"You… chose to stay there?"

Camila's voice echoes in a loop in her mind, and Luz doesn't know how to turn it off. Flashes from the last time she saw her mother haunt her memories, and she couldn't remember the last time she had seen her mother so heartbroken.

All because of her. Camila has always been so strong, has always been her solid ground, and now, because of her, Camila is hurting.

Luz doesn't know how to live with herself for all the pain she's caused.

"Hey, kiddo, you okay?" Eda asks her, a compassionate smirk on her lips as she walks Luz back towards the Owl House with an arm around her shoulder. After all this time, Luz has learned how to read Eda, how to see through the many façades the Owl Lady had built around herself, and she knows — Eda worries.

Eda worries about her.

Looking down on her feet as she kicks dirt. Eda's arms around her are comforting, even King's mere presence next to her is comforting. She doesn't know how to live without them anymore, and that — that hurts.

"I'm fine," Luz lies, and she wants so badly to convince herself of her own words.

"Were you trying to live out some witch fantasy? Did you… Did you hate living with me that much?"

Her eyes water and she closes them quickly in a desperate attempt of keeping the tears in. Eda must have noticed her because her grasp is now stronger.

"You know, it's okay to feel sad," Eda explains, walking the human to the couch, where she sits defeated. "She's your mother. It's okay to miss her."

"I do miss her," Luz admits, welcoming King as he coddles against her. "Eda? Have you ever missed someone to the point you thought you would explode without them?"

Eda's easy smile drops, and she looks away. Luz presses her lips together, fighting the sting on her eyes — she made Eda sad, too.

Forcing herself out of her daze, Eda snorts. "That's part of being alive, kid."

Luz wonders who Eda thought of, but doesn't push it.

"I miss my dad," King confesses, "Is it possible to miss something you've never had?"

Luz gently pats his head. She doesn't know the answer to that.

"Yes," Eda says, and her sad face is there again. "I miss the life I could have had with them if I hadn't let the curse push away all those that ever cared for me. All those that I ever — loved."

Luz sniffs, thinking about her mother once again. She had pushed her mother away while in the Human Realm and now she didn't have her anymore. But, whenever she thinks of her life back in Connecticut, a twitch strikes across her chest; she has never felt comfortable there, she has never felt like she belonged.

"You'll come home, promise you'll stay here! I didn't mean to push you away! I swear things will be different!"

"Mom, it's not you! It never was!"

Luz wraps her arms around herself.

Sure, her mother had always sufficed, but until how long would that be enough?

"Eda," she calls for her mentor in a small voice. "Do you regret the choices you've made?"

"Ha! So many of them," Eda tries to act aloof. When she looks at Luz again, she realizes her erratic behavior had only upset the young girl more, so she humbles her attitude, "Yeah. I do, kid. I regret all the choices I willingly made that would consciously break my heart."

Luz bites down on her lips. "How do you live with them, Eda? How do you live with the pain?"

"I don't think I've got a choice not to," Eda tells her. "Besides — look at where I am now."

"A cursed witch with no powers nor status?" King blatantly throws at her face.

"Funny, but no," Eda denounces. "I've got you, and you," she glances at Luz, then at King, "If it weren't for all the choices I made, I wouldn't have found you."

Luz wants to smile at that, but she doesn't have the strength to. "We make you happy?"

Eda ruffles her hair. "Happier than I've ever been in my life."

Luz thought that the small declaration of love would make her happy, would make her relieved that, if she chose to stay, she would always have a family to unconditionally love her — it doesn't. It only makes everything worse.

"Eda," she cries her name once again, "What will happen to you if—when I go back to the Human Realm?"

Eda's smirk is back on her face, but, this time, it's a sad one. "Then I'll tug you deep into my heart and I'll learn to let you go."

King clings closer to Luz; he, as well, doesn't want to let her go. Luz squeezes his little paw as she rests against Eda, knowing that Eda won't resist the physical affection. Not like she used to.

Eda lays her head over Luz's, and Luz closes her eyes again.

"Promise me, Luz! Please!"

"Okay, mom. I promise."

As she looks at her choices, as she gazes upon the pledges she's made, she knows she'll have to make a decision. To either keep her word to go back home to her mother or to break her promise and stay in the Boiling Isles with her Owl mom, her weirdly adorable brother, and her awesome girlfriend. To either break her mother's heart or to break her new family's hearts.

In the end, it doesn't matter. Not really.

For either way she chooses, she cannot win.