The first strip of dead armor reached the Reaper's scythe and wrapped itself around the blade.
Jade's right hand opened against her chest. Two fingers obeyed her. The others tightened around Ty's broken rib, with her ring finger holding hardest, while the white thread behind her eye pulled toward the new flesh on the scythe.
Clear pulse beads bounced between her boots. One struck a crack in the street four times, skipped sideways, then struck three. Four, three, two would come next. Jade watched for it even as Ty shifted under her arm and Nessa's smallest finger folded deeper into her palm.
The bead struck twice.
On the brewery roof, a defender's gray sleeve folded his rifle arm across his throat.
"Palla, break the bead beneath the desk before it starts over."
