(Isla)
I woke because of the heat.
Not a dream. Not a noise. The heat, arriving all at once the way it had before, except nothing about this was like before. Before it had been warmth moving beneath my skin, something I could breathe through. Before, it had been manageable.
This was not manageable.
It started in my chest and spread outward in every direction at the same time, not warmth, fire, pressing against the inside of my skin like something trying to get out. I sat up and the movement made it worse and I made a sound I didn't recognize as mine, something raw and broken, and then I was reaching for Caius before I'd finished deciding to.
My hand found his arm and he was awake before I'd gripped it properly, awake and upright and already turning toward me, and the moment his hands
