Shade hung beneath Gluttony's jaw, unable to move his legs and barely able to feel the fingers of his remaining hand. The mouth above him continued drawing the loose darkness from his body. He had enough left to keep his chest from collapsing, but every strand he used to resist the pull left another injury unsupported.
Keep us breathing first, Marcus had said.
"Wonderful advice," Shade rasped. "Got any more?"
The pressure around your ribs is too tight. Move the bindings behind them. Let the chest expand.
Shade almost laughed. Marcus was asking him to loosen the only thing holding the broken bones together. Yet when he tried to inhale, the shadow wrapped around his ribs prevented his chest from moving. He had been treating the body as a structure to be held rigid, ignoring the simple fact that the structure still needed air.
