The gray threads came for them all at once.
They did not stop at the edge of the carried ground. They went straight through it, as if the thrones were not there at all.
"The thrones don't stop them!" Maya shouted. "These aren't the body. They're it!"
A thread wrapped around her ankle and yanked. She hit the ground hard and slid toward the edge of the circle, clawing at nothing.
Almond was already moving.
Grimreaver's Absolute Edge found the thread's weakest point in less than a blink. His blade went through it clean, and Maya rolled to a stop a foot from the edge. The cut end of the thread twitched and pulled back into the dark.
Three more came to take its place.
"It's reading us again," Lily said. She was on one knee, gray in the face, breathing hard. Unheard Absolute had taken almost everything she had. "I can't silence it a second time. Not yet."
"Then we don't need to," Almond said. "We already know where to cut."
He pointed down at the gatekeeper.
