---
Her eyes brightened again. The blood-radiance behind her back opened like a suggestion rather than full structure.
She looked down at herself.
Then back at him.
"I think I hate how beautiful this is."
Sekhmet's mouth moved faintly. "That sounds like admiration."
"That sounds like a problem."
"Both can be true."
Lily made a face at him that was very much the same old Lily and somehow that pleased him more than the transformation itself.
Good.
She had changed.
She had not disappeared.
That mattered more than everything else.
He let her practice a few more times.
Human form.
Bloodline form.
Back again.
Each shift grew smoother. By the fourth, she no longer needed to close her eyes fully. By the fifth, the transformation took only a breath and a directed thought. Human to Cruoraphim. Cruoraphim to a human. Again. Again.
Auri watched with obvious amazement.
