"But it's not real," she said, walking beside him, her flip-flops crunching on the grass. "That's why I can do anything." She means it in not just a If I wanted, I could summon a jetski way, but in how she sees the world. That here, she can feed and hunt and fight.

She turns, walking backwards, looking up at him, and she's honest. "I couldn't do this with real people. Not... right now." And she means all of it, her voice low. "Show me." And she doesn't even know what she's asking. "You said you'd teach me, show me something else." Because her normal method in these sorts of places of tearing out throats - that wasn't the right way, and she knows it.