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The colour returned to her face, and he saw her eyelids begin to flicker. She remained awake the entire time, unmoving, and he wondered if she understood what happened to her. She started to blink more, her lids fluttering further open each time right before she sighed heavily with relief.

His muscles tensed in preparation when he saw hers bunch, right before she unsteadily pushed herself up to sit on her hip. She eventually sat up properly and turned to him.

What confused him was that she gave him a smile before she said, “Thank you.”

It was that same smile that always made him feel a strangeness in his chest.Hate that smile.

It caught him off guard. How was he supposed to yell at someone who looked at him like that?Why is she not upset that she is in here?

She stared for a long time and silence bled between them. As if she couldn’t wait any longer, she finally spoke.

“Well?”

“Well, what?!” he snapped.

“I am waiting for you to growl at me for being outside.” She rubbed the side of her head, not where she had injured herself, but close by. “Try not to be too loud, my head still feels funny.”

“You have the audacity to demand something from me? To stupidly push me further to anger when I plan to leave you in this cell?”

“I know how it must have appeared, but I was not trying to leave,” she answered before giving a groan from what he could only think was of pain.

“Lies! You were running from my cave, sprinting towards the forest. If you had not slipped, I would not have grabbed you in time before you would have continued.”

She shushed him, telling him to lower his voice, making one of his eyes widen before one of them twitched. She spoke before he could release whatever sound or words were going to explode from him.

“I was chasing after an injured animal. A ferret, I think.” She started to touch the potion that had hardened at the back of her head, poking it. “If you do not believe me then you may go to the beginning of your lair and sniff for where it had been. It was afraid to come inside and afraid to face the storm in its condition.”

“Why should I believe such nonsense?”She is only trying to make me leave so she can plot something while I am away.“You want me to believe such a story when you used blood magic against me?”

She winced at the bellow of his voice and then frowned. She brought the hand that had been injured closer to her face to inspect it, ripping the hardened potion off it.

“Did I?” He gave a sharp twist of his head. She hadn’t denied it, nor did she admit to it. “Is that what pushed us apart?”

“You would try to make me believe you did not know? Do you think I am an imbecile?”

That frowned deepened when she turned her head to him.

“You startled me. I threw my hand up to ward you away because you were scaring me and then I was tossed against the wall. I knew you did not do it, but I did not know that I had.”

“It was powerful magic. It could not have been done by accident.”

“I just wanted you to give me space.” Her spell had definitely given them space, violently. “I have told you what happened, my version of what I was doing. I was chasing an injured creature, like I would have when I lived in my cottage. It was hurt, and when I picked it up, it bit me. You grabbed me right after I dropped it.”

She lifted her hand towards him.

“You put ointment on my hand, you would have seen the wound. I did not cut myself on purpose in order to attack you.”

It was true. Her wound hadn’t been inflicted by herself.

Rurik thought for long moments, letting his eyes flick over her.I have always known that she has strong magic.Was it possible...? Did she manage to tap into it unconsciously because she’d been in a startled state?

He realised that he wanted to believe her. Rurik didn’t want to hate her or be angry with her.How do I pull what I saw away from what she says she did?

“How did you get past my ward?”

“Now that I do not know. Although, it does not matter.”

“Of course it matters! You would have had to use a spell, would have had to chant. How am I to believe you when getting past that ward is near impossible for a Witch?”