Tobei had thought the alarm was bad, but the screeching of the wheels as they locked up on the tracks was ten times worse.

“Agh!” Tobei couldn’t help but slap his hands over his ears for all the good it did him.

The fireman, a bumbling lady named Ohara who Tobei had discovered was deep in the throes of a workplace romance-drama with Tila here, took the opportunity to try to kick Tobei’s legs out from under him from her place on the floor next to Tila.

He sidestepped the kick and growled, “Keep your sooty soles off my trousers!”

It took what felt like an hour for the train to finally come to a stop and for his ears to stop bleeding. They must have been far past the mark where he was supposed to have stopped the train, but Tobei knew his group could adapt. Shouts came from the body of the train, the crew no doubt aware they would be boarded any moment, preparing whatever weapons they had.

“You two stay here,” Tobei said, half-leaning out the door. “And consider your communication. A policy banning workplace relationships will do nothing to ban your feelings. They’ll demand attention eventually.”

They stared at him.

He hopped out of the cab. “Be back in a twinkle!”

While Tobei waited for the others to catch up, he figured he would kill time by dealing with the rest of the crew—he was out of manacles, but he had enough experience restraining people and being restrained that he was confident he could figure out some creative ways to—

Crack!

The bullet whizzed by Tobei’s right shoulder, and he relished the prickle of hot adrenaline up his arms at the close call. He followed the sound of the bolt-action to the cracked door a few cars down. Just as the rifle reappeared in the crack, Tobei ducked out of sight. The full moon was bright, but that just made the shadows darker.

And yet—Tobei was never one to stay in the shadows long. Using Nani’s bow like a conductor’s baton, he made the objects around him dance. A twitch and the door flew open, another and the rifle tipped and jerked backwards so its butt smacked its shooter in the face. Tobei swung up onto the landing and yanked the rifle from the shooter’s grasp with one hand before quickly ducking to the side of the landing—the shooter wasn’t alone.

While he had a moment, he cleared the chamber of the rifle and tossed it into the dark brush—hopefully that would be enough to hide it from the crew, but not so much that he couldn’t sniff it out later himself. They could use all the weapons they could get.

Then, he got Nani into position, whirled around, and slipped into the dark car. If they thought killing the lights would slow him down, they were wrong.

He had just cleared the first car—its inhabitants restrained with rope or netting or a Nani-shredded bedsheet—when he heard the hoofbeats.

Tobei leaned over the railing of the landing and shouted, “Thought I was going to count out the whole night before y’all arrived!”

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“You overshot it by two miles, you asshole!” Lenna snapped from somewhere in the brush.

“Next time, you single-handedly stop a moving cargo train, then.”

Lenna pulled up her panting horse, still out of sight. “All you had to do was board it and throw the brakes, you—!”

“Can we argue later?” Ori called.

“Come on!” Tobei said brightly. “We got this!”

With the whole gang here, it took them no time at all to work their way from one car to the next. Disarming, restraining, and, in Tobei’s case, charming the whole crew. Tobei took over guarding the crew members in their collective seat beside the moonlit tracks, denying passionately when Lenna accused him of trying to avoid the heavy-lifting as they grabbed anything and everything that they could fit in the two wagons they’d brought. The crew was scraped and very disgruntled, but none were seriously hurt, and his own gang was even better off. Yes, it had been a bit of a rough start, but all in all it had been a success. And quite a lot of fun.

And then, the rustling began.

Tobei stopped in the middle of more relationship counseling with Tila and Ohara. He adjusted his mask away from his ear, to listen better. His charges’ expressions shifted from exasperated to nervous as they caught the change in him. Tobei tensed, and so did the train crew.

“How close are we to done?”

Lenna started to snap at him, but at Tobei’s tone, Ori asked, “What is it?”

“Monsters.”

For just a moment, the night was truly silent.

“How many?”

“Many.”

The horses had sensed them too, shifting on anxious hooves, ears swiveling to hear every twig that snapped. They had no Great Wolf shepherds to protect them now. Lenna and the others worked double time to fill the last wagon to bursting as the creatures of the night crept ever closer. Tobei could see glittering eyes in the darkness. Any moment now…

To his captives, Tobei said, “On your feet.”

“This why you kept us alive?” Ohara growled. “Distraction for the beasts?”

Tobei grabbed the nearest crew member as they struggled to their feet with hands bound at their sides. With one slash, the ropes fell away. “I kept you alive,” Tobei said, “for the same reason I’m about to rearm you. Because I don’t want you to die.”

“To—,” Lenna started, but caught herself. “Let them free, back on the train. But we are not putting weapons into their hands.”

“When I named the monsters Many, I meant it,” Tobei said. “If each of us wants to live, we’ll all aim our weapons out there, not at each other. Agreed?”

The captives nodded, but of course they did. Their only hope was to agree, to get guns and swords back in their grasp. Tobei would just have to wait and see how they aimed them.

The first beast appeared not from the forest—but atop the train car behind them. Tobei had seen this breed a hundred times in Silvax Forest, though he didn’t know if it had a name. Belle would probably know. Its neck was long and ended in a slender serpent’s head with six eyes that glowed ruby red. Its legs were long, lean, and powerful, ending in black talons that screeched against the roof of the train car. These things moved with the grace and power of a cat, and the speed of a serpent’s strike. And those fangs were already dripping deadly venom.

If Belle were here, no doubt she’d charm the beast in a heartbeat. But she wasn’t.

So Tobei brought Nani to his neck as the beast coiled, its undulating figure haloed by moonlight.

The coiled beast sprung, and—