POV: Clara

Clara’s limbs were heavy, leaden with exhaustion. As if the weight of the night before had dragged her through someone else’s nightmare.

Her sheets stuck damp to her skin, braided into ropes around her ankles. Hair plastered to her forehead, sweat drying sticky across her neck. All of her belly muscles cramped low and deep, like she’d been wrung out from the inside. Even her jaw ached, teeth sore as if she’d ground her teeth all night.

It took a long ...