"She pulled back her fingers a second before they were sliced off."

So, does she still have her fingers? The sentence could use disambiguation.

disambiguate TFD

To establish a single grammatical or semantic interpretation for

As in:

"She pulled back her fingers a second before they would have been sliced off."

"She pulled back her fingers a second before they were sliced off."

So, does she still have her fingers? The sentence could use disambiguation.

disambiguate TFD

To establish a single grammatical or semantic interpretation for

As in:

"She pulled back her fingers a second before they would have been sliced off."

or

"She pulled back her fingers a second late and they were sliced off."

Likely this question is from a sentence in Dan Simmons book Hyperion google books. It's SciFi. The paragraphs following the sentence are unrevealing as to the fate of the fingers. I have not read the book. Indeed it is an ambiguous sentence. Poetic license!