CASE LEAPED FROM the In Between and into the battle outside the Red Door. She landed two paces behind the second guard, his back to her. Sword Girl still lay on the ground. The first guard was rising again, but he didn’t matter in that moment. The second guard had begun his downward strike, and the girl would not get her sword up to block it.
Case surrendered control to her Voice, becoming a passenger inside her own body.
She watched as that body used the momentum from her jump to close on the second guard with one stride. She saw her foot snap forward to kick the man behind his knee. Watched his leg collapse, his body stumble sideways off balance. Saw his sword strike the stones a hand’s breadth from the girl’s head and slip from his grip.
Her sense of detachment vanished. She stood ov
