The Witch's Familiar

Chapter 59

Fire breathing monsters. Of course it was fire breathing monsters. Loki was a frost giant. He was inherently weak against fire and weaker still against having fire breathed on him from monsters.

You suspected Hydra knew it too. Of course they would want to exploit one of the team's weaknesses. And Loki's weakness was easy to guess if one knew he was a frost giant. Everyone knew now, thanks to the Thor and Avengers movies.

As soon as you saw the fire breathing monsters, you tried to turn back to human. You tried again and again. Loki needed your help. He wouldn't be able to fight them alone.

"Brother!" Thor cried and tried to fly over as the monsters swarmed the battle. He was surrounded quickly by them and had to use his lightning to try to defeat them quickly to get to Loki.

He'd never make it in time.

You yowled a warning to Loki.

"I'll be alright, love," he reassured you as he fortified his shields around himself. You could see that those shields would do absolutely nothing against fire. You yowled another warning, but Loki ignored you. He was desperate to prove himself, to prove that he'd changed from the monster who tried to take over New York. He was desperate to complete his penance. Not that he was sure Odin would ever agree his penance was over.

While he was still being punished, it was unlikely he'd ever be chosen to be heir to the throne. So of course, Odin was using it as an excuse to keep Loki off the throne and keep his chosen Thor as next in line. Odin would use any lame excuse, despite that Loki would make a better ruler.

But none of that mattered now.

Right now, you were faced with fire breathing monsters and Loki's stubborn ass refusing to leave the battle. You would just have to protect him. You scrambled up to perch on his shoulder, to watch his back. Your magic was still limited when you were in cat form. You could only do so much.

So you yowled warning, sent blasts of magic, and tried desperately to turn back to help Loki properly. There were so many monsters and the team was occupied in their own battles. You were the only one available to help Loki.

Why couldn't you turn back?

You were healed. You had your emotions back. You had your powers back.

You needed to turn back to help Loki.

Loki fought viciously with magic and blades, using everything at his disposal to keep the monsters away from him, to keep the fire away from him.

You thought you were going to manage. You really did. Working together you were doing so well at keeping the monsters away. Until one slipped past your defenses and was directly in front of Loki. It opened its mouth to breathe fire on him, to scorch you both. Loki grabbed you, clearly intending to send you to safety.

You couldn't, wouldn't, let him be so hurt, or die, to protect you.

There had to be something you could do to help.

You fought with everything you had as you focused on your human form. It was the only way. You drew every ounce of power you had and threw it into your human form. You remembered every shapeshifting lesson you'd taken and taught and flew through the spell in your head.

Magic swelled and swelled and finally popped as it crashed over you.

You cried out in pain as the change came over you too hard, too fast, too uncontrolled. You screamed as your body rearranged itself in a manner that wasn't at all like normal shapeshifting.

You didn't have time to deal with your pain.

Loki was still in danger.

You summoned your broom grabbed Loki around the waist and leapt into the air in one fluid well-practiced movement. You threw your leg over your broom as you leapt into the air, years of playing sports on broom had the movement down to muscle memory. You could do it in your sleep, even dragging a startled reluctant Loki along with you.

You only barely escaped the fire below you.

You sighed in relief, though. You had escaped and had gotten Loki out of danger.

"Darling, while it is beyond wonderful to see you in human form again, I would very much appreciate not dangling helplessly from a broom," Loki said. He was clutching onto your broom, while your arm was still around him.

You laughed and hauled him up onto the broom behind you. "Sorry, Lokitty," you told him warmly.

"I think you're the kitty now, magelet," he replied with the brightest grin on his face. He reached up and scratched behind what you realized were cat ears.

Of course you'd gotten stuck with them. You'd been in cat form for too long.

You sighed. "We'll deal with that later. Right now, we have monsters to fight,"

"And we'll do so together, my darling. I'm so glad to finally have you back," he leaned in to kiss you softly before you got to work fighting the monsters together. You flew your broom across the battlefield while Loki shot off bolts of magic as you did.

You really did make a good team.

And it was so good to be human again.