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She played soft and broken to make me believe she needed protecting, rather than killing.And he was disgusted in himself that he’d tried to comfort her through her tears.

She used her beauty to make me want her so that she could take my child.He was thankful that he placed the spell on her that prevented her from doing so – and never told her.

She had never desired him, she had desired power.

He didn’t know how long he’d been there, waiting. However, it wasn’t Strolguil or Amalia who entered hours later, but the three Witches he hadn’t managed to kill in Mahesh’s lair.

They didn’t say anything as they strolled into the dungeon, but one of the two females hummed a jolly tune absentmindedly. Then they paused in a triangle around him, and he felt the pulse of magic against his scales when they began to chant in unison.

Rurik’s eyes widened when he started growing smaller against his will, felt his body changing.

The shackles around his neck, paws, and tail became loose. He felt his face morphing unnaturally, almost painfully, while his wings pulled inside him.

How is this possible?They were forcing him to shift from Dragon to human. He’d never heard of such a thing being done!

But this is my chance.Once the change was complete, the shackle no longer holding him in place, he ran forward to tackle the only male Witch in the dungeon.

He brought his fist down across his face and then leapt back before one of the women could grab him. His body was still hexed. He couldn’t unleash fire, and when he tried to use magic, he was unable to do so.

I will not run.No, he would kill these people. He would kill them, find Amalia and strangle her neck with his feeble human hands. Then he would sneak up on Strolguil and stab him with the very blade he’d threatened him with earlier.I will take their hearts instead of them taking mine.

He lunged for the woman closest to him, knocking her against the wall and making her fall against it. She looked dazed from the impact, and he turned to the other one while the man was still trying to get to his feet.

They came to him as a group knowing he would be too small for the shackles.They underestimate me.

With a large, meaty fist, he punched the woman he was heading towards in the stomach before he cracked his other one across her cheek.

In his peripheral vision, he saw the man get to his feet, and Rurik tackled him to the ground so he could put hands around his throat. While he was squeezing it, he tried to slap Rurik’s hands away.

Uck!Something long and thin wrapped around his own throat. With one hand still wrapped around the neck of his prey, he scratched at the coil around his neck until it tugged, forcing him to let go of the man he was on top of.

When he fell back, he saw that the woman he’d knocked against the wall had already recovered and was using a whip against him. She tried to drag him along the ground while he worked on unwinding it from his throat.

A moment later, a boot connected to his head. The other female was kicking him to knock him unconscious. Ignoring the whip, he grabbed her foot and twisted. She fell to the ground on her front.

She screamed when he rolled over and bit into the back of her calf hard enough that blood welled in his mouth.

He smelled dust. A handful of different spices mixed with magic was thrown over him.

He thought nothing of it, freeing himself of the whip and then crawled up the woman he’d bitten. With a growl, he grabbed her by the back of the hair and pulled. Then he slammed her head against the ground and heard a loud, but distinct,crack. She went limp.

He rose to his feet in preparation to fight the other two. His head and face were covered in yellow and red spices, and it stung his eyes and nostrils to the point they both watered.

The moment he was steady, he suddenly wasn’t. He stumbled back a step. He shook his head, his sight quickly fogging, which only seemed to make him dizzier.

What did they do?They didn’t approach him, didn’t move. It seemed they were waiting. Whatever they threw at him was working fast.

Stepping forward, he went for the man again, but his knee crumbled under him.They got me.They managed to subdue him.

He hoped he managed to at least kill the female still laying on the ground. If he managed to escape from this place with her head as a trophy, she would be his hundredth proven kill.

He tried to get back to his feet, shaking on raised arms, but they also gave out. His head hit the ground right before his mind went black.

Chapter 31

Rurik woke lying down on his back facing a grand ceiling. The room was tall with high ceilings that had embossed floral like designs in it while dust and spiderwebs covered an unlit chandelier dangling above him with candles precariously missing from it.

He tried to lunge forward to sit or stand but felt himself being pulled back by shackles around his human hands and feet. He’d been cleaned at some point.