ANGELICA POV
The darkness pressed in from all sides, thick and suffocating like the damp walls of the dungeon I had come to know too well. The air was stagnant, filled with the sickly scent of decay and something else—something worse. Magic. Foul, corrupted magic that clung to my skin like a second layer, burrowing deep into my bones, poisoning me from the inside out.
I wanted to wake up. I knew this wasn’t real—could feel the weight of the nightmare settling over me like a heavy, choking fog—but no matter how hard I struggled, I was trapped. Just like before.
The memory played out again, as it had a thousand times before.
I had barely had time to breathe in the presence of my dragon before the shadows coiled and twisted at the edges of the cavernous prison. The air turned ice-co
