It's to the sword her attention darts for a second, two seconds, and then claws are digging into the ground beneath her, muscles are tensing under fur where they haven't already been sliced through and made useless — she's getting ready to make a move, she'd only been waiting for him to get closer, closer...

A faint rustle of feathers from behind will betray that she isn't here alone but that's the only warning Daud gets before Deirdre comes crashing down from the sky to attack the back of his head in a flurry of claws and wings and screeches, which is the exact same moment Billie acts.

Even in the throes of the river's madness, this had to have been planned on the spot, from the very second Daud stepping into the alley. Not that that thought matters much in the end. As the tern attacks, so does Billie, snapping forward to try and get her jaws around the nearest ankle, teeth searing hot with Epithymetikon's magic.