When my protests of "I've only been training for a couple of hours," and "you should never meet a demon on an empty stomach," failed to work, I went for Plan B and dug my heels into the grass in the backyard like a little kid.

Rohan hauled me over his shoulder in a fireman's carry, ignoring all my pummeling until he'd stepped through a heavy iron door set into the back fence, at which point he dumped me on the ground.

Outside the wards.

I scrambled to my feet. ...