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Flap them far, far away from here and this woman.

“You have healed quicker than any animal I have ever helped,” she said when she was done with the concoction.

She started massaging his twisted back, a product of his broken wings. Deciding he deserved to be pampered for being the awesome warrior he was, he let her.

“You must be full of magic then.” His eyes squinted with suspicion at her words. “The only creatures who heal as well as you do are the fairies that visit me.”

He snorted.As if fairies would visit a Witch.None of them would be that suicidal.

Turning his head to her, he gave her a bored look at her lies. She didn’t understand that’s what it was.

“Do you hide like them? Is that why I do not know what you are?” It still confused him that she didn’t know what he was. He thought Witches were raised from birth to know what his kind were – and to hunt them. “They come to me when they are injured. Sometimes they bring me animals that need help.”

It was like she spoke the truth. He stared at those spell-binding blue eyes as she rubbed the top of his head, too distracted to notice by the look she gave him.

“I swat the pixies away with my broom, nasty little things. I do not understand why they are so mean. Then again, I have healed a few when Bala gets his fangs into them and brings them to my home.”

She takes care of something as foul as pixies?Even he hated them, simply because they were foul, irritating creatures who liked to come into his home and play tricks on him.

He could only imagine what chaos he would return to when he went back.

“Fairies are such strange creatures, not as much as you, but still quite odd. They bring me crickets to heal.”

He started to notice that she was patting his head and neck. It felt nice, though, since they were soft gentle touches that felt wonderful against his scales and spikes. It concerned him that she might be using magic to calm him, but he didn’t think that was it.

“They are the ones that taught me that every life is sacred no matter how large or small. They taught me that everything with breath deserves to live. I often agree with them, even when they brought me that venomous viper.”

She pulled up the sleeve of her dress all the way to her elbow to show him two holes that were obviously snake fang marks.

“I felt terrible that I had to milk its venom to save myself, but if I had not, I would have died before I saved it.”

Rurik didn’t take his eyes away from her arm. Not because of her story, but because of the many small and white scars she had marring her tanned skin.

Other than his marks on her, he’d expected her skin to be perfect, like the rest of her kind. Like perfect porcelain. They usually healed themselves straight away to prevent any permanent marks on their bodies.

He could only deduce that she continued to tend to the animal before healing herself like she had with him.

You are really an odd Witch, are you not?

“Do you have a partner, Lady Lizard?”Great, I am to hear of her love life.He could only imagine how long this would last.Maybe she knows, and she wishes to torture me with boredom.“Or are you a baby lizard? You are awfully small, but you do not look round and soft.”

She poked his underbelly, and he was so offended he snapped at her finger.

I am no hatchling, you–

“I have never had a suitor. Rather difficult when you do not have parents to offer any worth to your marriage with a dowry.”

He’d never thought on if her parents were to turn up.

Good, they are dead. Less Witches to hunt for.Maybe even he killed them.

That idea made him grin.

“Then again, I do not particularly want to be bound to another.”

That made him raise his brow just as she started petting him again. He let her, suddenly interested in this conversation.

Although Witches were hateful things, they did indeed love heavy and hard. He’d used that to his advantage on many occasions to kill them.