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Who is he?Would he have to fight with another Witch to get to her? He could smell he was of her kind from the mix of it in his body scent.

“Give her to me,” he snarled, baring his fangs that dripped with lethality.

The male turned his head up to him, his eyes dark in the night. He was cradling the back of her head with one hand and brushing his thumb over her cheek with the other.

Like he didn’t care Rurik was there or the danger he faced, he turned his head away to look down to her face.

“Can you not see she has suffered enough? Let her be in peace.”

He cares for her.Great, what was this? Some lover he didn’t know about?First the Vast, and now this?The man looked older than her, but their life spans often made it confusing to gauge their age.

He stamped a paw forward in warning. He couldn’t charge with him holding her the way he was. Rurik may hurt her in the process, and he had many questions for this Witch before he threw her into his prison cell.

“Hand her over,” he demanded, lowering his head as if he was preparing to pounce.

“Leave me to grieve over my dying daughter, Dragon.”

He brushed his hand over her hair while staring down at her face before he pressed his forehead to hers. He began rocking her like a child.

Rurik’s eyes no longer narrowed, and his head reared back.

His daughter?The man was shirtless, making it easy for him to see his hands were bound by shackles. A handful of chain links were still attached to both.

“You are her father?”

He frowned as he eyed the man. He was unable to see if it was true.

“Yes, I have been held captive by Strolguil the Vast for nine years.”

“She told me her father was a human soldier!” Rurik shouted this at him, but he’d always known that she had two Witch parents from how much magic her body naturally held.

He was angry because it was just proof of her lies.

The man laughed, his chest vibrating with it while he shook his head. “That would be because I altered her memories.”

What?Once again, Rurik’s head reared back.

“You altered her memories?”

That was dark magic, no white wielder could do this.

“Yes, I made sure she had no memory of what today was supposed to signify. Her mother and I had hoped this day would pass, and she would be safe. We were hoping if she did not know then he would never find her and force her to do something we knew she was too tame to do.”

He brushed his hand up her cheek, over one of her closed eyes, over her forehead, and then down the side of her temple to her ear.

“She looks so similar to her mother.” Then Rurik heard the choking sound of someone trying to hold back sadness. “It is all my fault. If I had not desired to learn dark magic, the person who foretold the prophecy would not have visited my coven and met her. They would never have seen this day. I got my wife killed and led my own daughter to her death.”

Rurik shook his head, unsure of how to process what he just heard.Her memories were altered... Does that mean she never knew about any of this until now?

Something more pressing entered his mind.

“Give her to me. I will heal her.”

If she was dying, then Rurik needed to act fast.

“Why? So you can torture her for what she has done to you? Bring her back just so she can be put to flame or locked away?”

He brought his head up to face Rurik with his teeth gritted into an angry glare.