Behihe various Pure Blood members and the fake Lord Montague came out from the scow, assembling on the pier.

  I half-turo face them, dagger poiheir way, the saber towards Hawkins. Most of the Pure Bloods had clubs or swords, but the guard from before had the muzzle of a rifle pointing out from under his coat, keeping the fsh pan dry till he o shoot. There’d probably be pistols as well. They halted about thirty feet away, blog me from the scow.

  Maybe I should have risked the revolver after all.

  I had one advantage. Clearly, they were running a on the Pure Bloods. Either of them shifting within view would shake the gang members, maybe eveo them turning owo.

  “Do you have any words, rat?” Hawkins yelled at me, now striding towards me.

  His expression and demeanor were of boredom, fident that he had me trapped between himself and the Pure Bloods and other shape-ger by the scow.

  He was right. Even if I dove into the Nover, odds were he and his fellow could dive right in, ge shape into something more aquatiderwater, and then kill me. It wouldn’t be hard if they could fortably swim, and I couldn’t.

  “You’re looking in terrific shape after the warehouse,” I shouted to be heard over the rain. “From a burning pile of flesh back to beihy in a few days?”

  Hawkins’ bored expression turo a scowl as his eyes narrowed.

  “Yep, it’s me here to torment you again,” I said. “I’m shocked none of yroup put it together yet. I’ll be ho: the more I uhe more I’m struck by a diy. You’ve clearly had success keeping your nature’s secret in the past, but then there’s this entire scheme. Poorly done. But enough about me. Let’s get that flesh rotting again!”

  I charged at Hawkins, hand outstretched.

  He knew who I was and what I was capable of. He had two choices: either pretend to be human and risk the Diabolism, or ge shape here and give away the game.

  You provoke him without wanting to use it? Fool.

  Hawkins luo the side, arms bursting from his sides and ripping his coats to shreds. His existing arms shifted, bone sprouting from both and f into bdes that sshed at me.

  My saber dug into his leg, aiming to slow even a little. I tried to halt my momentum because I’d miscalcuted. He hadn’t shifted this fast at the warehouse!

  He howled as my saber cut into the side of his knee, but only went in an inch. It felt like trying to slice through hardwood.

  I kicked him in the side while defleg a bone saber with my metal one.

  It felt like kig metal, and I pulled back as Hawkins stood up, the wound on his leg ref. Damnations, I’d hoped he’d take a dip in the Nover. I parried another blow, then sliced at his leg, sg another cut.

  Behind me, I could hear screaming and discharging firearms. Well, it sounded like the fake Lord Montague had made their decision fast. That or he’d been uo aheir questions vingly.

  I fell back from Hawkins as his leg wound closed, sparing a gnce behind me.

  Not-Lord Montague was carving his way through the guard from before, his own bone-bdes extending from his sleeves. One of the Pure Bloods y bleeding out on the pier below, while another was chopping into the shape-gers side with a ko little effect.

  They’d worked him over as well, easily a half-dozen holes across the shape-ger’s body and a severed leg flopping about on the ground as well. Three Pure Bloods had made it to the scow, barrig themselves inside.

  His wounds were already re-knitting. I’d miscalcuted badly. Why had Hawkins not shown abilities like this at the warehouse?

  I turned back to Hawkins just in time to catother strike with the bone bde, my hand shaking from the force of the impact. In just the short time I’d looked away, he’d grown half a foot i and more ih.

  Two more arms were sprouting from underh his current ones, only nubs, but swiftly lengthening.

  “You challenge me, maltent?” He yelled, raising his other two bone bdes overhead. Bone grew from the one locked with my bde, flowing around it and trapping it.

  Both bdes came down. I let go of my saber, bag away. Bone carved into my shoulder, cutting deep. The sed ged dire, slig into my thigh till bone scraped bone.

  I screamed just a sed before a fist rammed into my face, knog me off my feet. I tried to move my ko a position only for another blow to shear it from my grasp. I stared dully at a hand stripped of fingers.

  Okay. No Diabolism meant dying to this thing. If I had alchemicals, or even the revolver, maybe, but her meant I only had orick.

  “Foolish Infernal. Your bluff has served you not, although I demand how you know of my fight with another of your kind that gave you the idea of faking diabolism?”

  I was going to end up in the hells for this. Well, I already was destined for there anyway.

  “Who said anything about faking?” I said, injured hand grabbing my focus. “Burn.”

  Fire erupted from my hand, a bck burning ball of fmes that flew at Hawkin’s face. His clothes caught alight, and his flesh sizzled as the hellfire ate at him.

  He stumbled backward, screeg as his hands tore at his burning face, trying to rip the burning flesh free. All he succeeded in doing was setting his own limbs alight, even the bone sabers burning.

  Underh my hooves, the pier’s wood ed, ref into a set of maws across its surface, woodeh chewing at the burning Hawkins. They almost chewed at me, but I limped away, my thigh burning with each painful step.

  The transfiguration wasn’t stoppiher, creeping towards me and heading the other dire.

  That’ll probably stop at the edges, I told myself as I hobbled away. Hopefully.

  Not-Lord Montague was finishing carving up the guard, their form ging differently from Hawkins. Bone bdes were pulling in, the rest of their body bulking up rger and rger. Much further and they’d resemble that poor fool the actual Lord Montague had turned into an ogre with Biosculpting.

  The other Pure Bloods were on the scow, a couple of them firing firearms at him and heading ihe shacks they’d built on it. They had the right idea. Time to abandon ship.

  I limped that way, trying to keep an eye on Hawkins. He screamed as oily bck smoke billowed off of him, flesh melting to expose bones befrowing. Bone bdes shed out, tearing through the demonic wood of the pier, but it matched him in tenacity.

  One of the Pure Bloods emerged from the scow, a coach gun in hands. Both barrels fired, blowing ks from the Shape-ger’s flesh. Not-Lord Montague howled, only for the dying guard to bury a ko a joint.

  It gave me the opening I o get onto the scow and through the door.

  “You!” A Pure Blood yelled, straightening up from a chest he had been rummaging through. “You foulhorn bint! The hell do you think you’re doing?”

  “You really want tue this now?” I responded. Behihe Pure Blood with the coach gun smmed the door shut just in time.

  The ship shuddered, almost sending me off my hooves as the side of the shack bent inwards, wood crag and splintering. The floor tilted underh us, and I hurried over to the far wall.

  Definitely could increase their mass then. That roblem.

  “You ed his lordship with diabolism into that thing!” The Pure Blood tinued even as his fellows got new muskets and coach guns.

  They were aimed at me first till the wall splintered further and they residered who should be their first target.

  “The Shape-ger ged form before I even used any,” I retorted. “And do you really want to waste time on this?”

  “It’s got a point, Jasper,” a grey-haired Pure Blood said.

  Outside, the shape-ger roared in anger, and suddenly, the scow lurched again. A meaty paw burst through the wall, grasping and finding a Pure Blood. The man screamed as the paw closd, bones g underh its grasp as it pulled him out.

  Most of the wall ripped away with him, revealing the Shape-ger’s new form.

  The shape-ger resembled a giant, bipedal toad, thick arms of scaly muscle having pulled the Pureblood into a pointy-toothed jaw that was chewing the shrieking human.

  It wasn’t the only maw eating. The ge in the pier had reached here. Transformed wood tched onto the shape-ger, chewing through thick blubbery flesh even as his fili splinters flying every which way.

  Not-Lord Montague roared as the animated wood tio stab and gnaw at him. Tendrils formed out of wood corkscrewed into his eyes and joints.

  “Tell the pier to kill it!” Jasper yelled at me.

  “I ’t trol it,” I said. “I didn’t make it. It’s the Diabolism possessing the wood. I’d say we should get unmoored before it notices we’re here and decide we’ll make a good meal.”

  I saw something move in the er of my eye.

  Hawkins had broken free, bone bdes cutting through the wood even as the hellfire still burned, leaving his upper half a burnt parody of flesh. Still, he reparing to jump and probably would make it over here.

  I was about to point it out when the Grey-hair noticed, screaming at Jasper as he discharged both barrels into it.

  I went to the far side of the ship. Things had goo the hells. Time to leave.

  The scow lurched with the arrival of Hawkins, followed by more screaming and gunfire. I pulled out the tin from befrabbing what remained of the paste. Hooves, calves, thighs, head, hand, forearms, even my tail. I hurriedly smudged as much of it as I could on as mue as I could.

  The scow groaned underh me, wood crackled, and as the hull snapped, I jumped off the ship.

  It was easier navigating the Nover when nearly all of me repelled its waters, and I scurried away as fast as I could, eventually making it to the pier over and hiding underh to watch the rest of the fight.

  More strips of fabric torn from my shirt, more ing them around limbs. My thigh burned even more but I o get it closed. Same for the cut in my shoulder, and my ruined hand. I chugged my one emergency vial I'd had time to prepare. It would close the blood vessels ahem off till I could get these wounds properly healed.

  It did nothing for the fact that without the improvised bandage a k of my thigh would be swinging like a sb of meat off the bone. I tightehe binding, ign the fshes of pain and dots that appeared in my vision as I tied it off.

  Only having one hand made it slower, my ck of fingers signing the other oo be a weight. What had I been thinking? Even if I hadn't suspected their powers, trying to fight them just as a normal person? Foolishness.

  The pier’s transformation had stopped before affeg the docks as a whole, thankfully. Another reminder why I shouldn’t be using it because if it hadn’t stopped….that would not have gone well. People stuside their homes, devoured by their furniture and walls? Not a pleasant thought. There’s no safe way to use Diabolism.

  A remihat just tossing Diabolism around was equally foolish. What would be the cost ime I set something alight?

  I watched as the scow sunk, and the enormous forms of both Hawkins and Not-Lord Montague grew wings and took flight, Hawkins still trailing fire and smoke. One figure floundered behind them in the Nover, and I strode forward, pig him up with my only good hand and dragging him through the water to some stoeps.

  With effort, I pulled Jasper to the top of them. By the end of it, my thigh felt like it was about to strip itself off my bone in protest, and my shoulder felt like it would fall off. Both were soaked with blood. Either I'd bled more than I initially noticed, or I'd reopened veins carrying this one up here.

  He filed about, hands reag for a on. “You Foulhorn bi-“

  His wot cut off as I put the edge of a knife against his throat.

  “Let’s not spout any unpleasantness, Jasper,” I told him. “You and I are to be friends, if only because your employers are probably going to be valuing you a lot less than I will.”

  “I doubt it,” a voice said behind me. “Lay down your on! You are both under arrest.”

  To my fusion, a dozen members of the Watch stood behind us. Yes, it was still raining and st, but I hadn’t heard a thing or seen a hint. They must have been waiting. Followihe Purebloods, or the shape-gers?

  Amna and Tommy were among the assembled members, so not an ordinary unit of the Watch.

  The one who’d spoken was a middle-aged orc, filed tusks mixed with greying mutton chops. He had two bars sewn onto the shoulders of his greatcoat.

  Captain Malstein, presumably. Not that I would know that siheryn Fara was the one who got that of Amna and Tommy, who I also shouldn’t know.

  I tossed my knife on the ground. “I work with Mister Voltar.”

  Oh, his expression ged at that name. And not in a good way. But still, it o be said. Now, my disappearing would have sequences. Maybe I could eve preferential treatment?

  “Of course he is,” Malstein said. “Well, at least I have a o bme for letting a diabolist get out of hand. Did you io turn that pier into a hazard for anything that steps on it?”

  “Could have been ahat did that,” I said defiantly. “Just because I’m an Infernal, it doesn’t mean-“

  “The Foulhorn did all of it, Captain!” Jasper shrieks o me. “She used diabolism and summoned a pair of shapeshifting moo attack a noble of the realm! I saw it all!”

  Kill them now, before they end you first, Malvia.

  This is what saving people got me. The number of muskets leveled at me only added to my awarehat a single misstep or sudden movement could and would end with my brains spttered across the ground.

  “Yes, I am a diabolist,” I admitted. “Yes, the pier is my fault. No, I did not summon any creatures, and in fact was trying to get rid of them to the best of my ability. This one-”

  “We handle questioning at the Coffin,” Malstein said, gesturing towards Amna, who produced a pair of handcuffs, familiar runes engraved on the surface. “Is that going to be an issue?”

  I sighed. “No. No, it won’t.”

  I put my hands forward, and Malstein gnced down at the bay hand.

  “Bck Fme?”

  “Former Bck Fme,” I replied sharply. “Five years and hopefully till I’m sigo the Hells.”

  “An iing tale, I’m sure. Ahing you tell us in the Coffin.”

  Who knew? Perhaps this stay would be as pleasant as the st. As long as they didn’t cut my fingers off.