Though I had no idea why the house and I seemed to be the only ones feeling the heat. I’d never had a baby before, but I was assuming it had to do with me being so close to the due date. The doctor, who asked us to call him by his first name Azazel, said I was due any day now. That thought filled me with joy. I couldn’t wait to hold my Little Bird.

Everyone else was focused on the prepping for the baptism so they didn’t notice me slipping around the corner to the side of the stairs. I gripped the handle and pushed but the door didn’t budge. NO. I whined and pressed my forehead to the wood. There was no lock on this door, so I didn’t understand why it wouldn’t open, though I thought maybe it was stuck because the heat was making the wood swell. I didn’t have much strength left in me these days, but I wasn’t going to give up that easily. I took a few deep breaths. Please open. I turned the knob and felt a tingle like electricity shoot into my hand and up my arm—and the door popped open.

I grinned and slipped outside, shutting the door quietly behind me.

Instantly, the pressure in my bones eased. Tension I hadn’t realized I’d been holding in my shoulders vanished. I took a deep breath, soaking in as much of that cold, crisp night air as I could. It was late March, so the temperature wasn’t freezing anymore. Nature was also preparing for a rebirth. My Little Bird and spring were going to arrive together. I stepped off the paved brick pathway into the dirt, then squished it between my bare toes. Little bird’s pulse smoothed. I could have sworn I felt the baby sigh right along with me.

“That feels better, doesn’t it?” I whispered to my baby. “Let’s get some more.”

With a smile on my face, I walked into the forest that surrounded the clinic. I’d walked this exact path so many times since I’d arrived that I’d actually worn my own little trail into the ground. The clinic sat on the edge of a mountain with a pretty severe drop that made for an awe-inspiring view from the balcony, but Azazel didn’t want us out there once we reached third trimester. He was very protective of us and our babies’ health. I admired that a lot. Even when I snuck off to my own private balcony. It wasn’t a literal balcony, at least not the manmade kind, but just around this group of towering pine trees was a little cove where a boulder had fallen off the mountain and landed, creating a ledge right at the edge of the world.