The Witch's Familiar

Chapter 52

At your nod, Loki turned his attention back to the Cursemonger. The pair of them hashed out a few more details, with quite a lot of implicit and explicit threats on Loki's part. Thor stood there and looked intimidating, occasionally sparking lightning, just to get his point across. The Cursemonger took the threat of being pancaked by Mjolnir very seriously.

When everything was hashed out, the Cursemonger summoned a staff and Loki scoffed. Loki hated and looked down on mages who relied on staves or wands to perform magic. You were the exception of course, since you didn't rely on your wand. On Asgard, it was considered a sign of a weak mage to need such tools. And the Cursemonger was an Asgardian mage.

The Cursemonger glared at Loki, who wisely kept his mouth shut this time. You were still relying on the Cursemonger to help you and remove the curse and compulsion spells, so Loki wouldn't kill him.

Yet.

Though if he stepped one toe out of line, his life was forfeit and he knew it.

You knew he saw the threat when you saw the sweat on his brow. Loki wouldn't hesitate a moment to kill him.

Loki turned so the pair of you had privacy. He wanted to say a proper goodbye before you were forced into being a cat. He pulled you to him and into a deep, desperate kiss. You were both breathless when the kiss finally broke. Loki leaned his forehead on yours as you both caught your breath and you looked up into his eyes.

"I am going to quite miss doing that," he told you, his voice a purr.

"I'm going to miss you, miss the real you," you replied, heartbroken and worried over what would happen.

Loki seemed to read your expression. "I love you, darling. This will change nothing between us. I have loved you since we met," he told you gently and pressed a kiss to your forehead. He seemed to consider something for a moment before he continued. He pulled back a little so he could look down into your eyes. "I have loved you since we met. You've been my best and closest friend. You've been my love and cared for me when no one else would. I was waiting for the right moment to ask you this. There will never be an absolutely perfect moment. Many would say this isn't it, but I think there is no better time to tell you how much I love you," he said.

In the next moment, Loki was on one knee in front of you a ring box open in his hand where a beautiful antique diamond ring was nestled.

"Y/N, my love, I love you more than anything, more than life itself. I wish for nothing more than to have you by my side for the rest of our extraordinarily long lives, to love and cherish. So, my darling, my question is this: when you're healed and all of this is behind us, will you do me the honor of becoming my wife?"

It was absurd.

And probably the worst timing Loki could have ever chosen.

But it was charming, endearing, and absolutely perfect all the same.

A bright smile appeared on your lips and your fear of the Cursemonger's spell and the months ahead evaporated. You still couldn't believe it, but spoke through your shock. "Yes. Yes, my Lokitty," you told him, not having more words than that. Those words would have to do. They'd have to be enough to convey all of your love to him.

The words were clearly enough when Loki slipped the ring on your finger and pulled you into another deep kiss. You sank into it and moaned softly. You would desperately miss his cool lips and how he tasted of mint and winter when you kissed him.

He finally let you go and took a step back to watch at a safe distance. He was going to make sure the Cursemonger behaved. You caught a glimpse of the shock on Thor's and Sif's faces. They hadn't expected Loki to propose right now. Neither had you, so you didn't blame them.

The Cursemonger approached you, his staff in his hand. When he was standing in front of you, he banged the butt of the staff on the ground once. A magic circle of a moon and sun design, etched in runes in black magic appeared on the ground around you. You realized that part of it was for power. It was also to keep out intruders while he was performing the spell. Namely Loki.

Loki growled when he realized that he was kept out, but knew he couldn't interfere. So he watched carefully for any sign of trouble. He could break the Cursemonger's magic if he had to.

"Ready?" Cursemonger asked when he was set up.

You looked over at Loki with a heartbreaking sort of longing. One last kiss hadn't been enough. It wasn't enough to last you months until you were healed.

You glanced at the ring on your finger and it filled you with hope. After this trial, you would marry your Lokitty. You just had to get through this healing first.

It still took more courage than you wanted to admit to look the Cursemonger in the eye and find your voice. "I'm ready," you told him with as much conviction in your voice as you could muster.

The Cursemonger began chanting and Loki rolled his eyes at his lack of skill, needing chanting and elaborate gestures just for a single spell. You saw the glint in Loki's eyes that he, like you, was memorizing the spell so that the Cursemonger wasn't the only one in the realms with the power to remove curses. You also noticed the look in the Cursemonger's eyes. He had realized that Loki was memorizing the spell, that he was obsolete after this casting. There was no reason to keep him alive or any way for him to hide the spell from Loki.

In short?

He was fucked.

At the end of the spell, he placed the tip of his staff to your chest. Magic flowed around and through you. At first it was just a feeling of probing, of sensing. The next moment you were paralyzed in place, screaming in pain. The curse was ripped out from you and placed in a potion bottle. You collapsed to your knees as your body and form shimmered. You cried out in more pain as your body was forced to take the form of a small, sleek domestic house-cat. You knew your fur was the same color as your hair from previous shapeshifting adventures.

You looked up at Loki with a plaintive, scared mew when it was over. He scooped you up and cuddled you to his chest. "It's alright, love. I've got you. You're safe. You're always safe with me," he reassured you gently.

Everything would be alright with Loki to care for you.