~ Author ~

Adeline rises to consciousness the way one rises slowly through deep water—her mind floating somewhere far away, her body heavy, her eyelids resisting every attempt to open. For a long stretch of hazy, suspended time, she registers only fragments: the faint antiseptic scent, the low mechanical hum of monitors, the rhythmic beeping that matches the steady thump-thump of her heartbeat.

When she finally manages to blink, her vision swims, blurs, then sharpens enough for shapes to ...