The girls descended, shivering, into the hollow, Ronan at their heels. Dead, shattered homunculi littered the ground, and Penny’s green-eyed homunculus stood among them, its club resting on its stone shoulder. Zoe and Katie took aim with their wands, but Penny stopped them.
“No, that one is on our side.”
Zoe accepted Penny’s words with a shrug, but Katie continued to regard it mistrustfully even as she lowered her wand.
Rain dripped from the willow leaves overhead, hissing in the smoldering coals of the fire pit. The monster lay half-frozen before the creek, still struggling to drag himself toward the cave.
“No you don’t!” Penny sprinted to him, rolled him over with her foot, pointed her wand into his face. The others were beside her a second later, Ronan perched on the monster’s
