Exactly what I was just thinking we shouldn’t do. Pure fat, no lean.

Rain was getting to his feet to my right. A ways to my left, Tristan had hurried over to Byron’s side, and Kenzie was near him but unable to really help. The other three kids gravitated toward that end of the patchwork room. Tristan and Byron’s areas looked like concrete floor with spilled paint on it in ‘their’ colors, narrow metal pillars inset in concrete stumps making the entire area like a forest. Byron’s area had blue-green paint and was tinted like it was night-time, Tristan’s area was reds and yellows with traces of orange, and shone like there was a window with sunlight shining in from outside, though the window was nowhere to be seen.

Damsel stood, her expression hard and cold. I’d noted before how she seemed to freeze up or go still when angriest and most dangerous, and she was pretty much there. Difference was, she had to get to her feet first. Her area backed on Rain’s and one of the Heartbroken’s, and looked like a derelict apartment, with lighting like it was nighttime and the only light came from the moon through windows, even though the windows weren’t actually there. The hand she placed up against a partially intact wall for balance had long bladed fingers. She kept those, I supposed. I wondered what the distinction was, that made it matter.

I could see varying degrees of animation and emotion among the others. For most, the many-handed monster didn’t seem to even register, because the specters of their past chased them. Ashley, the Heartbroken. Tristan barely flinched because his concern was wholly for Byron.

Love Lost and Colt just looked bewildered. Bewilderment became alarm as the many-handed thing crushed the concrete slab it held with two arms, then swiped the partially crushed mess in their direction. The result was a hail of rubble.

This is a fucking mess, I thought.

“The kids,” Sveta said.

We needed a battle plan.

“Colt, Love Lost!” I called out. “Look after the kids and Capricorn Blue! Be prepared to carry him! Cap Red, we need you!”

“But—”

“Don’t be stubborn! You have armor!”

I saw him hesitate, then he turned toward his brother, his back to me. I thought for a moment he was rejecting me, but he was unstrapping Byron’s chestpiece, pulling it free. Once they saw what he was doing, Kenzie and Chicken Little helped with the strap at the other side.

The many-handed thing didn’t come after us, and the rationale could have been that it didn’t want to go too far into the room and leave us room to slip behind it.