“I’m good.” To my surprise, it was the truth. The past week had limbered me up, making me flexible in ways I hadn’t been in years. “Let’s keep going.”

“All right.” A brief grin split his cheeks. “Say the word, and we stop.”

My few minutes of exertion were nothing compared to his, but the burn felt good. “Okay, Grade A, this is where you and your juice come in.”

“I want to see transformation to the elbow. Full transformation. Not a single hair past.” Isaac dragged his finger across the crease in my arm like I’d failed basic anatomy. “Hold it for sixty seconds and then release it.”

I puffed out my cheeks with a sharp exhale. “Okay.”

My most extensive transformations had been fueled by adrenaline. Shifting cold was harder, which was the point of the exercise. That didn’t make me any more eager for the attempt.

I stuck out my arm, and Dell clasped hands with me. The nail on my right hand’s middle finger wiggled loose, pushed free by the emergence of my spur. Quick as a flash, I pierced the back of her hand and tasted her rich blood in the back of my throat.

Golden fur sprouted down my arm, and Dell squeaked with glee as the now-familiar static trickled into my head. My fingers extended, the nails lengthening and sharpening. My vision wavered, caught between what I saw and what my mind perceived. I saw nothing when I looked at Isaac, but Dell… She glowed with subtle light, her resonance as distinctive to me as her voice.

“Hiya.”

The greeting pinged around in my skull.

I felt my lips curving upward and couldn’t have stopped the smile from blossoming if I’d tried. “Hi.”

Between one heartbeat and the next, Dell vanished, ducking underneath the giant claw Isaac brandished. His swing went over her head and almost gutted me. I swiped my nails over his carapace, and the screech made my back teeth ache.

“What are you…” I ducked another swing, “…doing?”

“This isn’t a game, Cammie.” He sucked in a hiss when I sliced his shirt to ribbons, drawing thin lines of blood from the shallow cuts. “It’s not enough to summon the aspects. You must learn how to wield them to your advantage.”

A vicious snarl quivered on Dell’s lips. The quality of her light shifted, altered. She was changing. Oh crap.

“Dell,” I snapped. “No.” I winced when his pincher snipped off two of my claws like he wielded a pair of overgrown nail clippers. “Let me handle this.”