"I'll do it."

  Katherine's voice snapped me out of my worries. It took me a moment to register what she was talking about, and in that time I gave another scuttler the Jackson Pollock treatment. "Wait, what?" Is this bitch serious? Girl, I get that you have some kind of guilt complex, but I think you're seriously misjudging your influence in this situation. "What makes you think you should be the one to do it?"

  On the most superficial level, what I was saying would seem counterproductive. Katherine's insane, self-sacrificial proposal was the best outcome I could have hoped for, and I had zero intention of dissuading her from trying it. That's the thing, though—I'm not doing anything to dissuade her. I always had an image to maintain, and, right now, I was laying the foundations of a new one that could soon become very important. The person I was right now wouldn't just let Katherine throw herself at the breach—not without having a few specific words.

  And, since my own life wasn't in true danger yet, I had to stay true to my image. It's a good thing, then, that I know exactly how to play this. The response I'd chosen after recovering from my initial surprise was very deliberate. It was based on my developing understanding of Katherine's personality. When I asked 'what makes you think you should be the one to do it,' I was really saying something closer to 'you're kind of useless and I'm the one doing all the work, so I don't really understand what makes you think you're capable of it.'

  The trick, of course, was that it still wasn't me saying it. I was playing on the various insecurities I was pretty sure she had. From her perspective, she'd also recognize that she was putting too much intent behind something that was simply a tactical observation. On top of feeling guilty for being shitty and useless, she'd also feel guilty for feeling like I was actually calling her shitty and useless. Guilt upon guilt upon guilt. I thought the idea of it was all pretty funny.

  Granted, there was one final trick to all of this. I was also reading super deep into someone that I'd barely interacted with and anticipating that she'd react in a specific way. It could easily turn out that I'd completely misread her, and even if I hadn't, people didn't always react predictably. The final trick, then, was to avoid wading too deep into mind games and social mazes. Along with shutting up, one of the biggest lessons I'd learned was that the best way to manipulate was to mostly just not.

  Most people knew what a schemer felt like, and you probably weren't as clever as you thought. Keep a light, flexible touch—and basically don't even bother 90 percent of the time.

  "I have to." She took a deep breath—actually, I have no idea if she did, since there were a lot of noises and I wasn't looking. I imagined she did, though, and that's what counted. "You've been fighting this whole time. I still have most of my energy left. If I can make it to the breach, I should have more than enough left to shatter it quickly."

  Oh, so that's her angle. I was wondering why she was so keen on doing this, because I didn't think insecurity alone would push her to volunteer. Without a more practical reason, even a flimsy one, it would take more dumb bravery than she seemed ready for. Does she think I'm running low on magic Guardian energy? I had been fighting non-stop for a few minutes now, it was true. I guess I can lean into that.

  "It's fine. You don't have to do that for me." I swatted away the sneaking tentacle of a grabber. "I still have—I have enough left to make it." I wanted to giggle. Everything about that felt so cheesy, the kind of thing I could roll my eyes at. The good thing about serious, emotional situations, though, was that the people involved usually weren't in the kind of mindset to appreciate how lame something sounded. Me, personally—I'm just a little special, I suppose.

  "No." I could hear Katherine gathering resolve in her chest—or wherever people typically store their resolve. "It'll be better if it's me. I can do it."

  I bet you thought you sounded real confident there, huh? I didn't put any effort into hiding my smirk, this time. It wasn't like she could see it. And if her stupid mind powers have a way around that, well, too bad, I guess. There's basically nothing I could do about that. I really didn't like that idea. If she started developing into some kind of true mind reader, I think I'd just go straight to killing her. That was exactly the kind of thing you needed to handle before it was too late. I'd keep an eye on it.

  We were also about to reach the critical point. The way I handled this bit could be tricky. The way our dynamics played out in the next few moments was both important and nuanced. I had to get it right, and there was a big, six foot and something wrinkle that neither of us had addressed. I wasn't sure how his presence was about to affect things, but I had a feeling whatever she said next would be related. She's gonna say for us to stay back and protect each other, or something like that—wait, oh, come on!

  She didn't even say anything else, just took off running.

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  The hell was I supposed to do now? I had to stop myself from running after her. He might be able to one-v-one a skinner, but Max was not going to survive five seconds without being squeezed tight between a big slab of rock and my own armored back. That was true before, and it was even truer now that we were outside of Katherine's little Anathema repulsion zone. All the random crap that had mostly just avoided us was now cramming into us to the point I was starting to wonder how I could stop us from getting crushed beneath sheer weight.

  Fuck you too, Kathy. Personally, I'd rather just let him get crushed if it meant making sure she didn't instantly die. Unfortunately, I also thought there was somewhere between a thirty and fifty percent chance of her pulling it off. If she did succeed, I'd be better off having managed to keep him alive. Within seconds, we were both pressed against the slanted boulder, with my heavy-ass body facing forward and on top. I had to strain my literal ankles just to make sure I didn't suffocate him under my own weight.

  All the while, more and more Anathema added themselves to the growing wall of squeezing and thrashing monster flesh. I had to brace my arms backwards and to the side in a ridiculously awkward way, both to resist the mounting force and to give the guy getting crushed behind me any kind of protection from all the nasty shit trying to attack from the side. If there was a single benefit from the awful way the whole situation had developed, it was that I no longer had anything stopping me from eating whatever I could. It wasn't like anyone else would be able to tell, and it was also a literal mountain of food being crammed straight into my face.

  The whole time, I'd been keeping my jaw shut and talking through it. That was a necessary habit if I wanted to keep the illusion that it really was just a helmet. But now, for the first time since crawling my way out of the titan, I cracked open those massive, reptilian jaws.

  You go deal with the breach, Katherine. Have your little hero moment.

  Me? Well, now I just wanted to

  ...eat.

  So that's what I did.

  Katherine Legato

  Steady. Steady.

  Katherine flowed through the growing tide of Anathema, moving upstream against the current. The breach wasn't very far, but there were a large number of monsters choking the ravine between her and it. But, if she stayed focused, she knew she could make it.

  With only herself to protect, weaving through the Anathema was much easier. Rather than projecting her Will for them to stay away, she could instead retract it back into herself, bundling all of it up into a small, quiet knot. It proved much more effective than the opposite technique, a stealthy evasion rather than a loud bluff. It was also less demanding, not drawing so heavily on the well of power pulsing inside of her chest.

  The reason she didn't try it earlier was because it was fundamentally about retracting her own presence. It would leave the other two just as exposed as if she did nothing, limiting the better, more efficient technique to the times when she'd be alone. That was part of the reason why she felt that she was the one who should attempt closing the breach. It was likely that Alex could also have succeeded by plowing straight through everything in her way, that was true—but that was more dangerous, and it would have taken longer.

  The other reason was the amount of energy it would take to actually seal the breach.

  Katherine did feel a bit guilty. She had less power remaining than she'd let on—no. Don't punish yourself for that. She was doing it too. Katherine didn't know how to determine how much power anyone else had left—there were a lot of strong and confusing sensations her power picked up from the other Star Guardian, but none of them had an obvious relation to the way she perceived her own supernatural stamina. Still—she fought so many Anathema. I was basically just forcing myself to be angry at everything really hard. It seemed obvious that Alex would have even less power remaining than she did.

  Which means she probably can't hold them off much longer...

  Katherine stopped prioritizing caution and started focusing on speed. Retracting her aura didn't make her invisible to normal senses. She had a strong suspicion that it would hide her from more esoteric senses—but while Anathema did have an uncanny knack for honing in on human life, they also tended to have plenty of more mundane sensory organs at their disposal. The only effect retracting her aura had on those was to make her seem, in some way, less important.

  With so many Anathema swarming around the breach, it was impossible to avoid their notice that way. For that reason, Katherine also relied on the feedback from her power to help her predict a safe route through. Much like her power wasn't truly about raising the dead or capable of anything she'd call mind reading, the way she was using it now wasn't any form of genuine precognition. But, much like the other two, the result looked similar. I still don't understand what my power is really about, do I?

  It was hardly the first time Katherine felt herself wishing for an instruction manual.

  It would have made so many things easier if someone could just tell her what her ability was actually supposed to do—but I shouldn't expect becoming a Star Guardian to be easy. She'd pushed through so far, and she'd keep pushing through until all of them were safe. She just had to hope that Alex was able to hold out for a bit longer.

  Even before she'd stopped maximizing caution, Katherine hadn't avoided everything. There were simply too many bodies and she was simply too unbalanced and slow. Numerous claws had raked against her limbs, drawing blood but failing to take her down. The flailing tentacles of the grabbers were unpredictable, and she couldn't seem to get in range of one without catching at least one nasty whip strike. At one point, she'd even twisted her ankle against a scuttler. The Anathema tried biting her foot. Instead, it succeeded in tearing one of her shoes off.

  That was then—now, Katherine took as many cuts, scraped, and heavy tentacle blows as needed, so long as it would bring her closer to the breach. She didn't know what would happen after that. It doesn't matter. You have to get there, or it won't matter what happens next anyway. She kept going, until an especially strong tentacle slapped her to the ground. Umph! It hurt like hell, even with her regeneration kicking in. Still, she was prepared to crawl.

  She realized she didn't have to.

  It's above me. I made it. I made it to the breach!

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