Summer Rainault stared at the thermostat in her small, top floor studio apartment and growled under her breath. The a/c was working flat out, and it was still nearly 80 degrees in the apartment — breathlessly hot. Helios lay on the kitchen tile, panting miserably, as flat as he could possibly get upside-down. She leaned her head on the wall, then reached up and turned the thing off.

If it wasn’t going to work anyway, she might as well turn it off and save the money. As the fan shut off, she went round and opened all the windows and the door, and instantly felt better as a breeze moved through the space. She’d already put her lightest clothes on, and hopefully the neighbours across the passageway wouldn’t mind too much.