark power.

“Like hell I can’t,” I growled at my doubts, spreading wide my arms and yelling at the top of my lungs, “Fettered and fastened, I bury you deep!”

“Oh, man, you’ve been reading the Merseburg Incantations,” Jim said, spitting out a bit of imp. “That’s kind of old, Ash.”

“This portal is old. It will recognize the power of the binding. Blood bound to stone, so you will keep!”

The red dragons swarmed over Pál and István. Kostya was using one of their swords against them, but he was quickly being overwhelmed.

Drake shouted as Chuan Ren knocked him backwards, leaving him vulnerable.

I flung a fireball at her, knowing it wouldn’t do her any damage, but it contained enough power to upset her balance. She spun around toward me, screaming at her men.

“The portal!” I yelled above the cacophony to Drake. “Come to the portal! The red sins of man to my fire be bound!”

“Arrrrrrrgh!” Jim screamed as it went down in a wave of imps. “Not again!”

“Darkness below; life above will resound!”

Three red dragons leaped toward me. I flung a binding ward at them and jumped across the portal to the far side.

“They’re going for Aisling!” Kostya shouted as he fell under a wave of dragons.

I hadn’t been sure if Drake had heard me or not, but at Kostya’s cry, he screamed with rage, a noise that sounded more like the roar of an enraged animal than anything a human could make.

He threw a handful of dirt at Chuan Ren’s face, vaulted to the top of a tomb, and leaped over the heads of the struggling dragons to land a few feet away.

“The portal!” I yelled, pointing at it.

The dragon fire was dying away. Behind it, dark forms writhed, and I knew that I had a matter of seconds before they would burst out.

He nodded and twisted sideways, anticipating Chuan Ren’s attack. She leaped off the same tomb he had used, but he was several inches taller than her. He grabbed her in midair, spinning them both sideways as he flung himself to the ground.

Chuan Ren screamed as she fell into the portal.

“Bone to bone, blood to blood, fire to life, so are you sealed!” I shouted, my voice hoarse as I drew one last ward on the portal. The instant the sentence left my lips, a crack of thunder exploded around us, the shock wave knocking everyone backwards.

Echoes of the explosion rang in my ears, leaving me disoriented and confused for several seconds, but at last the various noises resolved themselves into separate sounds, most of them recognizable.

“Kincsem! Aisling!”

I opened my eyes to the glorious sight of Drake’s concerned face, bloodied, battered, but whole. “Did it work?”

“The portal is sealed. Do not move. You could be injured. Do you hurt anywhere?”

“Yeah,” I said, shifting to the side. “It’s my back. There’s something…I think…oh, my god! I landed on an imp!”