The Witch's Toy ✔

28: about the otherworldly

"Raphael?" Uriel's eyes widened, the shock clear on her face. It was obvious that she never would have thought that he was the one who needed the saving. "Taken by the Madame Blanc?"

"It seems as if she's some sort of infamous being every otherworldly being knows of." I said it a little more bitterly than I intended, but I had a reason to. Never in my life have I ever gotten the formal training every shaman received at a young age; everything was new territory for me. I had to start from scratch, understand everything in a new light.

Ghosts weren't just pesky little spirits that both annoyed and scared me. I knew now after being in contact with the one sent by Madame Blanc and the one I met near her place that they weren't as useless as I thought they were... as with almost every other otherworldy creature I'd met so far in life.

Trying to take in everything all at once made the weight on my shoulders a lot heavier. I could feel the constant stress stamp dark crescents under both eyes, and had a feeling that tonight, even if I was given time to rest, I wouldn't be able to anyway.

Because I'll be up all night thinking about Raphael. Thinking about how the situation was so much more than I thought it was.

Remembering those few months ago when Mina and her girls forced me into that haunted mansion made me feel like an idiot. How all of this... messiness rose from that one moment in my life where I could barely stand up for myself made me want to punch myself square in the face. Drag Mina here and yell at her that all of this built-up jealousy she had harbored over the years is not only causing suffering for her and me, but also for others.

The idea made me sigh loudly as I pressed a few fingers to my temple. Mina, Mina, Mina. The name echoed in my mind, stirred up the dirt from all those buried memories. When I was going to finally face her and resolve what had happened between us years ago was beyond me. I had to focus on getting Raphel back first.

"I just... don't understand why she has such a strong hold over so many of the otherworldly when she's just another cursed being," I continued, looking up with furrowed brows. "I know she has ghosts to her disposal and a high aptitude for magic, but wouldn't that be the extent of her power?"

Uriel nodded, pressing her lips together. "You're right in that she shouldn't be able to have taken Raphael so easily... unless she has some sort of hidden card we've never seen before."

When Raphael first passed the Madame's gates, it was like he was hit by some sort of force that immediately rendered him useless and weak. I wasn't at all affected by it at all — until, of course, I was pulled into that illusion I couldn't break away from. And it honestly makes me angry at how I was completely susceptible to a form of magic that I could have easily broken away from if only I knew how. Every single time, it elicited that same feeling of vulnerability I didn't want to feel. That same uselessness.

Exactly how I felt when I found Samael.

"I don't know if you've heard, but Raphael wasn't the only one who was caught by the Madame."

Uriel froze at my words, and I watched as she swallowed, mentally going down the list of her former familiars, crossing off every fallen angel who she knew couldn't have been the one who I was talking about.

"Samael." It came out more like a murmur. "She took him and no one even knew about it until I went to her mansion myself a few days ago. And... I don't know what kind of hold she had above him, but it was almost like he was being held still like a puppet on strings. He didn't have the will to fight against what she wanted him to do." And now Raphael has fallen into the same fate.