Dale momentarily forgot that he wasn’t visible and nearly answered her question. Then he remembered that if she could see him, she had to be his target. He reached up and withdrew his blade. She saw it and stood up quickly, having dropped all pretense of being fragile.

“I always knew that this day would come, but I’m not going without a fight,” she said as she changed into a lion.

Dale stepped back, before realizing that in his current form, the lion couldn’t harm him. ...