Working with Morgan took a bit of getting used to. Emmaline had seen her do things in the pasts. Astounding things, amazing things and stupid things. This particular act hit the middle of that ven diagram perfectly. At least she didn’t seem to be permanently hurt and she had information that might just be enough to save their lives. Blood magic was Beth’s specialty. Swallowing hard she forced her own fear trying to believe she was in command of the situation. Analyse, decide, act.
 
The monster lumbered towards them with the peculiar speed that only massive things seemed to project. It roared inarticulately, seemingly offended that Morgan wasn’t as dead as she should be. Its footfalls were like thunderclaps in the distance, pieces of glass from shattered streetlights bounced an inch from the ground with each loping stride. Blue fire still spurted from the things every crevice but it gave no sign of caring.
 
“Miss Buchanan,” she began calmly, “I believe the stone is more in your area of expertise.” Amazingly, her voice hadn’t cracked. Her intestines seemed to swirl inside of her, in open revolt against her calm exterior.
 
“I think we can posit that the thing was born somewhere near the garden centre,” she managed dryly. The wisecrack seemed to buoy up her resolve a little. Reaching into a pocket she produced an elaborate fountain pen. At least it looked like a fountain pen.
 
Closing her eyes she pointed the athamae at the onrushing monster. In her mind an intricate web of golden thread flared like the web of demented spiders. Magical links which made up the world. Gradients of probability and potential, always in motion. Guardian spirits had boundaries, potential exchanged for power inside its domain. There, just beyond the end of the car park. It might as well have been a million miles away for all the good it would do them. Her mind spun as she built her spell, changing the probability and warping the pattern. There was no way she could redraw the boundaries, even with a coven and the right ritual objects that was no easy task, but she could warp it, just for a moment. With an effort of will she hurled the spell forward.
 
For the merest of moments the boundary existed both at the edge of the blacktop and directly in front of the monster. Several hundred kilograms of hurtling creature struck a surface as immovable and unyielding as a granite boulder. Magic didn’t let you ignore physics. The monster could not move past the barrier, but all that mass times acceleration had to go somewhere. The sound was deafening, like being in a car accident or a bomb going off. Emmaline flew backward into the side of the car, her breath exploding from her body as the arcane back blast flung her over Morgan’s supine form. Glass shattered and car alarms began to howl. She tasted blood. Groaning, she pulled herself to her feet, brushing vainly at her shirt front as she did so.
The creature itself had been knocked flat by the sudden and invisible impact. It dragged itself to its feet leaving behind an incongruous collection of twigs and soil. With a baleful roar it started forward again but at least its momentum had been checked.  They needed a distraction, they needed that stone and perhaps most importantly they needed to get Morgan out of here.
 
“I think we should probably get to work, I’ll try to cover you.”