POV: Clara

Clara woke up in a gasp, her heart still thundering, sweat clinging to her skin like she’d run a marathon.

For a second, she couldn’t breathe. Her lungs clamped shut as if someone was sitting on her chest and crushing in her ribs. The room swam, blurry in the shadows at the edges of her vision. Her hands clawed at the sheets, nails bending back.

Her sheets were bunched tightly around her legs, soaked in dampness she didn’t want to think about. Hair stuck to ...