I'm still amazed how many of you are pulling for Ghost Host to be an ally, and love that you're guessing their identity. It's honestly because of you guys this character became who they are now, and I am sincerely grateful for your support. Thank you!
In all honesty, Luz was surprised she hadn't actually died yet during her time on the Boiling Isles. There had been so many times where she legitimately thought she was going to be crushed, eaten, burned, dropped, or strangled, most of which would have been Eda's responsibility, but she always managed to make it out at just the right time. Even while facing off against Emperor Belos, Luz wondered whatever star it was she had been born under to warrant her with such dumb luck commonly found in the heroes she cheered for. Now, running through pitch-black tunnels with a monster straight out of a Lovecraftian horror novel, Luz was sincerely hoping she still had a glimmer of that luck to save her own, and everyone else's
butts, from being munched alive.
The shoggoth screeched as it chased after the fleeing witchlings, panting loudly and snapping at their heels whenever it got too close for comfort. It was fast, faster than the zombies they had faced earlier, faster even than the hellhounds that had chased them to the gate. Its claws tore at the slicked stone walls, kicking up water and chucks of concrete in its attempts to swipe at its prey, every single one of its eyes trained on them as they ran. There just was no escaping the beast.
Skidding as she rounded a corner, Luz ripped out her glyph pad and tore one out, slapping the paper and hurling it to the floor. Ice erupted along the shallow water before her and she took a running leap to skid over it like a frozen slip-n-slide. Thankfully there was no explaining on her part, the second her friends saw what she was doing they followed suit. The only unlucky one, luckily, was the shoggoth, its clawed hands shooting out from beneath it as it fell and smacked its chin on the solid ice.
"Come on!" Luz yelled, jumping off the ice and pulling Amity to her feet.
"Do you even know where we're going?"
The shoggoth's roar made them jolt and Luz shook her head. "No, but I'll take any place that doesn't have that thing in it!"
When they felt they had put enough distance between themselves and the monster, they slipped into a side-tunnel and stopped. Gasping, Luz propped her shoulder against Rex's staff and looked at her friends. Gus and Willow had their backs to the wall, chests heaving, while Boscha and Skara were using each other to hold themselves up. King was shaking in her hoodie, too frightened of the pursuing monster to even make one snarky remark. She glanced at Amity and saw she was looking down the tunnel, going between the way they had been running and where they had come. The ice floor had bought them a few precious moments, but not their escape.
"We have to find a way out of here, and fast."
"I'm starting to think that's what Chiaro was writing about," Luz winced when she stood up and heard her spine pop. "Too bad we don't have Mezzanotte with us to 'read the shadows' or whatever the heck it was she did."
"No," Amity looked at the fox wrapped around her shoulders and leaned against the wall. "But, we have Artemis and Rex, and our magics. We'll find a way out of here, we just have to be careful." A frown creased Amity's face and she glanced down the tunnel, her ears twitching slightly. Luz would have squealed at the cuteness of the motion, but the fear dawning on Amity's face made her stomach churn. "Luz, do you hear that?"
Luz blinked and listened, seeing her surrounding friends freeze in place. She heard the sound of water dripping, their hushed breaths that they were fighting to calm, and the soft hiss of Rex's tongue tasting the air. Only one thing was missing. The shoggoth. A thick drop of water splattered her bangs and Luz slowly craned her neck to look up at the wide fang-filled mouth opened above her, drooling, and the clawed hand raised overhead.
"LUZ!"
Everything happened at once. Luz spun on her heel to lift Rex up as the shoggoth brought down its claws, only for a body to crash into her from the side. The scream that filled the tunnel pierced her like a lightning bolt to the heart. Voices yelled and a barrage of magic flew through the air to crash against the shoggoth's body, eliciting a shriek of pain as Team Owlet sprang to action. The strangest part to Luz was that during all of this, she could only hear the blood roaring in her ears, probably from her head hitting the stone floor. When Luz found the strength to sit up from the shallow water, she felt a pressure across her legs as if something had been laid over them. Wincing, Luz tenderly rubbed at the sore spot where her head hurt and looked down.
Amity lay over her thighs face-down, trying her best to push herself to her feet, but her right arm shook from the effort. Just as her arms gave out, Luz caught her and held the witch up to stare at her in open wonder. Did she really just shove her out of the way? Her eyes then spotted a line of bright crimson sliding down Amity's arm and she followed the stream up the muscles rippling beneath pale skin to a long slash trailing from the meaty part of her shoulder to just over her collarbone, her black shirt sleeve ripped apart. Amity had taken the shoggoth's attack for her. The faint shriek of the shoggoth twitched at Luz's attention, but her focus stayed entirely on Amity and the increasingly bleeding injury. Moving as delicately as she could, Luz shifted Amity off her lap and helped her lean on the wall where Artemis settled by her hand.
"King," Luz's voice was as steady as the surface of an untouched lake. "I need you to stay with Amity." She barely waited for the demon to leap out of her hoodie before she grasped the bottom half of the shirt and tore.
Blinking slowly, Amity watched as Luz ripped the lower hem of her hoodie into a long strip of fabric, pulling apart the shredded remains of her sleeve sticking to the bloodied wound. "Luz? What are you doing?" She grimaced when Luz wrapped the fabric around the gash and pushed at her. "Luz, I'm fine! We need to stop that thing!"
"No." Luz pressed a hand to the witch's chest so she would remain sitting. "I'm going to stop it. You're staying here."
"Luz," Amity winced. "That's a shoggoth! It can't be beaten with a few simple glyphs and a palisman! Groups of witches have been torn to shreds by those things! You can't fight it!"
"Just try me. Now stay put," A small smile tugged at the corner of Luz's lips. "You'll only get hurt." She met Amity's wide eyes and, lifting her chin with a finger, pressed a kiss to the witch's forehead. The sound that came from Amity's mouth was a cross between a squeak and a gasp. Luz smiled at her softly before grasping Rex's staff and spinning around, her eyes hardening to a glare at the monster beating back her friends. "Okay Rex, show me what you got."
The cobra hissed eagerly and Luz stepped forward, her hand fisting over the glyph papers she had pulled from her pocket. She side-stepped when the shoggoth tossed Willow and Guss back, dropping plant glyphs that sprouted thick beds of flowers to catch them. When Skara was thrown straight at her, Luz slapped a glyph to the wall and a curtain of vines snared the stunned Bard girl. She watched the shoggoth grab Boscha and slam her back against the wall, growling as it slowly leaned in to have a taste. Hearing Rex hiss, Luz gripped the staff and felt the magic pulse from the palisman into her arm and she held up before her.
"Hey! Ugly!"
Both Boscha and the shoggoth turned to look at her.
"Say cheese!"
Admonished by the words, Boscha caught the hint and shut her peepers as light erupted from Rex's mouth, blinding the shoggoth's many eyes and it released its hold on the witchling, stumbling back on its hind legs as it tried to swipe away the burning in its vision. Luz ran at the monster, tossing glyphs left and right, hammering it with fire, thorny vines, and ice, her eyes not leaving her target. Howling, the shoggoth dropped to all fours and shook its head in an attempt to clear away the dots it no doubt was currently blinded by, and snapped wildly at the air. Luz jumped back and grasped the staff in both hands, slamming the butt of it on the floor. Rex's mouth snapped open and the same stream of power from earlier shot out to ram the shoggoth in the face, a swirling mass of dark lavender dotted by what looked like tiny stars, hurling it down the tunnel.
This was no longer about escaping the shoggoth, it was about making sure it couldn't harm anyone ever again. Luz continued her advance on the monster, side-stepping its claws and teeth, hitting it with any glyph she could grab or spell Rex was able to summon. Somewhere at the back of her mind she realized she was no longer even thinking of what she was doing, just acting by pure instinct, like her fight against Belos. Only this time, it was not the freedom of her mentor on the line, it was the fact someone she cared about, who had no reason to care about her back but did, had sacrificed herself to protect Luz. There was more to what Amity had said to her in the tunnels, hidden truths that frightened her should they come to light. Ducking under the shoggoth's claws, Luz slapped a glyph to the floor and a block of ice rose up, vaulting the monster to the ceiling before breaking and leaving the creature to collapse. A kiss on the cheek, that was how Amity chose to end the conversation. Maybe it had been a hopeful act on Luz's part to kiss her back, but she felt it worth the risk. She wanted to know more about what Amity was telling her. She wanted to know how the youngest Blight really felt about her, and if, just if, she felt the same way about her too.
But right now, I've got a monster to slay.
Luz swung Rex in an underarching sweep that knocked the shoggoth's arms out from beneath it and whirled around, smacking it in the side with another funnel of the starry-magic, breaking a few pincer-fingers off its stomach in the process.
Shrieking, the shoggoth sailed down the darkness and slid to a halt by sinking its claws into the floor. Something about the way its back feet faltered made Luz frown and she tossed a light glyph into the air to hover above the shoggoth's head. She had not realized their fight had left the narrow tunnel and they now stood in a large room filled with steps weaving all about the space, leading to different open doorways, save for one that sat above the rest, a heavy wooden door shut tight.
The way out.
Luz looked back to the shoggoth to see it had stopped from falling down the darkened well the stairs wove around, and it was hunched in on itself, watching her, waiting for the next attack. It opened its mouth to let out a deep snarl and Luz held up Rex's staff. She could hear the sound of her friends approaching in the distance, which meant the shoggoth could too, and it wanted to finish what it started.
"That's not going to happen tonight, you Lovecraft freak!"
Those words must have been a deeper insult than she intended, because the shoggoth shot at her like it had been launched from a cannon, tackling Luz to the floor, knocking Rex from her hand. Gasping, Luz barely had time to jerk to the side as the shoggoth's teeth raked the floor where she had been, its screams tearing apart her eardrums. Shoving her fingers into her pocket, Luz yanked out the first glyph she could grab and slapped it against the side of the shoggoth's face. Flower petals and vines exploded from the slimy skin, not what she had in mind, but it was the distraction Luz needed and she rolled out from beneath the howling beast as it stumbled back on its hind legs, trying to rip out the flowers growing from its head. Scooping Rex up from the floor, Luz spun on her heel and, with every ounce of magic she hoped lay deep down inside her somewhere, fired. The stream of lavender magic crashed into the shoggoth's chest, lifting it up off the floor to hover over the expanse of stairs and void. Luz had expected gravity to be what would pull the creature down, but she was taken aback when the darkness itself rose up from the well and snared the shoggoth's heels, snapping it down into the nothingness, silencing it mid-howl. Then, everything was quiet. Luz felt her body shake and her legs gave out, her knees hitting the floor as her vision wavered and the room rose up around her. For a fleeting moment as Luz struggled to keep her eyes open, she saw something crawl up from the darkness and look at her with glowing gold and red eyes, and her vision went black.
A warm hand was on her cheek, stroking her face delicately with a thumb, the back of her head cradled in something too soft to be the floor. She felt fingers gently combing through her hair, careful to avoid the throbbing lump where she must have fallen over and hit her head. Her left cheek stung slightly, the skin felt raw and hot in the cool air, but the stroking fingers brushed over it like a balm. When Luz opened her eyes, Amity's upside-down face was the first thing to fill her vision. Never before had she been happier to see mint-green and amber.
"Hey, Amity."
"Luz!" Amity sighed with relief as she smiled down at the human. "Thank Titan you're awake! How did you beat the shoggoth?"
"Used some simple glyphs and a palisman." Wincing, Luz started to sit up, but Amity guided her down, resting her head on her lap. "Take it easy, I swear to Titan you're going to be the death of me."
Realizing she didn't have the strength to argue, Luz settled back down and chuckled. She could see Willow and Gus sitting not too far away, King curled up in the plant witch's lap. Luz could not see Skara or Boscha, but she heard their voices echoing from the tunnel. "What happened?"
"After you ran off," Amity rested her hands on her thighs. "Willow finished bandaging my shoulder and Artemis cast a minor healing spell that helped stop the bleeding." She turned so Luz could see the white fabric from her hoodie secured around the injury, the remains of her sleeve hanging about her arm. "It took us a little while to catch up with you, even after all the noise the shoggoth was making."
"You guys didn't get lost?" Luz realized with a start she couldn't remember the turns she had taken while fighting the shoggoth, only that she had been following where it went.
Amity shook her head. "No, it was one single tunnel, there were no turns or corners, or any other monsters to ambush us. By the time we found you, the shoggoth was gone and you were passed out." The sight of Luz collapsing in a heap on the cold stone floor had stopped Amity's heart and it was only when she heard the human's shallow breaths did she remember to take her own. Pulling her eyes away, Amity looked around the space. "Where is the shoggoth?"
"What?" Luz grunted to sit up. "It was pulled into the stairwell by the darkness." Her arms shook and Amity helped support her back to stay upright, but when Luz saw the room, she stopped.
There was no stairwell, no steps weaving around to a multitude of doors, no darkness rising up from the space, and no shoggoth. Just a flat stone floor with four tunnel entrances going out to the Pandor family secrets and one staircase leading up to a door.
"Luz?" Amity watched her with concern. "What's wrong?"
"The room changed." Luz turned around to face Amity. "When I was fighting the shoggoth, there were stairs all over the place, and this super spooky stairwell full of darkness. I used Rex's magic to knock the shoggoth over the side, but then these shadows came out and pulled it in. I think before I passed out I saw one that had glowing eyes." She looked at Amity and could see the witch studying her carefully and shoved her bangs back from her face. They were starting to get too long for her. "I'm not making this up, Amity! It really happened!"
Sighing, Amity stopped Luz's wrist and pulled her arm down. "I know Luz, this place is getting stranger by the minute. Honestly, I'm just happy that you're okay. I mean," she looked away to hide her blush. "We all are, we were worried about you when you started to fight that thing single-handedly. Please promise you won't do that again?" She felt a hand on her cheek and her breath hitched when Luz turned her head to meet her eyes.
"As long as you promise you won't take another shoggoth claw for me. Why do you think I went after it in the first place?" Her eyes reflected the orb of light hanging over them that Amity had cast earlier.
Swallowing, Amity could only stare back at the human, knowing they were not alone, but something about that did not bother her. Leaning into Luz's palm, Amity covered her hand with her own and smiled. "You really are my fearless champion, aren't you?"
Luz grinned. "You're worth it." She rubbed her thumb against Amity's cheek, feeling the comforting warmth radiate from the green-haired witch, and felt an ear flick when her fingers brushed it. How could such a powerful witch, who had everything she could ever need in life be so content with a plain, weirdo of a human being like her? Why did that thought send Luz's heart skipping like a rock over a pond? It was cold where they were, yet Luz had never been warmer.
"Hey, Amity?"
"Yes?"
"What you said to me earlier, before the shoggoth attacked, that there were things you wanted to tell me but you're afraid of how I'll react?" Luz watched the fear dart behind Amity's eyes. She hated seeing those warm eyes darken, but took a breath and continued. "I just want you to know that whenever you are ready to tell me, I'll be ready to listen. I know you said you're scared, but I don't want you to be. Whatever it is, I trust you and I know you'd never try to hurt me. Like I hope you know I'd never hurt you."
"Maybe you can start by not fighting solo against a shoggoth." Amity said, her voice barely above a whisper.
Luz giggled and nodded. "Okay. But you have to stop shoving me out of harm's way, cuz now I owe you for two things: the grudgby incident and the shoggoth attack." She pulled her hand from Amity's face and held it up. "Deal?"
Amity looked down at the hand and at Luz. Rolling her eyes, she sighed and closed her fingers around the human's in a firm grip. "Deal."
Bolstered by their words and the high from fighting the shoggoth, Luz leaned in closer to Amity, almost sending the witchling into hysterics with her grin. "Wanna seal it with a kiss? To keep up with the theme of the night." Her grin dropped when Amity toppled back, her eyes blank and face red as a tomato. "Amity? Amity!"
From across the room, King shook his head and snuggled deeper into Willow. "Whelp, looks like Luz finally killed Amity."
"What?" Willow and Gus said in unison, looking up to watch Luz prop Amity up and attempt to fan her awake. Coming to the realization of what really happened, Willow covered her mouth to keep from giggling while Gus just frowned.
"I don't get it, why would you say that?"
"Because now Eda owes me twenty snails."
"Hey, dingbats!"
They all looked up as Skara and Boscha exited the tunnel, the hatchet sitting on the three-eyed witch's shoulder.
"We getting out of here tonight or what?" Boscha side-glanced at Luz and Amity. "Ugh, can't you two go five minutes without giving each other conniptions?"
Sighing, Luz picked up Rex and used the staff for support as she slowly pulled Amity to her feet. They would continue their discussion later. A chirp came from the floor as Artemis trotted up to Amity and scaled her leg to settle around her shoulders, careful to avoid the bandaged wound. Grouped back together, Team Owlet shuffled to the single set of steps and up to the door.
"Ten snails this may be locked," Luz said, jiggling the door handle when it did not budge. "Yup, it's locked. Any ideas how to -"
Boscha plunged the hatchet into the thick wood over the handle and yanked it back. "What?" She asked when everyone stared at her. "You got a better idea?" No one objected so Boscha continued, quickly reducing the door to a pile of splinters as she cut around the handle. Finally, the team heard hinges creak and the door popped open.
Cautiously, Luz pushed it open and stuck her head through the frame. "Heeere's Luzy!"
"What?"
Luz sighed and shoved the damaged door all the way open. "Never mind." She had not taken two steps before something cold and hard poked her in the forehead, making her stumble back at the sound of glass rattling. "What the?"
Light orbs quickly drifted up to illuminate a room that Luz had to guess was an old wine cellar. Rows upon rows of bottles stacked in shelves lined the room, each one endcapped by a large wooden barrel. There was more than enough space for the entire group to spread out, but no one dared to separate further than a couple feet from each other. Over the shelves, Luz could see what looked like a viewing platform of sorts and just behind it was another door. She was starting to come to the conclusion this place was bigger than Blight Manor, or more than likely it was enchanted to have this many rooms. Feeling Amity close by, Luz reached out and took her hand, lacing their fingers together. Nothing made sense about this place anymore and Luz wanted some sort of comfort or reassurance everything would be okay. She only hoped Eda wasn't too worried for her, she felt bad enough for abandoning her potion run when she did. Had that really been just this afternoon?
A light flitted above and Luz stopped. She didn't recognize that hue of blue-green darting about the rows. None of her friends' magic were that color. Tightening her grip on Rex, Luz inched in the direction of the light as Amity waved to get everyone's attention. There was no point in trying to hush them, no one had dared to speak. The light shot into a row and Luz flattened her back against the side of the shelf. It was probably just a harmless happy haunt wandering around, yet Luz was not about to take any chances. Her nerves were tuned so tight, it felt like all of her senses were on overload. Which meant absolutely nothing could catch her off guard. She was ready for anything.
"Hello?"
Team Owlet screamed and sprang straight up into the air, feet pedaling as they scurried to hide behind whatever available cover they could find. Luz cannonballed into what was thankfully an empty wine barrel, sighing with relief, then realized Rex's head was sticking out the top. Yanking her hoodie over her head, Luz watched the strange hue of light drift to hover over her barrel.
It made a sound like it was clearing its throat. "Pardon me, but, why are you hiding in a barrel?" The voice was decidedly male, soft, and held a proper note to it. Very much the opposite from the Ghost Host's deep, unidentifiable tone. "I didn't mean to frighten you and your friends. Are you alright?"
Slowly, Luz stood up in the barrel and stared at the spirit orb with wide eyes. She had a feeling this one was not the ghost ball that had helped Willow and Boscha earlier, and it definitely was not the Ghost Host. She glanced over to see her friends peeping out from their hiding places, spotting Amity crouched behind another barrel, King clinging to her head like a beanie.
"I, um, we've been better. Had to escape a shoggoth and some zombies."
"Oh my, I was wondering why you came from the Pandor family crypt." The spirit orb bobbled back as Luz climbed out of the barrel. "They certainly had a flare for the dramatic and never liked entertaining the thought of others sneaking about their secrets. Very impressive of you all to have made it out. The Pandors made many a deal with the devils of our world, and some have been waiting a long time to collect."
Luz gulped, scooting around the spirit orb and back until she could feel her friends behind her. The spirit must have sensed their discomfort because it shivered in place and drifted away.
"Please, you need not be afraid of me, I assure you I will not cause you any harm. It's been such a long time since I have seen a fellow witch."
Amity gripped the back of Luz's torn shirt and stepped forward. Around her neck, Artemis was huddled as if to hide beneath her hair, the bushy white tail hanging down between her shoulder blades. "Who are you? The only ghost we've actually met here is the Ghost Host. Do you know where we can find them?"
"The Ghost Host?" The spirit orb slipped sideways in the air. "I'm afraid that they may not be the one you want to seek out, not after everything I'm sure you've witnessed. Quite frankly, I'm amazed you all are still of the living."
A soft hiss came from Rex's staff, but Luz ignored it. "Why do you say that?"
"If you came from the tunnels, then that means you must have entered through the mausoleum. There were traps laid there to stop intruders from stealing any valuables left for the dead, and the greatest one was a statue built by Astor himself of a powerful demon known as -"
"The Nowhere Demon?" Gus interjected.
The spirit flitted to the witch. "Yes, how did you know?"
Gus summoned the demon book and held it up for the spirit to see.
"Clever one, aren't you? Yes, the Nowhere Demon. When the curse was enacted, Astor made one final summoning ritual to call upon a creature that would maintain the spirits and keep them, and his mansion, in order, regardless of the curse being lifted. It was his last act of trying to assert control over his little dominion."
Rex was now hissing loudly, tugging Luz's arms as if attempting to get her attention. All she could do was stand there, processing the words that swarmed her thoughts. No, no, it couldn't be true. The Nowhere Demon and the Ghost Host? It didn't make sense!
"How do you know all this?" Amity's voice cut through the buzzing in Luz's head as she tightened her grip on her shirt. "Why come to us and tell us this now? Who are you to know this information?"
"Because I'm-"
A low groan rolled through the cellar that quickly turned into a gutteral snarl, shaking the bottles in the racks and making the stones in the floor tremble. The group watched as their shadows slid behind them and slowly climbed the wall. Luz stared open-mouthed as the shadows coalesced into the very familiar shape of a horned figure with glowing eyes of gold and red and the suggestion of wings unfurling from its back.
The kids screamed and ran from the towering shadow, darting around the shelves as more shade-like creatures appeared on the floor and walls, reaching for them with clawed fingers. Taking out a wad of light glyphs, Luz tugged at her hoodie and slapped her hands together, hurling the papers at every shadow that moved. The room shook from the explosion of magic and the shelves began to toppled on themselves, sending shards of glass everywhere. All the while, the massive silhouette watched without any sign of action.
"This way!" The spirit orb called as the door on the platform opened.
Luz sprinted up the steps, looking over her shoulder to see everyone close behind her, grabbing hold of Amity's hand when she held it out. The pursuing shadows let out howls like wind as the team shoved through the door and Willow slammed it shut.
"Follow me!"
They ran after the spirit orb through the halls of the mansion, not stopping until they came to a section of the house that appeared to be a residential wing, and stopped to collapse in an exhausted pile.
"Luz," Boscha wheezed. "The next time we come across a haunted mansion and a ghost asks us to break a curse, I'm using your head for a grudgby ball."
Luz could only wave dismissively at the threat and slumped against the wall, her lungs burning from having to run for her life, literally, for what felt like the hundredth time. She was really getting tired of this. "Amity? You alright?" She turned her head when the green-haired witch touched the bandage on her shoulder and winced.
"I'll be okay. Are you okay?"
"I'd ask for a kiss to make it better, but," Luz whispered, lightly bumping Amity's uninjured shoulder. "I don't want you to faint on me again."
Amity went pink in the face. "I-I did not faint! You just startled me! Besides, where is this coming from all of a sudden?" She squeaked when Luz leaned in, her teasing tone dropping.
"What? Afraid I'll give you a heart attack if I get too close?" Luz frowned at the near-petrified look she was getting and pulled back. "Sorry Amity, I was just trying to make you smile. When you kissed me back in the tunnels, I didn't know what to do. I've always thought of you as a friend,"
"That's why you kissed me back? Because you see me as a friend?"
Luz noted the cautious look Amity was giving her, like someone bracing for unfortunate news. She knew she would have to choose her next words very carefully. "Well, honestly, at first that's what I thought. You're the one who's got it made, I'm a quirky human dork who shouldn't even be here. But, for some reason, you always stick by my side."
Chuckling, Amity turned to face Luz completely and slipped her hand under the cat-eared hoodie, running a thumb over the scrape on Luz's cheek. "Yeah, because you're my dork." The tips of her ears burned at the word choice and she swallowed.
"But why?" Luz stared back at her. "Why do I feel like there's something more than friendship between us? What if," she scooted closer to Amity. "One of us thinks that we could be more?"
It was only from the act of sheer willpower Amity did not begin hyperventilating, and even still, she had to take a minute to compose herself. "If that's true, then they'd have to find a way to say it." She felt Luz take her hand and interlock their fingers.
"What if they can't find a way to say it?"
"Well then," Amity leaned closer. "Their actions will have to speak louder than their words."
Luz sighed and thought back to a pink slip of paper torn in half, one Amity had denied her from reading. Those actions right there spoke volumes to her, and it was not a message she liked hearing. "But, what if the person they like likes someone else?"
Amity's eyes widened and she released her hand from Luz's grip. "What do you mean?"
"Pardon me,"
The two girls pulled apart as the spirit orb floated up to them. "If you feel rested enough, I can lead you and your friends to somewhere where you'll be safe for the duration of the night."
"Actually," Luz glanced at Amity. "We were kinda in the middle of something,"
"Yes!" Amity jumped to her feet, startling Luz. "We'll be happy to have a secure hiding place."
"Well then, please, allow me to escort you." The spirit orb drifted on down the hallway and Team Owlet clambered to their feet to follow.
Luz jogged to catch up with Amity, but every time she tried to catch her eyes, the witch would look away. After the third or fourth failure to get her attention, Luz sighed and fell back in step with Willow.
"Luz? What's wrong?"
The human shook her head, her eyes on the dust-covered rug. They followed the spirit orb in silence as it led them down the hallway and to a set-up not too different from what Luz and Amity had seen in Emilia's wing, aside from a few minor differences. Instead of the silver and purple color pattern, this hall was a deep rusty-red and silver, black swirling through as the offset. When the door at the end of the hall opened, the team found themselves in a large bedroom with a four-poster bed, seating area, and a paper-covered desk. As the spirit drifted to the seating area, the fireplace burst to life, warming the room with a cozy feeling.
"Please make yourselves comfortable, you all clearly are exhausted." The spirit hovered over the seat of a well-worn armchair.
Hugging Rex to her chest, Luz shuffled over to the desk and glanced down at the papers. Just like Chiaro's, every square inch of the surface was covered in sheets with spell formulas and languages she could not even begin to understand. A book lay open in the center and, when she closed it to read the title, she saw it was an unabridged version of the Book of the Dead.
"I'm certain by now you all are wanting to know my identity in the matter of this curse and the mansion?" There was no verbal answer, but the silence was all the affirmation the spirit seemed to need. "I take it you are familiar with the story of the Pandor family curse and how it came to be?"
"Emilia Pandor was in love with a human servant," Amity said slowly. "But her parents had selected a fiance for her, a witch from a family of necromancers. He was a close friend to the human and accused the Pandors of murdering him."
"Yes indeed. And, do you know the name of the fiance?"
"Damien Pluto," Luz said, turning around slowly to stare at the spirit orb. "Is that you?"
The spirit orb bobbed slowly and began to brighten, its light taking the shape of a male witch figure sitting in the chair it hovered over. Arms and legs grew from the ghost ball, dressed in a pair of what looked like fine slacks and a silk shirt, a tight-fighting waistcoat over it, and a cravat tucked over the chest. The witch's face was handsome, not arrogantly so, just enough to leave the viewer wondering what thoughts were going through his mind. His hair, a very pale tone, had been combed to the side, and his eyes scanned the surprised group before settling on Luz and Amity.
"Yes, I am Damien Pluto. It truly is a pleasure to meet you all."
So yeah...those of you guessing Damien was the Ghost Host? Please don't hate me! We're inching along towards that Lumity confession, just not quite there...
Hope you all enjoyed and I'll see you in the next chapter!