The coven's plaything (MTF)

Meeting the coven

The Lunar Coven stood before him, and Jack faced them defiantly. He knew of the witches who ruled over his small country, but he had never seen them this close. He'd known they were beautiful, but he had never encountered beauty so... disarming. They stood in a semicircle, most of them with their arms crossed, leaning into their hips, evaluating him. A curvy, fair-skinned witch smirked. Across the room, a thin, dark-skinned witch wore an opposite expression – she glared.

Jack noticed his neck tickling with sweat and focused his eye contact on the witch in the center of the semicircle: Estrella. The head witch. Her expression was neutral as she regarded him, perfect chin held high, ombre skin reflecting the light of candles overhead.

"I'll do anything," he repeated.

Now, Estrella's mouth ticked upward. "Anything." Her tongue moved over the word like it was something delicious. Her eyes combed him like he was something delicious. The sweat on Jack's neck brimmed.

"My family's farm has been barren for two seasons," Jack said. "If I don't go back with a promise of a harvest spell, I may as well not go back at all, for they will not have the crops to feed me. Please – I know you have the means."

Estrella sighed and leaned heavy on one long, perfect leg. Jack forced his eyes to stay locked on hers. The eye contact was so intense it was like a physical force, her golden eyes, glowing with the magic that shaped seasons, flooding him with a mere taste of her power. It was all he could do to force himself not to look away.

"We don't have enough power between the twelve of us to support yet another town," the pale witch said, breaking the spell. Jack blinked and felt the power draining out of him. The room looked... colder. Less vibrant. He saw the pale witch was smirking.

"Yes," agreed another witch, short and slender, with close-cut hair. Jack knew that nearly all of the people who petitioned the coven were sent away – nearly all. A few men from neighboring villages were successful in securing protections for their towns from the increasingly long winters and pests that crawled over crops, leaving fields barren. But none of the men were ever seen again.

"Indeed," Estrella said, eyeing Jack. "If you want to save your town, you'll have to supplement our power."

"Me?" Jack asked, disarmed. "I don't have any magic."

"No men do," the dark-skinned witch snapped. The others cackled, crossed their arms.

"And so we'll train you," Estrella said. Jack didn't know what to make of her knowing smile. They all looked at him now, with expressions ranging from curiosity, to amusement, to outright hatred. Jack's heart pounded. But he knew what he had come here to do. He knew he had not expected to leave.

"I'll do it," he said. Estrella smiled, showing a perfect row of white teeth.

She beckoned him to follow her. "I think you could make a good witch."