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I collapse my batons and return them to my belt, unclipping a fresh pair.
“Pen, watch out!” Darius’s voice cuts through the chaos as a slender root lashes toward me.
I twist to the side and narrowly avoid being caught. Mayn appears through the smoke, slicing through the wooden tentacle with her sword.
Meanwhile, Marc continues to unleash a torrent of fire, his lips pulled back from his teeth in a snarl. Strain tightens his features, and a fine tremor runs through his body.
Fear tightens my stomach. Even with the amulet helping to control his fire, he’s going to burn himself out.
“Marceau, you’re pushing yourself too hard!” Darius calls out as he continues to maintain the fiery barrier.
Marc grits his teeth. “I can hold out.”
“Not alone, you can’t.” Darius drops the fire barrier and rushes to Marc’s side.
He touches Marc’s back, one heartbeat there and gone in the next, his clothes falling empty to the ground. Marc stumbles for a moment before he straightens, and a new fire dances in his eyes.
The flames pouring from Marc’s hands turn white and laser-focused, slicing through the hole I started in the Bone Man’s leg, which Sharpe’s people had widened with their magic-fueled bullets.
The leg falls off, and the monster crashes toward the ground, catching itself on limbs and a splintered knee.
A shout of victory rises from the officers, but it’s too early to celebrate as I spot the roots within the leg writhing outward, trying to reconnect with the limb.
“We have to destroy the parts we cut off!” I shout.
Troy darts forward, his hook flying. It sinks deep into the leg, and he and O’Hara work together to drag it farther away from the monster.
Marc turns his fire toward the twisted bone and wood arm that reaches after the two men. As he burns it back, the smell of scorched wood and the acrid stench of charred bone becomes overpowering.
Sharpe’s people aim for the monster’s other leg, blasting through bone and wood.
I snap my batons open and engage their full power. Mayn steps up beside me, her sword at the ready.
Sharpe glances over at us and nods before shouting to his people, “Hold fire!”
While they reload, I charge forward, Mayn a few paces behind. I dodge around roots that thrust up from the ground and jump, batons swinging overhead. They connect with the monster’s wounded limb, blasting nearly through it.
I hit the ground hard and roll out of Mayn’s way as the siren’s sword cleaves through the rest, and shattered pieces of bone rain down.
Troy and O’Hara rush forward, hooking the chunk of leg and yanking it out of the Bone Man’s grasp almost as fast as we detached it.
Mayn’s hand on my arm urges me to my feet, and we race back toward our people. Shots fill the air, covering our retreat.
Marc and Darius drop their fire shield to direct their flames to the new leg, burning through wood and bone, destroying more of the Bone Man’s body.
As if the monster was waiting for just that, spears of wood shoot from the ground toward the officers.
I let out a shout of warning, trying to run faster, knowing nothing I can do will stop it.
Instead of impaling their target, though, the roots slam up against an invisible shield. Relief washes over me when I spot Flint standing at Sharpe’s side, his hand on Anny’s head, and his black hair floating in a rush of ley line magic.
He had done the same type of shielding when the Conservatory fell but hasn’t attempted such magic since, and pride fills me at seeing him reconnect with what he lost so long ago.
The wooden spears hammer at the invisible shield, their tips splintering, and then fire sweeps toward them, burning through and leaving ash behind.
Sharpe pats Flint on the back and shouts for his people to fire once more.
As bullets whiz overhead, slamming into the Bone Man, I slow to collapse my batons and pull the remaining two from my belt. I have one more charged set before I’ll need to fall back.
