"Hey, Half-a-witch!". Titan, help me. Even when it was heavily muffled by the door, Boscha's voice still gave me a headache.
I turned to the bed at the other end of the room, ready to tell Amity that Boscha wanted a rematch. But the sight in front of me convinced me to keep my mouth shut. The witchling looked ghastly and tired. She was practically limp as she leaned on Luz. Her girlfriend was delicately stroking her now disheveled lavender hair, humming a calming tune to the ashen teen.
It was more than clear that Amity was really hurting from that wound on her side, not to mention she was still really hungry. It was best to just let the poor thing rest.
No. I was just gonna have to deal with the pink hair triclops instead.
I opened the door and sourly muttered, "Hello, Boscha".
"It's about time" she huffed back. "Though, I actually would've preferred you not answering the door at all".
Then why the hell would she… No. No. Try to keep calm. Deep breaths, Willow. Deep breaths.
"Is there something you want, Boscha?".
"That I want, titan no. But the other girls wanted me to talk to you". Surprisingly, Boscha didn't sound as pissy as she usually did. Perhaps that was her trying to be amiable. Of course, she was failing miserably but an attempt was an attempt I suppose.
"About what?" I question while letting my scowl drop.
"Well, I and the rest of the grudby team are banding together to find the killer and help everyone stay alive of course. Turns out, the rest of the girls seemed impressed by how you handled the savagescent situation. And… I would be lying if I said you didn't surprise me too". Oh… wow. I was kinda shocked. I didn't even know Boscha was able to complement anyone else but herself.
"Thank you, Boscha. I–".
"Save your breath. I want to get this over as soon as possible" Boscha continued begrudgingly. "Anyway, while discussing our plan of attack, Skara had pointed out that you and Amity are both very strong witches, even without your magic, and we need all the muscle we can get. It was also pointed out that the human knows how to survive without magic better than any of us. And Gus… is Gus".
"She's right," Gus hollered from his spot on the corner of the bed. "I am Gus,".
"Right. Whatever. Basically, we're inviting you to a meeting in room 118. It's in five minutes. Come if you want. Or don't, I don't care".
Before I could even respond, Boscha made her leave. I just sighed quietly while I shut the door then walked up to mine and Gus's shared bed. It was very odd that my younger friend was allowed to stay in the same room as three girls, but it wasn't very awkward. We'd had plenty of sleep overs at the owl house in which Gus and I shared a makeshift bed. As long as we slept head to feet, it was fine.
"Well, what do you guys think? Should we go to this meeting?" I asked, exasperated.
Luz carefully nudged Amity, prompting her to sit up. She did so quickly but not without a quiet whimper.
"I think Boscha's gonna act like a huge jerk" the girl rasped, her voice hoarse from exhaustion. I deadpanned at the sick witchling. Boscha being irritable? I could never have guessed.
"But I know that the other girls will back us up if things go awry," my pallid friend added after she shifted to face me.
She had a point. Even if Boscha acted super disgruntled, and she was going to, the others would probably be friendlier. They fought Boscha over inviting us after all.
"I think you and Luz should go, Willow. I can stay here with Amity" Gus suggested, instantly regretting it when he noticed Amity glaring at him.
"Woah. Woah. Woah. Who says I'm not going?" she challenged.
"Amity".
"No, Luz. I'm not gonna just let you and Willow deal with Boscha alone, not at a time like this".
"Amity. We literally just talked about taking better care of yourself".
"I'm going, Luz. No matter how bad I feel, I'm not gonna be left out of this conversation".
"Amity Vita Blight. ¿Quieres que me dé la chancla?" (Do you want me to get the flip flop?) Luz wasn't shouting, far from it, yet this was the scariest Luz ever sounded. It even made Amity shrink a little.
"You're hurt and hungry, Agridulce. You need to stay here and rest until you're at least a little better" the human pleaded.
"B… but…Luz,".
Before either of them could say anymore, I quickly stepped in.
"What if Amity brings a blanket and leans on your shoulder. She can rest and we'll let her know if we start discussing something she'll want to jump into".
Amity gave Luz the best puppy dog eyes she could muster. She ended up just staring at Luz like she had been impaled, but Luz understood the gesture.
"That… sounds like it'll work," Luz said with a convinced smile. "So, should we get going, then?".
"We shouldn't leave miss grudby star waiting for much longer" Gus said with a small roll of his eyes.
Luz jumped out of bed at that, then scooped Amity into her arms. The witch tried to protest, to tell the human she was able to walk, but all she did was sputter out some nonsense. She was tense for a second before she just gave up and relaxed. She let out the happiest annoyed sigh I'd ever heard from her. Her cheeks were the shade of apple blood as were the tips of her ears.
Well, there was a reason her sibling called her smitten mittens.
Luz grabbed the blanket off the bed and followed me and Gus out the door. It was a short walk to room 118, though it felt like an eternity. I don't think any of us were ready for this meeting. Who knew if we would be able to get a word in. For all we knew, Boscha's word could've been the only one anyone would listen to.
"Ah! You guys came" a silver haired bard student cheered from the doorway. "Come on in!".
Without saying a word in response, Gus and I did what she said. We then moved to the side to let Luz carry Amity in. Both of the beds had been taken up by Boscha and her crew but the witches on the bed closest to us, a pale witch with a green bob named Amileia, a brown curly-haired witch with glasses named Cat, and a freckled witch with long brown hair named Bo, all moved onto the floor. It was hard not to notice that Amity was in bad shape, and I just thanked the Titan that she was receiving sympathy from her former friends.
Luz thanked them all, causing Boscha to let out a scoff. Once she was placed onto the bed in a comfortable position, Amity was lovingly swaddled in the blanket her girlfriend brought.
"Wow, Blight. You look like griffin shit" Boscha joked. Her brow rose in fake intrigue.
"Yeah" Luz cooed as she sat next to her girlfriend. She was in a trance, her eyes refusing to leave the witchling. "And she's still prettier than you".
With the way she said it, the human meant it as a compliment to Amity. But everyone else didn't see it that way. The room was filled with laughs and "oos'' as well as Boscha's angry stuttering. Even Amity, who was blushing of course, chuckled.
"Luz" she giggled, both impressed and amused. "That was… surprisingly romantic. How did you make an insult romantic?". You could practically hear Amity purring. Or, who knows? She might've actually been purring. Maybe she hadn't completely recovered from the savagescent.
I sat on the floor next to Gus after we all finished laughing. Boscha had composed herself quickly and was now ready to take control of… I mean lead the meeting. You could still tell from the tone of her voice that she wasn't gonna forget Luz's comment. But she could get her vengeance on her classmate another time.
"Does anyone else have something to say before we start".
"Yeah. I'm gonna take a small nap. I mean, I don't really need sleep, but Luz threatened me with a flip flop so" Amity, who was now kind of out of it, kidded. "Just…wake me up if you need me for anything, m'kay".
She started out sounding as confident as she could be in her state but, by the time she was done talking, her voice was just a mumble. Everyone was just kinda quiet for a moment after that before Boscha drawled, "Okay, disregarding… Whatever the hell she just said, let's talk about our game plan. After today's experience, I think we need to focus on finding weapons. We'll need them if we want to raid the kitchen and they'll definitely come in handy when we force the hotel owner to take the barrier down.
Problem is all the good stuff is in the kitchen and the kitchen's being guarded by some old hag. Any ideas on where else to check, human?".
"Well, assuming that there are no guns in the hotel, the most dangerous things we can find would probably be hardware stuff and gardening tools".
I perked up at that. How could anything used to garden be dangerous. Wouldn't that risk hurting the plants, in turn risk hurting yourself?
"Gardening tools? Are those dangerous in the human realm?" Amelia asked. Apparently, the other plant track student had the same thought I did.
"Very! Thats why they're always used as murder weapons in scary movies" Luz explained. "Plants don't try to kill us like they do here, but we have to plant them without magic. So, we have things like shovels, scythe, and hoes to help dig into the dirt and garden shears and axes to help trim them. Those are all very sharp".
"What about the "chainsaw". Those are so sharp they can cut through trees, right? Do you think we'll find those with the garden supplies?" Gus chipped in. He was beaming. His gray blue eyes were as bright as a fire. He finally could put his human knowledge to good use.
"They should have one. This is supposed to be a human killer themed hotel, and nothing screams stereotypical horror movie killer like chainsaws" she answered nonchalantly. She seemed really sure, like the logic made one hundred-percent sense.
"But wouldn't all the gardening supplies be outside? We're all locked in here" the darker skinned witch that greeted us stated. You could see worry flash in her life-filled gray eyes. Luz looked even more worried. Her mouth hung open for a moment as she searched for what to say.
"There could be some stuff in a shed outside, but I didn't see one when we all flew in through. And custodians keep a lot of the bigger tools and stuff in the basement anyways. It would be the perfect place to look if basements weren't serial killer playgrounds".
I was afraid Luz would bring up the basement. We all were. Even if it wasn't all decrepit and practically abandoned, like the second and third floor were rumored to be, basements were usually the last place you wanted to go if you were being stalked by a killer.
"Anywhere else you'd suggest, human?" Boscha quickly asked as if Luz didn't even mention the lower level of the building. Luz didn't get the chance to answer. The witch lying next to her began to stir slightly.
"No. Don't throw the knives… I'll cut you" Amity mindlessly muttered threateningly before moaning, "Ed, no! Seriously! ...None of us should have knives, ever".
Nobody in the room was surprised to hear Amity sleep talking, nor the fact that she was yelling at someone. She didn't do it extremely often but every one of us had heard the Blight sleep talk one time or another. I had even heard her, and Luz have an argument while we were sleeping over at the owl house. Granted, everything the two said had nothing to do with each other. Luz was trying to get Amity to admit that cookies were better than pie and Amity was trying to get Luz to explain what a lemon-drop was.
Despite it not being the first sleepy tirade, we all had heard, it still cracked everyone in the room up. Boscha even snickered fondly a couple times as if memories of past sleeper overs rushed back into her mind.
Of course, the Blight was yelling at her siblings. She did tell us it was something she could do in her sleep. And we had all seen a similar scene to this playout in the waking world. The twins did something stupid as a joke and Amity ended up switching to what her siblings called "murder mode".
I turned to the witchling sitting next to me, which so happened to be Cat, and giggled, "I thought keeping Edric from getting himself killed was Emira's job". I didn't expect her, or anyone else, to notice my comment but then everyone of Boscha's followers began to laugh more. It was surprising but also really pleasant.
"Well. Everyone needs a vacation," Skara laughed.
"Man, a vacation sounds really great right now. The small town near the knee is always cool to visit" Amelia joined in with an excited smile. You could see her hazel eyes light up in interest as she thought about her idea.
"With all of the rentable cabins? Love that place" Skara added.
"We should all go once we get back home. It would be a nice way to recover from this trip. And it's felt like forever since we've gone together". Bo's suggestion was followed by a thrilled, "who's in?" by Skara.
"Yeah".
"Definitely"
"Of course,".
"What about you, guys? Willow?".
My breath hitched at Cat's question. She was asking me if I wanted to go on a holiday? With them? What happened to not associating with late bloomers? What happened to me being one of the Luz-ers? What happened to Half-a-Witch Willow?
I mean, I didn't know how to answer. The question was simple but the circumstances around it weren't. The witches who mercilessly bullied me for around a decade were now asking me to join them on a trip to the knee.
To be fair, ever since the grudgby match between me and the leader of their clique, they had been a lot friendlier. In fact, they always had been friendly when they weren't hanging around one another, or, more specifically, around Boscha. In plant class, Amelia was always willing to lend a hand when I needed it and was quick with a complement when she was impressed with a presentation I aced. Bo, Cat, and Skara were the same in our shared dueling class. And Bo would often shoot me and Gus, her former H.A.S president, a friendly "how are you?" in the hallways.
They all seemed like pretty cool witches so why were they so quick to swarm when Boscha or Amity decided to insult me? That was the thing. They were never the ones to start the teasing. They would always join in afterwards. I always chalked it up to them being followers. They wouldn't start something, only follow Boscha's lead. And I truly think that's the case.
But I don't think they're doing it because they feared Boscha. Unlike Amity, they did seem to genuinely enjoy the cruel jokes the pink triclops told. Though, now that I thought about it, it didn't appear like they enjoyed them in the same way Boscha did. The others didn't seem to seethe in malice when they were laughing. Boscha had a different look in her eyes than they did, one that took in every drop of hurt I felt with satisfaction. Her posse cared more about what their leader said than watching me crumble. It was like they were more laughing with Boscha than they were at me.
Although maybe this sudden kindness was the result of the grudgby game. They all seemed to have a lot of fun playing against me, Luz, and Amity. So much fun, in fact, that they completely ignored Boscha's victory gloating. And they continued to ignore all the snide comments the bully made after that day. Were they finally starting to realize that Boscha was a gigantic hellhound? Were the rest of Boscha's clique following in Amity's footsteps?
"Ghost". Speaking of Amity, the witch began sleep talking before I got the chance to reply. "There you are… beautiful palisman. Did you find bugs for Willow?". Amity paused. I guessed it was so she could inspect what her cat brought to her.
"No. No… Ghost. Those are crickets." she giggled. "Willow wants spiders". As she murmured the word "spiders", her eyes shot open as wide as they could. They shone brilliantly, turning almost the entire room a light a recognizable shade of magenta, signifying that Oracle magic was at play.
The end of a lock of her purple hair started to glow too. It was shorter than the rest, obviously the end having been cut off. That lock of hair was probably back at Blight Manor soaking in one of its resident's magic. A lot of things pointed to this being her mother, Odalia's, doing. The witch did have a history of sneaking into her daughter's, and other children's, rooms in the middle of the night and snipping a lock of their hair. She would then use her power to draw premonitions from it, the spirits relaying them inside of the oracle's head and out of the chosen person's mouth.
Amity's voice bounced off of the hotel room walls as she said the first prophecy. Her voice was a bit fuller than usual.
"Willow sits on a throne of webs. Her subjects will drown in the dark".
My ear flicked while I sat up a bit. I wasn't expecting to hear my name. I would sit on "a throne of webs"? And my subjects would drown. In the situation we were in, that could have been either figurative or literal.
Before I had a chance to think about what the first augury meant any more, Amity was moving onto the second one.
"Light shall become a blazing flame. The heat shall make old souls anew".
That one was about Luz. I was sure of it. Every time Luz told us about an augury she received in her oracle class, she was always referred to as light. That made a lot of sense. Not only was she always so bright and sunshiny, but her name also meant light in the strange human language she sometimes spoke.
The aforementioned human gaped in excitement when she heard the word "light", obviously excited that she was involved in a really cool sounding prophecy. Her eyes were as bright as a million stars. She couldn't help but whisper a, "woah".
"The Nocedas will gather under sharpened talons. Stitches made of blood shall bind two realms together".
I unknowingly tilted my head a little, my focus completely zoomed onto one word. "Nocedas", as in more than one of them? Huh?
There was only one person in the entire demon realm that was a Noceda and that was Luz. And Luz was already gathered under "sharpened talons" which obviously referred to the owl lady herself, Eda Clawthorne.
Luz seemed to have caught the plural use of Noceda too. Her excitement morphed into hope, tears beginning to form in her life filled eyes. That made it sound like she would see her family again sooner than we all expected.
"A promise will be shattered. To Willow, one life is more valuable than the other".
The world froze. The only thing that moved was my rising dismay. That couldn't be right! The spirits must've been mistaken!
That prediction was referring to the promise we made to Gus! It had to have been! So, did that mean I'd sacrifice myself for someone I cared about more than I cared about myself?
As much as I tried to convince myself, I didn't think it meant that. It said that one life mattered more than the other, not that one life mattered more than mine. This premonition implied I would end up getting someone else killed.
That shook me more than the idea of me sacrificing myself. Of course, I didn't want to die but the thought of someone else dying because of me was painful to say the least. And all because one of my friend's lives mattered more than the others to me.
That wasn't true! Gus, Amity, and Luz all meant the world to me, albeit in different ways. I owed them all for every step forward I had taken in the last couple months, because they helped me be confident enough to take them. The thought of choosing who got to live, the thought of deciding who was worth throwing away to save the people I "cared about more", I couldn't even imagine that without feeling sick to my stomach.
I leaned on Gus's side. I needed to lie down. My head was spinning too fast for me, my thoughts all swept into a typhoon of worry. I looked up at Gus and saw he was feeling about the same. He was completely ashen and frozen in disbelief. Of course, he was. Our promise not to put one life over the other was going to be broken. One of his friends was going to die.
One of my friends was going to die! And I was going to have to choose which one!
"Blight and Bane will be melded into an amalgamation of beauty. The feeling so familiar yet entirely new".
I sighed out my worries and tried to ground myself. At least this one sounded happy which slightly relieved me. This meant Amity would be alright, right? I wasn't quite sure what this bane of Amity's was but an amalgamation of beauty sounded pleasant.
Honestly, Amity was the first name to come to my mind when I heard that someone mattered less to me. Not because it was true but because of our painful past.
When we were younger the youngest Blight and I were nearly inseparable. But nearly inseparable still meant we could be separated. Since their daughter was apparently too good to hang out with a late bloomer like myself, Amity's parents made her cut all ties with me on the day she turned seven.
Amity hid her parents' part in ruining our friendship in fear of what they would do to me if I found out. I only found out about it a few months before this field trip, when Amity accidentally damaged my memories. So, for years afterwards, I thought my magical weakness was the reason I lost my best friend.
Her new "better friends" mocked my lack of magical talent relentlessly (it didn't help that I was stuck in the abomination track when the plant track was my true calling). And, because she had to stay popular miss perfect, she would often join in. To her credit, she was able to shoo the others away whenever she joined in, but it didn't matter. Her words hurt me more than Boscha ever could.
My old best friend who, for the longest time, I thought left me because my magic developed much slower than everyone else's, treated me like I was… worthless. That was something that I could never forget.
I knew she cared about me all that time, and when she finally started to hang out with me and the others after grom, she really helped me find a confidence that I never really knew was inside of me. But my wounds weren't fully healed, and they could've easily reopened. To hear that that probably wouldn't happen on this trip, or at least it would end with Amity's passing, was relieving to say the least.
And, I wasn't sure, perhaps I was being too optimistic, but it sounded like Luz would make it out ok too. After all, one of the prophecies was that light would become a flame. That sounded like Luz was going to come out of this mess even stronger than before. Though, flame could've also meant she would die in a blaze of glory.
Then, there was Gus. Gus… he didn't even receive a prophecy. There was nothing hinting towards the possibility of him having a future. That could've meant that the witchling would relatively stay out of trouble but there was much more pointing towards me breaking my promise to Gus by letting him die.
Titan! The thought hurt worse than anyone could imagine. We were all young, but Gus had more life left in him then our whole class combined! So that meant he couldn't die!
But, yet he could.
After finishing the last premonition, Amity's eyes turned back to their usual golden color. She squinted and blinked a few times before scanning the room. All eyes were looking at her which made her ears go flat and a sheepish smile appeared.
"Uh… hey. Did I miss anything interesting?" she rasped, sleep still in her voice.
"Someone used oracle magic on you. You kept saying these weird prophecies like how my family would gather under talons, you would become an amalgamation, whatever that is, and you said that Willow would break her promise!" Luz responded at a million words per minute.
Amity looked like she was about to vomit, her pupils much smaller than a hole left by any needle. You could tell by the way her chest tensed that her breath hitched and became shallow.
"What?! No! Willow!". Amity looked at me in complete desperation. I returned her gaping stare with a desperate pleading one.
"I'm sorry, Amity. That is what you said" I informed her softly.
"But–". Amity was cut off by a gigantic groan. We all turned to Boscha who had her arms crossed. She glowered at the now awake witch, her fingers tapping against her arm twice every second.
"We're here to talk about a game plan not your own stupid personal problems" she spat.
No one argued with her despite everyone wanting to talk about what just happened. She was right after all. We needed to focus. "Now, round ears. You never answered my question. Can we find any good weapons anywhere else besides the basement?".
Luz didn't answer. She didn't want to. She still seemed shaken up by the prophecies Amity revealed. Not to mention that Boscha wasn't gonna like her answer. We all knew that the basement was our best bet.
"We should be fine with what's in the basement" I pressed. I stayed calm on the outside but was shaking on the inside.
"Um, yeah. It's fine if you don't mind being murdered" Boscha snapped back.
"It's a risk we need to take. We'll also be murdered if we just sit around and do nothing. At least in the basement we'll have a fighting chance". Bo, Cat, Amelia and Skara all murmured in agreement, despite Boscha's growing temper.
"Willow's right, guys. We're the strongest witches in the hotel. Out of everyone here, we've got the best chance of surviving the basement" Skara jumped in. Her silver eyes were lit a blaze with enthusiasm.
"Skara! Did you seriously just side with ha–".
"I'm sure if we stick together and keep both eyes open, we will get through it just fine. A whole group of witches can outmaneuver one, right?" Cat added, completely ignoring Boscha. The infuriated triclops opened her mouth to yell at the curly haired brunette but Amelia jumped in.
"You should lead the mission, Willow".
"The fu–". Boscha's angry yowl was stopped by Amity. Her former "friend" was wearing the slyest shit-eating grin I'd ever seen, one that said, "take that, hellhound".
"Well, you're definitely not going to do it, what with you being too scared and all. So why not let Willow take charge?" she pointed out sardonically. Boscha looked like she was going to explode, making Amity even smugger.
I could only stammer. I was truly shocked. They wanted me to lead them? They thought I was skilled enough to lead what was considered a highly dangerous mission?
My cheeks flushed a little out of embarrassment. If you had told me a couple of years ago that I would be receiving this much appreciation, from Boscha's gang nonetheless, I would've called you nuts.
"You want me to lead the mission down to the basement? Are you guys sure?" I squeaked.
"I can't believe what I–". Once again, Boscha was ignored.
"Of course. We'll need someone clever to help us avoid any traps and you seem to be a natural born leader" Cat praised, prompting hoots and hollers in agreement. Luz joined in with the cheering too, followed by Gus. Amity was smiling at me. She would've cheered for me too, but she still wasn't fully awake yet.
"Willow's the best mom friend I know! With her at the front, we're sure to bring back as many weapons as we can carry!" Luz sang. I was broken out of my embarrassment by that. I appreciated the words but…
"You're not going, Luz". Luz pouted and let out a small, "why not".
"I was thinking you and Gus could go to the second and third floors and look for any signs of the killer's whereabouts. You two are the best at sneaking".
"Damn straight" Gus affirmed while Luz grinned proudly. Her smile then shrunk into a confused expression.
"What about Amity?".
Amity glared at that. "Yeah. What about Amity?" she repeated.
"I was thinking you could tell the other students what's going on. Make sure they're ready to start searching for the killer. Of course, after you eat that is" I stated.
Bo uh'ed worriedly. Her brown eyes gawked at Amity then widened in realization.
"When was the last time Amity ate?".
Before Amity could start ranting about how she was fine, I answered, "yesterday afternoon". This caused some gasps and a few quiet, "what"s from everyone in the room.
"No wonder she's so sick," Skara murmured in shock before grabbing her bag. The other grudgby players did the same, digging into them and yanking out different snacks. Protein bars, bags of fried fairy puffs, even snorsetail stalks, were tossed towards Amity.
The witch stayed still for a moment. She silently asked for permission to eat. When her peers gave her some encouraging smiles, she ripped open the bag of fried fairy puffs and bit into one. Once the first bit of food hit her empty stomach, she began to eat faster and faster.
"Wow, Amity," her girlfriend smiled. "You're acting like you haven't eaten in weeks".
"Sorry, Luz, but not even your awesome girlfriend can survive more than a few days without food," Cat laughed.
"All witches use a tiny amount of magic to keep their bodies stable. Even witches who can't use magic due to deformities still have a bile sack that their organs pull from. Food not only gives us energy to produce magic bile but also often prevents magic deficiency." Bo explained, knowing that the human would be confused. "Since Amity has a lot of wounds that need to heal, she's taking a lot of magic from her bile sack. Yet, she hasn't been eating enough food to help her refill it. That's why she's so sick".
"But… she's survived being drained of magic before… when the basilisk attacked" Luz argued hesitantly. She was obviously dreading being told that Amity would have died if Luz hadn't done something about the school's basilisk break in.
"A witch can survive a little while after being completely drained of magic but not for long. The only way to refill the bile sack when it's that drained is to have bile pumped into you. If you don't then your body will start to shut down within hours" Cat answered, no longer chuckling. It was clear that the human truly didn't understand how important food was to a witch.
Luz loudly gasped, "Amity!" and turned towards the witchling besides her. She looked mortified.
"What?". Amity gulped down the bite she had in her mouth. She gave her girlfriend a scared look, silently preparing for another scolding from her. "How long can humans go without food?" she asked, the slightest bit defensive.
"Like, a few weeks! Oh my god, Amity! Why didn't you tell me you were starving to death?!".
Amity went to reply when Boscha stopped her silent pouting and snapped, "If you guys are done discussing our plans for tomorrow, then get the hell out".
With that, I got up and stretched. Gus followed suit. While waiting for Amity to gather the rest of her food, I went over our plans for the next day with everyone in the room one more time. The girls gave us excited goodbyes once we all made sure we understood them, all of the witches in good spirits aside from Boscha.
Then, I headed out the door, much more proud and confident then I did going in. I actually stole control from Boscha! The control didn't mean much to me but kicking Boscha off her pedestal by taking charge was exhilarating!
I was practically skipping back to our room, ready to get some much-needed sleep. Amity agreed to stay up and keep watch. She had a pretty good nap during the meeting and the food made her feel a lot better if evident by her trying to catch the fried fairy puffs Luz was throwing into the air.
That and staying up late was also something Amity was just used to. She would stay awake until a few hours before school almost every night so she could study, work on extra credit, or menacingly sulk in her windowsill.
Amity would try to stay up until I got up at around five o'clock, or at least until she got way too tired. I was used to getting up early to tend to all my plants before school, so I didn't mind sharing lookout duty.
Truthfully, my friend didn't really need to stay up at all. I was positive that I wasn't going to get any sleep. Tomorrow was going to be exciting to say the least.
But a quick glance at Gus washed all of that excitement away. He looked just as ecstatic as everyone did, which was… kind of heart wrenching. With the combination of Amity's prophecy about his promise and the fact that he was actually going on a more dangerous mission than I was, with him only having one other person in his party, I couldn't help but worry that I'd be saying goodbye to him soon.
It made it all the more painful when Gus wished his roommates goodnight with a sliver of hope in the tone of his voice, a kind of confidence that said we had nothing to worry about.