Marvela Mystic | ✔️

Chapter 15 ✨ Crossed Paths

With Curious on her back, Marvela led her friends into the woods.

The deeper the band of animals trekked into the forest, the more the air began to pulsate. A low, deep hum vibrated in Marvela's ears. There was a slight quaking in the soil beneath her paws. A mist in a poisonous shade of green hung in the air, purveying the woods. It was the color of sickness. Yet the creatures pressed on, sticking to the shadows cast by the light of the full moon and slinking between trees on silent feet.

Until they found her.

Asra stood alone in a crater in the woods amongst the corpses of many felled trees. With a raise of her hand, she instantly reduced all the fallen trunks to ashes that drifted away into the sky. With a smirk, the witch slashed the air with her fingernails, resulting in a spray of gleaming green sparks that settled onto the now barren terrain. From the sparks, a ring of unlit candles materialized around the witch. Their wicks awaited the kiss of fire.

The sorceress's crow familiar was nowhere to be seen.

Marvela and her fellow animals sheltered amongst the roots of the trees that surrounded the witch. So far, they had gone unnoticed by the busy witch. "Slight is coming to drag Asra away to repay her debts," the kitten whispered to her friends at her side. "I think it's best if we don't let her avoid that. We can restrain her until Slight arrives and let him take care of her."

"Good riddance," purred Lolly in agreement.

Curious gave Marvela's star a reassuring little pat.

Down in the gulley, the witch raised her hands once more. A rush of wind swept over the candles, lighting every wick with a malevolent green flame. Asra's eyes gleamed in the viridian light as she turned her beautiful, vile face upward to face the wide, pupilless eye of the moon.

"Soon..." Marvela heard the witch whisper. "After tonight, there will never again be another witch as powerful as I. I will be a queen amongst mortals! I will be respected! I will be feared! I will be—!"

And Marvela found herself leaving behind the safety of the shadows. The kitten marched down into the gulley, her tail raised in a challenge. "Not just yet, Asra!" the black cat said to Asra's back, surprised that her voice didn't waver one bit. "I think there's something in your path."

The witch's shoulders slumped. She turned around to face the kitten with an exasperated sigh. "You. Again," she growled, rubbing her temples. "I was in the middle of a speech. Now I've lost my train of thought. Didn't I warn you not to stand in my way?"

Something small and white scampered to stand beside Marvela. "Yeah, but we're both bad listeners," Curious retorted, scratching at one of his ears with a hind paw.

Marvela cleared her throat. "Listen up, Asra," she said. "This is your last chance to set things right—"

The witch clucked her tongue. "Oh, let me guess, you want me to return the witches I've destroyed and give them back their magic. Hm?"

Marvela felt hope flicker in her chest like one of the candles that surrounded them. "Well, yes," she said. "That is possible, right?"

The corner of the witch's red lips drew up in the ghost of a smile. She tossed her fiery ringlets over her shoulder. "Kitten, when you're as powerful as me, anything is possible." Her smile faded. Her eyes grew dark. "Not that you will ever understand that. You're just a familiar!"

The kitten just laughed at that. "Wrong! We're just familiars!"

With a flick of her tail as a signal, the witch-less familiars of Vigilance and their allies descended from the woods to encircle Asra. Each familiar was aglow with the last traces of their fading magic and each one released that magic in a beam directed at the green-eyed witch.