“No one is touching Ruby.” My head was still spinning, but I forced my shoulders to stiffen as I came to a halt beside him, the crowd compressing around us as they retreated on all sides from the advancing guardsmen. Taking a deep, steadying breath, I reached deep inside myself for strength and did my best to ignore Ruby’s gasping wails. Closing my eyes, I swept out once more with my exhausted senses, clenching my jaw and forcing myself past the ache of earlier overextension and the dizziness spinning through my head, worse and worse, until I could finally reach once more to—

“No!” Leander shook me hard. “Don’t even think about it. You almost passed out last time, remember? If you don’t let yourself take a real rest now—”

“I can’t just stand here and let them take us!”

“Well, of course not.” Eliza the necromancer squeezed into place beside us on the final remains of the barricade, her fabulous jacket and bag looking none the worse for wear in the moonlight. She gave me a disdainful sniff. “You’ve already done your bit, girl. Let the rest of us finally take our part.”

“But—”

“Use your senses, boy,” she ordered Leander. “You should know what’s waiting in front of us, even if your eyes can’t see it past this crowd!”

The workers’ graveyard. My jaw dropped open even as Leander’s lips curved into a smile of intense satisfaction.

“Working together on this one, madam?”

“I’m certainly not doing it on my own,” she snapped. “So get moving!”

For once, there wasn’t a single trace of haughtiness in Leander’s demeanor as he swept her a respectful bow. With my head spinning badly once again, I decided it might not be a bad idea at all, just this once, to focus on simply staying upright while I let my allies take charge of this endeavor.

When the City Guard finished thundering into place all around us a minute later, they were an impressive sight indeed, mounted high on horseback to loom above the milling, fearful crowd. Long, powerful-looking clubs rose threateningly in at least two dozen hands. “Everyone back into their homes without a word,” roared their leader, “or—ahhh!”

His last word broke off in a gurgling scream of panic as the skeletons attacked. They surged upwards from the ground beneath the guards to pull every single horse’s legs off balance and send their riders sliding to the ground in disorder, clubs flying uselessly from their hands.

It didn’t take long at all after that to dismiss the interruption entirely. Soon enough, the very last guards were fleeing, limping and hobbling as fast as they still could, back across the remains of the barricade into the city.