Six crested the top of the thing’s head. On either side, its huge eyes glowed like moons, the irises round and black. It blinked, trying to look at her. Then it threw its head back, attempting to dislodge her. She gripped the bony ridges around its eye sockets until it stopped, then kept going, inching down the bridge of its snout. Behind her, Eleni perched between the thing’s shoulders, using her legs to hang on. She raised her hand, a fireball forming in her palm.

“Do it and this thing will let go!” Six called back to her. “We’ll both die.”

Eleni faltered. Six knew the Mog was weighing both the likelihood of the creature letting go and the value of her own death against taking Six’s life. Six counted on Eleni’s vanity winning out over her desire for revenge.

Eleni threw the fireball out into the night, where it streamed like a meteor through the dark, slamming against the wall of a building across the street. Six breathed a little easier, but only for a moment. She still had to figure out what to do next.

She looked up, past the thing’s open mouth, to the side of the hotel. Each floor had a ledge running around it. Between the floors, the walls of the hotel had a brick-like texture. It might be possible to climb them, if she could hold on. And if she could get past the monster’s mouth.

She had no choice. She inched forward. The monster was moving its head around, twisting its neck as it felt her crawling. Six swung away from the building, then back again. She didn’t look down.

When the creature moved its head back towards the building, she jumped. She landed on a ledge. Her heels stuck out over the narrow strip of metal, and there was nothing to hold on to, so she pressed against the glass. The monster’s head swung within inches of her back, its breath hot on her skin. She heard its teeth clack together.

Slowly, she inched her way to the left, until the glass ended and the wall began. The beast’s claws were embedded in the wall above her, and she skirted the curved talons as she began to pull herself up. She didn’t dare look to see what Eleni was doing, concentrating on moving up the wall one painful step at a time.

It felt like hours passed as she rose slowly up the remaining distance to the top of the hotel, although she knew it was only minutes. Several times she had to stop as the monster’s head came within inches of knocking her off, but she kept going. She didn’t think about how high up she was, or what would happen if her broken hand refused to hang on just one more time. She only thought about taking the next step, keeping her eyes on the edge of the roof as it grew closer and closer.

Finally, she reached it. She threw one hand over the edge and started to pull herself up the final stretch. Then someone grabbed her wrist. Six looked up.