POV: Clara

The light swallowed everything. Shape. Sound. Breath.

My body disappeared in it.

My thoughts scattered.

For a moment, I wasn’t Clara.

I wasn’t anything.

Heat and gold and the sound of a voice calling me something I’d never been, something I didn’t want to be:

Mother.

And when the light faded, I gasped like I’d been pulled from the depths. My knees met the earth. The air was cold again — sharp, biting, real.

But the ...