I’d hoped I had an ally, but the big dog who’d helped pin Nailbiter reached a point where it had backed far enough away and slumped to the ground. The amount of blood it was shedding and the mass of the creature created a splash of blood as its weight crashed down to the road.

I chanced a look to my right. The breaker was backing away from her attempt at getting Rachel, who was sitting in the middle of the street, supporting her henchman. Two dogs were protecting their master, with the gangly Yips clinging to the side of the building, tail and tongue hanging straight down.

I spotted the moment when the breaker decided it wasn’t worth the trouble. She took off—straight toward me.

I couldn’t leave this like this. Nailbiter was too hard to break or take out of action, even if I’d hurt her some. Worse, she was just getting a grip on things now. Once I had her full focus, this would be harder.

She withdrew a hand, elongated upper arm, forearm, hand and fingers becoming normal, but for some horrendous bruising and tissue damage around the wrist.

There weren’t three seconds to consider and measure my response. A heartbeat. I dropped the Wretch, flying in past a tangle of elongated, nail-ified fingers and leg. A point scratched my arm through the sleeve.

Diving through the thorns, the barbed wire, the—however I interpreted Nailbiter’s altered form. I reactivated the Wretch in the moment before impact.

She reacted, her arm started to grow, moved as I closed in. Too slow on both counts. I twisted in the air for some added torque, my foot came down on her wrist, drove it into and against her elongated calf, and broke something. I felt the impact through my body, saw her entire body twist and arch in reaction, twenty-foot lengths of finger sweeping through the air with the whistling, whooshing sound that normally came with the swing of blades.

Teeth retracted, her head turning my way.

I flew away. From her, the teeth, and the breaker that was flying down the street, straight for me. I was faster in a straightaway flight, which meant—

Meant what? Meant I’d broken Nailbiter’s wrist but done nothing else, meant that I had a breaker to deal with, friends who were being dragged away, other friends and allies in a toppled armored van that might be hurt—

The breaker’s emotion power. I tried to find anger, roaring, and it didn’t really work. She tackled me, and the power I wanted to use was lost behind a fog of rattled thoughts. She was small, I realized. Hard to tell when she was in the air, but she was almost a full head shorter than I was.

Have to deal with this short breaker, Nailbiter, have to catch up to the van. We have no idea how team yellow is doing—