Eda had been feeling guilty for not realizing her daughter had been replaced by an imposter ever since she found out, but that guilt intensified the moment her daughter returned to her own body, because it was so obvious now. She could just tell by looking into her eyes. Her eyes that were filled with…horror? Wait, what?

Eda's confusion only deepened when Luz let out a horrifying shriek of pain and started convulsing in Eduardo's arms. Holy shit! Was this some last trick of Zoe's? Was she going to get her daughter back only to lose her? Eda quickly put a healing potion down Luz's throat. It seemed to stop the convulsing, but Luz's breath was still shaky and she looked absolutely terrified.

"Mija, deep breaths," Eduardo instructed. "Breathe with me." After he led her through a few breathing exercises, he looked confident enough that Luz was healthy once more to let her go. Luz looked unsteady on her feet for a few seconds, and for a moment, Eda was worried she was going to fall. But she didn't.

"I'm not dead," she whispered. "I'm not dead! Oh, this is awesome!" She paused. "Unless I am dead, and I'm in heaven." She looked around her surroundings and then spotted Boscha and Willow holding hands, and her eyes widened in horror. "Or in hell! Oh my Titan, I'm in hell! I've been a bad girl and I'm being punished for my sins, and I don't even know what they are!"

Eduardo was struggling to hold back a laugh, Eda could tell. "No, Luz, you're quite alive. The whole Boscha and Willow thing is…a long story. I think I'll let Willow tell it to you. She owes you that much, in my opinion." He squeezed her hand. "Why would you assume you're dead?"

"Because I was dying of radiation poisoning," Luz explained, and Eduardo let out a loud gasp of pure shock. His face was a mask of utter horror. Eda didn't know what this radiation poisoning was, but by the sounds of it, it was phenomenally bad. "Not fun, people. I do not recommend it. You can't imagine the pain."

Avery stepped over to her, a huge smile on their face. "I missed you so much, mi búho." They kissed her on the lips, a kiss that Eda let drag on perhaps a bit too long before clearing her throat pointedly. Eh, the two lovebirds deserved it, in her opinion. "It's been absolutely horrible without you."

"I feel the same way," Luz said, a positively adoring look on her face. It was a relief, really. Eda had always felt that Avery and Luz were soulmates and having them not be sickeningly in love with each other had felt like it went against the natural order of the universe. "It was so tough having to spend time with your counterpart and not being able to kiss their brains out."

"Plenty of time for that later, mi amor," Avery purred. "We've got lost time to make up for. But what we discussed…" They cleared their throat. "I'm not ready yet." They looked proud of themself for keeping their comment vague so that no one knew what they were talking about. Unfortunately for Avery, Eda, no stranger to such activities herself as a teenager, knew exactly what they were talking about. But fortunately for them, she was determined to keep such comments to herself. It was none of her business, provided neither one of them chose to become pregnant.

Luz gave them a rueful smile. "Yeah, me neither. It's okay. Plenty of time, right?" She turned to face Amity. "So you're the famous Amity Blight."

Amity shook her hand, looking quite awkward. "Amity Serrano, actually. And, uh, yeah, it's a pleasure to meet you. Also, really weird, given that I was dating your other self for a while there."

Luz nodded. "Yeah, things are gonna be pretty awkward, but when aren't they? I've heard so many amazing things about your counterpart – did you know she invented this awesome new bard spell that allows you to let another person experience your own memories?" Eda gulped. She could only imagine the kind of things such a spell could be used for in the wrong hands.

"That is so awesome!" Amity enthused.

Eda stepped over to Luz. "So you missed out on a lot, kiddo. The Isles are free now. Belos is dead. We're going to be putting in a democracy. It was an awesome final battle. Shame you missed it. Now you mind telling us exactly how you ended up dying of radiation poisoning, whatever that is?"

Luz bit her lip. "Yeah. I don't want to talk about that right now. It was horrible. Absolutely horrible. Mami, you can't imagine how horrible it is. I need some time to process it all."

"But aside from that, how was your time in Luz's universe?" Eduardo asked her.

Luz shrugged. "It wasn't too bad. Camila was really nice. She made me go to high school, though." She pantomimed gagging. "That wasn't anything like it was in the movies. It was so incredibly boring! I couldn't use any magic. I had to learn math. Ugh. Still beats radiation poisoning though."

Camila walked over to her and shook Luz's hand. "It's a pleasure to meet you, Luz. I'm Camila Serrano. Amity, Edmond, and Emma are my children. Adopted," she hurriedly added. "You and Amity don't share any blood."

"Good," Luz muttered. "That'd be…weird. Weirder, anyway. Uh, I'm kind of tired. Is it safe to go back to the Owl House?"

"Should be," Eda said. "And if it's not, we'll make it safe. Come on, owlet. We'll get you some rest. The rest of you can take care of yourselves, right?" Everyone responded in the affirmative. "It's gonna be okay, sweetie. Mama's got you."

Zoe's death caused the fae forces she had summoned to just disappear, as if they had never existed in the first place. Most of her witch and demon forces surrendered after that, knowing that the jig was up. The remainder were swiftly dealt with by the rebellion or more accurately, Lilith supposed, the forces of the new government. She had been urged to offer an amnesty, but she was rejecting those pleas and was going to be throwing the book at the enemy forces. She intended to rule with wisdom and justice, but one also had to be firm about matters. If people thought they could be forgiven after fighting against her forces, they'd do it all the time. It'd save more lives in the long run.

Soon after taking over the Isles, Lilith formally abolished the monarchy and declared herself interim president. Hunter was ecstatic about not being emperor – he had been grumbling about the whole matter ever since Lilith placed him in the position. He just wanted to be a normal teenager, spend time with his boyfriend, and go to school. Lilith obliged by enrolling him in Hexside, which Hunter was over the moon about.

With the help of a selection of venerable members of the witch and demon community, Lilith established a constitution largely based off of the American one. There were a couple of key differences, though. The Boiling Republic would have a unicameral legislature, a National Assembly, instead of a bicameral one; there didn't seem to be much point in a Senate given that she was establishing a unitary republic. She also decided to have the president elected by direct popular vote instead of the Electoral College, which had seemed silly and convoluted to her.

Though there was some grumbling from the people who preferred an empire, Lilith was surprised at how well people were taking to the idea. After years of tyranny under Belos and Zoe's yokes, people had been yearning for a change. Turnout, she was pretty sure, would be high in the first presidential election, which she intended to run in. Much to her dismay, Eda was also planning on running in that election. But Lilith was certain the people would see that she was clearly the superior candidate for the job. And if they did not, then Lilith would willingly (if very unhappily on the inside) step away for the candidate the people had stupidly chosen.

For now, she had more important things to worry about than mere campaigning. There was much to do to make the Isles free and prosperous. It turned out that running a government was a hell of a lot of work. Lilith had experience dealing such things, but it was a lot more difficult when she had things like laws and due process to worry about. But the cost of not worrying about those things would, in the long run, be much, much higher than worrying about them, despite the short term benefits.

Lilith found herself in Hexside for the first time in years. The last time she'd been there, it had been because of a spot inspection demanded by Belos in one of his more paranoid moments. He had been certain that a pixie army was forming there, bent on overthrowing him. Of course, no such thing had occurred, and Lilith had lied about destroying the pixie rebellion.

This time, she was in Hexside to meet with Principal Bump and inform him of the government's new educational policies. The news had been good for the most part for him. The ban on mixing magic had been removed and all students were now allowed to take as many tracks as they wanted. Bump, the traditionalist that he was, was skeptical of the idea, but agreed to participate in a pilot multitrack program. Lilith had a sneaking suspicion that her niece would participate in that program – after all, her counterpart had invented such a program in her own reality.

The cost for Bump's cooperation for that practice was removing the PCA's veto power – to say nothing of the new government's – over his decisions. Lilith agreed to start a committee to look into that, which seemed to satisfy Bump long enough to agree. She wasn't entirely sure taking away all the checks on Bump's power was a good idea, but surely some of them could be removed, especially with the PCA, whose approach to education could be dangerously old fashioned at times. In any case, she didn't have to make every decision now as interim president. She could delegate to people who knew more about this than she did.

Lilith was about to exit the building, pleased at the success of her meeting, when she spotted Näkijä walking towards her office and hurried to intercept her. "Näkijä. Welcome back. You missed quite a bit during your 'vacation.'"

"Interim President Clawthorne, if you are accusing me of something, speak plainly, if you please," Näkijä said, sounding bored. "I have many papers to grade."

Lilith crossed her arms. "All right, Näkijä. After all the help you've given Luz, why would you just abandon her at the moment she needed you most?"

"I do not take sides, Madam Interim President," Näkijä asserted. "At least not publicly. If I helped Luz – an assertion you cannot prove – then it was only because I had a responsibility towards her as my student, nothing more. Besides, should these allegations of my interference be true – and I deny them utterly – then you would not have won the battle without my help anyway, for you would have thought you were fighting against Belos."

Lilith sighed. Doubletalk was something she was getting used to in the political realm, but it was still wearying. And somewhat jarring, frankly, to be hearing from the usually ridiculously blunt Näkijä. But her neutrality, clearly, was more important to her than her honesty. "Then why didn't you participate in the defense of Hexside?"

"Ah, that is quite simple," Näkijä said, sounding almost happy to be able to give Lilith a straight answer once more. "I foresaw that my presence at Hexside would have painted a target on its back, as Zoe's forces would have attacked it in an effort to eliminate me." That did make sense, Lilith had to concede.

Lilith sighs. "Well, it's good to see you again, regardless. Tell me, Näkijä, what does the future hold for the Isles under my leadership?"

"It holds me going to the office to grade my papers and you ceasing to ask me such questions," Näkijä said, and pushed past Lilith. Oh, well. It was worth a shot.

The rare reagent that was necessary to construct the portal door turned out to not be as rare as had been initially thought. A huge stockpile had been found in the vaults of the imperial palace, enough to construct over a hundred portal doors (though Eda was completely insistent on just having the one, and Camila was pretty sure Lilith would have forbid her from even keeping that one if Hunter hadn't been dating Edmond). The reagent had been used for other purposes; Belos hadn't known that it could be used to construct a portal door, or he would have used it.

In mere days, another portal door was constructed, and it was time for the Serranos to go back to Earth. There was a small part of Camila that actually wished she could stay now that the Isles were free, but she knew she could not. It was simply not a safe place to raise her children. But more importantly, it would take a great deal of time before Vee was ready to return to the Isles, and it was entirely possible she never would. However, now that the Isles were free, Camila decided to allow her children to go to Hexside there on a fulltime basis if they wished, provided they still lived with her.

Both Edmond and Emma had taken her up on that offer, but Amity decided she wasn't interested. Amity was disillusioned with magic after the unpleasant experiences she'd had with it and wanted to pursue a normal, human education on Earth. Camila respected that decision. She wasn't entirely sure how she was going to explain where the twins were going to school, but between Eda's con artistry and Eduardo's knowledge of human authorities, she was pretty sure they'd come up with something.

"Oh, Hunter, love of my life," Edmond said melodramatically as he grasped Hunter's hands. "'Parting is such sweet sorrow, that I shall say good night till it be morrow.'" Hunter let out a giggle and his cheeks flushed. Ah, those two were so cute together. "Truly, no man had a more magnificent or sexy boyfriend. Every moment without you will be pure and utter agony." He cupped Hunter's chin and kissed him passionately. A bit too passionately for Camila's tastes frankly, but she figured she could let it slide just this once.

"See you for movie night Friday!" Viney said to Emma and gave her a peck on the lips.

"Before you leave," Eda said, "we have a gift for you, Camila."

The Noceda parents had decided to be there for their departure. Their children were not. King was having a playdate with another kid in the baby class (or, in his words, a bonding session to increase camaraderie between himself and one of his future courtiers). King had taken to the news that he would not be ruling the Boiling Isles more sanguinely than Camila had expected. He had merely said that the new government would inevitably collapse and the people would be begging for his leadership when that happened. Honestly, Camila could think of worse outcomes in that situation.

And Luz was off on a date with Avery. Amity had requested that she not be there, as she felt it would be just too awkward for her. Camila knew that Amity and Luz would have to work things out between them sooner or later, but she wouldn't push her either.

Eda made a spell circle and a large, very heavy looking sack appeared out of thin air and fell on the floor with a tremendous thud and a shriek of pain from Hooty. Camila opened it and her jaw opened up when she saw that it was filled to the brim with gold bars. "Ha, ha, very amusing, Eda," Camila said in a tone that she hoped indicated just how unamusing Eda's little joke was.

"It's not a prank, mami," Emma said. "With Odalia dead, I inherited Blight Industries. And because I have no desire to own a weapons company, I sold it for the equivalent of five hundred million dollars." Camila let out an undignified squeak. Five hundred million dollars?! "It's your fortune to look after now. It's nowhere near what you deserve for looking after all of us, but hopefully it's a start."

Camila crossed her arms and cast a stern look to Emma. "Mija, I know you meant that in jest, but you understand that loving you was not something I did for a reward, right?" Emma nodded. "Good. We're…going to have to figure out how to convert this to dollars in a way that won't crash the world's economy or get the government on our trail, but we'll figure it out eventually."

"You could quit your jobs if you wanted," Amity suggested.

"I've probably been fired anyway," Camila admitted. She hadn't even considered the consequences of just disappearing before she went to go after her children, but she'd been gone for so long that she surely had lost her job by that point. "Though, mind you, with a significant enough donation to the hospital, I could probably get my job there back. I think I want to do that. I need to be doing something more than just sitting around the house all day. The other job, though, I'm quitting."

She also decided that she was going to buy herself a new house. Nothing too ridiculously extravagant, but something open and relatively spacious. Possibly with a nice yard. Now that she was raising four children instead of three anyway, she needed a place with more space anyway.

"It's been a pleasure having you around, Camila, and I hope we'll see you around the place in the future," Eduardo said.

"You can count on that," Camila said. "Only as friends, though." Just because the two of them had been married in an alternate timeline didn't mean that Camila had any interest in him in this timeline, as sad as the other Luz would have been to hear that.

"As friends," Eduardo confirmed, and the two of them shook hands.

Eda gave Camila an approving nod. She had been pretty nervous around Camila recently, and Camila was pretty sure it was because she was nervous Camila was a threat to her marriage. "Hey, maybe we can have a family get together in the Human Realm someday," she suggested.

"Well, Eda, I wouldn't call us family," Camila pointed out. "After all, this Luz and my Amity aren't exactly going to be getting together anytime soon.

"On the contrary, Camila," Eduardo said gently but firmly. "Family is about more than blood. If our visitor has taught us one thing, it's that. Family is people who look out for each other no matter what. It doesn't matter if they aren't related by blood or marriage or even if they aren't of the same species. Family is more than that. Also, I like barbecue potato chips, so if you could have some of those at the party, that'd be stellar."

Camila blinked. "Sure."

There didn't seem to be anything more that needed to be said, so Camila walked through the portal and returned to the Human Realm. It was raining. Camila had never been so glad to be rained on and not have it burn her skin before in her life. A few seconds later, her children appeared behind her.

The future looked bright.

"This is an impressively sneaky plan you've come up with," Amity noted. The two of them were sitting in Camila's car a block from the MacKinnon residence. "Did you have Eda's help with it?"

Camila let out an amused snort. "It may surprise you to learn this, Amity, but I haven't always been such a goody two shoes. I used to get into quite a lot of trouble before respectability subsumed me into its inexorable grasp." Amity raised an eyebrow. "Actually, I had Jane's help with it." Camila and Jane had decided to date again, but they were taking it much slower than before. "At any rate, it's one that'll work, and that's what's important. Now just be careful."

Amity got out of the car and morphed into a bird. Camila just shook her head in wonderment. It was one thing to see magic (or, in this case, magic derived technobabble powered "science") in the Boiling Isles, but it was quite another thing to see it in the mundane Human Realm. As previously planned, Amity sailed through Clara's open window and demorphed.

"So…are you a basilisk too now?" Clara wondered, but was interrupted by Amity giving her a huge hug. It felt so good. She had missed Clara so much, and now that she was in Clara's room (her bedroom, Amity suddenly realized) with Clara standing in front of her, those awkward romantic feelings she had towards her were coming back full force.

"No, I'm not a basilisk. I just picked up some shapeshifting powers in the Demon Realm. I'll give you the full story later." She turned to face Vee, who was still in her disguise as Amity. It was ridiculously jarring to be face to face with a copy of herself. "She told you she'd come back, didn't she?"

Vee looked amazed. "I was so afraid she wouldn't. She really wants me to be her daughter? Even after all the lies I told?"

"Even then," Amity said. She felt no resentment towards Vee in any way whatsoever. She just felt gratitude that Vee prevented Camila from worrying while she was stuck alone in the Boiling Isles. "And I want you to be my sister, Vee. It's going to be great! We're going to have so much fun!"

Clara turned to face Amity, guilt lining every feature of her face. "Amity, I am so sorry. I didn't notice you had been replaced, and then I threw you over for your sister. I just…I've been feeling so guilty…"

"Don't," Amity said firmly. "You have nothing to feel guilty for. You have no familiarity with the occult; why would you ever assume I had been replaced? And as for dating Vee…well, the heart wants what the heart wants, doesn't it?" She gave a rueful smile. "I learned that lesson over there."

Clara sighed. "You're both just such incredible people, and I hate having to choose. But since I do…I choose you, Vee. I hope you can forgive me, Amity. I really want us to stay friends."

"Why?" Vee asked.

Clara looked puzzled, but then she appeared to understand what Vee was asking. "Oh, why did I choose you? I can't really explain it, Vee. It's not that I don't like Amity that way, but –"

"No, I mean why do you need to choose?" Vee clarified. Amity blinked. Was Vee seriously saying what Amity thought she was saying? "Where we come from, people don't need to choose. We could both date you, Clara. You wouldn't have to make that choice."

"I'm game for it," Amity said, surprising herself. She'd have thought that after the heartache she'd endured at Luz's hands, she wouldn't have want to plunge straight into another one. But apparently, she was wrong. "Vee and I wouldn't date each other, obviously, but both of us dating you? Yeah, I could go for it."

"That's…so nice of you," Clara said slowly. "But where I come from, people do have to choose, because society is very unkind to those who don't."

Amity plopped herself down on Clara's bed, resolutely avoiding thinking about the fact of its ownership. "Yeah, but no one has to know you're choosing. Look, everyone thinks you're dating me now anyway, right? Vee can go on dates with you disguised as me, and I can go to places morphed as her to give her an alibi. It's completely foolproof. No one would ever suspect a thing. Look, if you're really uncomfortable with this, that's okay. No one's forcing you to do anything. But…I kind of want to try it? If you do?"

A slow smile formed on Clara's face. "Okay. That's…that's awesome. I mean, I can't believe that two girls as awesome as you want to be my girlfriends! So let's give it a shot. But if it doesn't work out, no hard feelings, deal?" Vee and Amity both agreed. "All right! Let's go give our performance!"

Vee shapeshifted into a bird and flew out the window just like Amity had flown in. A few moments later, Amity and Clara emerged from the bedroom and went downstairs. Amity hoped that the MacKinnons would buy their ruse, because if they didn't, then who would? A few minutes later, the doorbell rang. Jack and Naomi MacKinnon both emerged from the kitchen and walked over to the door. They opened it to find Camila and a Hispanic-looking girl about the same age as Amity – a shapeshifted Vee – on the other side.

"Camila!" Jack said, sounding pleasantly surprised to see her. "It's good to see you back! How was Santo Domingo? And who's this young lady?"

"Ah," Camila said, floundering for a second, and then she remembered her cover story. "It wasn't so good, I'm afraid. My cousin passed away. This is her daughter Victoria. I'm going to be looking after her from now on."

"People call me Vee," Vee said with a shy wave.

Naomi tilted her head. "That's strange. Amity here also wanted to be called Vee."

"Uh, that was just a phase," Amity said quickly.

Jack crossed his arms and gave a smirk. "Or, and I'm just taking a wild guess here, Vee here is a shapeshifting basilisk from the Demon Realm who's been disguised as the real Amity." They knew? How on Earth could they know? Unless…

Amity turned to face Clara, who just smirked at her. And now that she was looking for it, Vee was also smirking. Those devious girls! They'd known that the MacKinnon parents had been told about Vee's true identity all along!

"What can I say, Amity?" Clara said. "I guess I'm just a prankster at heart."

Amity cleared her throat. "Um, well, while we're all here, you should know, Mr. and Mrs. MacKinnon, that Vee and I decided…" She trailed off when she saw both of them frantically shaking their heads. Amity belatedly realized she'd forgotten to ask them permission to tell Clara's parents that Clara was dating them both now.

"Decided what?" Naomi said, her eyes narrowing.

"We decided to reward you for your decision to look after my daughter," Camila responded smoothly. Amity had to admire her ingenuity under pressure, especially since she clearly had no idea what Amity had been referring to, only that it was not something that should be discussed at the present time. "I've recently come into a great deal of money, and I can't let your generosity go unrewarded."

"Hogwash," Jack barked. "I don't need any reward for doing the right thing. Keep your money, Camila. I'll win it off you fair and square at our next poker game."

"I think I can live with that," Camila said with a smile. "Well, mijas, shall we depart?"

Amity followed Camila out of the house and the two of them got into the backseat of Camila's van. Camila started whistling a cheery tune as she drove away from the MacKinnon residence towards the Serrano residence. Amity felt elated. She was going to be dating Clara! And even if it didn't work out – and honestly, Amity still had her reservations about the whole polyamory thing – she would still have Clara as a friend. That made all the difference.

"We both decided to date Clara," Amity announced. "Not openly. Vee will pretend to be me when she's dating her."

She braced for Camila's reaction, especially since her mami looked like she was trying to figure out how to react to that revelation. "Okay," Camila said. "If you can make that work, more power to you. But…you do understand why it might not." Amity nodded. She understood that very well. "Amity, I trust you. I can't say I like the idea very much, but it's your choice. I'll get used to it. If I could get used to magic, I can get used to anything. So how was your time at Clara's house, Vee?"

Vee's eyes lit up at the chance to talk about her girlfriend – their girlfriend now, Amity supposed. During the car ride back to the house, she rambled on about all the fun activities she had while staying with Clara. The MacKinnon parents had been told very soon after Camila left about Vee's true identity and had accepted it with shocking levels of grace. They had given her a crash course on all the things she'd need to know to blend in at a human school. Soon, Victoria Serrano would make her first appearance at Amity's high school, and Amity had a feeling that she was going to do just fine.

"Emperor Belos is dead," Camila informed Vee once they'd returned to the house. "The Isles are free. It's safe for you to return if you want to, but no one will ever make you go back if you don't want to."

"There's nothing I want less," Vee said fervently.

Camila patted her on the shoulder. "That's okay, mija. You're my daughter now. I'm sorry I had to leave you behind, but I swear to you, that will not happen again. You will be loved here. You will be safe here. You will be free here."

"I didn't think you'd keep your promise to come back," Vee admitted.

Camila looked her in the eyes. "I will always keep my promises to you, Vee. And this I promise you: As long as I can, I will always be there for you. Now come over here and give your mami a hug!"

Vee shifted back into her basilisk form and nearly bowled over Camila with a hug. Camila was surprised, Amity could tell. But she wasn't disgusted. She accepted her daughter as she was, serpentine features and all.

"Welcome home, Vee," Amity said to her sister and she wrapped her arms around her slimy serpentine sister.

Eduardo was not ashamed to admit that he missed the other Luz. The fact that he would never see her again was getting him down. He respected her decision to eschew further contact with her dimension. One of the things that her whole ordeal had gifted her with was closure regarding her father's death, and having Eduardo regularly communicate with her would ruin that. But it still hurt to have gotten to know and love another one of his children, only to have her leave forever.

Still, aside from that, his life was absolutely fantastic. Freedom of the press had been enshrined in the new constitution, allowing him to write whatever articles he so chose. He was determined to transform the Devourer into a newspaper that could stand easily alongside its human counterparts. He would not shy away from criticizing the government whenever they were wrong, even if the interim president was his sister-in-law and the two leading candidates for the full presidency were both his relatives. He had made it very clear to both women that the Devourer would remain scrupulously neutral in its reporting and because of his conflicts of interest, he would recuse himself when it came time for the editorial board to endorse a candidate.

More than that, he had his Luz back, and he had definitely missed her a lot, even if he hadn't known it for most of the other Luz's time in the Isles. It had taken her a few days to get back to her exuberant self, but once she did, it was like nothing had happened. Well, most of the time. Eduardo couldn't help but notice that she had frequent nightmares and occasionally had moments when she would just freeze up as if she'd been remembering something horrible. But overall, she seemed to be getting better. Avery's influence had been a big part of that; the two of them had been almost inseparable since Luz's return. But having Luz's friends around helped too. She was even getting along well with Boscha now, as bizarre an idea as that sounded.

Several weeks passed before Eduardo felt confident enough in Luz's mental state to inquire about how she had ended up almost dying of radiation poisoning in the other Luz's universe. But he knew he needed to ask. If there was anything he could do to save the other Luz from that fate, he'd do it, even if it meant breaking their agreement to have no further contact. There were few deaths, even in the Boiling Isles, worse than that.

"So…did the North Koreans end up finally nuking us like they kept threatening?" Eduardo asked her one day after dinner. He tried to keep his voice light, and failed. In truth, he had his suspicions exactly who had been doing the nuking and what was nuked, but he would let Luz tell him whenever she was comfortable.

Luz sighed. "No. All right. I'll talk about it. But only once, and only to you. You'll just have to tell mom yourself." Eduardo did not like those conditions, but he certainly wasn't going to say no, so he just nodded. "For most of my time there, things were really quiet and normal. But then at the World Series…there was an attack. It was magical. Very magical. You really couldn't have explained it any other way."

She took a deep breath. "A man named Arend Havik made a speech in front of Congress, exposing the Demon Realm's existence, and blaming them for the attack. Everyone believed him. Congress actually declared war against the Demon Realm, which I guess they haven't done in a while?" Eduardo nodded. "And then…I don't know how it happened, but everything just spiraled out of control, and the next thing I know, the isles are being nuked. Everyone got hit by the blast…I had to watch so many people die, people the other Luz loved…"

Eduardo's blood ran cold. "Lucecita…you're telling me…"

"Yes, papi," Luz said grimly. "Unless the other Luz can stop Havik, the United States is going to destroy the Boiling Isles."