(Caius)
I was finishing the next line of charges when Isla's scent changed again.
Not fear. Not weakness. Not anything that belonged to panic. It rose hot and wild beside me, threaded with something ancient that struck straight through Vorak and sent him surging hard against my ribs.
I stopped speaking at once.
The hall felt it before they understood it. Heads turned. Bodies stilled. Every instinct in the room reached toward the shift in the air without knowing what name to give it.
I turned to her.
Isla stood where she'd been, but nothing about her was the same as it had been moments earlier. Her body shook in sharp waves that had nothing to do with fear. Her hands were curled partway at her sides as if fighting some new command moving through them. Her breathing came deeper, roughe
