Camila had wanted a lot of things in her life, but she'd never wanted any of them more than she wanted a nap right now. After nearly a full day being interrogated by the FBI regarding the events of the White House, she was finally released thanks to Sinclair, who had stormed into the interrogation room like an avenging angel just as she was about to be transferred to another facility from FBI headquarters. Camila had been petrified she was being sent to some black site or maybe even someplace like Area 51, where they would experiment on her to figure out how the glyphs worked. Thankfully, Sinclair managed to browbeat her interrogators into letting her go just in time.

She had been treated with barely veiled contempt and threatened occasionally, but physically speaking, she was unharmed from her ordeal. Presumably, they had the presence of mind to realize that pissing off the girlfriend of the Harpy Lady wouldn't end well for them. But she was very worried about how the experience would have affected the rest of her family and friends, particularly those of them that didn't have the advantage of diplomatic immunity.

As it turned out, there wasn't too much to be worried about in the end. Luz had honestly been pretty excited to be on the opposite end of an interrogation table and had incessantly annoyed her captors by letting loose every noir cliché in the book. The others were fine too. It wasn't as if they'd committed any crimes after all, but Camila had been a little worried the government would find some excuse to keep them imprisoned and experiment on them. And Vee had recovered from being shot, thank goodness. Xe seemed to have taken it all in stride, as xe usually did. Maybe it was time Camila started worrying about that?

In any event, the state visit was certainly over. And so was Joanna Lake's presidency. Lake had resigned from office hours after being arrested for Thompson's murder. She was almost immediately thereafter given a pardon by the new president, former Speaker of the House Alexander Patterson. According to rumor, Lake had threatened to stay in office until removed through the impeachment process unless she was pardoned. Patterson, according to Lilith, was a consummate politician, and would probably end up accomplishing more than Lake could, but at a much slower pace.

It was a shame, really. Sure, Lake had shot a man in cold blood, but given that Thompson had murdered her husband, tried to launch a coup, and shot Luz, Camila wasn't exactly shedding any tears over his death. But what was done was done. Lake had fled Washington DC with her children soon after resigning, and her whereabouts were completely unknown now. Camila hoped they'd meet again someday. As much as she didn't like Lake, she could not deny that she'd done her best to change the world, for the better even if her methods of doing so had ultimately failed.

Now Camila was back on Pacifica's private jet along with the rest of her entourage, returning home, and she yearned to take a nap so badly it hurt. But there was one more piece of business that had to be addressed before anything else.

"King, mijo, would you care to explain this?" she asked him, showing him the video footage of his little prank on McHale. McHale was dead now, the victim of a supposed heart attack. Camila did not believe King to be responsible; it was no doubt Odalia silencing another pawn.

King did not look repentant in the slightest. "We were getting revenge on him! He insulted you! He insulted my sister! I had to defend the royal family's honor!"

Camila tried very hard to suppress the grin that was forming on her face. In truth, she found the video absolutely hilarious. And it was extremely satisfying to see the man who tried to ruin Luz's reputation have his own reputation ruined. But it could not be ignored that McHale tried to shoot him, and that King had recklessly approached the situation. "Mijo, you can't just go charging into these situations without adult supervision."

"Aha!" King said triumphantly. "That's where you're wrong, because I was supervised by an adult! Hunter's seventeen! That's an adult in the Demon Realm." Camila blinked. She had been unaware of that. But it did make sense, since Emira was the same age and Amity's guardian. "So you see, it's fine!"

Camila took a deep breath and looked over at Hunter, who was hiding behind a book, looking genuinely frightened of her wrath. He was legitimately afraid she would hurt him, she realized. She gave her most reassuring smile over at Hunter and turned her focus back to King. "All right, I'll concede that point, but King, still, you should have let your family know. And, of course, officially, I cannot approve of you damaging property."

She stroked her chin thoughtfully. "So with that in mind…I think it's only fair that you get only one slice of lemon meringue pie at tonight's farewell dinner instead of two." King gasped, as if this was a legitimate punishment instead of a flimsy excuse for one. "That will teach you the error of your ways."

"But your lemon meringue pie is the work of the gods!" King protested. "It's not fair!" He made a squeaking sound and stomped his foot on the floor, but this wasn't Camila's first rodeo by far with temper tantrums, and she would not be swayed. Instead, she just tuned out his squeaks and rested her eyes.

She must have been more tired than she thought, because when she woke up again, several hours had passed, and they were more than halfway through the flight. Luz was hovering over her, apparently having been waiting for her to wake up for some time. Camila hoped nothing was wrong. Everyone seemed to be healthy and intact and not on fire, so it couldn't have been that bad.

"Luz, are you okay?" Camila said, and her fear must have slipped into her voice, because Luz hurriedly nodded as she sat down next to Camila. "You'd tell me if you weren't?"

Luz was silent for a worryingly long time. "Yes," she said eventually. Camila did not like the fact it had taken her that long to come up with the answer, although she was glad that the answer was an honest yes. She'd take what she could get. "Don't worry, mami!" Luz said more perkily. "I mean, physically, I'm fine! Better than fine, really. The blood powered glyphs were even more effective than the normal ones – the doctors think I'm not even lactose intolerant anymore!"

Camila blinked a couple of times. This definitely was something that needed to be further studied. By qualified experts in the Demon Realm, that was to say. Not by Luz. A thought occurred to her. "And did it…change anything up here?" She gestured at her own head, being very careful to keep her voice neutral.

Luz blinked and shook her head. "No. Just the body. Not the mind."

"Not that I think how you think needs healing," Camila hastened to assure her. "I just wondered if your brain chemistry was altered at all, that's it, I swear!" The last thing Camila wanted to do was come across like one of those mothers who saw autism as a disease sucking the life out of her child.

Luz gave her a surprisingly casual grin. "It's okay, mami. I get it. Truth be told…I'm not sure how I'd feel if it did fix – change things up there. But it didn't, so it's kind of a moot point, right?" Camila frowned at the slipup. She'd always tried to convince Luz to take pride in her autism, which helped make her the singularly unique individual she was today. But society had hammered in the opposite message, sadly enough, and Camila knew internalized ableism was one of the many issues Luz was dealing with.

Camila looked Luz in the face, below the eyes. She'd never make eye contact with her daughter. She'd come to accept that. A small, shameful part of her would always miss that. But that part of her didn't get a say. "Luz, I'm sorry that you keep getting hurt. Not just physically, but otherwise as well. I've tried to shield you from it, but…I'm just one woman, and you're facing off against the whole world."

Her hand started trembling. She glared at it. It ignored her, the treasonous limb that it was. "I came so close to losing you," she whispered, her voice cracking. "I don't…I've never seen you get hurt like that before. I know you were hurt before, but I never saw it. And it scared me. It scared me so much, Luz."

Luz closed her eyes, her facial expression difficult to figure out. "So what are you going to do about it?"

That was a good question. What could she do about it? Truthfully speaking, the answer was nothing. If Luz wouldn't be safe in the freaking White House, literally the most secure building anywhere, she'd never be safe. But then again, nothing was ever safe to begin with, especially not in the Boiling Isles. Still, some precautions could be taken. Maybe she'd ask the Law Enforcement Coven to assign some bodyguards to Luz. As the princess, surely she was entitled to them.

But as she examined Luz's demeanor, which was tense but also resigned, as if she was just waiting for a blow to hit her, she realized that Luz believed she was wanting to go to more extreme lengths to keep her safe. The lengths that her parents went to. She was scared of losing the Isles, of Camila taking it away from her. "Luz…I am not going to take you from this life you're leading." Luz breathed a nearly unconscious sigh of relief. "Even if I wanted to, which I don't, it's simply no longer possible. You are the princess of the Boiling Isles, and thus, you are a target. I'm not my parents, Luz. I'm not naïve enough to think I can save you from all danger by taking you away from everything."

All of the tension that was in Luz, including the tension Camila hadn't even known was there until that moment, went away. "I, uh, guess I was being kind of silly there, right?"

"I wouldn't say that," Camila said. She pursed her lips. "Are you sure you don't want me to find another therapist for you?"

"I was uncomfortable enough working with Dustin," Luz reminded her. "I refuse to work with someone who isn't clued in to the paranormal. I need someone who will believe me or the whole thing is pointless."

Unfortunately, Luz was right. Therapy was indeed useless if Luz didn't feel comfortable talking about her problems, and since pretty much all of her problems these days at least touched on very difficult to believe concepts, there really wasn't anyone who could help her. And Luz refused to work with Dr. Henderson anymore. She knew, intellectually, that it wasn't his fault that Odalia had mind controlled him into ratting her out, but Dr. Henderson's forced testimony had been a devastating blow to Luz that would take an extremely long time for her to recover from.

"Well, I wish you'd feel more comfortable talking to me about your problems," Camila lamented, and regretted the words the instant they came out of her mouth. "I mean…you don't have to tell me everything, of course, but, mija, sometimes I feel like you're still closed off. Like there's still a gap of trust."

"You believed him over me," Luz muttered. She was talking about Hal, Camila realized. "Over and over again, I tried to tell you my side of the story, but you just…dismissed it. Like it wasn't important. Because he's an adult, and I'm a child, and he's normal, and I'm just a…I wasn't."

"I was wrong, Luz," Camila said. She'd said it before, but it needed to be said again. "I made mistakes. I'm trying to fix them. You know that."

Luz nodded. "I know it here," she said, pointing to her head. "But here's…taking time to catch up." She pointed to her heart. "I trusted you enough to tell you about the Boiling Isles, didn't I?" Luz did. Camila couldn't imagine the kind of courage it took to tell one's mother that story. She'd had to work out a near infinite amount of courage to come out to her own parents, but Luz telling her about the Boiling Isles took that to a whole new level. "I'm trying to be more open about this stuff, mami. But the habits of all those years are hard to break."

"For us both," Camila admitted. "As much as I am very much enjoying all the many ways our lives have improved since you went to the Isles, I still miss the times when life was…simpler."

"I don't," Luz said bluntly. That was fair. "But I know what you mean. At least back then, I didn't really have to worry about getting killed." No, just killing yourself, a small, somewhat spiteful voice in the back of Camila's mind said. She ignored it.

Camila laid a gentle kiss on Luz's forehead. "It's going to be all right, mija. We're in for a long, bumpy ride, but we're going to make our way through it together, as a family." She made her face stern. "But, Luz, you are not to use the blood glyphs except in an emergency, and by that, I mean a life or death one. They're very powerful, and, I suspect, very dangerous too." Blood magic, she recalled, had a very sinister reputation. It wasn't certain that it was deserved, but it was better to be cautious. Also, Camila really didn't want Luz to hurt herself using the excuse of magical experimentation.

Surprisingly, Luz just nodded. "I promise, mami," she said, and Camila knew that she meant it. Camila grinned at her daughter. She was so proud of the way she'd matured. Right now, Luz was everything Camila had hoped she'd be – talented, successful, happy, and surrounded by people who loved her. But she was also one other thing that Camila had, subconsciously at the very least, not wanted her to be back then: herself.

And Camila wouldn't have it any other way.

As much as Eda wanted to stay in the Human Realm for the rest of her life, just so she could be near her girlfriend and daughter, she knew that her responsibilities (bleh!) came first. She had to return to the Demon Realm, and take King with her. Raine would be staying in the Human Realm, however, to continue their role as consul general. They'd argued against it, but Eda had put her foot down. With the recent attacks on Luz, she needed her partner in the Human Realm to keep an eye on things. It wasn't that she didn't trust Camila to take care of Luz, but Raine was more magically talented than Camila would ever be.

Eda was not a party person, but Camila had insisted they have a dinner to celebrate their departure from the Demon Realm, and Eda really couldn't say no to Camila, especially when she gave those puppy dog eyes to her that had to be genetic, since Luz wielded them so effectively as well. It would be just a private celebration held at the consulate for the sake of security. Nothing fancy.

"Good Titan, what is going on in here?" Eda screeched as soon as she saw the absurdly expensive looking dinner laid out in the consulate's formal dinner room. She spotted Lilith hiding behind a curtain, looking somehow poised and dignified despite this. It was an impressive accomplishment. If she suspected her sister would give her an answer, she would have asked how she did it. But Lilith would take her secrets to the grave.

She threw open the curtain. "Lily, I told you, we're not making a big deal out of tonight!"

"I nearly got eaten by a herd of glyptodons, Eda," Lilith said, sounding unusually annoyed to a level Eda hadn't heard from her since the days when she'd been part of the Emperor's Coven. "My niece was shot in the chest by the vice president of the United States. I have had to look after King for hours at a time. I have earned this."

Well. It was kind of hard to argue with Lilith when she put it like that. "We're still sticking with our plan to continue pursuing diplomatic relations with the Human Realm?"

Lilith nodded, her lips pursed. "It's going to be difficult to explain it to people back home, though. We were attacked by a member of the American government while on a mission of peace. That's…not exactly making people happy right now."

"We've still got our party behind us, right?" Eda asked. It was not a rhetorical question. She really didn't pay any attention to the nitty gritty details of politics, like whether or not the Organized Witches for Liberation Party was ready to have a vote of no confidence to kick her out of office.

"Barely," Lilith complained. "But people's patience is wearing thin. We look weak for not being able to capture Odalia. They're starting to wonder if Tasha Hart might be better at it."

Tasha Hart, Boscha's mother, was the leader of the opposition Traditionalist Alliance in parliament. Like Odalia, she had extremely reactionary, regressive viewpoints, but unlike Odalia, she'd thus far worked entirely within the system to make them reality. She was a shrewd and cunning operator, and Eda had a hunch that if she got her hands on power, Hart would be more likely to align herself with Odalia than try to stop her. Not to mention that her alternate universe counterpart had abused Boscha horribly. Of course, that didn't necessarily mean anything – Eda's counterpart had married Luz's father, for pity's sake! But it still was pretty telling, in Eda's opinion.

"I'm starting to think we're weak for not capturing Odalia," Eda pointed out. "Why are we not doing that?"

"Don't you think we've tried?!" Lilith suddenly shouted. "But she's killed and/or mentally subverted every single operative sent after her. We've lost dozens of extremely talented agents. Right now, we just have to wait and see what her next move is."

Eda opened her mouth to speak, but then the door opened and King ran into the room, looking stunned and horrified. She immediately scooped her son into her arms. "Sweetie, what's the matter? What's wrong?"

"I just found out…that Firefly got canceled after only one season!" King said, his voice more indignant than she'd ever heard it before. "Can you believe that?! Ugh, the Human Realm is the worst. If it didn't have Luz and Mami in it, I don't even know why we'd bother."

Eda just smirked and deposited King back on the floor. "Yeah…me neither. Though Vegas is pretty nice. I ever told you how I met my ex-husband there?" Lilith cleared her throat. Oh, right. That was a vastly inappropriate story to tell children. Luz wasn't going to be hearing it until she turned sixteen at the very earliest. "Um, right, well, I'm sure a better show will come along, right?"

King shrugged. "Well, there was this one show called Game of Thrones that looked interesting…but I think I'm burnt out on human television. I'm going to my quarters for a royal slumber. Wake me up for dinner."

Eda decided that was a good idea and went to her own quarters for a prime ministerial slumber, and invited Raine to join her. Unsurprisingly, the two of them did not get much slumbering done, but the hours in between were quite productive nonetheless. It was nice to spend time with her two partners, but she'd missed having one on one time with the quite acrobatic Raine too.

The dinner was a more casual affair than Eda was expecting, especially given that very excellent spread that Lilith had prepared. She'd kept it to just her family, namely Luz, Camila, Lilith, Raine, and King. The others would just have to have their own dinners on their own time. She wanted to just spend time with her family as her family, not the royal family. Luz was a bit sad to be deprived of time with Amity, but she got over it pretty quickly, as was her way.

"So…um, you didn't get too discouraged by the response to you guys here, did you?" Luz said, in that patented faux casual voice which she would hopefully learn one day fooled absolutely and precisely no one. "Because I promise it's not normally like that around here…well, I mean, the White House doesn't usually get attacked, anyway."

"I assure you, Luz, we will not be intimidated by Odalia's attempts to turn the Demon Realm against the Human Realm," Lilith assured her, cutting to the heart of the matter with alacrity. "We are still interested in pursuing peace, and unless our security is at risk, which it is thus far not, we will continue to pursue it." She favored her with a rare smile. "Besides, we're no stranger to this sort of thing in the Demon Realm. This is somewhat tame, honestly, for establishing diplomatic relations."

Luz breathed a sigh of relief. Eda had to agree with Lilith. She'd honestly gone through worse in her time than being attacked by a horde of glyptodons. It was going to take much, much more than that to scare her off. "Sweetie, it'll all turn out for the best," Eda promised her. "I'm not going to let some nasty humans get me down! We know what we're doing. You gotta trust us, okay?" Luz nodded. In truth, Eda rarely knew what she was doing, but she found that acting like she did was effective a shockingly large percentage of the time.

"At least the cultural exchange has been a success so far," Camila pointed out. "How are things going on your end?"

"Oh, super!" Eda assured her. It was true. The human exchange students had taken to the Demon Realm with speed that rivaled Luz's. In a bizarre turn of events, she had learned that they'd actually all been sent to Reality Check Camp like Luz had been, only they had the bad luck to actually attend. It was strange to think that Luz could have ended up befriending them if she'd gone with them. Eda had done a full investigation into the circumstances leading up to them being sent to Reality Check Camp and found that their parents, like Camila, had been deceived by Hal. That made things easier; it would have been a huge diplomatic incident if Eda kept them in the Demon Realm to keep them safe from homophobic parents. She'd do it too, if she had to.

"Yeah, they're really settling in," Eda went on. "Getting good grades and all that. They're kind of boring, though. Don't have your troublemaking knack, Luz!" Luz beamed with pride. Camila, beside her, tried to put on a disapproving expression. Eda didn't buy it for one second. She knew her girlfriend inside and out, and she knew that, deep down, Camila was just as proud of all the trouble Luz got up to as Eda was.

"Well, Luz's friends seem to be settling in well," Raine noted. "Though…I have some reservations about having Amity having a government agent as part of her host family. Maybe she and Willow could swap?"

Luz started bouncing up and down in her seat with excitement. "Can we, mami? Can we, can we, can we? I promise I'll be good! I mean, you see how embarrassed Amity gets when she kisses me – I think if she and I tried to have sex, she'd spontaneously combust!"

Camila was struggling to hold back her laughter. "Mija, I think if you want me to approve of this idea, you might want to keep sex out of the conversation." Luz gave an overdramatic sigh. "I mean, there's a child present!" She pointed to the child in question, who had tuned out the conversation in favor of wrestling with the steak on his plate, apparently unaware that it was dead and not a live animal he had to pummel into submission. Embarrassingly, the steak appeared to be winning.

"Sorry, mami," Luz said. "But please? Amity'd really like it! I mean, Odalia got to those Secret Service agents…and the vice president, probably. Who's to say she can't get to Agent Johnston?"

Camila was silent for a few minutes. "I think you may have a point about her not being safe in Agent Johnston's house," she conceded. Luz let out a shout of joy. "But it's still not appropriate to have you and her under the same roof."

"Clara and Vee are doing it," Luz pointed out.

"And that is the MacKinnon parents' choice," Camila retorted. "If they jumped off a cliff, would you – never mind, scratch that," she said hurriedly, knowing that Luz would jump off a cliff in a second with the flimsiest of excuses. "No, I think we'll move her into Edric's apartment instead. He can be her host using his disguise of Fred Jacobs. If anyone knows how to protect her from Odalia, it'd be her brother."

Luz pouted, but even she could not deny that Camila's argument was a valid one. Edric knew a thing or two about protecting oneself from mind magic, and he knew how his toxic mother worked better than most. He'd be able to predict Odalia's next moves, and protect Amity if her goons came a-knocking. He'd give up his life to protect her if need be. "Okay, well…thanks, mami. Amity's safety comes first…even if it'd be really nifty to have her as a roomie." She frowned. "I wonder how I'm going to break this news to Caroline…"

"Well, there is some good news," Camila said after a few seconds of awkward silence. "Lucas informs me that his lawsuit against the hospital is finally bearing fruit. They've offered to settle out of court. I won't get my job back, I'm afraid, but the settlement package is pretty large."

Luz looked disappointed. "You're not going to fight for it more?"

"Mija, I would love to, but it's not a fight I'd win," Camila said, sounding genuinely saddened. "Now that the Boiling Kingdom has diplomatic relations with the US, firing people because of their association with them will be harder to make stick, but back when they fired me, we hadn't yet established relations."

Eda sighed. "Yeah. It sucks, kiddo, but sometimes, that's life for you. Besides, your mom's got a new job now. Of course, if you wanted to work at a hospital in the Demon Realm, I'm sure something could be arranged." She'd made the offer several times in the past, but Camila had always rejected it. She was adamant that Luz needed a human education.

"It's tempting," Camila admitted. "But Luz comes first." Luz pouted, but she must have known that further discussion was bootless, because she quickly changed the subject.

Dinner seemed to drag on for ages, especially with Eda deliberately prolonging it, but eventually the time for her, King, and Lilith to depart arrived. They walked into the portal room, and then Eda favored Camila with an extremely long kiss, just to impress upon her how much she'd miss her. "Don't worry, I'll be back one day," Eda promised. "You can't keep me away from you for long!"

"I'll take good care of her, Eda," Raine assured her. "Our girlfriend is safe in my hands."

"Please don't talk about your hands and my mom," Luz muttered. Eda just gave a cackle.

King leaped up and almost tackled Luz with a hug. "I'm gonna miss you so much, Luz," he said, tears streaming down his face. "Eres mi hermana mayor y te quiero," he said, pronouncing the Spanish words with painstaking care. Luz let out a squeal of joy.

The King of Demons walked over to the portal door. "We'll meet again," he sang, each word a promise. "Don't know where, don't know when, but I know we'll meet again some sunny day." And with those words from that song he'd been singing since he was old enough to talk – Eda had no clue where he learned it – he stepped through the portal and was gone.

For as long as they could remember, Avery had believed in magic. It was just a given. Their parents believed in it, and they weren't crazy like everyone always said, so it must have been real, they reasoned. And while Avery hadn't seen proof of magic in their youth, they'd certainly seen proof that, at the very least, cryptozoological creatures were. Their parents went monster hunting on a regular basis. It was something of an open secret in the family that monster hunting, not the Seattle Parapsychological Library, was the main source of the family's income. The Seattle area was chock full of monsters – a side effect of the portal to the Boiling Isles being in such close proximity, they learned much later – and Steve and his family were responsible for hunting them down.

Avery had even participated in a monster hunt of their own once, entirely by accident. They were eight years old and Uncle Mike was babysitting them. Like the rest of Avery's aunts and uncles, Uncle Mike wasn't his biological uncle, but still had a bond with Steve almost as close as blood. Avery didn't know what Uncle Mike did for a living. Apparently, it was classified. Uncle Mike once joked he worked as a professional assassin. At least, Avery had assumed it was a joke at the time. Now they weren't so sure.

Uncle Mike and Avery were just minding their own business – they really were, despite Steve's accusations to the contrary later – and taking a relaxing walk through the woods near Avery's house when a frigging chuchuna – like a yeti, but with dark fur – came out of nowhere and lunged for Avery. Uncle Mike shot him between the eyes with the largest gun Avery had seen before or since. Avery had been petrified at the time, but later on, they'd been ecstatic to learn that they'd been right, that all their bullies were wrong, and that the supernatural was real.

From that point on, Avery had been satisfied with their life. For the most part. They figured they'd be the one to really get people to believe in magic, cryptids, and the like. They were going to show humanity the truth. Steve agreed with them that this was indeed most likely their destiny – though he wasn't happy about it, to say the least.

As they grew up, Avery became less and less enamored of the concept of being a girl. It felt wrong. But so did being called a boy. Avery just…was Avery. Gender seemed a hindrance, a shackle tying them down. There were so many things they couldn't do because people thought they were a girl, so many ways society judged them. Avery wanted to be free. They wanted to be a they, not a she. They wanted to be defined by their wits and their sense of humor and their inner strength and courage, not their vagina. And then they'd read about a concept called nonbinary, and it was them to the core.

They told their parents and they didn't expect them to make a fuss. After all, Steve and Catherine Harrington believed in stuff no one else believed in. They had minds so open that they were practically spewing brain matter onto the floor. Well, they'd been half right. Steve's only response was a simple "cool" and a thumbs up. But Catherine lost it. She went on a screaming, enbyphobic rant that lasted for a good fifteen minutes. Avery ran to their room two minutes into it, bawling their eyes out.

It wasn't until a full half hour had passed that there was a knock on their door. "Avery, can I come in?" Steve asked, his voice quiet and solemn.

"Oh, yeah, sure, why not?" Avery sneered. "Come up here to plan how you'll redecorate your daughter's room? Lots of pink, I'm gonna guess?"

The door opened and Steve walked in. His hands were trembling, and there was a devastated look on his face. "Your mom and I are getting divorced," he said. It hurt him to say those words, Avery could tell. Steve was still in love with Catherine, and to just rip away all that love was leaving a devastating wound in his heart. "And she's leaving this house. I won't allow her to stay in the same house with you if she's going to treat you like that."

Avery blinked a couple of times. "But…you love each other."

"Unfortunately, that's true," Steve said, his voice bitter. "I am not going to lie to you, Avery. I still love your mother deeply, and I really, really hope she comes to her senses. But until she does, I won't even consider letting her within a hundred feet of you. You're my child – not my daughter, my child – and your welfare comes first."

Avery would have started crying if they hadn't been crying so much already that their tear ducts had more or less dried out. "You gave up on your marriage…for me? But…what about all those things she said…you lost your wife and your daughter today."

"I didn't lose my daughter, you silly goose," Steve said, tweaking their nose a little, just like he did when they were a child. "I never had one to begin with. It's going to be an adjustment – I'm gonna have to learn how to cook, for one! But we'll handle it together…as a family." He leaned down and kissed Avery on the forehead. "I love you, kiddo. Love you so much it hurts."

Catherine never came to her senses. She sued Steve for custody, and Uncle Lucas's partner somehow managed to win the case for him. Avery still wasn't sure how, although the testimony of Avery's aunts and uncles probably helped. In the end, they'd gotten a sympathetic judge, Catherine had accidentally let slip a very hurtful slur on the stand, and Steve somehow managed to convince people that he was a respectable pillar of the community. It all worked out in the end, and Avery hadn't seen their mother since the day she'd walked out of the courtroom, vowing a revenge she never accomplished. Some days, they even wondered if Uncle Mike had gotten rid of her.

Avery's life proceeded as normally as the life of a semiprofessional apprentice monster hunter could possibly be until they got to high school, and met Luz Noceda. Of course, when they'd first met, Avery hadn't known anything about Luz's own intimate connections with the occult. They'd just seen an intelligent, if highly scatterbrained, and creative girl with a spark about her that was simply…incomparable. Avery had had crushes, always on girls before, but there was something different about Luz.

But alas, someone else had gotten the good sense to snap up Luz. She'd very kindly turned them down, and that was the end of Avery's crush on her, more or less. Sparks and remnants of those feelings remained deep in their heart somewhere, but all in all, they were very satisfied having Luz as a friend rather than a girlfriend. Especially since she was so creative! She had developed a whole story about a fictional realm called the Boiling Isles, a story of a human named Brilla who became the first human-born witch and a witch called Amistad who defied her parents to enter into a forbidden love affair with Brilla. The whole story was so intricate! There was enough to fill maybe six or seven novels at least.

And then, Avery learned that it was no story. Brilla was Luz and Amistad was Luz's girlfriend Amity and magic was real. Really real, not just something that Avery believed in. They saw it with their own eyes. They had proof. They got to meet a real life witch from another dimension, and they even spent a week in the summer in that dimension. They could do magic themself now!

And now, everyone knew magic was real, that the Boiling Isles were real, and Avery was actually hosting a real, actual witch – of an entirely different species! – in their house, who was currently watching the Mariners play in the playoffs on TV and getting just about every aspect of baseball wrong. In fact, Avery wasn't all that sure Gus wasn't doing it on purpose, just to be a troll.

"So…where exactly does the whole dribbling thing come in?" Gus asked.

"That's basketball," Sean said, glaring at him suspiciously. If Gus was trolling them, he was doing it an impressively deadpan manner. "God, I hope they win this year. I am so sick of them losing."

"How often do they lose?" Gus wondered.

Avery sighs. "They haven't even been in the playoffs during my entire lifetime, Gus. It's embarrassing. They're the only team to have never even been in a World Series. Seattle is a laughingstock in the sports world. It's a sad state of affairs."

"Hmm," Gus said, stroking his chin in contemplation. "Maybe they're cursed!" He looked over at Steve, who looked interested in that particular theory, although it was also tinged with amusement. He clearly didn't believe in a curse, but was willing to consider it just for the sake of argument.

"The Chicago Cubs and the Boston Red Sox were both said to have been cursed because they both didn't win World Series for a very, very long time," Steve lectured. He often slipped into lecturing mode whenever something vaguely paranormal was even mentioned. "The Red Sox didn't win the series for 86 years, and the Cubs didn't win for over a century. But both of those curses, if they existed, have been broken."

Sean tilted his head. "So do you believe in curses?"

"'I believe nothing,'" Steve quoted. Avery rolled their eyes. Steve often quoted Charles Fort when he was trying to dodge a question. "'I have shut myself away from the rocks and wisdoms of the ages – '" He trailed off when he saw the look on Avery's face. "I haven't seen any proof of curses being real in the Human Realm. There's not enough magic here to power one, in my opinion."

Sean nodded. "Sorry, Gus, but it's just more probable that the Mariners suck."

"Aha, but how do you know there isn't a curse until you go to this T-Mobile Park and check it out?" Gus said, his voice filled with mischief. He wasn't serious, Avery could tell.

Steve looked pensive. "I don't know, Gus…we'd probably have to break in…" His eyes suddenly filled with a manic glee. "Just kidding, let's break in!" Ah. Avery's father was in another one of his moods again. Every so often, he got worried he was becoming too respectable and decided to do something insanely risky. Well, riskier than normal, at any rate. There was more to it than just the fear of respectability, though – respectability was the watchword of Steve's asshole parents, and, from a certain point of view, Catherine. Steve was petrified of becoming them.

Well, Avery was always up for a little bit of crime, so long as no one got hurt. They were absolutely certain that there was no curse to break, though. As Sean pointed out, it was much more likely that bad management and subpar players were responsible for the Mariners' losses. And if there was a curse, it had probably already been broken, given that the Mariners were a shoe-in for winning the playoffs this year. But, honestly, it did seem interesting to see the bowels of T-Mobile Park in person, and if Gus was breaking into a baseball stadium, he wasn't breaking into a zoo to kill giraffes. Not that he'd so much as mentioned them recently, but still.

So the next day, the four of them drove into downtown Seattle and went over to T-Mobile Park. "Say, Steve, if there is a curse, what do you think is responsible?"

Steve seemed to consider the question seriously. "I really don't have enough information to answer that right now, but if I had to take a stab at it, I'd guess that it had something to do with moving stadiums. The Mariners used to play in the Kingdome, which was demolished in 2000. It wasn't too long afterwards that this 'curse' took effect." But Steve was just making up things off the top of his head, Avery could tell. He didn't believe in a curse.

Nonetheless, Steve had filled an entire backpack up with curse breaking equipment, ranging from the bizarre looking even by his standards to devices that looked very respectable and scientific, at least until you got into what they actually did. If there was a curse to be broken, he had informed Avery, it was his duty as a Seattleite to break it. And even if there wasn't, they might find some sort of unrelated paranormal activity there, such as poltergeists or a crack in realities or something like that. In any event, he was pretty perky about going on a completely unauthorized curse-breaking venture.

It was shockingly easy to break in to the park, to the point where Avery was really quite disturbed by it. Gus simply cast illusions on all of them to look like they were cops and the security staff there bought it all hook, line, and sinker. Law enforcement really wasn't ready for magic, were they? Avery shuddered to think of the damage a malefactor could do with magic in the Human Realm. They could pull off another 9/11…or make it look like a playground brawl.

But that was someone else's problem. Avery was just content to wander around T-Mobile Park as if they had a right to be there. Every time a security guard approached, Gus just recast the illusion, and all was well. Steve used his monitoring equipment to try to look for what he called an imbalance of negative probability ions. Avery was pretty sure he'd just stolen that phrase from the animated show Milo Murphy's Law, but Gus looked impressed, and they didn't want to burst his bubble. Certainly, Avery didn't have any clue how the equipment worked. They were at least 65% sure Steve didn't know either and was making it up from whole cloth. The scientific theories he kept on spouting seemed just way too advanced for a man who didn't even have a college degree.

Soon, the group left the public areas and went into the areas closed off from the public, the part of the stadium where usually only the players had access. Avery was curious to see what the locker rooms looked like firsthand. But as soon as they went into the set of tunnels connecting the various parts of the private part of the stadium with the field and the public parts, Steve's device started beeping incessantly, Gus turned a very unhealthy shade of green, and then Gus threw up his entire lunch on the floor.

"Gus!" Sean called out, as he helped move Gus towards a wall. Gus let out a shriek and resisted Sean, pulling himself away from the wall like his life depended on it. "What's going on, man? Talk to me!"

"You can't see it?!" Gus screamed incredulously. "You're seriously not bothered by this?!" He gestured at the perfectly normal looking walls, and then opened his mouth to speak. "Hang on…oh, very clever. No wonder you can't see it. There's illusion glyphs all over the walls too, preventing humans from seeing it. I'll try to temporarily dispel it…hang on…"

Avery let out a very high pitched scream that they were embarrassed by the instant it left their mouth. But they couldn't help it, because the sight before them was easily the most horrifying and disgusting thing they'd ever seen in their entire life.

Instead of innocuously colored walls, there were dozens of human corpses nailed to the walls. Some of them didn't look all that much older than Avery. All of them had been killed in exceptionally violent ways, with many looking like they'd been mauled by some sort of wild animal. The rest of the wall was absolutely covered in blood, which appeared to have been frozen in place somehow. The only parts of the wall not covered in blood were the parts used to make the aforementioned glyphs. Avery'd seen some intense shit in their life, but this took it to a whole other level.

"My God…" Sean said after at least two minutes of silence. "If this is what the Mariners have been up against, no wonder they keep losing!"

"I think this isn't about a curse anymore," Steve said, looking just as horrified as everyone else. "This has Odalia written all over it. We have to…we have to get out of here and tell someone. The cops…Clawthorne…someone!"

Avery opened their mouth to say something, but before they could, Gus turned them all invisible and reactivated the glyphs. Thankfully, Avery had the presence of mind to stay silent. And a good thing too, because if the three people who rounded the corner of the tunnels had heard them make a single sound, they'd have killed them instantly. But when they saw exactly who those people were, staying silent seemed particularly difficult.

The first person was Odalia. Not that much of a surprise. It wasn't as if there were too many other suspects for being responsible for the mutilated corpses. But the other two were much more surprising. The second individual was none other than Caroline's father, Agent Johnston. A chill would have gone down Avery's back under normal circumstances. They would have wondered if Agent Johnston was there of his own free will, or if he was under mind control, or if he'd secretly been evil all along, or if this was just some creature who looked like Agent Johnston. Hadn't Vee mentioned that other basilisks, for example, existed?

But Avery did not wonder about any of those things, because they were too busy being filled with sheer and unrelenting terror at the identity of the third person: Catherine Harrington. Their mother, in the flesh once again.

"You're absolutely certain that the spell will have a delay to it?" Odalia asked Catherine, her voice smooth as glass and just as dangerous. "That's exceptionally vital. It will allow the chaos to spread as far as possible. Were it to be concentrated here, it could be explained with some sort of a human nerve agent. It must be explicitly supernatural."

"Relax, Mrs. Blight," Catherine said, her voice light and airy. It took all of Avery's self-control not to cry out in pain, because Catherine seemed perfectly fine and calm. She was acting of her own free will, Avery could tell. She even looked happy to be palling around with a woman who was obviously plotting a terrorist act. "I've studied this ritual inside and out. It will work as promised, but remember: It has to be cast at the specific moment denoted by the astrological conjuncture, no earlier, no later. And you'll fill your end of the bargain, yes?"

Odalia gave Catherine a horrifying grin. "Oh, yes, my dear girl. Your daughter will be yours once again. I sympathize with you, you know. My own children have chosen a life of degeneracy, but at least Amity and Emira have not denied the truth of their own gender. It is disgusting and appalling, wouldn't you agree?" She turned to Agent Johnston, who nodded curtly. "You don't look like you're having fun, Mr. Swaard."

Aha! So this was Swaard. That made sense. Avery had always thought the mercenary who had murdered Luz's father had gone down too easily. Wait…oh, shit. That must have meant that Caroline's father was dead. Avery closed their eyes in acknowledgment of what a loss it was. Avery had never been particularly fond of Agent Johnston as a person, but they did have to concede that he'd done a pretty good job as Caroline's father, and Caroline would be absolutely devastated.

"I'm not here to have fun," Swaard said calmly. "I'm here to supervise the creation of the ritual, no more, no less. In my experience, when one abandons a paradigm of rigid professionalism, failure is inevitable." Odalia sniffed, but didn't make a move against Swaard. She must have agreed with him on some level, despite the ridiculous hypocrisy in doing so. "In any case, we have more to do before the day is over, don't we?"

Odalia nodded. "Quite so. You are correct, of course. We must be patient. The Titan has great rewards for those of us who follow his will. And as the sinners of our world will learn, his punishment for those who do not is eternal damnation, with the flames of hell burning the flesh of the sinners for all eternity." She gave a fond grin at that image.

The three malefactors walked down the hallway, thankfully avoiding the invisible forms of their enemies as they did so. It wasn't until several minutes had passed from when Odalia, Swaard, and Catherine left the tunnels that Gus dispelled his invisibility. "Holy shit," Sean muttered. "I don't…we need to do something! We can't let them succeed! How can we stop them?"

"I don't know," Steve admitted. "I think…I think I need to talk to Camila about this. Thank God we managed to transfer Amity out of the Johnston house." Avery's skinned crawled at the thought of Amity living in the same house as a war criminal and a murderer. "No one says a word to anyone until I give the say so, not even Caroline."

"But –"

"No!" Steve practically shouted. "I'm sorry, Avery, but we can't trust her anymore. Odalia could have gotten her hooks into her head during all that time she was living with Swaard. The only reason why I trust the three of you is because if you were enchanted, you'd have revealed us." He put his scanner back in his backpack and looked at the walls again, with a grim expression on his face. "Well…at least something productive came out of today."

Avery just hoped it would be enough to fix things. They were afraid that it wouldn't be.

Amity had forgotten how much she missed spending time one on one with Edric until she started living with him again. She'd also forgotten just how infuriating her brother could be until that started, but, hey, you had to take the good with the bad. And, shockingly, Edric seemed to have matured a lot since coming to the Human Realm. Of course, some of that appeared to be thanks to the good influence of his new boyfriend Hunter, but a surprising amount of it had just been…Edric. He was sick and tired of being what people expected him to be, he had told Amity. He wanted to be himself, and he now appeared to be doing just that.

It was nice, but a part of Amity missed her brother's trickster nature. He was sort of becoming a stick in the mud now. But Edric was a man of extremes, no matter what he did, whether it was rebellion of respectability. He'd mellow out in time, no doubt with Hunter's help. Amity was impressed by how well the two of them worked together. They understood each other's trauma, and they fit each other perfectly. Amity liked Jerbo; she had nothing against him; but he wasn't the right fit for Edric. She hoped Jerbo found a better boyfriend in the future, though. He deserved it.

Amity had decided to spend the whole day with Edric, just having sibling bonding time, and showing him the wonders of the Human Realm. Together, they'd gone to a small town called Snoqualmie, and they'd seen a waterfall that was quite unlike anything Amity had ever seen before. It was not safe to be in the vicinity of waterfalls in the Demon Realm, because the spray could burn your face off. In the Human Realm, though, it was light and misty. Edric laughed the most joyous laugh Amity had ever heard from him when he felt the droplets upon his face. It was awesome. Then they'd had lunch in a restaurant that, according to Gus, served a damn good coffee and slices of cherry pie.

As they were almost done with their meal, a buzzing sound emerged from Amity's pocket as her cell phone – a gift from Caroline – vibrated. She looked at it and saw that Caroline had sent her a text, asking her to meet on the dock of a small lake in Luz's hometown. According to the text, it was a matter of extreme urgency, and she wasn't to tell anyone under any circumstances where she was going or who had sent her the text.

"That Luz texting you?" Edric asked casually, as he savored each bite of his cherry pie.

"Uh, yes," Amity lied. Caroline had sounded pretty freaked out in the text; it was probably a good idea to keep the information to herself until she figured out what was going on. "She wants to meet me by some lake near her house."

Edric gave her a huge grin. "Oh? Going to get to see your girlfriend in a swimsuit, eh, Amity?"

Amity could feel her face practically combusting at the thought. "Uh, no, it's…it's not like that. I'm sure she just wants to, like, talk or something. You mind dropping me off?" Edric had figured out how to drive a car. He was surprisingly good at it, although it was very illegal for him to actually be driving without a license. Well, he had a license, actually, but it was Jacobs' license and right now, Edric was in his normal form.

"Sure," Edric said. He frowned. "I didn't go too far teasing you, did I? I'm trying to…trying to find a balance. I know I've been bad at that in the past."

"If there's a problem, I'll tell you, I promise," Amity assured him.

Edric dropped Amity off at a parking lot at the park where the lake was situated. He didn't seem to have any worries about letting her be by herself for a while. It was certainly a sharp contrast from her living situation with Agent Johnston. She walked through the forest until she reached the dinky dock – which barely even qualified as such – connected to the lake. It really barely even counted as a lake, more like a large pond.

Caroline was standing on the edge of the dock, with her back to the lake, looking absolutely petrified. Agent Johnston was standing next to her, one hand behind Caroline's back. It wasn't until Amity got close that she saw that Agent Johnston had a gun in it. Amity let out a loud gasp. "What the hell is happening here?"

"I'm so sorry," Caroline sobbed. "He said he was going to shoot me if I didn't contact you…"

"It's okay," Amity assured her. "It's not your fault." She turned to look "Agent Johnston" in the eyes. "Swaard, I presume? Your so-called death seemed a bit too…neat for my tastes."

Swaard looked quite impressed with the deduction. "Indeed. You can thank a body swap glyph for that. We're just waiting on your dear mother." Amity stepped forward and prepared to jump off the dock and swim to safety. She knew Caroline would die, but it was better she die and Amity live than both of them face a fate worse than death at Odalia's hands. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. If you cooperate, the worst thing that will happen to Miss Johnston is that she will have her memories of the last few hours wiped. If you do not, her death will last hours."

Amity froze. She knew she should jump. She knew it was the necessary thing to do. She knew that if she didn't, Odalia would break her utterly. But she couldn't. She couldn't leave Caroline in this monster's hands. Amity just wasn't built that way. "Good girl," Swaard said, as if Amity was a dog who had performed a trick.

The three of them stood there in silence for twenty minutes. Swaard tried to make conversation. Amity just refused to speak the whole time. Swaard didn't seem especially bothered. If anything, he seemed just as irritated as Amity did that Odalia was taking so long to arrive. Finally, there was a flash of lightning, and a burst of thunder, and Odalia appeared out of thin air. Amity rolled her eyes at her mother's melodrama.

"Once more, you have failed me," Odalia intoned, and the words that would have filled her with fear and shame just made Amity feel tired. "You were supposed to cast those glyphs that would have drove Lake to madness and made her launch nuclear missiles, but you failed." Amity didn't remember anything about that, but that, knowing Odalia, meant nothing. "Now, she is meeting with Näkijä and having the enchantments stripped of her, and I will have to return to the original plan."

"Let Caroline go," Amity said firmly. "She's innocent in all this."

Odalia twitched her finger and Caroline's legs moved without her consent and threw her into the lake of their own accord. Caroline's eyes were wide with horror as Odalia forced her to dive underneath the lake and stay there. As she made her drown herself second by second. "Apologize for speaking out of turn, child."

Caroline's life was more important than Amity's pride. "I apologize, mother," she said, bowing her head. "I failed you, and I accept full responsibility for my failure."

Odalia gave a neutral hum. It was impossible to know whether or not she was satisfied, but either way, she spun her finger around again and Caroline recovered usage of her body. She managed to make her way back onto the dock and collapsed onto the ground. She was still breathing and conscious, but she was truly out of it. Odalia waved a hand and Caroline's eyes closed. "She is unconscious," Odalia said, her voice lacking in emotion. "I will make you a bargain. Cease your futile resistance of what is coming, and I will let her live, her memories of the last several hours removed."

Amity just had to hope that her mother was good to her word. She usually was, technically speaking, while still finding numerous loopholes to make Amity suffer even more despite fulfilling her end of the bargain. "I promise, mother."

In a way, Amity felt relieved as she felt her mother's magic flowing into her. It had felt inevitable that it would come down to this, that Odalia would get her hooks into Amity's mind and never ever let go. It always had, in a way, even when Odalia was in prison. Amity had known she was living on borrowed time, and now it had finally run out. At least she was going to be able to save Caroline's life. That was an added bonus that gave her some meager level of comfort as she felt that slimy, greasy magic slide into the folds of her mind and then

Amity Blight opened her eyes, and looked around her, absolutely bewildered. She was lying on some hard surface, made of wood. She appeared to be on some sort of dock on a lake. The last thing she remembered, she was preparing for a ball at Blight Manor. She was going to be introduced to several new suitors, and she had just gotten an hour long lecture from Mother about how she was supposed to act. And now she was…here? She must have fallen asleep in her bedroom and started dreaming of being in the Human Realm.

Because she was most definitely in the Human Realm. The foliage matched the trees she'd seen in drawings. The water, she found after experimentally poking at it, was cold. And she was wearing human clothing. But why had she ended up in the Human Realm? There was no way she could be dreaming this. Her dreams were not this vivid.

"Oh, Amity, thank goodness," a voice called out, and Amity turned to see her mother appearing seemingly out of nowhere. "You're free now. Thank the Titan. I was worried the ritual wouldn't work."

"Mother?" Amity said. "What's happening? Are we in the Human Realm?"

Mother looked very concerned. Or at least she had a facsimile of concern. Amity knew by now that Mother didn't let positive emotion show on her face unless it was faked to maximize sympathy. "My dear child, they truly did a number on you, did they not? Tell me, how old do you think you are?"

"Thirteen," Amity said with a frown. "I'm thirteen…right?"

Mother walked over to her and moved an errant strand of Amity's hair – her purple hair, she was stunned to realize – out of Amity's eyes. The gesture was more maternal than any Amity had remembered her doing in ages. "Amity, I'm afraid it's worse than I thought. You've lost all memory of the last two years." Two years?! She'd lost two years?!

Mother gave her the whole story after that. Amity was doing an excellent job, being a perfect daughter (Amity couldn't help but beam at that compliment) when a human arrived at Hexside. The human, Luz Noceda, used love potions to ensorcell Amity and bend her to her will. She'd even forced Amity to give up her own name, to turn against her own family. The notorious Owl Lady, whom Luz served, somehow managed to overthrow and kill Belos through base treachery, then had Amity's parents imprisoned on trumped up charges.

It got even worse after that, and Amity didn't see how that was possible. Her siblings betrayed her, choosing their own degenerate paths over rescuing their own sister from a life of slavery and servitude. Amity herself, thoroughly controlled by love potions and human mind control, renounced Mother and everything she held dear. Mother managed to escape from prison with the help of a human ally, but Father was used as a witch shield by the treacherous prison guards and killed. Amity was lied to, thinking that Mother herself had killed him! It made Amity sick to even think about.

Now Mother was in the Human Realm to rescue her daughter, convince the humans to restore Mother to her rightful throne, and save the realms from sin and degeneracy. She had already managed to cure Amity of the enchantments laid upon her, at the cost of years of memories. Amity was glad. She didn't want to remember all of the perverted things Luz must have forced her to do against her will. She shuddered at the very thought.

"And now, my dear, we come to your role in what is to come," Mother said, her voice honeyed and dangerous, as it always was. "I need you to continue acting as if you are still under Noceda's thrall. I need you to serve as a spy for me. Report on all of their dealings. You must avoid getting caught, because if you do, they will give you a fate worse than death." She cast a spell, and the silver ring on her hand tightened. "I will be able to telepathically monitor your activities through that ring. It was given to you as a promise ring, a symbol of Noceda's so-called love for you. Now it serves a higher purpose."

She stroked Amity's cheek. "I am confident that you will not disappoint me, Mittens," she said, almost sounding fond. "Should you accomplish this task, you will have proven yourself a true Blight."

A true Blight. Amity had yearned to hear those words all her life. "I will not let you down, mother."

Mother then proceeded to introduce Amity to Agent Johnston, who seemed to be part of the Human Realm's equivalent of the Emperor's Coven, or at least the part of it that dealt with lawbreakers. Agent Johnston was a double agent working for Mother. He was supposed to be looking after her in the Human Realm, but now Amity was living with Edric for reasons no one seemed willing to explain to her. Agent Johnston gave Amity a lot of background information, but a lot of it didn't make much sense to her. She would have to improvise.

She was Hexside's top student. She was good at that.

Agent Johnston dropped her off in front of Luz's house, and just left her there without saying goodbye. Amity took a few deep breaths. She could handle this. She was the Amity Blight. She could do anything. She was worthy. She'd prove that.

She held out her hand to knock on the door, but before she could do so, it was opened, and a human girl practically pounced on her with a hug. She was attractive, Amity supposed, if one was into women. But Amity, of course, was not, because true Blights did not indulge in the sin of homosexuality, and she was always a true Blight. Any evidence that she liked girls could be ignored. It had to be, or she would be a failure. A degenerate. A sinner. She'd burn in hell.

"Hey, novia!" Luz said with a perky grin. It took all of Amity's self-control not to scream at her. This girl had defiled her in ways that made Amity queasy to even think about. She had raped her, for the Titan's sake! And she was just acting like all was well. "Haven't seen you in a while!"

"Uh, yeah, I've been kind of busy with…homework. Novia." Amity didn't have any clue what that last unfamiliar word meant, but it seemed to be the right one to use, because Luz just grinned at her. Amity looked at the face of her defiler and felt absolutely nothing but pure, undiluted hatred. She would win this battle of wits. She'd prove to Mother that she could be trusted.

Game on, Luz Noceda. Game on.