“Colt. Yeah,” I said. I turned sideways, to be more aware of the blades that had peppered surfaces behind me. They were starting to move again. “Admittedly on point so far.”

I’d had the distinct impression that if I’d simply said ‘no’ to the question about what Cradle’s power was, I’d get a tease. I wanted to bait her out, so I’d said ‘yes’, and now I tried to tack her pride to the matter.

It helped that she didn’t seem to care that much, and that my read on her wasn’t wrong—she liked appearances, flash, and style.

“The boy is a bad weather pattern, a cloud of misery and utter patheticness that hangs over anyone he looks at.”

I remained silent, let the silence hang.

If I gave her anything, including telling her she was wrong, which she kind of was, I was pretty sure she’d tease me and leave me without answers.

“The boss? The guy who’s out there, cutting people to pieces, targeting the tired and the distracted? He’s too self centered to give. You learn to work around that. It’s all take. Himself.”

“I have something of his I’d like to give him. Knock out his teeth and make him swallow them.”

“You stupid bitch,” Lionwing said. “He can draw it in. Read your weaknesses in chemical code, running through your head and your veins. He earned money blackmailing people by targeting them. He got more ground with people by sensing how far he could push them before they gave. And all of that was before. When he woke up tonight, he was strong. What he’s been doing? He’s been gathering what he needs.”

Reading us? Hanging back and drinking it all in?

“Now,” Lionwing said. “He’s using it.”

Soldiers to keep us busy, maybe to force us into situations where our emotional landscapes were closer to the surface.

I knew mine was.

I snarled as I took flight, Wretch out, and hit the ground to kick up dirt, sending it her way. I had to assume she needed to see to use those blades.

She created a cloud of them around herself, reached to her side, and drew a gun.

I hit the fold of maze above, where Cretan’s power had stretched out the building facing the station, and let the rubble fall. I reversed course, flipping upside down—feeling a bit dizzy from my earlier impact—and reversed course, hitting the ledge fist-first.

To bring rubble down on Lionwing. The cloud of blades became a solid bubble, a shield.

I broke another bit of rubble away, and used a burst of Wretch strength to hurl it, aiming not for her, but for where the bubble met ground. Things were less interlocked there, and the chunk of concrete half-crumbled, half-bounced through.