Chapter 33

Mia's POV

I stood before the tree, sizing it up. It was taller than the ones I was used to, but Maya had said it was time to move on to higher levels, so I guess I have got to climb it.

"Thinking of ways to back down, you wimp?" Maya taunted from the top branch. Her voice carried down with the wind, giving it a kind of distant halo in the morning air.

"You know that tactic never works on me, even if it works like hell on Martha!" I called back.

Her laughter carried down. "You know that sentence is a lie, even if you have been saying it for two months!"

I sighed, irritated. She was right. I keep saying that every time she insults or mocks me, but the truth is that she rarely insults me when it won't hurt. She always picked the right moment when I was feeling frustrated, or very likely to snap, and used the insults to push me to new feats.

I wasn't about to tell her that to her face though, even if we both know that. Ignoring her repeated jabs at my inability to transform, and my being