To be sure he could see me, I used my arm to point at the nearby crane.

He fired, striking at the neck of the crane itself.

Again, still flying toward my target, I indicated.

Come on, I thought. Get this right, and please, don’t let the wind jar the crane and make the neck split, because that’s not what I need.

The silver blade cut into the cable, this time.

I flew into the hook, grabbing it, activated my strength and tore it free. Multiple cables thinner than my wrist trailed behind me.

Lord of Loss was diving. He skimmed damaged buildings on his way down, and the ones touched by Nursery’s power broke apart. More holes in the ground, more meat rising up.

But he was drawing nearer and nearer to the ground now. He wasn’t going to crush anyone in the group, slamming into them with a bird form the size of a large truck. He was going to destroy the landscape and let Nursery’s things out.

A loop in the air let me catch the midpoint of the cabling. From there, it was a question of catching up. I’d turned right, hit the construction site, and now was charging in. Lord of Loss was bigger, more ungainly, but powerful, and he’d needed more time and room to turn around. Now we were roughly the same distance from the group, both flying in like jousting knights, and my teammate and allies were hunkered down near the point where Lord of Loss and I were likely to clash.

Parian was knitting her snake and spider together, forming something else. Chastity and Aroa fended off the others nearby, with whipcracks and blasts.

Precipice hit Lord of Loss across the wing, and Lord of Loss froze. He glided, not flapping, not moving, and continued his steady, inexorable descent. With his course being what it was, he would hit the edge of the road and slide alongside the group, carving out a trench.

That trench would mean no escape.

Precipice’s silver line wore off. Fresh silver blades hit. One at the head. Another at the body.

By virtue of being faster, I passed over the group, veering to one side so I didn’t brain or slash any of them with the trailing ends of the cabling, and flew straight at Lord of Loss.

The giant bird made of calcified metal strips laughed, a booming sound. Like he was having fucking fun.

I crashed into him, the loops and cabling catching him at the neck—but he wasn’t rigid. I tried to steer his whole body up, but he angled his wings to force the dive.

Futile.