Luz just stared at the door to Amity's bedroom, her thoughts swirling in her head and crashing into each other. It was like something out of her worst nightmares, but real. Not only had Amity broken up with her, but she'd done so in a ridiculously homophobic manner, and even though Luz knew that Amity was in worse shape than she was right now, that she was the true victim here, she couldn't help but feel betrayed to the very core of her being.
This wasn't the first time she'd gotten broken up with. Back in the alternate universe, Amity Serrano had broken up with Luz after she found out the truth of Luz's identity, and it had not been a pretty scene, to say the least. But that had been Luz's fault. Well, partially her fault, anyway. As much as Luz had tried to internalize the idea that her actions in the alternate universe had been Zoe's fault, she still felt intensely guilty for lying to and manipulating Amity Serrano. She'd been in the right to break up with Luz, whether or not Luz was ultimately responsible. Luz had chosen, cold-bloodedly, to deceive her.
The point was, this time around, Luz had done absolutely nothing wrong. She'd offered Amity all the support possible, she'd played along with Amity's deception, she'd tried her best to help Amity free herself from Odalia's clutches, and what had she gotten repaid with? This! And to make matters worse, Luz's anger and sadness at being broken up was compounded with guilt over the fact that she was upset with Amity, whose only crime had been not critically thinking enough about Belos' dogma about homosexuality. Odalia was the one responsible for breaking them up, but Amity had delivered the blow herself, and it hurt.
Emira was of no help to her. She magically broke the lock to Amity's bedroom and then went in there to comfort her. As she should; it was her sister, after all. Yet she had still left Luz alone to stew in her grief. If only there was something Luz could do to help Amity! If only there was some way to bring back her memories, even without her consent. True, it was dodgy, but Amity was in no fit state to make these decisions on her own, was she? But Luz didn't know enough about oracle magic to even know where to start. She could go into Amity's head like she did with Willow, but who even knew what she'd face in there?
No, Luz was just going to have to suck it up and avoid her now ex-girlfriend. So much for her vaunted homecoming plans. The dance was coming up very soon, and Luz didn't have a date, and it was such a ridiculously petty thing to be upset about, but damn it, Luz had been planning to show off Amity in front of her whole school for months, even before the Demon Realm was exposed, and now, it was all gone. If she showed up at homecoming dateless, everyone would laugh at her, she knew they would. She might as well show up in her otter onesie, go the whole hog, if she did that.
Luz's face contorted and she realized that she'd been so lost in her own thoughts that she'd barely noticed all the hysterical crying she had been doing. Well, that was not a good sign, in her opinion. But she couldn't bring herself to worry about that. Everything felt dull and hopeless, like all the light had gone out of her life. She wanted to comfort Amity, but she couldn't even bring herself to get off of the couch that she'd somehow managed to sit down on at some point, without any memory of having actually done so. How could she comfort Amity, though? How could she comfort anyone? It didn't feel like there would ever be any more happiness in the world again.
"Guess who's got muffins?!" the jubilant voice of Edric called out, as the front door opened and Hunter and Edric walked into the apartment, Edric holding a tray of the most sumptuous muffins Luz had ever seen in her life. Edric dropped the tray on the floor in shock when he saw the state Luz was in and immediately ran over to her and sat down next to her on the sofa.
"Luz, what the hell happened?" Edric said, his voice panicked. He was worried about her. Well, it was nice to have a Bright who was worried about her for once. "Oh, Titan, did something happen to Amity?"
A fresh wave of tears erupted from Luz, and she somehow managed to explain what had happened between the tears. Edric seemed surprisingly adept at figuring out what she was talking about, which was good news, because Luz didn't think she had sounded coherent in the slightest. After translating it all to Hunter, Hunter sat on the other side of her and gave her a hug. It was a really nice feeling. Was this what having an older brother was like? Luz would have to ask Emira one day, because Amity would never talk to her again.
"I'm going to talk to Amity," Hunter said quietly. "I think I can help her."
"How can you help her?" Luz demanded, and winced at the tone in her voice. She still had a grudge against Hunter for his service to Belos. She knew, objectively, that he was a changed man, but it wasn't like it was easy to flip a switch in her head from Hunter is an enemy to Hunter is an ally. She was getting there, though. The fact that Raine trusted him helped a lot. The fact that he was Edric's boyfriend didn't, though. Luz liked Edric, but there was no doubt that he was a true sucker for a pretty face.
Hunter looked about to say something snarky, but restrained himself. "I was Belos' nephew," he reminded her. "And I'm gay. I think I know a thing or two about overcoming internalized homophobia. If there's anyone who knows exactly what she's feeling right now, it's me." Luz had never thought of it that way.
"Put in a good word for me?" Luz said, intending for it to come off as a joke, but the words sounded deadly serious when they'd come out of her mouth.
"I will," Hunter promised, and then went into Amity's room.
Edric walked over to the dropped tray and picked up the muffins that spilled on the floor. "It's safe, don't worry. The kids I teach tell me that there's something called the five second rule, and apparently it can extend as long as you want as long as you believe? I'm a little fuzzier on that last part." Luz couldn't help but let out a giggle, despite her horrible mood. "Luz, I'm so sorry Amity treated you like that. If I get my hands on that woman…" Luz knew he meant Odalia. "Well, she won't be getting any delicious muffins, that's for sure."
He put the muffins on the coffee table. Luz started eating one. It tasted incredible. "Where did you get these?" she wondered.
"Mrs. MacKinnon, actually," Edric said. "She brought them to the parent teacher conferences. You have got to ask her for the recipe. She wouldn't tell me, but since you and Clara are friends now, maybe she'll tell you?"
Knowing Mrs. MacKinnon, Luz suspected that she would, in fact, zealously guard the recipe, perhaps passing it to Clara when the moment was right. But she didn't want to burst Edric's bubble, not after he was being so kind to her. "I just…can't believe she'd treat me like this." Edric thankfully got that she was referring to Amity, not Mrs. MacKinnon. "She wasn't like this when we got to know each other!"
Edric sighed. "Yeah, that's not true, I'm sorry to say. You missed Amity's big sexuality crisis the first time. It happened…off-camera, is that what they say?" Luz nodded. "It was bad. It was extremely unpleasant for all involved. Her, me, Emira. We all suffered through it. Honestly, I'm not sure how she got past it. She just seemed to move all of a sudden from 'oh my Titan, I've got a crush on the human and I'm gonna burn in hell' to 'oh my Titan, I've got a crush on the human and I have no clue how I'm gonna ask her to Grom.'"
Luz appreciated how Edric was trying to make her feel better by telling her that she had been Amity's Grom crush the whole time, despite how preposterous the idea was and the fact that he was obviously utterly wrong about that. "What can I do to help her?"
"I'm sorry, Luz, but right now, any contact you have with her is only going to make things worse," Edric said, sounding genuinely sorry. "But this isn't her first time going through this. She came out the other side – no pun intended – before. She'll do it again." He put a hand on her shoulder. "I know you were looking forward to going to homecoming. Is there someone else who'll go with you?"
Luz shook her head. "I'm not going to homecoming." Without Amity to dance with, Luz had absolutely no interest in a school dance. It was a waste of her time, and the whole thing would make her depressed. She'd spend the evening watching movies or something like that. True, she'd gone with Gus at the Grom in the parallel universe, but she'd had a reason to go then that didn't involve Amity, namely supporting Avery in their role as Grom monarch. There was no such commitment involved here.
"Luz, I'm so sorry this happened to you," Edric said. He walked over to the kitchen and came back with a pill and a glass of water. "This is a mild tranquilizer. It'll calm you down a little."
Under ordinary circumstances, Luz would not be in the habit of taking unfamiliar pills, especially from Edric, whom she knew had been dabbling in microdosing recently, but these circumstances were far from ordinary. Almost immediately after taking the pill, she felt calmer, although she wasn't sure whether or not it was just the placebo effect.
"I think I've got to go now," Luz admitted. "I feel terrible leaving Amity like this, but…I have to get out of here. Please call me if there's anything I can do to help." She would go back home, she decided. Camila and Willow would both help her through her slump. Willow knew a thing or two about Amity suddenly cutting off all ties with her, after all. She grabbed the muffin tray and started eating them as soon as she was out of the house. It was a long, long walk back to her house from Edric's apartment, but the fresh air would do her some good.
"Hey, save some for me!" a voice called out, and Luz walked headfirst into a lamppost. After making sure she didn't have a concussion, she turned around to see Lucia, just casually standing in the middle of the street waving at her.
Luz blinked repeatedly. "You…you're not real."
"Well, that is a good reason not to save some for me," Lucia conceded. "But, come on, at least save some for Mami! She deserves to savor that delicious muffin-y goodness. Yeah, that pill Edric gave you – kind of thinking it wasn't a tranquilizer."
"Get out of the road!" Luz shouted. "You're gonna get run over!"
Lucia waved a hand dismissively. "Come on! I'm a hallucination. There's no way I'm even capable of getting run over," she asserted, just moments before a bus plowed straight through her and threw her several dozen feet away, leaving her lying on a bloody heap near the sidewalk. "Ow," she kvetched. "That really hurt, you know! Seriously, I love your vivid imagination, Luz, but does it have to be that vivid?"
She snapped her fingers and then she was completely healed. She then proceeded to hug Luz in a motion that felt real and incredibly tangible, to say nothing of comforting. She had missed her older sister. Lucia and Luz started walking side by side. "Did you hear you were modeled after Mami as a girl?" Luz asked her, her voice teasing.
"Yeah, that's wild," Lucia said, sounding amazed. "Still, there's no one I'd rather be modeled after. No worthier legacy to take up." She looked Luz in the eyes, the one and only individual from whom Luz was capable of tolerating eye contact. "I am so sorry about Amity. Oh, Luz, you didn't deserve it. Not this time."
"It's not fair!" Luz raged, not caring how petty she sounded, or the fact that she was stomping her foot on the ground like she was a little girl throwing a temper tantrum, or the fact that she was, in fact, doing this to thin air in actuality and that passersby were giving her very strange looks. "It's not fair at all. Don't you know anything that can be done to help her?"
"Yeah, if you mean with regards to getting back her memories, that'd be a no. Remember, I don't have access to anything you don't got. Other than stuff you've forgotten, and, no, I got nothing from there either." Lucia put a hand on Luz's shoulder. "Amity's sibs and Hunter have got her covered. You should focus on you."
Luz raised an eyebrow. "Really? I thought you were the part of me that hated myself, that punished myself."
"You're growing up," Lucia said, sounding insanely fond of Luz. "And you're moving on. And that means so am I. We've both come so far. So did Amity. She'll be back to her old self as soon as we can get her memories back, and if we can't…then she'll be back there eventually. Maybe not with us, but still."
Luz and Lucia chatted over just about everything Luz could think of. Good Witch Azura theories, her fears for the future, her desire to stick Odalia's face into a blender and just start churning. Normal teenage stuff like that. It felt liberating to have someone to talk to who wouldn't judge her for anything. Of course, the converse was definitely not true.
"And oh my gosh, did you see the size of her breasts?" Lucia said, a bit of drool coming out of her mouth, just as they approached Luz's house. "They were the perfect size, not too small, not too big, just right. Goldilocks style. God, I can't wait to get my hands on them. When she's in a fit state to consent again, of course."
"Lucia!" Luz said, scandalized. "You can't talk about our girlfriend like that!"
"Relax, Luz, it's not like I'm talking about certain other parts she had on display," Lucia said with a wink, and Luz's face went so red it rivaled Amity's in full tomato mode. "Anyways, this is happening inside your head, despite how it looks. You shouldn't feel guilty about what you think, just what you do."
Luz took a few deep breaths. "It's still not appropriate. She's in a very difficult state right now. I won't have you objectifying her."
"You mean you won't have you doing that," Lucia reminded her. "You're me and I'm you. That's how it works."
"I hate you," Luz muttered.
Lucia winked at her. "Leave the self-hatred to me, hermanita," she said. "I'm better at it. More practice, you know."
The bottom suddenly dropped out of Luz's stomach as a horrible thought occurred to her. "Was it your fault I almost killed myself?" she whispered.
"I seem to recall a certain cheerleading captain being responsible," Lucia reminded her. "In all honesty, Luz, I only acquired a concrete form when you interacted with the Boiling Isles' magical field. I think. I'm not really sure that there was a me back then. But if there was…then I think I was the one who convinced you to put the knife down."
Luz sighed. She had feared as much. "Okay, but if –"
Lucia put a hand up. "It's not good for us to focus on that too much, okay? There's a reason we repressed all this. Hey, I'm an inner self on a mission here! I'm gonna get you out of the dumps if it's the last thing I do! We're gonna eat popcorn and watch cheesy movies and mock the awful special effects, and you're gonna be happy, darn it!"
"Yeah!" Luz shouted, as she opened the door and walked into the house, setting the muffin tray down on the living room's coffee table. "You're right! If I let this get me down, I'm just letting Odalia win, aren't I?"
"Luz, who are you talking to?" the bewildered voice of Camila asked, and Luz jumped in the air in fright as she saw her mami sitting in an armchair of the living room, watching television. "Did you get some sort of new telepathy glyph?"
Luz opened her mouth to say something, but then stopped. If Camila found out Luz had taken some random pill, she'd be in big trouble. Sure, it was from Edric, but, really, Edric wasn't exactly a medical expert, not like Camila. Surely, it was better to keep all this from Camila.
That was, after all, what she told herself time and time again over the years. She'd only get upset. She's working so hard, why burden her with your problems? And, of course, the age old fun worry of, if I cause her too much trouble, will she send me away and/or stop loving me? It wasn't entirely rational, but Luz's inner self and rationality didn't always mix.
"Hey, don't blame this on me!" Lucia said, sounding genuinely angry. "This is you all the way, Luz. I'm just a figment of your imagination. You're the one who thought all that stuff, not me. She's gonna understand. You know she's gonna understand."
"I don't need her pity," Luz spat, matching Lucia's tone.
"Yes, you do!" Lucia shouted, and Luz couldn't help but flinch. "You need her pity, Luz. You need her love, her affection. You need her to do for you what Emira is doing for Amity. Tell her the truth, for God's sake. Also, do it quickly, because right now, you're kind of talking to thin air."
Luz turned her head quickly to look at the thoroughly alarmed Camila. Her cell phone was already in her hands. "Luz, either you tell me what's going on right now, or I'm going to call Dr. Henderson, and you can tell him."
Luz put her hands in the air in a gesture of placation. "Okay, okay! Edric gave me a hallucinogen that's causing me to see Lucia. Remember her? My inner self?" It was very odd, but somehow this was not causing Camila to look any less alarmed. Luz had no idea why. "I mean, I think it was an accident; he thought he was giving me a tranquilizer, but he mixed up the pills."
Lucia snapped her fingers suddenly. "Hey, you should use an illusion glyph to let her see and communicate with me! I bet you could totally do that!"
That was actually a very good idea now that Luz thought about it. It would probably help Camila think she was less crazy than she actually was if she had real, tangible proof of Lucia in front of her. And…there was a small part of her that kind of wanted to see how Camila would react to seeing a copy of her younger self in the nonexistent flesh.
"Luz, you can't just take random pills people give you!" Camila said, sounding panicked. "I know you and Edric are friends, but he is not a medical professional, and –" Luz was getting sick and tired of being lectured, so she cast the illusion glyph. There wasn't any change from her perspective, but there must have been from Camila's perspective, because she let out a loud shriek and a half-horrified, half-wonderous look came on her face.
"Hi, mami!" Lucia said with a wave. "Nice to finally meet you."
"Dios mío," Camila whispered. "Luz wasn't kidding. You really look just like I did. It's like a window into the past." She got up, stepped over to Lucia, and then she pulled la chancla out of her purse and tried to smack Lucia upside the head with it. It went straight through her intangible form, but Lucia yelped in pain as if it had not. Huh.
"What was that for?!" Lucia shouted.
"That was for hurting my daughter," Camila said, her voice ice cold. "You knocked her unconscious and almost tortured Amity. Or have you forgotten about that?" Lucia looked down at the floor, ashamed. "Luz thinks of you as her older sister. I expect you to act accordingly, am I understood? You will not ever hurt her again."
"Sí, mami," Lucia mumbled.
Camila gave her a sudden warm smile. "Very good, mija. I'm sure there won't be much more to worry about, yes? I know I raised a good daughter, and that applies to every part of her, including you." She looked over at Luz. "Unless I miss my mark, this isn't the only thing going on right now, though."
Luz held her head up high, unwilling to show a single sign of weakness, and then despite her best efforts, she burst into tears. "Amity broke up with me, mom!" she managed to get out.
"Oh, Luz," Camila said, helping her over to the couch. Lucia sat on one side of her and Camila sat on the other and both of them cuddled her. She felt safe in their arms. Thanks to the power of Luz's imagination, Lucia's embrace felt just as real and powerful as Camila's. "I am so, so sorry."
"Emira told her the truth, and now she says I turned her gay, mom! And…she said she doesn't even wanna be my friend! She doesn't want her memories back! She's too afraid of burning in hell!" Camila winced. "I don't know what to do. And meanwhile, I can't get my giraffing act together and support her in her time of need, because I'm just too upset. I should be there for her, but I can't!"
Camila looked somewhat disappointed. "Luz, your feelings are completely valid here. You got dumped, and very cruelly too. But that's not the Amity you knew. I'm sure when we get back her memories, she'll be with you again."
"She doesn't want them back," Luz reminded her.
Camila crossed her arms suddenly, looking uncomfortable. "Luz…when Amity tried to seduce you, you knew that succumbing would have been wrong, right?" Luz nodded. "Because she wasn't in her right mind. Well, the same principle applies here. Amity is not able to give informed consent right now. Under the laws of the Boiling Isles, her guardian, Emira, thus will be making these decisions for her, and I have no doubt she will decide to get Amity her memories back, whether she wants them or not."
Luz nodded slowly. She kind of felt relieved by that, even though some part of her felt guilty for it. "So your suggestion is to just suck it up until Amity gets her memories back?"
Camila made a so-so gesture. "I wouldn't have put it quite like that, but…yes. Amity is not herself without her memories. One might even go so far as to call her an entirely different individual, especially given how much she's changed since the point she was regressed to." She gave an encouraging smile to Luz. "It's going to be okay. Eda's going to get Näkijä here if she can, and if she can't, she'll speak to every expert in the Oracle Coven until she finds someone who will fix Amity."
"Mami's right," Lucia said, her voice strong. "This is just temporary, Luz. Hell, things could be back to normal by the time homecoming rolls around, for all you know."
Camila stood up from the couch. "Now, I'm going to get you some ice cream, because I'm given to understand that's traditional after a breakup. And I'm hungry." She pointed at the empty muffin tray. "I see you didn't save any muffins for me. I'll forgive you this once because of the extenuating circumstances, but next time, you will have no such excuse."
"Okay, mami," Luz said with a smile. "Thank you."
A lot of people had written Caroline off as stupid, just because she was blonde or a girl or could be quite scatterbrained when she didn't have enough caffeine in her. They all learned otherwise, often to their great detriment. She wasn't exactly a genius, but she knew how to use the intelligence she had more effectively than most people did. She knew what she wanted and how to use what she had to get it, and that was a lot more than most people were even capable of.
When she'd entered high school, she was relieved to make friends, because they'd been few and far between back at her old middle school. It wasn't as if she was hated, but she just blended in. She was just a part of the scenery. Oh, that's Caroline, nice girl, but a little vacant. She'd sort of slipped through the cracks, socially. But she'd persevered, and gotten a prime slot in the school newspaper and joined a D&D club, even though her peers wrote that sort of thing off as nerdy.
Sean was the only exception to her lack of friends, her one and only friend through most of her middle school tenure. Caroline had rescued him from bullies on the first day there – people in the Pacific Northwest liked to brag about how inclusive they were, but according to Sean, there was still a lot of racism simmering beneath the surface – and from then on, they became fast friends. She'd never considering dating him before he asked her out in eighth grade, but she'd didn't have anything against the idea, so she'd gone on a date with him. Caroline had worried it would make things weird, but it didn't. Sean was a caring and solicitous boyfriend, charming and funny. Caroline had really hit the jackpot with him.
When she joined the D&D club, Caroline made two new friends, both of whom had gone to a different middle school. Avery Harrington was rumored to be a crackpot, insane as their father, but even though they did believe in some off the wall stuff, Caroline thought they were as sane as she was. And even if they weren't, it wouldn't have stopped her from befriending them. Avery was like a cactus. Very prickly on the outside, but sweet on the inside.
And then, of course, there was Luz Noceda. Luz was very difficult to keep up with – she seemed to think at a million miles an hour – but the rewards of doing so were plentiful. She had an extremely vivid imagination, telling fantastical stories that Caroline had thought at the time she made up. She was exceptionally loyal to her friends. And she kept bullies away – every time someone tried to bully them, Luz would have a one on one with them and they'd never do it again. Caroline didn't ask how she accomplished this; she wanted to maintain plausible deniability.
Unlike Avery, who had believed the tales from the start, and Sean, who had at least suspected there was some truth to them, Caroline did not believe Luz's stories of the Boiling Isles were anything more than a very elaborate – and very impressive – work of fiction. She was eagerly looking forward to the day when Luz put them to paper and she got to read what was almost certainly going to become a bestselling series of fantasy books before anyone else could. Luz, Caroline believed, had the potential in her to be the next J. K. Rowling. And, bonus, she wasn't transphobic!
When spring break started, Caroline had heard rumors of how Luz's girlfriend Amity had beaten up Erik with her bare hands, but she'd dismissed them, especially after Luz denied them point blank. She was looking forward to meeting Amity, who seemed like a fascinating individual from all of Luz's many stories about her. If she only knew just how fascinating she was!
So when Amity finally showed up to meet them at Emerald City Comic Con, Caroline certainly wasn't expecting her to be anything more than a mundane, normal human. And she'd sure acted like one, right until Sean had mentioned the stage magic Luz mentioned Amity was into, and then she'd started screaming at them, and conjured a flame in her hands out of thin air.
Amity wasn't human. She didn't go to a boarding school in Canada. She was an honest to goodness magical creature from another world. Caroline had considered herself a serious, rational person, grounded in the real world right up until that moment, when she learned that there was more than one real world to be grounded in.
It was the coolest moment of her entre life.
Sure, some people may have freaked out in that scenario, especially given how upset Amity had gotten. But not Caroline. She trusted Luz, Luz trusted Amity, and so Amity could be trusted, as simple as that. It was shocking to her, how easy it was to get used to the idea of all those things she had taken for granted, like magic and fantasy worlds not being real, being ripped away from her. But then again, she'd always been a resilient girl. Nothing had truly changed. Luz was still the same amazing friend she always had been; she just had a few secrets, that was all.
For months, Caroline's life was normal and then, with absolutely no advanced warning in any way whatsoever, the Demon Realm's existence was revealed to the public and everything Luz was hiding from everyone became common knowledge. In a way, it was kind of cool. Caroline was sort of a celebrity by proxy – something she ruthlessly leveraged to get businesses purchasing advertisements for the school newspaper, which became markedly easier after Luz did the one and only interview she'd ever done in it.
And then things got even cooler, because Amity got to stay at her house for a foreign exchange program. Sure, Caroline's dad had been acting all weird about the whole thing – especially after Swaard had attacked the house. He'd been acting kind of weird in general. But it wasn't easy to have one's whole worldview altered. Even Caroline had difficulties. She hadn't admitted it to anyone, but Amity had gotten her subconscious all rattled, even if her conscious mind was totally cool with her; she'd had nightmares about the abominations witch killing her violently for weeks. But she got over them.
Caroline didn't think things could get any cooler than that, but they did, because she got to go to the White House and meet the president! And, sure, they ran headfirst into a coup attempt after that, and some skeleton army attacked the White House, but you really had to take the good with the bad.
But not too long after Caroline came back, something weird happened. Caroline was left with a several hour long gap in her memories. And the clothes she had been wearing at the beginning of the gap were missing from her closet; she'd been wearing a completely different set at the end of it. Magic was obviously afoot. After this happened, her friends started ignoring her and dodging all her requests to meet up, and Caroline believed there had to be a correlation.
If she'd known there was a decent chance her memories would end up being messed with, she'd have recorded the incident on her phone, or at least tried. And sure enough, when she pulled up her phone's recording app, there it was. A recording of her lost time. And it was definitely one of those careful what you wish for scenarios, because it turned out that her father, the one who'd comforted her after the attempted coup, who'd sworn to protect her from all threats, had been replaced by Swaard.
Just that alone was enough to make Caroline wish she had stayed ignorant. She'd lived in the same house as her best friend's father's killer! Caroline's mom had kissed the man! They'd had dates! Caroline didn't even want to think about how much farther things could have gone between the two of them.
But that wasn't the only thing on the recording. Amity had been brainwashed, turned into a compliant slave of her mother, her memories of the previous two years removed. Caroline was almost killed, nearly drowned in what appeared to be some sort of body of water, possibly a lake. And then her memories were altered. Odalia had been in her head. It was a violation that Caroline was determined not to process until she had the time to break down.
No wonder everyone had been avoiding her. It was the sensible approach; there was no telling if Caroline had been just as brainwashed as Amity was. But according to the recording, the only thing that had happened to her mind was having her memories erased. No doubt under ordinary circumstances, Swaard would have checked her phone, but he must have assumed that her time in the lake had rendered it inoperable, unaware that Caroline had used glyph magic to waterproof her phone. It was a lucky break. Caroline was pretty sure she wouldn't get another one.
In a sense, though, not being trusted by her friends was a good thing. It meant that when Caroline made her move, no one would see it coming. Caroline was used to being underestimated; now she was going to use it to her advantage.
On the day of the homecoming dance, her mother had already gone to work and Swaard was preparing to leave for her dad's workplace. He'd already gone through most of her dad's morning routine. It was impressive, how well he'd slipped into the role. Caroline was ashamed that she hadn't suspected him for a minute. But there was one final step to go before he left, and he was going to find it impossible. Caroline had made sure of it.
Caroline watched as Swaard walked into her father's bedroom, opened the safe that her father thought he'd well secured (unaware that Caroline had known the combination since she was nine; seriously, it's not good security to use one's anniversary date as a code), and didn't find what he was looking for.
"Looking for this?" Caroline said sweetly, as she walked into the bedroom and pointed her father's pistol at Swaard's chest. Trick shots, Caroline's father had always taught her, were a myth of the movies. In real life, one could not get a headshot or a shot to the limbs unless one was extremely good, and even then, it was almost always a crapshoot. One should always aim and fire at the center mass.
"What the hell are you doing, Caroline?" Swaard said, his eyes widening in fear. It was a very convincing performance. Caroline didn't give a damn. There was nothing he could say or do to convince her to give up. "That's not a toy! Put it down now!"
Caroline stepped forward, but made sure not to get close enough so that she was within grappling distance. She would not allow Swaard a chance to take the gun out of her hands. She wasn't some amateur. Okay, she was, in terms of experience, but she still had knowledge most amateurs didn't have. Her father had taught her a great deal about these things. And thanks to Swaard, he'd never teach her anything again.
"Jy het my pa vermoor," she said coolly. God, she hoped she was pronouncing it right. And that she was saying the right thing. She'd memorized the Afrikaans words from Google Translate. "Ek het die bewyse."
"You don't have any evidence," Swaard said with a confident laugh. "That's…preposterous…" He trailed off as he realized that he had just answered an statement in Afrikaans. Caroline's father didn't speak a word of Afrikaans. "How did you figure it out?"
"I made my phone waterproof and recorded the whole conversation," Caroline responded. Why hide it? She thought she detected a glimmer of respect in Swaard's eyes. It was anything but mutual. "And now, I'm going to do something about it."
Swaard raised an eyebrow, looking amused. "Really? Just what do you intend to do about it, then? Shoot me? You really think you have what it takes to shoot me? When I look just like your father?"
"Yes," Caroline said, and she shot him in the stomach.
The sound of the gunshot echoed throughout the room as Swaard clutched her father's stomach with a mixture of shock and pain on his face. She hoped the neighbors weren't able to hear the shot. "I'd kindly request at this point you stop underestimating me," Caroline said, her voice as cold as ice. "You might live longer that way."
Swaard nodded slowly. Caroline could see that he would do just that from now on. He took her seriously. Good. It was about time someone did. "You're not going to kill me, or you'd have done it already. So you must want something. Intelligence about Odalia's plans, I presume?"
"What I want is for you to do exactly what I tell you to," Caroline responded. She took out a healing glyph from her jacket and dropped it on the floor, sliding it across with her shoe. Camila had made sure to impress upon her the importance of always keeping healing glyphs on her person now that she was able to wield glyph magic. "Pick it up and activate it." Swaard obeyed. The wound healed nearly instantly. It was an impressive thing to see.
"You are truly a force of nature, Miss Johnston," Swaard said. "The princess chose well when she acquired your fealty. Oh, yes. You're just an asset to her. Or did you believe she cared about you?" Caroline rolled her eyes at his ridiculous mind games. If Luz was even capable of doing intrigue, Caroline would eat her metaphorical hat.
She waved the gun in his direction for emphasis and he shut up. "We're getting in my father's car," she announced. "You're going to drive us to the consulate, where you'll be delivered into the custody of Consul General Whispers. And then you had best hope that the prime minister will be merciful to the man who murdered her daughter's father."
Swaard looked a bit panicky now, as if it was finally sinking in just how screwed he was. But he didn't try to escape, not now that he knew that Caroline was both able and willing to shoot him. He got into the car. Caroline sat in the backseat, keeping the gun hidden in the sleeve of her jacket, but making it very clear that she could shoot him at any time. Truth be told, she was absolutely terrified. She had never done anything remotely risky, not truly, in her life before, and now she was committing a totally unauthorized extrajudicial rendition. She didn't know if her father would be appalled or proud of her. Probably a mixture of both.
Caroline was worried Swaard would try to trick her somehow as he made his way towards Seattle, maybe even crash the car, but he didn't do any such thing. "Why aren't you more nervous?" Caroline demanded.
"I know a thing or two about realpolitik, Miss Johnston," Swaard responded. "The rather unique insider knowledge I have of the American intelligence community's stance towards the Demon Realm – and the many, many contingency plans I, in the guise of your father, helped them craft – makes me quite the chess piece indeed. To say nothing of the information I know about Odalia's plans, and even Arend's. I am not nervous because I am confident I can end this in a better position than when I started."
Caroline would have shot him again if he wasn't driving, because the answer was so infuriating. He was right, of course. That was what made it so infuriating in the first place. His knowledge probably would end up getting him pardoned, especially if it could be used to thwart Odalia. She would have to deal with that when it happened. For now, the important thing was getting Amity back to normal. If the man who killed Caroline's father had to walk free to accomplish that, then so be it.
Caroline was absolutely petrified someone would notice her holding the gun to Swaard's back under the sleeve of her jacket as they walked to the embassy's gates, but no one did. She gave a polite smile at the gate guard, a ferocious looking creature with eyes all over him (no doubt a useful trait in a guard). "Hello," she said in her most gracious voice. "I have a message for Consul General Whispers. Tell him that Caroline Johnston is here to see them, and that I've captured Swaard."
The guard let out a surprised gasp, and then quickly radioed his superior for backup. Caroline hoped it wouldn't take too long. She had a homecoming dance to not attend, after all.
It was funny how much Luz's life had changed. It was homecoming, she didn't have a date, and instead of this being par the course for her life, it was totally against the natural order of things. Once upon a time, Luz not having a date for a dance would have been the least surprising thing in the universe; now it was extremely surprising. When Luz got her hands on Odalia…well, she never considered herself terribly vindictive, but she was more than willing to make an exception for that bitch.
At least even though she was going to have an extremely depressing evening reading fanfic and trying not to be jealous that everyone else was going to be having more fun than she was, they would indeed be having fun. Willow and Clara would get a chance to show the world just how much their significant other meant to them. Sean and Caroline were going together. Heck, even Avery had a date with Steph Monmouth, the new head of the cheerleading squad. Luz suspected Steph was just doing it as a favor for Clara, but Avery was really excited nonetheless. Edric, for once under his own face, was going to the dance with Hunter, and Viney had actually made a visit to the Human Realm to spend the evening with Emira. And Camila and Raine were on a date of their own, at Luz's insistence. She wanted to wallow in her own misery.
Amity, of course, also had a date. And it wasn't Luz. At this rate, it would never again be Luz.
Luz put a Nirvana album on, lay down on her couch, and looked at her account on AO3, just to see if she had gotten any comments on her fics recently. And there were tons of them! Wow. It was like her popularity had skyrocketed overnight. Perhaps Phalanx had recommended her fic on her Tumblr? She'd done that once, and now that author's work was the most kudoed work in the Good Witch Azura fandom.
She opened her inbox, and then the words "DIE WITCH WHORE DIE" were staring her in the face.
The bottom dropped out of Luz's stomach, as she read email after email of people sending her violent, homophobic messages, some of which detailed the things they intended to do to her in horrifying detail.
She'd gotten doxed.
After all the time she'd spent keeping her identity a secret, sectioning off the part of her that wrote Good Witch Azura fanfic so that she at least had a part of her that was hers and hers alone, Luz had gotten doxed. Her works would never be judged on the quality of their prose exclusively ever again. It would be political now, always and forever. The one part of her life that didn't have anything to do with her role of the princess of the Boiling Isles was gone.
It had been a long time since Luz felt as low as she did. She almost preferred to have gone to homecoming, to see Amity dance with a man, to this atrocity. A part of her worried that she was making too big a deal of it, but that part of her was secondary to the part of her that wanted her to scream in rage and sorrow. Actually, she was alone. What was stopping her?
So Luz screamed in rage and sorrow again and again and again, and that was why she missed the knocking on her front door and the ringing of her cell phone and pretty much everything else until, with a ginormous smashing sound, the door was ripped off its hinges and Vee stormed into the room in full basilisk mode, looking epically pissed off.
"Vee? What are you doing here?" Luz asked, completely bewildered. Xe was supposed to be at the homecoming dance; it was in full swing by that point.
Willow and Clara both stepped into the house. "Never mind that, Luz!" Willow said urgently. "You've been screaming for five minutes straight! Is it Odalia? Havik?"
Luz laughed nervously. "Uh, nothing like that. My AO3 account got doxed." Clara winced, whereas the Demon Realm residents stared at her blankly. "The website where I post my fanfics, someone found out about my account and a lot of people posted hate comments."
"Oh, Luz, I'm so sorry," Willow said. She didn't really understand fanfiction, Luz knew, but she knew how important it was to Luz.
"Yeah, well, never mind about that," Luz said, trying to put a cheery face on things like she always did. "What are you doing here? You're missing the dance!"
Willow crossed her arms, looking slightly disappointed. "Luz, did you really think we were going to leave you here to just mope all evening? Of course not."
"But…but…Vee, you were looking forward to it so much!" Luz protested. "And, Clara, you're the class president! It's your job to attend these events!"
"Actually, I wasn't feeling comfortable going," Vee admitted. "I…kind of don't like those events. Everyone stares at me, and it makes me feel like a freak." Luz blinked. Xe had seemed so comfortable at Grom. "I went to Grom with Willow because she asked me to be her datemate at the same time, and I thought they were linked, that one was a condition of the other."
"Which they weren't," Willow said, sounding as if she'd said it several times already. "But I'm sorry I made you think they were. I didn't realize how little you knew about these sorts of relationships." She gave a fond smile. "I figured since you were so cute, it wasn't your first go on the dating scene!"
Clara walked over to Luz's couch and sat down on it. "Vee confided xyr fears in us, and we decided we'd all be much happier if we were here instead. And don't worry about me getting into trouble. I just told everyone I'm sick. In a sense, that's half-true – I'm lovesick for a certain basilisk!" Vee let out an adorable squeal.
Willow gave a warm smile at Luz. "We're here to keep you company, so you don't get lonely. Sean and Caroline will be along soon too."
"Not Avery?" Luz asked, trying not to be too disappointed, or at least not openly.
"By the time we all came up with the idea, it was too short notice," Clara explained. "They didn't feel right about suddenly dumping Steph on the day of the homecoming dance, not when she's so psyched about going on a date with them." She gave a conspiratorial grin at Luz. "Don't tell anyone I told you this, but Steph's kind of had a crush on Avery for ages." Luz was pleased to hear that. Avery deserved to find someone who liked them, since Luz was unavailable. Well, had been. It was ironic that Avery had stopped being single at nearly the exact same moment Luz had become single once more.
Willow used some construction magic to repair the door. Her talent would always be in the arena of plants, but she was also dabbling in several other areas of magic recently. Her construction skills would never be at the level of, say, Amity Serrano, but she knew enough to help Camila with some home improvements. Then the four of them proceeded to start watching the Star Wars films, after Clara admitted, in a rather horrifying turn of events in Luz's opinion, that she'd never actually gotten around to watching them. Vee hadn't seem them either, though xe at least had a legitimate excuse. Willow, on the other hand, had been dragooned into watching them by Luz.
They were going to be watching the Original Trilogy that evening, of course, because while Luz may have possibly forsaken her God by engaging in acts of witchcraft, she wasn't a monster. Sean and Caroline showed up midway through A New Hope, bearing huge bags of potato chips. Willow ordered pizzas for everyone, making it very clear to Clara that, despite her love of pepperoni pizza, no pepperoni was allowed even in her vicinity.
Luz was worried Vee might find the films too traumatizing, especially when Vader trotted out the torture droid, but it didn't appear xe had any more adverse reaction to the whole thing than a normal human would to a horror film. Xe cried for ten minutes straight when Alderaan got blown up, though. Luz was pretty certain xe had forgotten that it was a work of fiction at that point.
"I don't understand why there has to be a love triangle between Han, Luke, and Leia," Vee complained as they were watching the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back. "Can't the three of them just be together? They clearly all love each other." Everyone shared an identical horror filled look, even Clara, who must have learned of Luke and Leia's relationship by cultural osmosis. Luz didn't know how to react to that without spoiling the films.
"Do…do you all have a problem with polyamory?" Vee said quietly. "I'm not…I've heard what people say about me. They've said I'm a slut, that I'm greedy, that I'm corrupting good human women with my insatiable lust."
Clara burst out into near hysterical laughter. "Oh my gosh, Vee, you're like the purest soul I know! You don't have a mean bone in your body! If anyone's doing the corrupting around here, it's probably me!"
"But…but…"
"They're siblings," Sean said bluntly. Caroline glared at him. "I'm sorry, Caroline, normally I'm fanatical about not spoiling people, but this is messing Vee up. Luke and Leia are secretly brother and sister, and that's why we're uncomfortable with the idea of them dating each other, no other reason."
Vee put xyr head in xyr hands. "Oh, Titan, I must have sounded so silly."
"Hey, no, I'm glad you told us about your concerns," Clara said gently. "They're important. You can't let the haters get you down, Vee. It's impossible to please everyone. What matters is that you're happy."
"Yeah!" Luz shouted. She slammed her fist into her palm. "You let me at those people who're badmouthing my friend! They'll be a bloody smear on the carpet when I'm done with them! Metaphorically," she hurriedly added, just in case Vee was taking her seriously; xe wasn't all that good with figurative language, not unlike Luz, actually.
With that misunderstanding cleared up, they started watching the rest of the movie. Vee thought that Yoda was the cutest thing on two feet. Luz resolved to show xyr The Mandalorian. If xe thought Yoda was that cute, xe'd explode from cuteness overload when xe saw Grogu. Wait, that wasn't a thing that could literally happen, could it? No, probably not. She should probably consult with Viney just in case, though. But thinking of Viney meant thinking of Amity at the same dance, and that made Luz sad.
"WHAT?!" Vee screamed when Darth Vader revealed he was Luke's father. "But…but he just cut Luke's hand off, like, less than a minute ago! And now he wants him to join him?! That's messed up!"
"I know, right?" Luz enthused. "I bet him and Odalia would get along pretty well."
Return of the Jedi ended up going much more smoothly. Vee was terrified by the Ewoks, for some reason. Although xyr reactions were genuine for the most part, Luz suspected xe was deliberately playing it up when xe noticed that xyr fear got xyr girlfriends cuddling xyr more intensely than average. Not that Luz had any room to complain, having used that trick on Amity herself a few times before. And, of course, everyone was crying tears of joy when Vader turned against the emperor and threw him into the bottom of a reactor shaft. Vee was particularly satisfied, and for good reason given xyr own personal reasons for disliking evil emperors.
"Aw, man, that was one of the best evenings I've had in ages," Sean said when they were finally done watching the movie. "So much better than some lame dance would have been."
Caroline looked around her, suddenly, a panicked look on her face. "Luz, where's Gus?"
Luz gave a nervous laugh. "Uh, yeah…about that…"
Willow put her hands on her hips. "Luz, what did you do?"
"I'm the worst sister in the entire world," Emira cried, and Viney couldn't help but roll her eyes at the blatant dishonesty of this statement. Viney, an only child, only wished she had a sister as amazing and committed to her welfare as Emira was to Amity. True, drugging Amity into unconsciousness so she could get her memories returned without having a say in the manner wasn't the most moral thing in the world, but it was necessary. When Amity was back to her old self, she'd thank Emira.
"Miss Bright, cease your self-pitying prattle and let me work in silence, if you please," Näkijä said, her voice even more annoyed than usual. At least she used the right name. Renaming Blight Industries to Bright Industries had been a pain in the neck and a lot of Emira's business associates flat out refused to acknowledge it.
Amity was slumped over on the couch of Edric's apartment, the drugged milk that Emira had given her to "settle her nerves" before the homecoming dance spilled on the floor. Näkijä had her furry hand on Amity's forehead and was deep in concentration, trying to figure out how to reverse the spell. If all worked well, they'd get Amity fixed just in time for her to wow everyone on the dance floor with Luz. Viney didn't want to think about what would happen if it didn't.
It took quite some time until Näkijä was done with her examination. She did not look particularly optimistic when she was finished. "Well?" Emira asked impatiently.
"I am sorry," Näkijä said, sounding genuinely sorry, "but without the consent of her conscious or subconscious mind, I cannot in good conscience attempt to return your sister's memories."
"Amity's not in her right mind!" Emira argued. "As her guardian, under Boiling Kingdom law, I have the right to make these decisions in her stead. I can call the minister of justice, have him confirm it."
Näkijä put up a hand. "My apologies for not being clearer. This is not a question of ethics, but rather practicality. Your progenitrix's enchantment was clumsily placed – truly terrible work." She shook her head in professional disapproval. "Removing it without the cooperation of, at the very least, either Miss Bright's subconscious or conscious mind will almost certainly result in brain damage. And having just the cooperation of one would still present a substantial risk. Even with full cooperation from both, a risk still remains, albeit a slight one."
Emira scowled. "How are we supposed to get her cooperation if she thinks getting her memories will get her burnt in hell?"
"That is a question for you to answer, Miss Bright," Näkijä said. "But if I were you, I would simply give it time. Your sister came to terms with her sexuality on her own before, did she not? And that was back when she did not possess the extremely robust support system she has now."
She stepped backwards, eyeing Amity's sleeping form with distaste. "If there is anything I can do to aid in the apprehension of Mrs. Blight, please let me know." Viney arched an eyebrow. Normally, Näkijä did not involve herself in government operations. "She is befouling the name of oracle magic," Näkijä explained. "A solid thirty percent of my students have chosen another track, afraid of being seen as evil by their contemporaries. I have not seen such a distaste for oracle magic since Voivode Vladimir the Vile ninety years ago used it to enforce ius primae noctis."
"We'll see what can be done," Emira promised. Näkijä gave an elaborate bow and then quickly left the apartment, looking relieved to be away from the plebian surroundings.
Emira reached out and squeezed Viney's hand. "I'm so sorry about all this. When I invited you to help chaperone this homecoming dance at Luz's school, I really didn't expect all this…drama. I thought it was going to be a pleasant evening!"
Viney just gave her girlfriend a gentle smile. Emira had a tendency to overthink things these days, something of an overcompensation for her reckless, impulsive past. But there was danger in thinking too much, as surely as there was in thinking too little. "Emira, it's fine. I'm with you, aren't I? That makes it all worthwhile."
And, honestly, it was pretty cool to be spending time in a whole new dimension as well. Emira had pronounced the Human Realm to be a "total snoozefest" when she returned from visiting it the first time, but Viney definitely found it to be extremely interesting, even though the news that there were giraffes just lurking in the city of Seattle, waiting to spread a reign of terror throughout the universe, unnerved her. Nonetheless, she was looking forward to seeing what a normal human dance was like. She had a hunch it would bore her; there wasn't even a fear monster that needed to be fought.
How far they'd all come from the days of Grom, when, after Emira had been stood up by her date, Viney had innocently comforted her, and then very much not so innocently ended up making out with her in a storage closet. At first, Viney had thought that her relationship with Emira would be nothing but a friendship with some very snazzy benefits, but as time went on, she realized that she was falling fast for the illusion witch. It had taken several months of misunderstandings – seriously, Emira could be dense at times – but it had all been worth it in the end, because Viney had ended up with a girlfriend who was brilliant and compassionate. Sweet, but also fearsome when the situation called for it.
She was perfect. Viney just hoped she could match that perfection even slightly, because she had a very important question to ask Emira, and she was praying that Emira would say yes when the time came.
"What happened?" Amity said, sounding very groggy, as she regained consciousness and sat up.
"Oh, you were out for a while there," Emira said, utilizing her very impressive lying skills hopefully in the service of good. "I think that milk I gave you puts witches to sleep. Sorry, Amy."
"I think I remember Luz mentioning warm milk making her sleepy," Viney contributed. She wasn't anywhere close to being as good a liar as Emira, but she was good at saying technically honest things for dishonest ends.
Amity rubbed her eyes. "Okay, well, my date's gonna be here any minute. I hope I have enough time to –" The doorbell ring. "Oh my Titan! My makeup's not done! Stall him!" She ran into her bedroom and slammed the door behind her.
Emira opened the door and gave a beautiful, sweet smile at the heavily muscled human boy standing in the doorway. He was dressed in a very elegant looking suit and tie and holding a rose in his hands. "Tim Hawkins, right?" Emira said, her voice saccharine. "Come right in. Amity's taking a little bit longer than expected. In the meantime, we can have a little talk." Tim gulped. Viney felt sympathy for him. She would not want to be on the other end of Emira in this mood.
Tim stepped into the living room and then Emira pulled out a knife and pressed it against Tim's carotid artery. Wow. Emira was not pulling any punches tonight, was she? "I'm sure you've heard all sorts of horror stories about what people in the Demon Realm are capable of," Emira said coolly. "They are a pale shadow of what I will do to you if you hurt my sister. Or pressure her to do more than she's comfortable with. Or treat her with any less respect than you would treat a queen. Am I understood?"
Tim let out a yelp and then he did a spell circle. Hang on, he did what? Viney did a double take just as, before her very eyes, the illusion "Tim" was using dropped and Gus stood before her. "Explain yourself," Emira said, the knife not wavering or her tone becoming even an iota less dangerous.
"Okay, so Luz sort of had me sneak into the boy's locker room invisibly after Tim asked Amity out and spy on what he told his friends about it," Gus explained, talking very fast. "And, um, well, she was kind of right to be suspicious, because he was bragging about how he was sure she'd put out tonight." Emira's eyes twitched. "Could you maybe move that knife away from me before you accidentally cut my throat?"
Emira put the knife away. "Anyway, Luz and I were worried about what he'd do when she, you know, wouldn't," Gus went on. "So we went to his house to scare him a little. You know, like you were doing. Except we found him passed out – he'd had, like, so much to drink that we actually had to make an anonymous call to 911 because it was that bad. Anyway, so I decided to take his place and give Amity a nice evening."
Viney wasn't sure she was comfortable with that idea. It seemed pretty duplicitous. On the other hand, having Gus leave now would just lower Amity's self-esteem further, and she was in a pretty bad mental state as it was. Surely a pleasant evening dancing with a boy who was guaranteed to respect her, not go any farther than Amity wanted, or be interested in doing anything more with her wouldn't be the worst thing in the world.
"You promise you'll treat her nicely?" Emira said. Gus nodded hurriedly. "Don't forget to compliment her a lot. She's very proud of her skills with makeup, so tell her how it makes her look pretty. I want her to be in good spirits the whole evening, understood?" Gus saluted and then returned to his illusory form just as Amity emerged from her bedroom.
Gus gave a huge smile at Amity. It looked genuine. Viney knew that Gus was asexual, but that didn't mean he wasn't capable of appreciating Amity's beauty, and she did look extremely beautiful, especially with the makeup she'd applied. It was nice that someone was guaranteed to look after Amity and treat her with the respect she deserved, even if it should have been Luz.
"You look very beautiful tonight, Amity," Gus said. "I especially like what you've done with your makeup. It makes you look like a goddess." Wow. That kid had game. Viney couldn't help but be impressed.
Amity gave a soft giggle, looking very flattered. "Why, thank you, Tim. I hope my sister hasn't been bothering you too much?" She gave a fearsome glare at Emira, who wasn't intimidated in the slightest.
"Not at all," Gus said. "She just wants you to have the best evening possible, and so do I. You should consider yourself fortunate to have a sister who's so protective of you." By the looks of it, Amity had not yet thought of it that way. "Anyway, shall we get going? We have quite the evening ahead of us."
Hunter and Edric were already waiting in the car for them. The car was driven by Hunter and belonged to the consulate. Viney wasn't sure whether or not he was legally allowed to drive a car, but he certainly had no practical difficulties in doing so, handling the unfamiliar machine like he'd been doing it his whole life. They were a few minutes late, but this was probably for the best, because if they'd arrived on time or even early, they'd probably have been swarmed by people interested in getting a photo op. As it was, everyone was too caught up in their own affairs to really notice them.
Homecoming turned out to be really similar to Grom, only without the fear monster. Pretty dull, actually. But everyone seemed to be having a good time. Viney spotted Luz's friend Avery dancing with a human girl who looked far more elated to be spending time with Avery than the converse. Though it wasn't as if Avery was having a bad time – indeed, they looked quite content – Viney could sense that relationship wasn't going places.
While Hunter and Edric hit the dance floor and seemed to compete for who could make the most wild, energetic dance moves, Viney and Emira danced at a much more sedate pace, almost at a waltz, despite the very…kinetic, to put it politely, nature of the music. "Bet you never thought you'd be at a dance in the Human Realm before Luz showed up, right?" Viney said.
"There's a lot of things I thought I could never have before Luz showed up," Emira admitted. "Freedom, for one."
Viney took a few deep breaths. It was now or never. "Emira, you've brought so much –"
"Hang on a second, sweetie," Emira said, sounding distracted. She was watching Amity like a wyvern. She and Gus were dancing and Amity was…oh, dear, she was leaning her lips in to kiss him. Oh, this wasn't going to end well. Amity was leaning and Gus was looking panicky, not that Amity was noticing, and then Amity just stopped. Viney quickly danced Emira in that direction so she could overhear.
"I'm sorry…" Amity whispered. "I just can't do it right now."
"Hey, it's okay," Gus assured her. "I don't want to make you do anything you're not comfortable with." It was a good thing none of Tim's friends were earshot, because that definitely would have made them suspicious.
Amity stomped her foot on the ground, an almost childish motion. "But I should be able to do it! You're a guy, I'm a girl, it's what we're made to do."
"Maybe it isn't," Gus suggested, his voice gentle and kind.
The music playing in the background went to a new track. A very fitting one, in Viney's opinion. By the looks of it, Gus had chosen it deliberately. It was a little bit on the nose, but, heck, sometimes, that was what was necessary.
Straight hair, straight A's, straight forward
Straight path, I don't cut corners
I make a point to be on time
Head out the student council
I don't black out at parties
I jam to Paul McCartney
If you ask me how I'm doing, I'll say
Well, hmm
By the looks of it, Amity was empathizing with the song a great deal. And no wonder. It seemed to perfectly encapsulate her experience, almost as if it had been written for her. "Amity, are you all right?" Gus asked carefully.
I was adopted when I was two
My parents spoiled me rotten
Often I ask myself, what did I do
To get as far as I've gotten?
A pretty girl walks by my locker
My heart gives a flutter, but I don't dare utter a word
'Cause that would be absurd behavior for Little Miss Perfect
Amity had kept a stiff upper lip, as some humans said, throughout most of the song, but the instant that last line was heard, she let out a choking sob and ran into the woman's restroom. "It's not his fault," Viney said quickly to Emira, just in case she got the wrong idea. "I'll handle this."
"She's my sister," Emira argued. "She knows she can confide anything in me!"
"No, she doesn't," Viney said bluntly. "Because she doesn't know the person you've become, the person I fell in love with. To her, you're the bitch who tried to publish her diary – which would have outed her – to the whole school. Let me handle this."
Viney ran into the bathroom and found Amity sitting on the ground, her back to the wall, crying hysterically. She didn't say a word to the younger girl, just held her and let her cry it out. Sometimes, words weren't useful. When Amity wanted to use them, Viney would let her know.
"There's something wrong with me," Amity said eventually. "I don't…from my perspective, it was just a few weeks ago when it started. I looked at Boscha and it was like something just clicked in my brain. She was gorgeous. Absolutely beautiful. And I just…my heart kept on beating a million miles an hour whenever I saw her and it was…it was scary. I'm not – I wasn't supposed to think that way about girls."
"It's okay to think that way," Viney said gently. "There's nothing wrong with it. You don't have to do what your mother tells you to."
"You don't know her," Amity said harshly. "She's everywhere. She has power you can't even comprehend. Fighting against her is suicide and that's the best case scenario. Following my own path is just an exercise in futility. Liking girls…is pointless. I can't be anyone but who she wants me to be." She stood up. Viney stood up with her. "I loved Luz, didn't I?" Viney nodded. "I want my memories back…I want to remember what it's like to love her…but I can't."
"Why not?" Viney asked, genuinely confused.
"I can't, because Mother will kill her eventually," Amity said, stating it as if it was as inexorable a fact as gravity. "And if I love her when that happens, the only difference is that I'll be in pain. I have to avoid that." She steeled herself. "Whether I like it or not, the only option I have is to be Little Miss Perfect. Forever."
And with those absurdly depressing words, she strolled out of the bathroom, her impassive expression back on her face like it was armor. Viney followed her out and practically ran over to Emira, the wheels churning in her head. "Marry me," Viney blurted to Emira.
Emira blinked a couple of times. "Uh, okay. Sure, why not? I think Eda's authorized to perform marriages. We can be at the Owl House and be married before this dance is even finished with."
"Oh, no," Viney said, barring her fangs viciously. "It's going to be a big, fancy affair. The talk of the town. Something that your mother would just hate to see. I have a plan to get Amity's memories back, you see. And it culminates with her seeing your mother die."