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He cautiously leaned forward to see it better. His eyelids flickered quickly, and she knew he must have been using a spell to see.

“It is true. I can see your magic is not flowing freely.” His spikey brows drew together into a deep frown. He came a little closer, his puffy snout making quick sniffs before he gave a subtle sneeze. “I know that scent. So, Geryon caught back up to you, did he?”

Surmising it was safe to do so, Valerie lifted to her knees while shifting her dress to hide her exposed chest. “You know him?”

“Of course, I do!” He stomped a paw forward. “I was the Dragon he was going to hand your sister over to. I know all about you, your family, and what you have done.” He gave another growl, curling his lips back over his fangs. “It seems he is still being idiotic with you. You reek of his scent, of seed and sex. Why have you come here?”

She sat back on her feet, laid her hands in her lap, and lifted her chin defiantly. “Because I want you to cleanse me in dragonfire.”

His head reared back at her request. “Excuse me? You wish for me to burn you?”

His surprise was not unexpected.

Valerie sighed before averting her gaze to the side. “You are the only Dragon I knew the whereabouts of.”

Horrified to discover she knew the location of his lair, his eyes widened before they quickly narrowed.

“How could you know such a thing? My home is guarded with wards and spells. My magic is strong; no one should be able to see through them!”

She brought her eyes forward to meet the sweet, innocent-looking blonde Witch next to him.

“I am not sure if you remember me, but I have met you before, Amalia.” She shook her head to say she didn’t know who she was. Valerie was sure, at the time, Amalia found her insignificant, but it had not been so for Valerie. “When I had heard of the prophecy involving you and this Dragon, I originally came to kill you.”

Valerie let her eyes fall to the child in her arms.

“I feared that a DragonWitch being born would mean the end for all Dragons and wanted to protect them.” She gave a reassuring smile, since they both looked concerned. “Yet, when I saw you helping the humans in the village near your cottage, the animals you took into your care, I doubted you would ever turn. I could not see you casting dark magic when you seemed purer at heart than most I have met. Still, my family and I have been watching you for a long time.”

They’d been scrying for Amalia ever since Valerie had obtained a small amount of her hair. It wasn’t dark magic, but it required the power of her entire coven to conjure such an advanced spell.

“We were watching you both the night of the black moon. How could we not with what had been predestined? I saw what you did, and I was able to watch him bring you here to save you.”

It had been prophesied that Amalia would take the heart of Rurik the WitchSlayer and birth his child. Many believed she would take his heart with a knife, not win it by gaining his love and then raise that child with him.

Valerie knew people often misinterpreted fortune-tellings. The Witch would speak out loud but would forget what they saw instantly. Often, foretellings were unknown, since the Witch would speak it when they were by themselves.

On the night of the black moon, just over twenty-five years ago, Rurik and Amalia had both been captured by Strolguil the Vast, the evillest Witch ever born. He forced her to ride Rurik for his seed so she would fall pregnant, and he gave her a blade to take his heart.

After she rode him and was given the blade, she instead stabbed herself and freed him. She almost died because of it, had sacrificed her life for his. In the end, that was the reason he’d come to trust her, since he was known for his hatred of their kind.

Her entire family had watched the events play out.

She turned her gaze back to Rurik.

“This is how I knew where you were. I cannot see past your wards, though. We have stopped watching since she is rarely outside of them, and we had no reason to.”

He raised a brow. “You say you were intending to kill her. Was that to protect us from the potential of an evil child who could hunt Dragons? You would have hunted her if she turned on me and our child?”

“Yes. My family usually stays out of external matters that do not involve us, but even we feared such power. After the night of the black moon, when Amalia sacrificed herself to save you, we knew we had nothing to fear.”

“Hmm.” He trailed an assessing eye over her before he twisted his head in thought. “Geryon did tell me your family is odd. He told me you have performed dark magic. Is this why you seek to be cleansed in dragonfire?”

She saw no point in lying to him. “Yes.”

“Why not ask him to do it?” He gave a huff of irritation. “Why bother me with your request when you already have a Dragon on your tail?”

Valerie looked down at her hands in her lap, wishing her heart didn’t radiate with an ache. “Because he will not do it. I thought that would have been obvious by my scent.”

Rurik tapped one of his claws against the ground.