He pulls out a knife from his pocket and starts to cut my wrists. The cuts are shallow, enough to make me bleed, but not enough to kill me. Just enough to slow me down and make me immobile. I can feel the tackiness of my blood dripping down my wrists. I shift in his arms, trying to get the knife out of his hand. My hands are covered in blood and I can barely get a hold of anything. I hear a rumble from his chest with frustration as he continues to try to cut me. I hit him with my fists and he keeps slashing the knife, causing cuts along my forearms and palms. I don’t know what to do. He’s too fucking strong and I can’t say anything with his hand on my throat. Does he want my blood for something? I’m starting to feel woozy, and I need to hold it together, I need to figure out a way to get myself out of this mess.

I try some wordless magic and move chairs and other items in the room to hit him, but nothing fazes him. He’s too strong and I can feel my airway giving out. While I’m a witch and can live for a very long time, I can still be killed, and it feels like that’s exactly what Otto is about to do to me.

Panic fills my blood stream. I push my magic out of me hard. Willing my hand to burn him. All it does is make his hand harder around my neck. He’s staring at me, emotionless, his features muddied. I can see where eyes would go and the shape of a mouth, but he’s no longer human.

Someone created Otto to do their bidding, and clearly, their highest order was to take me out. I’m feeling dizzy as my nails scrape against his mucky skin when I hear a feral-like growl from the corner.

Otto goes flying across the room, and I gasp for breath. I feel lightheaded and try to apply pressure to my wrists. I try to use a healing spell, but the lack of blood and exertion of magic is holding me back. Every time I whisper “sana” my arm starts to heal but opens back up again. After this is over I need to spend more time learning stronger healing magic. A clang of chairs alerts me to the corner of the room as I watch Otto hit the floor, Dax jumping on top of him. His fists are powerful as he hits Otto. My hits didn’t make a dent at all, but I watch as Dax strikes him hard enough to shift the clay.

“You thought to hurt my fucking witch? You mindless piece of shit.”