It had been a week since they'd hauled her out of her cozy, sun-drenched cottage, her hard-won peace of six years, and deposited her… here.
Where was here?
A fucking Dragon Castle.
Walls of seamless stone that hummed with latent power, windows looking out onto cloud-wreathed peaks, and an atmosphere so thick with raw mana it made her alchemist's senses prickle like static.
"How are you faring today, Angel's Baby?" The woman asked gently in the vast, airy chamber. She appeared, as she did every day, in a dress of transparent, flowing blue-white silk that seemed to hold captured mist and moonlight.
Angel's Baby. It had to be a codename. A tag Angela had used to categorize her in whatever vast, secret ledger she kept. The fact that this woman used it meant Angela hadn't given her real name.
Perhaps it was a layer of protection, but it still felt strange, like being called by a childhood nickname only your most dangerous relative remembered.
