(Isla)
I was still at the window when it happened.
Not asleep. Not even close to it. I was sitting with my knees pulled up looking at the forest and thinking about the laugh and Caius's face and the bread earlier and the way the day had felt different from the ones before it without me doing anything to make it different.
And then the heat came.
It started somewhere below my ribs. Not pain. Not quite. More like pressure that had temperature attached to it, a warmth that didn't belong to the room or the fire or anything external. It moved up through my chest and into my throat and then it was gone, as quickly as it had come, leaving nothing behind except the awareness that it had been there.
I sat very still.
I pressed one hand flat against my sternum and felt nothing unusual. My hear
