The black rail punched through Kestra's floor between Jade's boots.
She caught Ty's skull against her stomach before the rising iron knocked it from her coat. Five bars unfolded across the bare patch and drove their ends into the closed lock faces, each one dragging a strip of floor upward. The joined weight bowed the boards beneath her.
Outside, the relocation wagon dropped far enough to wrench a shout from both worker lines.
"Hold that wheel where Varo named the tooth."
Nessa's order came through the chained door. Leather strained, the supervisor hook struck wood, and the wagon stopped with one corner lower than the others.
Jade set Ty's skull on the folded end of her coat. His right forearm rolled from the service door and struck the nearest frame bar wrist first. Thumb, middle finger, ring finger, and little finger spread into four shallow beds.
The empty bed between thumb and middle finger pulled on a bone that was nowhere in the room.
Ty's jaw ground against the cloth.
