“Take Austin and run,” she snarled. She knew they would. Their priority was protecting Austin, not fighting this shape-changing thing. Let the monsters fight the monster.

Warrick picked up Two and ran, with Ronnie and Linda dragging a terrified Austin behind them and Kelly following them all up the stairs. The Narrow Man shoved Milo away from him and Amber lunged, her axe blurring. She missed the Narrow Man’s neck by a mere hair’s breadth. He turned and she slammed her shoulder into his chest. He went stumbling and Milo kicked his legs from under him.

The Narrow Man fell and Amber and Milo brought their axes down. Their adversary twisted his body impossibly, like he didn’t have any bones, and the axes bit into the ground. Then he snapped back into shape and lashed a foot into Amber’s knee. Even as she was crying out, she was falling, and then she was on the floor, struggling with the Narrow Man.

Though it wasn’t much of a struggle. Her strength meant nothing compared to his, and while her claws left deep furrows in his bloodless arms they brought him no pain that she could recognise. He got an arm around her throat from behind. Her black scales rose in defence, but he was squeezing against them, too, and all of a sudden she couldn’t breathe.

Milo stopped trying to get a clear shot to the Narrow Man’s head. Instead, he stomped on a leg, and brought the axe down. Amber glimpsed the Narrow Man’s foot tumble away from them.

The Narrow Man didn’t seem to notice.

Desperate for air, Amber put all of her strength into turning on to her side and then heaving herself on to her belly. With the Narrow Man still on her back, Milo now had all the targets he could ever want. She heard the axe fall again and again, could only imagine what damage it was doing. But the choke stayed on. She was close to unconsciousness.

And then all of a sudden she was gasping, sucking in air and rolling over, her eyes blurred with tears. Milo and the Narrow Man were locked together, fighting for control of the axe as they stumbled away from her. The Narrow Man’s shirt was in shreds. So was his skin. Milo’s red eyes were mere slits. He was snarling.

The Narrow Man stepped back without warning and Milo lost his balance, lost his hold, and the axe was torn from his hands as he fell to his knees.

Amber grabbed her own axe, launched herself at the Narrow Man. He spun, deflected her axe with his own. She swung again, and again he deflected, and a thought swept in from nowhere, that they were sword-fighting with axes. Before she could register how insane this was, his axe blade cracked against the scales on her shoulder and suddenly he was twisting her axe from her grip.