[CAMI]
I hear my name through the fog. It’s faint at first, like someone calling from the other side of a dream. When I hear it again, I force my eyes open. The light in the room stabs at them, and for a second, I regret waking at all.
There’s someone beside me.
It takes more strength than it should to turn my head. My neck feels heavy, my body sluggish, like I’ve been drugged. My brain takes a few seconds to catch up, to put the features together: sleek hair, sharp cheekbones, the kind of visible elegance you don’t fake. Vivienne Russell. Zeke’s mother.
Her gaze is fixed on me, soft in a way that almost feels like relief. For half a heartbeat, I feel it too. Relief. A lifeline. Then I remember. She’s his mother. Zeke, who thinks I tried to kill him. Zeke, who’s furious because he thin
