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Once he was dressed, his shoulders slumped.

Why did she not stay?He didn’t understand why she’d run away again, not after how she had been with him. She’d enjoyed being underneath him all night.

Scratching the back of his neck, he thought once more on the night, but this time, in search of what he may have done wrong.

He didn’t know.

He’d complimented her, told her how he felt about her, despite how embarrassing he found it to do so. Geryon had tried to be affectionate as he madeloveto her.

Regardless, he would still go after her. Call it an obsession, but he wasn’t ready to let her go, not when he hoped he could eventually convince her to stay with him.

I could imprison her again.He rolled his eyes at himself; he’d seen how well that had worked out the first time.

Unsure as to why he’d slept for most of the day, the sun already trying to set, he shielded his eyes from the glowing red ball as he stepped outside.

Her male travel companions were gone, and they weren’t with her, since he could smell she had gone into the forest on her own.

Does she not realise who lives in these mountains?He shook his head as he followed her scent through the forest. She had come through here hours before him.

Suddenly Geryon paused.

What if she does know...His eyes widened when he looked in the direction she’d been travelling, realising it was directly taking him to a certain ill-tempered brother of his.What if she is seeking him?

That’s when he understood why she had come here.

She plans to ask Rurik to do what I will not!

While he sprinted, he chanted the one word he needed to morph. “Shift!” he flung out impatiently as he finished blowing his ring of fire.

He didn’t care his clothing was burned away when those flames came back to encase him, not when Valerie was in severe danger.I must be quick. Rurik will do as she asks.

He wouldn’t care for Geryon’s feelings, not when it involved a Witch who had used dark magic.

Within a matter of moments, he morphed into a Dragon and took to the skies. He was faster in the air, using his wings, rather than on foot as a man.

Flying straight for Rurik’s lair, anxiety filled his chest.Do not tell me I am too late.

What would have taken an hour or two on foot took him only a few minutes in the air with the way he flew.

Geryon landed out the front of Rurik’s lair and instantly picked up that Valerie’s scent was here. There were no charred marks, but that didn’t mean she hadn’t already been burned. He needed to know, needed to be told if he was too late.

“Rurik!” he shouted, running straight for the lair entrance and bashing headfirst into a ward designed to keep all but the caster out.Ow! Fuck!“Rurik!”

The one who greeted him was Amalia. She was alone, and she eyed him cautiously as she approached him from the cave tunnel. She never ventured past the ward.

“Geryon?” she asked quietly, her personality radiating soft and kind – as it had the small number of times he’d met her.

“Amalia, where is Rurik? What did he do with the Witch who came here?”

He tried to see past her in the hopes he would come up the tunnel behind her... Yet he couldn’t hear any shouting or snarling like usual when Rurik had an uninvited guest bothering him.

“You are speaking of Valerie?”

His chest tightened at hearing her name. He became unsettled on his paws, shifting his weight back and forth.

Why was I asleep for so long?She’d managed to come here and introduce herself, had time to have a conversation with them.

Her scent here wasn’t old, and he knew she had only recently been here.Maybe an hour.