The four fingers under the desk bent around its steel foot.
Jade stepped on them before they could reach Palla. Nails and knuckles pushed against her sole, although nothing joined them at the wrist; white bone dust pressed up through the floor crack whenever they pulled.
The two pink hairs dragged across Jade's palm in opposite directions. One pointed toward the gray glove station. The other slipped between the desk and the human-world wall.
Palla drove Denna's ruined key into the floor crack. Its burned teeth caught two fingers and left the other pair scraping for room.
"Hold them down while I find what keeps feeding bone into that hole."
"Find it before my boot becomes part of the equipment."
Behind them, the Reaper heaved against the hinge closed around its waist. Ty had wrapped its chain twice around his forearm and once around the missing desk bolt. Each pull drew the chain across the open gap in his left ribs.
