Three other marshals rushed the thrashing tentacle, throwing their combined weight on top of it until their dogpile held it immobilized. I rushed over, crossed the fingers on my left hand for luck, then pricked the rubbery hide with my right. My wrists slapped together and stuck from fingertips to elbows, forming a solid limb. Pain blossomed down my arms, through my shoulders, and the pale flesh purpled like bruising.

Magic burned white-hot as it burrowed under my skin, suffusing the muscles with strength to wield my new appendage. My heels clicked together, bound with unseen ropes. From ankles to armpits I formed a solid trunk. My toes stung as the nails elongated, piercing the ends of my boots and plunging deep into the brittle ground to steady me. Soon I commanded a scaled-down replica of the kraken’s tentacle, and I had to pray I was close enough to do some good. I was rooted to the spot. This one-woman rescue mission wasn’t going anywhere.

“Okay.” I struggled against the onset of panic over my limited mobility. “I got this.”

Fudge. Fudge. Fudge. I don’t have this. I never should have shifted to this degree.

The more of my body I altered, the faster I burned through the magic filtered from the source. I didn’t have long before I was drained, and two shifts in one day left my conjoined knees quivering.

“Hold the arm for as long as you can,” I ordered the stunned marshals. “I might need to use it again.”

The slack-jawed group gaped up at me, and one adjusted her weight like she was thinking of jumping me next. It was cat woman. Nice. I didn’t wait for her to make her move. I unfurled my new appendage, reached across the water and grasped Thierry’s leg. Shaw read my intent, nodded once, and severed the limb at his eye level. The sudden drop made me gasp as the muscles in my arm and back strained. One of my toes ripped from its anchor in the ground as I struggled to counterbalance Thierry’s weight. I bent like a tree being uprooted, but then her feet touched the sandy shallows, and the strain vanished.

“Shaw.” Safe on the shore, she picked off suckers that left red welts behind. “Get out of there.”

Nodding, he released the oozing stump and hit the water with a splash. He didn’t resurface. Thierry took a full step forward, her light’s reflection emerald and lethal, but then his head breached the surface, and she hauled him out to stand beside her.