Love Lost was like a cat, apparently, acrobatic enough to keep her claws under her. Still, she was moving fast, momentum was a thing, and the resulting landing was a bit of a roll and tumble, before she managed to stop herself.

Scraped up and glaring, Love Lost watched as I put some vertical distance between us. Nailbiter slowed to avoid trampling Love Lost, falling behind slightly, and then raised a hand, aiming.

Reflexively, I brought up my forcefield and heaved Sveta up, back and away. Instinct. I couldn’t have my forcefield up while holding her.

I couldn’t even watch to see what Sveta did. My focus was on Nailbiter.

She chose to try to get Sveta while Sveta was in the air. I saw the mass of teeth extending, spearing out, and they were aimed too low to be aimed at me.

I flew down to intercept. Forcefield up, I grabbed them after they had extended past me, pushing down, redirecting. The wretch had to have grabbed them too, because she moved like superstrength applied. All of the teeth were attached to her and when I moved some of them, I moved them all.

That done, I looked back for Sveta. The inverse of Love Lost, to tumble so bonelessly through the air, with no ability to reorient herself.

My forcefield scraped against the nails as I flew past them, pushing them more before a last-second course correction to intercept Sveta. I caught her.

“Warn me!”

I nodded. It was very possible I felt more alarmed in the wake of the moment than Sveta did, and she looked really alarmed.

I looked back. Love Lost and Nailbiter were on the ground, and Nailbiter wasn’t pressing the attack.

“You going to explain that?” Sveta asked.

“I can,” I said. “Sorry.”

“It’s okay, but—what was that analogy? Wolf, corn, chicken?”

“Wolf,” I said. I had an ugly, heavy feeling that thoroughly crushed the moment of triumph. I flew down, setting foot on the rooftop. Each passing second, it bothered me more. “Wolf.”

“I don’t follow. I didn’t follow the analogy in the first place, but—secrets? Maneuvers?”

“Just… wolf,” I said. I didn’t want to explain it in detail. “Control issue. Similar to yours.”

I saw her forehead crease above her mask.

“You didn’t have one before.”

“No I didn’t,” I said.

“Okay,” she said. “You should have told me.”

I tried to formulate a response. She wouldn’t look directly at me.

As I opened my mouth, she looked down at her phone, as if she was looking for an excuse to look away. The tiny change in her expression gave me pause.

“What is it?”

“Come, Spright’s moving.”

She grabbed my arm, tugging.

“You can carry me?” she asked.

I nodded, seizing her with a firmer grip than necessary, carrying her off the roof.