Cora's POV
The cave was thick with an unsettling silence, the kind that crept into the bones and whispered of long-buried fears. Through the cracks in the overhead arch of the cave, the moon hung low in the sky, shrouded by a haze of swirling clouds that cast a pallid light over the desolate mountain. At the edge of the cave, a figure lurked in the shadows—a monstrous bat, its wings as dark as the abyss, eyes glowing like embers in the night. This creature was once my childhood friend, Dimitri, but the innocence they once shared had been obliterated by dark magic.
I stood at the opposite end of the cave, my body radiating heat and defiance. Flames flickered along my back, illuminating the aura that glistened like molten gold. I had felt the pull of dark magic long before I arrived, the e
