Amity couldn't believe that she was stuck in the Boiling Isles again. She had been so close to returning home! She could have walked through the portal at any time prior to its destruction! But, no, of course she just had to be at that damn party, which had distracted Hooty enough so that whoever destroyed the portal could do so without being noticed. Amity's money on the responsible party had been Odalia; she hadn't had a convincing alibi at the time of the portal's destruction, and she had the clearest motive, namely keeping her children trapped in the Isles so she could emotionally manipulate them. Of course, she had no proof of this, so she hadn't said anything, but she was pretty sure she was right.
She certainly was sure it had not been Luz who had destroyed the portal, despite Willow's ridiculous accusations to the contrary. Even if Luz hadn't had the most rock solid alibi in the history of existence, Amity would never have believed that her girlfriend was responsible for such a thing. Okay, yeah, it couldn't be denied that every so often, she had her doubts, specifically pertaining to that vision she had had where she accused Luz of deliberately stranding her in the isles. But those doubts were ridiculous, Amity knew. Luz was trustworthy. It was just obvious.
The next day at school, Bump had, to no one's surprise, announced that this year's Grom monarch was Avery. Everyone seemed to think that it was a great honor, though Amity couldn't help but think that it seemed like a horrible fate. She couldn't imagine her facing down Grom. She had no clue what her worst fear would even be, and had no desire to find out.
"So is there anything we can do to help you get ready for Grom?" Luz asked Avery at lunch. "I don't mean to brag, but I've got some experience in facing down Grom myself."
Gus blinked. "You do? Man, that just makes you even cooler!" Wait a second, how did Gus not know if Luz had faced Grom before? Maybe she meant that she had faced a similar fear monster?
Avery gave Luz an appreciative smile. "Thanks, Luz," they said, "but I've got it under control." They took a deep breath, looking profoundly embarrassed. "I've got…um, cynophobia."
"You have rabies?!" Luz shouted, attracting quite a few confused stares from other people in the lunchroom.
"No, that's hydrophobia," Avery said, rolling their eyes. "Cynophobia is fear of dogs."
Amity blinked. "You hate dogs?"
Avery looked supremely ticked off. "I don't hate dogs; I fear dogs. There's a difference. See, this is why I don't tell anyone. Everyone looks at me like I'm a monster when I do. It's not my fault that anytime I see a dog, all my fight or flight instincts activate at once! It's not something I chose!"
"You get along well with Nadia," Luz observed, referring to a werewolf peer of Avery's in the potions track.
"Yeah, in her witch form," Avery said. "But if she turned into a wolf, I'd scream my head off and run for the hills." This honestly seemed very logical given that werewolves in the Isles turned into ravening, bloodthirsty beasts under the light of the full moon. "This is not about reason, Luz; it's about sheer, primal fear. That's why Viney is helping me do some desensitization therapy. God willing, it'll help."
Luz gave them a cheerful smile. "Well, if there's anything I can do to help, I'm there! I could morph into a dog if you think it'll help!"
"I appreciate the thought a lot, actually, Luz, but I think I'm pretty good with my current plan. Don't worry, friends! Grom is going to be no match for me. I'm gonna win this thing, and then…" They blinked as they seemed to remember something. "Yeah, I guess that's not happening." Luz flushed scarlet for some reason, and then the bell screamed, and Amity completely forgot about inquiring further into the subject.
Grom was not just a ritualistic battle. It was also a dance, and Amity was determined to ask Luz to be her date. Emma and Edmond had gone to ridiculous lengths to outdo each other in terms of who could come up with the flashiest Gromposals. While Viney and Hunter had appreciated it, Amity decided that she'd just do something simple and modest. So she'd gotten a sweet but lowkey card from a shop in the Bonesborough market and written a message asking Luz to Grom in it. That way, if Amity's words failed her (as they did with annoying frequency around Luz), the card would do the trick.
She had invited Luz to her apartment so she could give the card to her in person, but before she could get back, she was distracted by a display in the window of a bookstore. It was a copy of the first book of the Good Witch Azura series. But not just any copy; this one had been signed by the author herself! Luz probably had a copy of the book already, but did she have a signed copy? Almost certainly not.
It had cost Amity far too many snails (she was sure that the proprietors must have been cheating her), but eventually, she'd haggled down to a price she could afford, and then the book was hers! With a smile on her face and a spring in her step, Amity flung open the door of her apartment and found Luz lying on the ground, unconscious.
Wait, she found what?
Amity blinked a couple of times to make sure that she wasn't seeing anything, but she wasn't. Vines were tightening around Luz's throat and her face was turning a rather alarming shade of purple. Amity had gotten to her just in time. "WHAT IN GOD'S NAME ARE YOU DOING?!" she shouted at the plant witch who was in the process of murdering Amity's girlfriend.
Willow made a spell circle and a flower appeared in front of Amity and sprayed spores into her face. All of her limbs abruptly stopped working and she fell to the ground with a clatter. She could still breathe and speak, but she was completely paralyzed from the neck down. "I'm sorry about this, Amity," Willow said, sounding genuinely sorry. "But this changeling is too much of a threat to let live."
Amity's mind worked overtime trying to find a way she could get out of her predicament. What sort of argument could persuade a delusional Willow that she should let Luz live? If only she was better at thinking under pressure, she lamented. Marco from the Animorphs series would probably have come up with a plan that would have gotten Luz released already and gotten Willow to reimburse Amity for the snails she had spent to boot. Wait a second…Animorphs. That was it!
"What if she's possessed?!" Amity called out desperately. Much to Amity's relief, the vines around Luz's throat loosened. "Willow, in my world, we have stories about these things called Yeerks. They get into your brain and assume total control over your actions."
Willow's eyes narrowed. "You think she's got one of these…Yeerks in her brain?"
"No, no, those are just stories," Amity said hurriedly. And thank God for that, she added in her head. "But there are a lot of myths about possession in my world, and since arriving here, it's been my experience that most human myths have some basis in something from the Boiling Isles. There could be creatures here that possess people, right? If one of those things got their hands on Luz, that'd explain her behavior. But that'd mean she's still in there! If you kill her, you'll kill the real Luz!"
Willow looked like she was buying it, because she completely removed the vines from Luz's throat. Luz's skin returned to its normal color. Then she did a spell circle and Amity could move again. Amity couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief, but she knew that she was going to have to tread extremely carefully. "You really think she's been possessed?"
Amity shrugged, trying to look casual. "What do I know? I thought I was a wizard until I came here. At this point, nothing would surprise me anymore."
Amity was not exactly the world's most socially adept person. She had bought herself a little time, but she wasn't exactly sure what Willow would do to exorcise whatever was possessing Luz (a theory that, despite her words, Amity did not believe for an instant), only that whatever it was, it probably would be very bad. She needed help, and she knew just the person who could provide it. "What if we brought Boscha into this?" Amity suggested. "She's smart, right? Three heads are better than two."
Willow looked confused. "She has three eyes, not three heads."
"No, it's a human expression. It means – you know what, never mind. Let me call her on my scroll, okay? You can watch me so you know I'm not going to contact anyone else." Willow thought about it for a while, and then nodded. True to her word, Amity just called Boscha, and then put her on speakerphone. "Hi, Boscha. Um, I'm here with Willow in my apartment. We sort of need you to get here, like, now. Also, you're on speaker, so…"
"Are you all right, Willow?" Boscha said urgently. "Are you hurt?"
"No, I'm fine," Willow said. "I took down Luz, but Amity's thinking that she might be possessed by something, and, I don't know, she might have a point. Can you get down here so we can figure it out?"
Boscha was silent for a few moments. "Sure. But I don't know how helpful I'll be. I'm an abominations major; this sounds more like oracle stuff. Maybe Edmond can help?"
Willow looked like mentioning Edmond's name had triggered something in her. "Yeah, what about that oracle book that Odalia gave him? Maybe there's something in there that would help?" That was a little odd now that Amity thought of it. Why would Edmond even have mentioned the book to her? But he must have; how else would she have learned about it?
In any event, every moment Amity was searching through the book was a moment that Willow was not killing Luz, so Amity was only too happy to search through the book. "That sounds like a great idea," Amity said. "Thanks, Boscha. Can you get here quickly…please?"
Boscha seemed to understand the urgency in her tone, because she hung up without another second's thought. Amity was sure that Boscha would be able to talk Willow down, or at least provide enough of a distraction for Amity to escape with Luz and get help. In the meantime, Amity went into Edmond's bedroom in search of the book. She found it under the bed, like what he did with everything he thought he was hiding from her. Her brother was a genius in some ways, and in other ways, quite the opposite.
"Here we are," Amity said and sat down on the couch. Luz was still unconscious, and Amity didn't know how long that would last. She hoped that Luz wouldn't wake up anytime soon; she was a factor that Amity did not need right now. She flipped through the book and read each page carefully. She had a very good excuse for reading it slowly in this case, as the verbiage being used was extremely arcane, probably analogous to English in Shakespearean times. She felt like she only understood 40 to 60 percent of what was being said, although she did have to concede that part of that was just because she was unfamiliar with oracle jargon.
"Wait, go back!" Willow shouted, and Amity turned the page back. "This is exactly what we need! This spell will allow us to enter Luz's mind and commune with her innermost self. It'll allow us to fight the monster directly!" Well, that would be something of a problem, given the fact that there was no monster possessing Luz. But maybe that evidence would finally be incontrovertible enough to convince Willow? It didn't seem likely.
Under ordinary circumstances, there would be no way that Amity would ever enter anyone's mind without their consent, and even then, the whole notion would have made her supremely uncomfortable. She could not, for example, envision ever entering Willow's mind that way. But there was no other option. Amity simply could not defeat Willow in combat, and if she didn't execute this plan, Willow would kill Luz. She just hoped that she wouldn't see anything too embarrassing, and that her girlfriend would be able to forgive her afterwards. Amity could easily understand, unfortunately, if she could not.
"Let's do it!" Willow said, and then before Amity could have second thoughts, she started chanting the words of the spell, in a language that Amity didn't recognize, and then they were somewhere else entirely.
That somewhere else turned out to be a library, but not one that existed in reality. It appeared to be some sort of mental construct, with bookshelves extending infinitely high and as far as the eye could see. It was beautiful, and Amity could feel a sense of love towards this place. Whatever this library was to Luz, it clearly meant so much to her. Amity could feel it in her bones.
"WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU DOING HERE?!" a voice screamed out, and Amity jumped up in fright. Standing in front of her, charging in her direction, was a pissed off human girl a few years older than Luz. She had slightly darker skin than Luz and was, at a guess, eighteen. She had long brown hair tied back in a ponytail, and was wearing a red beanie, a purple and white striped shirt, black jeans, and black boots. This girl could easily have passed for Luz's older sister. So what was she doing in Luz's mind?
"Are you the monster that's been possessing Luz?" Willow demanded.
The girl ignored her and charged forward so that she was standing in front of Amity. Now that she was closer, Amity was embarrassed to note that the girl was ridiculously attractive. Physically speaking, she was honestly hotter than Luz. "I'm Lucia, and I guess you'd call me her id?" Amity was relieved; now she didn't have to feel guilty about being attracted to her since she was just a part of her girlfriend's subconscious.
Amity put her hands up placatingly. "Okay, look, Lucia, we're here to help. Just show Willow that Luz is not a threat, and we'll be able to leave in peace."
Lucia pointed a finger in Amity's face. "That is not happening," she hissed. Her voice was deeper and rougher than Luz's. "You are trespassing, and I want you out of my mind NOW!" Lucia screamed that last word at the top of her lungs, at a volume would have almost certainly literally deafened Amity if she possessed a physical body with ears to deafen.
Amity took a few deep breaths. "I want out too, but that's not possible. If you don't help us, Willow is going to kill you. Her. I have no clue how it works. How does it work?"
Lucia actually cracked a smile extremely briefly at this. "I'm her, but I'm not. I'm her worst impulses, but I'm also the ones she's needed to survive and prosper. She doesn't like me, but she needs me. I have to tell her the hard truths, and here's one of them: We'd rather be dead than have you stay here." Amity was alarmed to realize that Lucia meant that entirely. It wasn't just hyperbole. "Here's another truth. I love you. But you don't love me, and you never will if you don't leave right now."
Willow summoned the same flower that she was said to have used to kill Hart and it sprayed spores in Lucia's face to absolutely no effect whatsoever. "That's not going to work," Lucia said in a sing song tone. "You know, I have an amazing imagination. That's not a good thing in school. Or day to day life. But in here? It's the ultimate weapon. You can't beat me here."
"And yet you can't kick us out either," Amity deduced. "Or you'd have done it already. Perhaps a part of you knows that we're meant to be here, to help Luz."
Lucia looked profoundly skeptical. "Look, I know you're telling the truth about wanting to help her. But it's still so hard to believe that anyone would ever want to help me. All those years of suspicion and paranoia…it's a hard habit to break." Amity had no idea what she was talking about, but she nodded encouragingly.
Luz was in love with her, so Amity would use that. "Come on, Lucia," Amity said, putting a bit of seductiveness into her voice. Just a bit. Not too much. Just enough to get her to reconsider. "Isn't there something you can do to prove to Willow that you're who you say you are?"
Lucia actually looked like she was considering her question. "I guess I could tell her…but not if you're here, Amity. If you leave Willow and I alone, then I think I'll be able to persuade her."
Willow reached out and grabbed Lucia by the throat. Her hand dissolved as if it was a sand castle exposed to large amounts of water and then when Willow took a step back, it reformed. "Again, physical force ain't gonna do it here, Willow," Lucia said, sounding bored.
"I am not going to be alone with you," Willow snarled. "I'm not going to let you brainwash me! Or to leave Amity alone so she can call my dads and have me carted off to the Conformatorium!"
Ugh. So much for doing this the easy way. Amity prayed fervently that Luz would forgive her for what she was about to do. She leaned forward and she kissed Lucia on the mouth with more passion than she'd ever kissed anyone. Certainly more passion than she'd ever used to Luz. "More," Lucia breathed. "Give me more. Make me yours."
"I'll do that," Amity lied, "if you help us."
Lucia stomped her foot on the ground in frustration. It was, Amity could not help but notice, the action of a child, not an older teenager. "Don't do this to me, Amity! What you're asking will cause you nothing but pain. It'll break you! It'll break us both."
"Lucia, what's behind that door?" Willow asked calmly, and she pointed to a door that looked precisely like the portal door, which Amity hadn't noticed, ensconced between two of the infinite bookshelves. Maybe it hadn't been there until Amity had kissed Lucia.
Lucia let out a horribly unconvincing laugh. "Door? What door? I don't know anything about a door!" How did someone like Luz who had been raised by a con artist have an id that was such an incredibly bad liar? "There's no door! Pay no attention to the door behind the curtain!" She snapped her fingers and a very thin curtain covered the portal door. It was transparently obvious that the portal door was still behind it.
Amity turned to face Willow. "Willow…can't you see that Luz is just…being herself? I think you're just projecting your issues onto her. You felt so guilty about lying to your friends that you started believing that Luz was the liar, so you didn't have to feel the guilt."
"If that's so, then why is she hiding things from us?" Willow demanded. A legitimate enough point, Amity had to concede, but there were dozens of reasons that she could think of that Lucia was trying to hide things behind the portal door. For all she knew, her private sexual fantasies could be behind there; that was certainly not something that Amity would want to see. The point was, this was Luz's mind. If she wanted to keep something private, she was well within her rights to do so.
"Willow," Amity begun, and then Willow punched her in the face with shocking force. Powers, Willow was strong. She must have been working out. The punch was enough to send her staggering backwards. Willow used her magic to form a makeshift sword with a normal looking hilt but a blade comprised of a thorn. She swung it at Lucia, who conjured a purple bladed lightsaber and blocked the blow, causing the thorn to split in two.
Willow created vines which wrapped around Lucia and squeezed tightly, but while Luz would have suffocated in the physical realm, Lucia was laughing. Now that Amity thought of it, it sounded like she was being tickled. "I told you," she said, between laughter, "it's not going to work."
Willow, figuring out that she could use imagination to her advantage too, conjured a green bladed lightsaber and swung it at Lucia. There was none of the gracefulness that characterized the fighting in the Star Wars movies. Willow just hacked away at Lucia's defense with abandon. Amity watched them fight with awe; she'd never thought she'd actually get to see an actual lightsaber duel before, even if it was just happening technically inside Luz's imagination.
Apparently, Lucia's swordsmanship wasn't exactly up to par, because she kept losing ground and then Willow turned off her lightsaber, and for a second, Lucia thought she'd given up, and in that second, Willow turned on her lightsaber and decapitated Lucia with a triumphant shout.
Amity let out a scream. She knew it was cliched, but could Luz even survive without her id? Amity had no idea! She hurried over to Lucia. The good news was that Lucia was alive. The bad news was that her efforts to reattach her head seemed to be in vain. "Oh, God," she whispered. "Amity, please help?" Amity moved Lucia's head next to her body and the two magically fused together.
She didn't have to be psychic to realize what was going on inside Lucia's head. Lucia had come to the realization that Willow could beat her eventually. It would not be easy, and it would certainly be a rather spectacular battle, but it was still possible. "Lucia, I swear to you, whatever is behind that door, I will never speak a word of again once we're back in the physical realm. I vow it to you, mi novia asombrosa."
Lucia shook her head. "That doesn't matter. What's behind that door will end our relationship forever. It will. It will make you hate me, and I'd rather be dead than have that happen. At least you'd still be happy in that case."
"That's not true," Amity said, seizing on that sentence forcefully. "I'd be absolutely devastated if anything happened to you. I don't know how I'd recover."
There were tears running down Lucia's face. "You don't know what you're asking. You're asking me to make everything I've done since I've gotten here meaningless." Since she got here? What did that even mean? "And for what? Just so you can save my life? I got news for you. I'm not sure I'm going to want to go on living if you step behind that door."
Amity helped Lucia to her feet and kissed her, a much more gentle kiss than the steamy one she'd given Lucia earlier. "Dulzura, it's going to be okay. I know you might be embarrassed, but whatever's in there, I can handle, I promise."
"No, you can't," Lucia whispered. She appeared to come to a decision. "But I could never say no to you. Any version of you." Again with the strange, cryptic comments. What was she getting at? Lucia clapped her hands. "All right, kiddos, Lucia Noceda's magical mystery tour has begun!" she said in a faux-jaunty tone. "Our specials today include unendurable heartbreak, the crushing of all my dreams, and the worst decision I've ever made!" Amity couldn't help but laugh, even though what Lucia was saying wasn't funny.
Lucia opened the portal door and Willow and Amity followed her through it. The two of them were standing in the classroom of a school in the Human Realm…Amity's elementary school. A human version of Luz, no older than six, was eagerly chatting to a girl who looked incredibly disgusted with her, but Luz wasn't getting the message. "Luz Noceda to the principal's office," a voice over the intercom said. Luz didn't look surprised in the slightest, just resigned to her fate.
Amity found herself moving not of her own accord out of the classroom and into Principal Edgerton's office. She didn't have too many memories of Principal Edgerton positive or negative; they hadn't interacted very much. "Sweetie, please take a seat," Edgerton said, his voice trembling. He looked very upset about something. Luz just braced herself.
"Luz, I just got a phone call from your mami," Edgerton went on, his voice exceptionally gentle. "Your father was in an accident…and he didn't make it. Luz, your father is dead."
"No!" Luz screamed. "You're lying! My papi is fine! I just spoke to him on the phone on Tuesday…he said he was proud of me…I told him what a good girl I was being for mami."
Edgerton sighed. He looked like he'd rather be anywhere else. "That's good, Luz. Your mami's gonna be here soon, okay? And you're gonna keep being a good girl for her, aren't you?"
Luz stuck her head out stubbornly. "You're a darn liar! Papi's alive! It's a prank! A lie!"
Lucia moved her hand in a sharp gesture and the memory faded away. "Spoiler alert: It wasn't," she said in a tone that almost sounded amused, but with an undercurrent of despair behind it.
Willow looked bewildered. "I don't understand. You were human in that memory. That's not possible."
Lucia winked at her. "Hey, you don't know me, Sauce." Amity recognized the Spanish word for willow that Lucia was using as a nickname. "I've sometimes believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast. Now how's about you stop interrupting me while I'm telling my life story, okay?"
She clapped her hands and a flurry of memories accosted Amity at a fast speed. She wasn't able to get many details from them, but it didn't matter, because the memories were pretty much the same each time: Luz getting bullied in ways that ranged from minor annoyances to really reprehensible things that were said and done to her. Even some of the teachers joined in sometimes. The environment changed from Luz's elementary school to her middle school, but the people and the cruelty didn't.
Lucia suddenly snapped her fingers and a memory coalesced into existence. They were in a hallway of Luz's middle school. "Ooh, now this one isn't strictly necessary to telling my story, but you know what, Amity? I'm still kind of pissed at you for putting me in this situation, so you're going to see it anyway."
The bell rang (it was strange hearing that after having finally getting used to having the bell scream at a ridiculously high volume) and students emerged from their classes. Luz ran over to her locker and opened it, moving extremely quickly. She removed a bouquet of roses and, steeling herself, walked over to none other than Clara MacKinnon.
Luz gave Clara a charming smile, took a deep breath, and blurted out, practically in one breath, "Clara, would you go with me to the spring fling?! Because I really think we have a connection and you're so smart and nice and pretty, and I really like you! I really do, and I think you like me too, and –"
Clara knocked the roses out of Luz's hands and then smacked her across the face hard enough to give her a bruise. "Get this through your freak Luzer skull: I'm not a dyke. If you even speak to me again, I'll kill you." Amity let out a loud gasp. Who was this person? She sure as hell wasn't like the Clara MacKinnon that Amity knew…or was she?
"Luzer dyke!" the other kids in the hallway started chanting, and Luz broke into tears and ran away. It was almost certainly the worst moment of her life, Amity knew. But how could any of this even be? There was no logical way that Luz could have experienced any of this. Was this just an elaborate façade that Lucia was constructing to obscure her real secret? No. That didn't make any sense; there was too much pain associated with this memory for Lucia to be faking it.
"Yeah, that's your best friend there, Amity," Lucia said. "Really dodged a bullet there! I guess she likes Vee cause xe can shapeshift into a man – doesn't have to feel guilty about liking girls that way!"
This was taking things too far. "You're wrong about Clara," Amity said firmly. "The Clara I know would never do something like that."
"Don't be so sure," Lucia spat. "But, yeah, we're getting away from things. Anyway, you can see here that life sucked. Everything sucked for me, for Luz, whatever. We're the same when all is said and done. This was my life. Other than my mami, not a single person loved me, and I didn't believe that anyone ever could." A wistful smile formed on her face. "Or so I thought."
Lucia showed them memories next of how she'd, if only subconsciously, decided to make Clara's life miserable in the wake of that incident. She wanted freakishness? Then she'd bombard Clara with freakishness, make her sorry she ever ruined Luz's life. Luz tried out for cheerleading and freaked out Clara with her ability to turn her eyelids inside out. She auditioned for Romeo and Juliet as Romeo (Clara was gunning for Juliet) and gave a very…enthusiastic audition involving fake blood and fake innards. (She didn't get the part, needless to say.) She made a griffon model that was actually anatomically correct, but without the context (which Luz hadn't possessed at the time), just looked disgusting, and brought it into the science class she shared with Clara.
Finally, she brought in live snakes to a book report in the English class that she also shared with Clara. That proved to be the last straw for Principal Hal (whom Amity was not fond of and was pretty sure was a homophobe), who sent her to the office and called Luz's mother.
And then the door to the office opened and Camila Serrano stepped in. Amity blinked repeatedly, unsure if she was truly seeing what she was seeing, but there was no denying Camila's existence. Why the hell was Lucia showing her a memory where the two of them were sisters? That was so messed up!
Luz tried to explain her actions as if they were completely normal. For all Amity knew, that's precisely what they were to her. Hal and Camila were not impressed. Camila threatened Luz with a summer spent in Reality Check Camp. A chill went down Amity's spine upon seeing the brochure. The place had conversion camp written all over it. Did Camila not see that?
The snake in Luz's hand bit Hal (Amity couldn't help but smirk at the sight) and then the memory transitioned to one of Luz about to go to Reality Check Camp. But instead of getting on the bus, she followed Eda's palisman to the shack where the portal door had been located and went into the Boiling Isles.
"I don't know what I would have become if I hadn't found the door," Lucia said, her voice quiet and solemn. "What I do know is that Reality Check Camp would never have helped me. I never would have found out what I needed help for if I hadn't come to the Isles. They saved me. Being here saved me."
Amity watched the memories play of Luz's first days in the Isles. She watched as she saved Eda from the Conformatorium, as she got tricked by Adegast into believing that she was the Chosen One. And then she watched as Luz stumbled upon Willow freaking out about her abomination being a failure…only to watch as a version of herself started bullying Willow! She had dyed green hair, but it was definitely Amity. But not Amity Serrano, Amity realized in a flash of insight. She was looking at Amity Blight. It was horrible to watch. Amity couldn't envision herself being a bully at all, let alone being so cruel to a girl who had clearly done nothing to her.
"This is what you didn't want me to see?" Amity asked Lucia.
Lucia shook her head. "This is just the tip of the iceberg. There's lots more to come."
Amity watched as an eerily similar sequence of events to how Amity had first entered Hexside played out in before her very eyes. The only differences were that Luz played Amity's part and Amity herself played Boscha's part. Then things diverged. Bump did try to dissect Luz this time, and Willow saved the day with a powerful plant spell.
And then, as if assembling a jigsaw puzzle inside her head, all the pieces slotted into place. The reason why Luz had been acting so strangely lately wasn't because she was a changeling – it was because she had somehow merged with a parallel universe version of her! Luz must have been experimenting with her oracle magic to see the future, only to get the future and past memories of her parallel self.
That was why she wasn't remembering things right – she had two conflicting sets of memories! That was why she'd dumped Avery in favor of Amity; she had memories of being in love with both of them and decided to pick Amity. That was why she kept on calling Camila mami, because she had memories of a universe where that was her relationship towards her. It was how she knew of future events with exceptional detail, because she had literally seen how they would go down in her parallel self's life.
And no wonder Luz would have assumed that Amity would hate her if she found out. She'd have thought that Luz didn't really love her, that she was just acting on the feelings she'd inherited from her human self. But that wasn't the case at all, Amity knew. Luz loved her. She knew it like she knew her own name.
"Lucia," Amity began, but Lucia put up a hand. "Uh-uh," she said harshly. "We are saving all questions for the end."
Lucia showed them memories of how her relationship with Blight had transformed. Blight had realized that Luz didn't have hostile intentions, though the road had been bumpy. Thanks to the interference of Emma and Edmond – no, Emira and Edric – they'd nearly gotten sewed up in a book. But the two of them became friends, and by the time Luz started going to Hexside for real, Blight had developed a transparent crush on Luz. Well, it was obvious from Amity's perspective. Luz probably didn't notice at all.
And then came Grom, where Blight tried to ask Luz, but chickened out, almost leading to Grom defeating them. But Luz had come to the rescue in the most romantic yet oblivious way possible. They had danced their way to defeating Grom and had a wonderful evening together. Amity watched with great amusement as more memories showed her other self being a flustered mess around Luz. (Oh, wow, sports? Seriously?) And yet Luz didn't seem to be aware at all!
But then the final battle against Belos arrived, and Amity watched with horror as a stray spell cut Blight in half. Luz seemed to realize right then and there that she was in love with Blight. But it was too late, she thought. Much to Amity's relief, she turned out to be wrong – Blight's supposed death turned out to be just an illusion created by Belos in order to hurt Luz. He soon learned what a bad idea this was when the real Blight tackled Belos and stabbed him in the shoulder with a knife comprised of compressed abomination goo.
"STAY AWAY FROM MY LUZ!" Blight screamed, and Luz's cheeks flushed scarlet as she looked at her now crush with pure awe in her expression.
Belos easily shrugged off the blow, but the distraction proved to be enough for Lilith to get in and start dueling him, which ultimately ended in his death. In the wake of the liberation of the Isles, Luz struggled to figure out how to articulate her feelings, even as the time for her to return home from "summer camp" drew to a close. Eventually, she conspired with Hooty to get Blight into a tunnel of love, where Luz confessed her feelings and the two of them entered into a relationship. Amity couldn't help but let out a cheer at how her other self had snagged the most awesome girlfriend in existence.
"Luz…" Willow said softly, and Amity's eyes widened. She had nearly forgotten Willow was there. "I don't understand. How can any of this be? You're not human. None of this is real."
"I think I figured it out, actually," Amity admitted, and then she explained her theory.
Lucia nodded frantically as soon as she was done. "Yep! You've got it in one. Phew! I guess I was worried for no reason, am I right?" She let out a nervous laugh.
No. There was more to it. There were things she was leaving out. The utter certainty that Amity would hate her, the belief that she would rather die than have Amity learn her story…it just didn't track. "Lucia, this isn't the whole story, is it?"
"It can be the whole story," Lucia said pleadingly. "It can! You don't have to walk through that door!" She pointed to the portal door, which still stood before them, still hiding a secret that Lucia desperately didn't want them to know. "Willow, Amity, just…leave things be. You've got what you wanted. I'm not a changeling. I'm not possessed. I'm just me…and someone else."
Willow sighed. "It's up to you, Amity," she said. "She's right. I'm persuaded that she doesn't have hostile intentions."
Amity didn't know why she did what she did next. Logic dictated that she shouldn't have done it. Her girlfriend had told her secret to her, and Amity had no further business being in her mind, not that she should have been there in the first place. It would be tough, and Amity would need some time to adjust, but as Luz had told Blight before Grom, they could fix it together. They couldn't do it, Amity knew in her bones, if she walked through that door.
And knowing all this, she walked through it anyway, to a gut wrenching cry of pure and utter anguish from Lucia.
She saw Blight being cursed by Queen Zoe of the Seelie fae, being put into an enchanted sleep for all eternity. She saw how Luz, believing that she was Blight's true love, bargained to prove it to Zoe by getting another version of Blight to fall in love. And then with horror, she watched as Luz the human took over her half-human self's life, pushed her joyfriend to the curve, and systematically manipulated Amity into falling in love with her. Everything she'd said to Amity, everything she'd done, every gesture of love, it had all been a lie!
Willow had been right all along.
Luz opened her eyes and stared in horror at the betrayed, hateful face of Amity Serrano. Lucia had placed them both in the most serene environment she could think of, right next to the Grom tree, to soften the blow, but it was to no avail. Luz was still in charge in her brain, even if Lucia thought of herself as a separate entity. She had seen everything that Amity had seen, and knew what was coming. And she knew that it would hurt. More than anything.
"This is just like it was in my vision," Amity whispered.
"I can explain," Luz said frantically. "Just please don't hate me. I was so close! Just a couple more days…I could have saved her."
"Don't hate you?!" Amity screamed at her. "How the hell can I not hate you, Luz?! You lied to me! This whole damn time, every word you've told me, every word you've told everyone was a lie! You betrayed me! You stranded me here! And for what?! So you could lure me into some sick incestuous affair?!"
Luz's eyes widened in horror. Just the very thought wanted to make her hurl. "It's not incest! We don't share any blood, we weren't raised by the same people! If you're not her, then your mami isn't mine either! And I didn't strand you here either! I don't know who did, but it wasn't me!"
Amity rolled her eyes. "Oh, well, I suppose everything is peachy, then! I can't believe this is happening. I…I never should have trusted you!"
"No, no, no," Luz begged. "I'll lose her. I'll lose her, and it'll be your fault!" Amity flinched. "No, I didn't mean that. It's not your fault. Can't you find it in your heart to love me? We're meant to be! We're true love!"
Amity slapped her across the face. "Don't you say that to me. There's no such thing as true love, and you're an idiot for believing her lies, Luz Noceda. We could have stopped her together, if you had just trusted me. But you chose to lie, and now you're reaping the rewards."
"Please, Amity!" Luz said, tears flowing down her face. "I'll be trapped here! I'll do anything you want."
"The only thing I want you to do," Amity hissed at her, her voice colder than the Arctic, "is to stay the fuck away from me. Willow, get me out of here! DO IT NOW!"
Luz was abruptly back in the real world with absolutely no transition whatsoever, staring into the betrayed eyes of her now ex-girlfriend. She reached out and grabbed Amity's arm. "DON'T TOUCH ME!" Amity screamed, and then she burst into tears. She ran out of the house without another word, crying hysterically as she went. Willow and Boscha (who must have arrived while Lucia was showing Amity the memories) tried to comfort her with calming gestures and empty promises, and they swore that everything would be okay.
But they were wrong.
She had lost.
It was over.