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Lena’s PoV

As we began to get close to Zane's fortress, the landscape began to change extremely. The trees were gradually thinned out. It was as if the deeper into the woods we got, the thinner the trees appeared, revealing unevenly cut twisted rocks that seemed to have been damaged by dark magic. I knew instantly that we were getting closer to this ominous darkness.

The air became very heavy and suffocating. It was getting really hard to breathe. Each breath we took felt more. It was as if the magic itself was trying to choke us. My heart began to beat a lot faster than usual. My heightened...