The second white hand closed around an empty scythe and fell apart at the wrist. Nessa's right shoulder slipped above Todd's staff, taking the copied fingers into the floor while Jade kept her own borrowed hand on the real shaft.
"Todd, seat the staff before her shoulder drops."
Todd forced the wood upward. Nessa's coat bunched beneath her neck, and the cage needles under her sleeve turned toward Jade as the copied hand rose again.
"It needs the same grip my cage already remembers."
Jade looked at the scythe caught between her cutter and the Reaper's white fingers. Through Corven, the receiving operator tested the nail in Bera's old chest belt. Talli's red line held Bera behind the gate, though every tap pulled her shoulder toward the yard.
"Put the shaft inside that copied hand now."
Ty's chain tightened around the Reaper's neck while the second hand waited beside Jade's boot, fingers open.
"That requires moving death closer to the hand beside your boot."
