Luz honestly wasn't sure why she had confessed everything to Gus. She didn't have to. Unlike Willow, he wasn't remotely suspicious, and Willow's alarming behavior in pursuit of exposing Luz would probably mean that he never would be. Moreover, it probably hadn't been a very good idea. He'd just learned of Willow's betrayal. He was upset, and Luz dumped a revelation on him that would make things even worse.
But Luz just couldn't stand all the lying she was doing. She wasn't like Eda. Deception wasn't something she was naturally good at. She cared so much about her family and friends, and sneaking around them just made her sick. More to the point, she trusted Gus. He may have seemed flighty at times because of his youth, but Luz could remember with far too much detail how it felt to be dismissed because she didn't approach things in the same manner as everyone else. She knew that Gus wouldn't ruin things for her or blab her secret to anyone.
And sure enough, Gus took the whole thing in stride. Actually, he was quite happy about it. Other Luz was a half-human, but she wasn't really very much of a human from a cultural standpoint. She'd only been in the Human Realm on occasion for visits with Eduardo's parents before their passing or vacations or when Eduardo had an insatiable craving to visit a baseball game. Luz, on the other hand, knew all about the human realm, and thus was able to answer Gus's many, many questions. The ones that made sense, at any rate.
Willow ate lunch alone at Hexside the next day. Her friends wouldn't eat with her and Boscha couldn't for the sake of maintaining the secrecy of their relationship. Luz felt a stab of pity every time she saw her eating alone. She knew what it was like to eat alone. But Willow still thought she was an evil changeling, and it didn't seem worth it to clarify the situation, not until she calmed down.
Luz tried her best to convince Gus to forgive Willow, but her efforts were for naught. As he pointed out, she was just a visitor in their realm. She didn't truly understand what it was like to be bullied by Boscha for so long. Luz could understand where he was coming from. Luz's bullies were horrible enough, but if Boscha had been leading them, her school life would have taken on a whole new dimension of horror.
She couldn't help but feel sad, though. She could understand exactly where Willow was coming from. More to the point, everyone was thinking that Willow was crazy, and it was Luz's fault! She was unintentionally gaslighting her! Luz ached to tell Willow her secret, but given that Willow was openly talking about killing her when she caught her, she kept her mouth shut.
Ugh. Other Luz would have a mess to come back to if she returned. When! When she returned. Luz had to stay optimistic. Amity was her girlfriend, they were dating, and things were going very well. Luz had done all she could. Amity would have to take the next step.
The last thing that Luz expected to happen coming home from school the day after that was for someone to tackle her and stuff her into a bag. It happened so quick that Luz couldn't resist, and all her glyphs were in the binder in the backpack her kidnapper had forced her to leave behind. "You won't get away with this!" Luz shouted. "My mom is Eda the Owl Lady! My aunt is the leader of the Emperor's Coven! And my girlfriend is a total badass!"
There was silence from her kidnapper. Maybe they didn't couldn't say anything. Some demons physically couldn't speak English, though everyone understood it thanks to Belos' spells. A surge of fear went through Luz. What if they were taking her to Zoe? She may never be heard from again! There hadn't been anything in the agreement they'd made about Zoe not killing her, after all! But that didn't seem to track. Zoe wanted her kept alive to suffer. What would have happened to change that? If only she could escape!
Wait a second. She could escape! Viney had given her access to the beast keeping stables so she could get animals to morph from in exchange for conducting some noninvasive experiments on Luz in morph. She morphed into a jaguar-like animal, only with way sharper teeth, and tore her way through the burlap sack she had been stuffed in.
Only to find that her kidnapper was none other than Hunter.
I knew it! Luz shouted. Hunter jumped an impressively large distance into the air. I knew you couldn't be trusted! Once a stooge of Belos, always a stooge of Belos!
Hunter grabbed a scroll out of his pocket and frantically dialed a number. "Ed, she turned into a frigging jagular! How the hell did she do that?!" Edmond's response was unintelligible. "That doesn't even make any sense," he complained. "Ugh! Humans! They're the worst! No, you don't count, Ed, you're not human. Okay, if you think it'll help." He put the scroll on the ground near Luz's paws.
"Hey, Luz, sorry about the misunderstanding," Edmond said. "I told Hunter to lure you to your destination, not to toss you in a sack and kidnap you!"
So this is all just a prank? Luz asked. It did make sense. Hunter was famous for having no chill whatsoever and Edmond, as Luz had already found out, had a tendency to take his pranks way too far.
"Sort of," Edmond hedged. So thought speak worked through a scroll. Good to know. "You trusted me with your secret, Luz. Can't you trust me with this?"
Luz laughed caustically. I did not trust you with my secret, Edmond. You tricked me into thinking I was drugged.
Hunter winced. "In my defense, I told him what a stupid plan drugging you was and I think that caused him to decide to not actually drug you."
Luz just gave him a look. That's the best defense you have? Okay, look, Edmond, I'm not going back into that sack. But I'll go with Hunter to wherever we're going. And if I don't like what I find there, jagular bites are going to be the least of your problems.
"Oh, trust me, you'll like it!" Edmond assured her, then hung up. Luz morphed back into her original form as Hunter scooped up the scroll and put it back in his pocket.
She followed Hunter through Bonesborough's outskirts and then finally out of the city. She barely even knew the Hunter of her universe. They had only met once during the final battle against Belos. He had almost immediately surrendered and begged his captors to show mercy on his Uncle Julian, the first and really only time Luz had ever heard Belos referred to by a first name. Lilith had given Belos a genuine chance to surrender, but he scorned it and in the ensuing battle, he was killed. Hunter had gone into foster care and Luz hadn't heard from him since.
Hunter led Luz into a clearing about a mile outside the city. It appeared completely empty. "Sorry about kidnapping you," he said sheepishly, sounding genuinely sorry. "I won't do it again."
"It's…fine," Luz said. She didn't mean it, but she didn't want Hunter to feel worse than he already did. She had heard talk about some of the crap that he'd gone through with Belos, and then Zoe had just tossed him aside without a second's thought.
"So…you don't have to, but it might be cool if you closed your eyes for this next bit?" Hunter suggested. "Just…you know, for the effect."
Eh, what the hell. In for a penny, in for a pound, Luz decided. She closed her eyes and allowed Hunter to lead her forward. A few hundred feet in, Hunter told her to open her eyes.
And then she was standing in the middle of a Starbucks.
Luz blinked and then she blinked again, but the Starbucks stubbornly persisted in its existence. Luz's blood ran cold and a panic surged through her. Lucia had been trying to convince her through subconscious communication that her time in the Isles was a hallucination. She couldn't believe that anything good, much less something as marvelous and fantastical as the Isles, could ever happen to Luz. Thankfully, Amity had managed to convince Lucia otherwise, but still, Luz sometimes had a few moments when she first woke up when she was petrified that she'd end up in her bunk bed at home with everything having been a dream.
This was a moment like those. But it didn't last very long, because the sound of streamers being blown on echoed through the room and Luz looked up to see a sign reading "You're awesome, Luz!" hanging from the ceiling. Standing in front of her was Gus, Avery, and Edmond, all of whom were wearing T-shirts with a drawing of what they thought Luz as a human would be like emblazoned on them. It was a pretty good likeness, though not perfect.
"This is…it's a surprise party?!" Luz said, a huge grin forming on her face. "For me?"
"It was my idea," Gus bragged. "You seemed like you were so stressed by everything, so I thought you could use some cheering up. Everyone here knows your secret, so you don't have to hide anything! You can be your normal human self here!"
Luz could feel herself tearing up. "Gus…this is one of the nicest things anyone has ever done for me!" She gave him a big hug. "You're such a good friend. I'm glad I trusted you." She waved her hand at the Starbucks around her. "I had no idea you were this good at illusions! It looks so lifelike!"
Gus looked down at the floor. "Actually, Eda did all this. I told her we were throwing a party for Edmond." He brightened. "But I did do an illusion on our shirts and the banner was all me too!" Luz gave him a high five.
Luz reached out and tried to touch one of the walls, but her hand passed through it as if it was a hologram. But when she did the same for one of the tables, she was surprised to find that it was actually real. The same was the case for the chairs too. Now that she was paying close attention, she realized that they were actually a very eclectic set of furnishing, doubtlessly stuff that Eda had found (or, more likely, stolen) during her time on Earth.
Still, it was really touching. And, the haphazard nature of the furnishing notwithstanding, quite lifelike. Edmond, Avery, and Eda must have all contributed to making it as lifelike as possible. Luz would have to thank Eda when she returned.
The thought of Eda made her sad, though. She knew that she'd been avoiding her. Eda was a con artist at her core, and she'd be able to see through Luz's impersonation if Luz spent too much time with her. Once Eda did that, three things would happen. First, Luz would tell her everything, because she couldn't not do that. Second, Eda would tell Eduardo and then her own father would hate her. And third, Eda would storm the Imperial Palace, maybe even in harpy form if she had that now, and try to kill Zoe personally.
Luz certainly wasn't against Eda killing Zoe. After all, according to Näkijä, who ought to know these things, that would spontaneously send Luz back home and wake up Amity. The problem was that Eda probably couldn't succeed. Eda may have been the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles, but the fae's magic was beyond what mere witches could do. Zoe had transported Luz in both space and time and made it look utterly effortless.
No, Luz, for her own safety and Eda's, had to keep the secret still.
"You know, Luz, the whole point of us throwing this party was to get you out of the dumps," Avery pointed out.
Luz sighed. "I am so sorry. I'm sorry for everything. I know you had a good thing going with Other Luz, and I just came lumbering in here and broke it all like I always do."
Avery flicked her on the nose. "Hey! It's like you're not listening to a word I'm saying! Cheer up! Don't make me call Hooty and tell him to help cheer you up, because you will not like that." Luz couldn't help but shudder at the thought.
Hunter glared at them and walked over to Luz. "It's not always possible to be happy on command," he said, sounding as if he was speaking from personal experience. "Sometimes, the best we can do is be strong enough to take one step. One step. No more. Sounds small. But it's not. Cause those steps, you know what they do? They add up. And if you can't take a step at all today, that's okay too. Even if you go backwards, as long as you're still alive, you've got hope to go forward when you can."
Edmond wiped away a tear. "How did I wind up with such a wise and sensitive boyfriend?"
"You picked me up in a bar," Hunter reminded him flatly. "Now we're going to try to make an atmosphere that we think will make you happy. You know what? If we're wrong, that's fine. Don't feel obliged to try for our sake."
"How about some music?" Gus suggested. He pulled a battered looking iPod out of his pocket. "Emma gave me this! It's full of awesome songs from the Human Realm! Let's give it a spin!"
"Uh, well, Emma's musical taste can be kind of –"
A sepulcher booming sound emerged from the iPod, followed by a mournful, melancholy tune. "Things are not what they appear," the singer sang, "starting with a mother's love. When a helping hand comes near, it becomes an empty glove."
Gus quickly turned off the iPod. "Or…we could just play these human card games I got!" He summoned them to the table. "I think this one's called Apples to Apples?"
Luz grabbed it out of his hands, a huge grin on her face. "I love this game! Oh, guys, you're going to love it! There's no better entertainment in all the Human Realm!" This was going to be so funny, she knew. Maybe she was going to have a fun time after all.
Edmond prided himself on his well organized mind. He was not a man given to getting easily distracted (unless it was by his infinitely kissable boyfriend). He usually had a very good handle on what was going on inside his head. But two things had recently happened to rattle that sense of security.
First of all, he could not remember, for the life of him, what had happened when he tried to assassinate Belos. He remembered agreeing to participate in the assassination. It had not been an easy decision for him. He'd always been comfortable with violence as an option (though, of course, only as a matter of last resort), but there was a world of difference between kicking one of Amity's bullies in the balls and actually killing someone. But after Hunter had told him all about the abuse he went through under Belos – which had messed him up that he still had trouble comprehending was abuse – Edmond had agreed to be one of the shooters. But the events of the actual assassination attempt eluded him.
The second thing was much smaller, far more insignificant. Pretty much anyone would be bothered by the first thing; the second thing probably wouldn't have bothered anyone but Edmond. Edmond had a song stuck in his head. But it wasn't just any song. It was his least favorite song in the world: Alanis Morrissette's "Ironic." God, how Edmond hated that song. It wasn't the least bit accurate! And it was giving everyone misconceptions of what irony was! And yet, the damn thing was playing in his head over and over again!
After Avery had substituted the tunes from their own iPod, the party had gone much better. While Emma preferred the darkest, gloomiest music possible, Avery liked smooth jazz, classical music, and saccharine 80s power ballads. It wasn't Edmond's taste, admittedly (he liked bombastic emotional music, like Hidden Citizens and other trailer music), but Luz seemed to enjoy it, especially the 80s songs. Edmond had hoped that the music would get that damn song out of his head, but it didn't.
At least playing Apples to Apples was a huge amount of fun. Hunter and Gus had worried that they wouldn't be able to be good at the game since they didn't recognize most, if not nearly all, of the subjects written on the cards. But Edmond had explained that part of the fun was just picking cards that they thought sounded the most hilarious and badly suited to the cards and doing it that way. Much to Edmond's immense pride, Hunter turned out to be very skilled at the game, so much so that Edmond might even have suspected him of cheating if he thought that was even possible in a game like Apples to Apples.
Luz talked a lot about her life in her own dimension. Edmond was appalled to find that his counterpart did something as reprehensible as trying to read Amity's diary. He was also disappointed that Edric didn't take school even remotely seriously, routinely skipping classes and playing pranks like he was one of the Weasley twins. But still, he was proud that Edric had become a better brother to Amity and did have to concede that growing up in Odalia's care had probably made things a lot worse for him.
Edmond was really glad to see that Luz was enjoying herself as the afternoon went on. He felt extremely guilty for having tricked her into revealing her secret. Now that he thought about it, the whole thing had been meanspirited, even if, in a sense, it had turned out to be necessary. He wasn't as blasé about ethics as he pretended to be; he just tried to look aloof and cool.
They played more games from Earth (Hunter turned out to be alarmingly, almost homicidally, competitive when it came to Uno, so Edmond resolved that they would never play that again). Luz talked about the Good Witch Azura series a lot. She made it sound so good that Edmond was tempted to pick up the books when he got home, if they existed in this dimension, though he was pretty sure he'd end up regretting that. It was really nice to see Luz just relaxing and being. Playing the role of her other self must have been exhausting. Edmond couldn't have impersonated Edric. The whole thing would have fallen apart in seconds.
As the party was breaking up, Luz took Edmond aside. "Thank you for this," she said quietly. "I didn't know how much I needed this until I got it. I still can't believe you're helping me. After what…what I'm going to do to your sister."
Edmond was all too aware of what Other Luz's return would do to Amity. But Amity would recover if she got her heart broken. Amity Blight would not recover if she was left in an enchanted sleep forever. Edmond would help find a rebound girl for Amity. He'd heard that Steph Monmouth was single again after her recent breakup. Then again, Steph's brother Theo, one of Edmond's many ex-boyfriends, had framed Edmond for vandalizing his principal's car and gotten him arrested. Community service sucked.
Edmond shook his head. He was getting distracted. "Look, Luz, you let me worry about what's going to happen to Amity after you switch out. Maybe we can square things with Other Luz so she can taper off the relationship slowly." He gave her a cocky smile. "I've broken up with so many people, I've lost count of them all. I know all the tricks in the trade about softening the blow."
Luz closed her eyes and took a few deep breaths, appearing to try to come to some conclusion. "Belos is Zoe," she said. "The fae queen who sent me here. She's been impersonating him since I arrived. Maybe a little longer, probably not that long. Your assassination attempt nearly killed her, and exposed her identity, so she wiped your memories."
Well, that explained a lot. He had laughed at Steve, their inside man in the Conformatorium, when he had eschewed a fancy human gun in favor of a simple iron knife. Well, it looked like Steve would have the last laugh. Once he remembered that there was something worth laughing about. Iron, as everyone knew, was the bane of the fae, and –
"IRONIC!" Edmond shouted. Everyone stared at him. He just motioned for them to return to their activities. After a few moments, they did so. "That's why I have that goddamn song stuck in my head! Ironic. I must have implanted it in my subconscious just before my memories got wiped." He felt a surge of pride at that. "But how'd you get yours back?"
"Näkijä," Luz explained. "We went into my head and unlocked the memories." Her eyes went distant for a few moments. Whatever she'd found in there must not have been very pleasant. "Look, I'm guessing that there's a rebellion, right? And you're a part of it?" Edmond nodded. "Well, they need to know this." She put up a finger. "But you can't tell them you heard it from me. So you heard it from Näkijä, got it? She'll back you up, don't worry."
It certainly would sound a lot more plausible coming from Näkijä, Edmond had to admit. No one liked Näkijä very much, but everyone respected her (and sometimes feared her) greatly. Edmond was the same. But he had to admit that Näkijä had been better to be taught by recently. She'd been more patient with her students. Kinder. More forgiving. It had been subtle, but noticeable. Unfortunately, that increased gentleness hadn't translated to lowering the workload, but you couldn't have everything.
It definitely made sense that Zoe was impersonating Belos. Someone as cunning as her wouldn't be able to avoid trying to put her finger on the scale. Moreover, Belos' actions made a lot more sense when considered in that lens. Zoe tried to get rid of Hunter because his familiarity with his "uncle" could have caused him to realize that Belos was being impersonated. She forced Amity into an arranged marriage to cause Amity anguish and distract her from the process of falling in love with Luz.
"If you kill Zoe," Luz went on, "then all of her enchantments are reversed. I'll be home, and Amity will wake up." She reached out and grabbed Edmond's arm. "But you have to be careful. I don't even know how much power she's got. I can't help you. I'm not…"
Edmond nodded in understanding. "I understand, Luz. You're not a killer." Luz flinched. "You're not an assassin," he corrected. Luz had probably had to kill to defend herself in her time. She confirmed it with a nod. "Don't worry. We'll handle it. Your secret will be safe with me."
Luz gave Edmond a hug. "You're such a good friend, Edmond. Thank you."
Edmond was in a pretty good mood when he returned to the apartment that his family was now renting for the month. His good mood evaporated when he saw Amity pacing around in the living room, looking stressed. "Where were you?" she demanded. "I've been trying to get in contact with you for ages. And where's Luz? I can't get in contact with her either."
"I was at a surprise party," Edmond explained, going with the cover story they'd already established. "Luz and some of her friends set it up. I've had my scroll off. I don't know why Luz didn't answer her scroll."
Amity's eyes narrowed. "And why wasn't I invited?"
Edmond shrugged. "Haven't the foggiest. I was the one who got surprised, so no one bothered consulting me on the guest list." He felt guilty about lying to his sister, and in that moment, he realized that Luz must be feeling that multiplied times a trillion. Wow, no wonder she's been so stressed, he thought.
Amity appeared to accept that explanation, though Edmond had a hunch that Luz was about to be in a fair bit of trouble. Maybe it was time to steer the conversation away a bit. "So…how are things going with you and Luz? Is my little sister in love…?"
A genuine fond smile came on Amity's face. "Gee, Ed, I don't really know. How do you know when you're in love?" In this case? When your girlfriend suddenly gets switched out with a doppelganger who doesn't love you. "Have you ever been in love? I mean, really in love?"
"I think I love Hunter," Edmond admitted. He'd never been in love before. He knew that now. He thought he had. But in retrospect, every scrap of affection he felt for his boyfriends was a pale shadow of what he now felt for Hunter. He was falling for the boy and falling fast. "I'd do anything for him. It's not just that he's super smart or mindbogglingly sexy." Amity made a disgusted face. "It's that I feel comfortable around him. I feel like I can tell him absolutely everything. There's no part of myself that I want to keep from him."
Amity looked disappointed. And with good reason; she manifestly didn't feel that way about Luz yet. "Come on, Amity," Edmond said. "Everyone does this at their own pace. What I have with Hunter is special. It's really special. Don't feel too bad if you don't have what I have with Luz. Are you happy?" Amity nodded. "Then that's enough. You're fourteen. You've got time."
The door to the apartment opened and Camila stepped through, looking very enthusiastic. "I have good news!" she announced. "Steve thinks he's found a source of that rare material we need to recreate the portal door. We could be out of here in days if it goes well!"
Whoa. That was news indeed. Whether or not it was good or not depended on whether or not Camila would let them continue their relationships once they were all back on Earth. If Luz was forced to stay on her side of the portal door, she could say goodbye to her chance of returning to her home dimension and waking up Amity Blight. Not to mention his relationship with Hunter might disintegrate if they were separated.
"After we get home, can I still date Hunter, mami?" Edmond asked in his most adorable tone of voice. "I kind of love him."
Camila sighed. "I honestly don't know, Edmond. You're definitely not returning to the Boiling Isles while Belos is emperor. But…yeah, I could allow your SOs to come to Earth if they wanted to." Edmond and Amity both breathed identical sighs of relief. "Your safety is paramount. But your happiness matters too. I won't sacrifice one for the sake of the other. So how do you feel about joining Steve on an expedition to find this reagent?"
Actually, Edmond liked the idea. "Can Hunter come with us?" he asked.
"Sure!" Camila responded. "Actually, you can all bring your SOs if you like. Just as long as you promise to not get up to any funny business."
"I promise," Edmond said. It wouldn't be an issue. Even though Edmond was very ready for that kind of thing, Hunter was decidedly not, and Edmond would sooner die than push him. He'd take matters exactly and precisely as slow as Hunter wanted to. (But if he wanted to accelerate, as it were, Edmond would be so not complaining.)
After Amity promised, in her usual blushing and stammering way, Camila explained that they would need to be dressing warm, because they were heading into the mountains. "Me?" Edmond asked, feeling his cheeks flushing. "Going to the mountains with Hunter? Running around in cute winter outfits? All soft and fluffy?!"
"Yes?" Camila asked, looking dreadfully confused.
"I GOT TO GO!" Edmond called out, and ran out of the room.
Camila despised the Boiling Isles. She had tried not to, for the sake of her children. It was their homeland, after all. But she couldn't help but hate everything about it. She hated the totalitarian regime that had tortured her new daughter and was trying to marry off her youngest daughter to a complete stranger. She hated its hostile wildlife and the fact that she didn't know if many of its inhabitants wanted to mug her or eat her. She hated the people who just rolled over and let themselves be ruled by an obvious tyrant. And she hated the fact that she was stuck there.
The only thing she didn't hate about the Boiling Isles was the fact that her children had found love there. She quite approved of her children's new significant others. Luz was so enthusiastic and cheerful, even if she could still get tongue tied in Camila's presence, so awed was she of her. She even reflexively called Camila mami too a lot of the time. Viney was a pleasant girl with a very good head on her shoulders. And Hunter was clearly head over heels for Edmond, and the reverse was also true. Camila had worried that Edmond was too enamored with the process of dating that he was neglecting its end result, namely to find someone who would be a good match. But it seemed that he just needed to find the right person.
Maybe if things were different, she could enjoy herself more. But they weren't. Camila lived in the real world, even if the extent of that reality was rapidly expanding beyond the borders she thought existed. She was realistic, and she knew that Belos would remain in power indefinitely. At best, she would be able to facilitate Viney, Luz, and Hunter's escape to the Human Realm. At worst…well, Camila didn't want to think about that.
At least her children had been safe during her absence. Well, safer than they would have been on their own, anyway. Eda, despite her rambunctious nature, truly cared about those under her roof and was willing to go to any lengths to protect them. And Eduardo was a compassionate man who had been able to defend Amity not just physically but emotionally as well. A shame the two of them were married. Either one of them would have been fine catches if single. But Camila was more than fine with being the only one in her family not in a relationship with someone right now; it would have just been a distraction.
Steve had also turned out to be a really pleasant person, the kind of guy who effortlessly connected with people. Camila had, of course, freaked out upon learning that her ex-girlfriend's fugitive friend was taking care of her two elder children, but Steve seemed completely harmless. And Jane had always asserted that he was innocent anyway. Despite the mistakes Jane made that forced Camila to break up with her, she still trusted her judgment by and large.
So Camila didn't really feel any worries about accompanying Steve on a journey to the mountains of the Titan's Knee. The idea that she was walking on someone's corpse still unsettled her, but she supposed the inhabitants of the Demon Realm would have been just as unsettled at the prospect of living on a series of constantly shifting plates that occasionally smashed into each other.
The one thing that she definitely didn't despise about the Boiling Isles was the scenery. It was absolutely beautiful, albeit in a fairly stark and definitely disturbing manner. As Camila's children, their significant others, and Steve made their way out of Bonesborough and into the wilds, it took all of Camila's self-control not to goggle at every feature of the landscape. It was the kind of views that one would expect to see from a Romantic era painter who took hallucinogens.
It took several hours to reach the Knee. On the way there, they got accosted by wildlife occasionally, which Steve usually took out with expertly placed handgun shots to their vital areas. The man was an extremely deft shot for someone who was, by all accounts, an ordinary civilian. When Steve's guns wouldn't work, Emma and Viney would use their beast-keeping magic to neutralize the monsters.
Camila had mixed feelings about seeing her daughter's magic in action. She still felt guilty that none of her children felt enough trust in her to confide in her about their magic, and couldn't help but think that she'd done something wrong, despite their assurances to the contrary. And each time she saw one of her children wield magic, it was yet another reminder that they weren't human and that death or worse could await them if people back home found out their secrets.
But at the same time, it was extraordinary to behold. She'd always known that her children were exceptional people based on their mundane talents alone. They'd excelled in a variety of fields, yet had also made sure that it wouldn't go to their head. But their magic was something beyond that. It was something pure and wild, a spark of light in the darkness. Camila was given to understand that their extra organ – their bile sac – was the source of their magic, and with all that disuse, it was almost as if it had a ton of energy stored up that it was now eagerly expelling.
Of course, the bile sac wasn't the only way to use magic. Luz and Avery (the latter of whom had been left behind; Steve assured her that they could handle themself well in his absence) could use glyphs to use the ambient magic in the air. Camila couldn't help but wonder what it would be like to use some herself. But she wouldn't bother, because she wasn't staying, and glyphs were useless without the Titan's magic to power it, either external or absorbed into the body. Without contact with the Boiling Isles, one's ability to use the glyphs would steadily atrophy before dissipating entirely in approximately a year. Camila wasn't about to learn a new skill just to be unable to use it in a year's time, especially given that she wouldn't be able to use it without getting noticed back home in most situations anyway.
"Remember when we first came here, cariño?" Luz asked Amity with a fond smile, as the terrain turned mountainous and the peak that was their destination came in sight, albeit still a long way away.
"Luz, I've never been here before," Amity said, sounding confused.
Luz's eyes widened in horror. "Oh. No, of course not. Stupid. Stupid! Why did I even say that? Of course you weren't here before…" She must have been thinking of being there before with Avery, Camila concluded. She couldn't help but feel sorry for Luz, who would no doubt be beating herself up at what was really just a tiny slipup in the grand scheme of things. Camila remembered being a teenager herself trying to impress her first boyfriend and overanalyzing the smallest of details to an obsessive degree, terrified that even an inconsequential mistake would get her dumped.
Perhaps changing the subject would be helpful. "So tell me, Luz, have you ever been to the Human Realm before?"
"Uh, yeah, a couple of times," Luz said, sounding cagy. Huh. Why would she be cagy about something so mundane? But then the answer occurred to Camila: She must have engaged in illegal activity there at her mother's behest, and didn't want to give anything away. "Dad took me to a baseball game a couple of times."
"He's a very big fan of the Mets," Amity said. "If you support any of their rivals, do not mention it in front of him. My shovel talk solely consisted of me getting interrogated about what baseball teams I liked."
"MARINERS FOREVER!" Emma screamed so loud that Camila was afraid that it might provoke an avalanche for a couple of seconds. Viney let out a shout of support, even though she clearly had no idea what her girlfriend was talking about. "They will prevail one day. Edmond, am I wrong?"
Edmond rolled his eyes. "For the last time, I'm not good enough with oracle magic to foresee who's going to win the World Series, Emma!" That did make sense now that Camila thought about it. There were a lot of factors, even beyond the human factor, that went into a baseball game. Social interactions were actually probably easier to predict.
Emma stuck out her tongue at him. "You don't need oracle magic when you have faith, Edmond! One day, we will triumph, and everyone who ever laughed at Seattle will be eating their words."
"Did you like Earth?" Camila asked Luz.
Luz considered the question for a very long time. Camila guessed that she was trying to figure out what answer Camila was looking for. She didn't like that, though she did understand it. "It's not home," she responded eventually. "I like that your rain doesn't boil." A good thing too. If Seattle's rain boiled, the city would never have been founded in the first place. "And the technology is cool. But it doesn't have magic, and it never will."
There was something Luz was leaving out, Camila was sensing. The more time Camila spent with Luz, the more she realized that Luz was a lot more calculating than she looked. She would even use the word manipulative at times. She didn't lie very often, per se, but Camila could tell that she was also omitting key things at times. But it was clear despite all this that her feelings for Amity were not feigned. If anything, Luz was trying to hold back on showing how much she loved Amity.
Despite Luz's occasional manipulative side, Camila didn't believe that Luz was a threat to Amity. If she had, she would have done something about it. It was most likely just the product of having been raised by a con artist. Eda's daughter had no doubt been raised to believe that everything was a con to a greater or lesser extent and had probably spent a lot of time having to unlearn those behaviors.
"I would love to see the Human Realm," Hunter admitted. "I…I've heard a lot about it from…Steve." Steve gave him a startled look. Evidently, Hunter had been lying. This wasn't all that surprising. Hunter had clearly grown up in an abusive environment, though thankfully, Edmond assured her that he was in better hands now. He obviously didn't want to talk about his past.
As Hunter explained what "Steve" had told him about Earth, it was clear that while whoever this mysterious individual (probably Hunter's abuser, now that Camila thought about it) had told Hunter, had been accurate in their telling, their knowledge was way behind the times. The abuser's knowledge of Earth didn't seem to have been updated since the Kennedy administration. Camila wasn't sure what to make of that. It was honestly a bit bewildering.
"Hunter…" Camila said, and then stopped. How to ask the question in such a way that wouldn't set him off? "Would it be possible for me to meet your parents?" she said finally. "If you're going to be dating my son, I think it would be appropriate for us to get to know each other."
Hunter's eyes widened and he crossed his arms, looking awkward. Was Edmond wrong or being lied to? Was Hunter still not out of his abusive home environment? "Well, I don't think that's a good idea. Uh, they don't like humans. You could say they hate them, actually?" That was a lie, Camila realized instantly. Ugh. At least Viney appeared to be a what you see being what you get kind of witch.
Still, pressing wouldn't do her any good. "Well, I'm sorry to hear that," she said. "If you think it's best I stay away from them, I'll trust your judgment." Hunter breathed a huge sigh of relief. Edmond reached out and squeezed his hand.
Camila gave Hunter her most compassionate and understanding smile. She had worked with abused children before; she knew how to handle them better than most, though she was by no means an expert. "Hunter, if you ever need any help, you just need to call on me. I know you and I are practically strangers, but Edmond loves you, and that's enough for me to call you part of the Serrano family."
"Thank you," Hunter said, sounding genuinely touched. "But everything's fine at home. Look, I'll be honest with you. As honest as I can be. I was an orphan. I got adopted by someone who called me his nephew." His fists clenched. "I…don't want to talk about what it was like living with him. I'm in the custody of someone else now. Someone who loves me. You can't meet with her. You're going to have to trust me on that, okay? I'm safe."
Hunter's comments seemed to be honest, though it didn't exactly take a genius to realize that he was leaving quite a bit out. "Okay, Hunter. You'd tell Edmond, at least, if you were in danger, though?" Hunter nodded. "That's good enough for me. I want you to feel comfortable around me."
"So…like, is all this family drama normal for the Human Realm?" Viney wondered.
"Oh, God, no!" Camila said, quite relieved to be able to say that. "In fact, this is all very new to me. I led the most boring life you could possibly imagine back on Earth. Aside from my exceptional children, of course, my life was as dull as ditchwater."
Amity looked disappointed that she was thinking of herself that way. "Well, you may have been 'boring,' but you're also an incredible mother, and I think that matters more." Both of Camila's older children nodded firmly. Camila couldn't help but feel a surge of joy.
It took a lot more hiking, but they finally reached the peak of the Knee. In the mountains, the Boiling Isles looked a lot more like home, in Camila's opinion. There was even regular, freezing snow. It was, by her estimation, a bit colder than it ordinarily would have been in such a situation, but then again, Camila had been on a mountain a grand total of two times in her life, so what did she know? Either way, according to Steve, all they had to do was pick a certain flower that only grew in this area of the Boiling Isles, and then they could go back.
The whole thing struck Camila as very anticlimactic. Were this some sort of movie or book, they would probably have to face some sort of ravenous beast or have to accomplish some sort of trials given by a creepy yet ultimately good guardian of the treasure. In fact, Steve had mentioned a slitherbeast that lived in the area. But that animal apparently only attacked when provoked. Steve just picked the flower, put it into a bag, stuffed that bag in his pocket, and started walking back the way they came.
Only for them to find that the path was blocked by a three-eyed blond woman, dressed in a casual dress that was in no way suited for the climate. Surely this woman should have frozen to death by now in such a thing, yet she looked completely unharmed. "So you're Camila Serrano," the woman. "We finally meet at last."
"I'm sorry," Camila said politely. "Do I know you? I feel fairly sure that I would have remembered you if we'd met before."
The woman appeared infuriated by this question. "You fool! I am Tasha Hart, chairwoman of Hart Industries, the biggest producer of abominations in all the Boiling Isles."
Camila recognized the name. This was the abusive mother of the witch that Amity was betrothed to. Amity had fought her in a duel that, by all accounts, was rather spectacular, and magically forced her to stop abusing her daughter. "Well, Mrs. Hart, we're rather in a hurry to return home, but if you'd care to give me a call later on, I'm sure that I can pencil in a time for us to talk."
Hart smacked her across the face so hard that it almost knocked her off her feet. "Do not talk to me in such a fashion," Hart hissed. Huh? Camila thought she'd been perfectly polite. Go figure. "As if we are equals. I will not permit my daughter to be married off to trash such as Amity!"
Camila blinked. "Well, I don't want the two of them to get married either! I mean, they're fourteen. That's just messed up! So it looks like we actually have a common interest here. Let's put our thinking caps on and maybe together we can think of a way to have this marriage shut down."
Hart gave her an unsettling grin. "Oh, I've already come up with the perfect way to end the marriage." Yellow light flared in her hands. "She can't marry Boscha…if she's dead."
Like hell was Edmond going to allow anyone to threaten his sister! This had Zoe's fingerprints all over it, in his opinion. He imagined that Zoe boxed Hart into a corner to the point where she thought the only option available to her to stop the marriage was to kill Amity. Oh, it was clever. Doubtlessly, Zoe never even came close to insinuating that Amity was to die, yet still Hart got that impression anyway. Next to cunning like that, Luz never really had a chance, did she?
"Look, you don't have to do this," Camila said, still thinking that negotiation was possible, clearly. "We're leaving here in mere days, and once we're gone, we'll never return, you have my word."
Steve, on the other hand, could tell that the time to talk was over, because he drew a pistol and shot Hart in the left eye. That was a mistake on his part, Edmond knew. He should have shot Hart in the brain. Sure enough, despite clearly being in utter agony, Hart used her magic to heal herself, with the eye slowly regenerating in what must have been one of the most disgusting things Edmond had ever seen.
"Your daughter learned that your puny human weapons can't harm me," Hart snarled, and she tossed a spell out that hit Hunter in the leg, causing him to let out an alarmingly high pitched screech of pain, loose his balance, and fall face first into the snow. "Nothing can. I am invincible."
"Yeah, well, the Mind Flayer thought it was invincible too!" Steve retorted. Wait, Mind Flayer? Like in D&D? No, Edmond must have misheard that. Steve aimed the pistol at Hart's center mass and fired round after round into her chest. She healed each bullet with effortless ease. Perhaps if any of the bullets had hit her in the heart, it would have been a different story, but they did not.
Hart used a spell to summon a longsword out of nowhere and charged directly at Amity, screaming inarticulately as she did so. Luz stepped in front of Amity without hesitating for a second. Then she seemed to melt and slowly and disgustingly transform into a jaguar like creature (a jagular, Hunter had said earlier). The sword clanged against her armored hide and flew out of Hart's hand, falling down the mountainside and disappearing from sight.
This isn't a fight you're going to win, Hart, Luz said confidently. You're outnumbered and outgunned!
Tasha smirked at her. "Oh? Whoever said I was outnumbered?"
Before Edmond could berate her for her substandard counting skills, there was a hissing sound and then at least a dozen different abominations in powered armor appeared out of nowhere. They had clearly been invisible until this point. In addition to them, a hulky demon (?) wearing a plague mask appeared, accompanied by four members of the Emperor's Guard.
"Allow me to introduce Warden Wrath," Tasha purred. "Your daughter made a fool of him, and he's been itching to get some revenge."
"You lied to me!" Wrath accused Amity. "You said that if I was nice to Eda, she'd look at me in a different light! But I was nice to her for weeks, and she didn't even give me a second glance!"
Amity laughed. "Of course I lied to you, you ignoramus. You're a creepy stalker, and I'd do it again."
Wrath snarled at her. "You'll be singing a different tune when I feed you to the basilisks!"
Something appeared to click behind Camila's eyes. She covertly drew her revolver and hid it behind her back. "So you're the one responsible for torturing Vee?"
Wrath looked confused. "Who's Vee? Oh, you mean Number Five?" Camila's face twitched. Edmond was very glad that he wasn't on the other side of that anger. "Yeah, so what? It's just a basilisk. Sub-witch trash. Heck, even a human like you is worth more than it."
"SHE'S MY DAUGHTER AND HER NAME IS VEE!" Camila screeched louder than Edmond had ever heard her scream before.
At that point, a lot of things happened at once. First of all, Camila surged over to Wrath and shot him squarely in the center of the forehead without hesitating for an instant. Purple blood splattered all over the place, and Wrath fell to the ground, almost certainly dead. At that very same moment, the mechs attacked, forming their limbs into wickedly sharped blades and slicing and dicing away. Viney caught a glancing blow to the shoulder which nearly ripped her arm off. She ran behind a tree.
Luz morphed back into her original form, just in time to use a shield glyph to dissipate a spell from a guard that almost certainly would have incinerated Amity if it had found its mark. Guards fired wicked sharp ice shards at everyone in the general vicinity. Amity used illusion spells to confuse them into missing, but it was clear that she wasn't particularly good at it and it wouldn't have fooled anyone outside of a pitched and distracting battle environment.
Hunter's leg was still immobilized, but he continued to fire spells using his staff. One of them hit a guard and turned him into a marble statue, which almost instantaneously fell to the ground and shattered into dozens of pieces.
Steve shot a second guard in the heart, killing him, but then when he tried to shoot another one, his gun clicked empty.
Hart strode over to him and clocked him in the jaw, knocking him unconscious. She reached into his jacket pocket and came out with the flower. "Surrender your daughter, Serrano, or you'll never return to Earth!"
Camila laughed like a hyena. "God, you're serious, aren't you?" she said eventually. "Do you honestly think that I'll give my daughter up for a flower? So what if I never return to Earth? The Isles are already a better place since I killed Wrath." She gave her a vicious grin. "I wonder how much of a better place they'll be after I kill you."
She lifted the revolver and fired all five bullets left in the cylinder directly at Hart's occipital lobe. Unfortunately, she used what must have been an enhanced speed spell to dodge the shots. Camila threw her now useless gun into the snow and hurled her bread knife at Hart's chest. Not having any training in throwing knives, it completely missed her and fell off the ledge that Hart's sword had recently fallen off of.
Amity abruptly started running away, pursued by the mechas. They pursued her towards the forest and then boxed her in. They advanced on her with their wickedly sharp blades and Edmond could do nothing but watch as they sliced through thin air. Hang on, what?
Luz pulled out a glyph and activated it, and then there was suddenly what looked like a grenade launcher in her hand. Next to her, Amity appeared, having turned herself invisible with one of Luz's glyphs. Luz fired the grenade at the mechas, who were melted by the force of the explosion.
Then there was a huge roaring sound and a gigantic monster emerged into the clearing. It sort of resembled a yeti, if a yeti had absolutely gigantic teeth, glowing blue eyes, and was scarier than anything Edmond could possibly envision except in his worst nightmares. It was a slitherbeast, presumably, and the only thought that was running through Edmond's mind was, Oh, I am so dead.
Hart snarled and fired a stream of yellow light in the direction of the slitherbeast. Presumably it would have killed a normal witch, but it just appeared to make the slitherbeast mad. The remaining two living Emperor's Guards appeared to realize where things were going and ran for it. The slitherbeast did not pursue them. Instead, it charged at Hart, who's eyes widened in horror. "Someone help me!" she screamed. "It's going to kill me!"
No one made a move. Edmond certainly didn't feel like risking his life to help the woman who had tried to kill his entire family, injured his boyfriend, and specifically targeted his sister.
"I can pay you," Hart said frantically. "I can –"
Edmond never found out what else she could do, because the slitherbeast rammed straight into Hart, sending her flying off the ledge with a horrifying scream of agony. There was a loud thud a few moments later. Edmond hoped that was the last they saw of Hart. In the movies, it wouldn't have been, but expecting things to be like them was a foolish proposition, he knew.
The slitherbeast ignored everyone else and then emerged back into the forest. Clearly, it knew exactly who was responsible for disturbing it and wasn't interested in hurting the rest of them now that it had its vengeance.
"Well, that was a more eventful trip than average," Luz said chirpily.
Camila looked down at the corpse of Wrath with abject horror. "Oh my God. I killed him!"
"You had to," Steve assured her. "It was him or us."
"No, no, it wasn't," Camila said, her hands shaking, blood still covering them. "I murdered him in cold blood!"
"He deserved it," Luz said soothingly. "After what he was going to do to my dad, what he did do to Vee, he deserved it, mami. He chopped Eda's head off, for pity's sake." Edmond winced. No one had mentioned Eda getting her head chopped off, doubtlessly because it had only happened in Luz's timeline. Fortunately, Camila didn't appear to notice the significance of this remark.
Amity gave Camila a hug. "It's okay, mami. You protected me. That's what counts."
Camila didn't look all that convinced, but she gave a shaky nod and allowed Amity to help carry her away. Viney's illicit healing magic allowed her to heal her and Hunter's injuries, though not entirely, and they'd still probably need medical attention when they returned. They had a long trek back home, and it would be painful for some of them, but at least they were alive. That was what mattered in the end.
Tasha Hart was not a woman who could be easily defeated. This had always been the case. Her gift at healing magic had taught her how to heal and rend and make herself strong physically. The best offense was a good defense, as the humans said, and she could defend herself until the rain grew cold. She easily survived the fall off the ledge. It was a mere trifle, though having to walk all the way back home to preserve her magic was an indignity she could do without.
In the meantime, she had gotten what she had truly came for. With Warden Wrath dead in a way that multiple witnesses could attest couldn't possibly be blamed on her, a power vacuum would arise in the basilisk project. A vacuum that Tasha was eager and willing to step into.
The basilisks were not all as weak and unworthy as Number Five. They were apex predators, magic sucking creatures. One of them was a terrifying threat. All of them combined? Well, that was strength that could take down even Emperor Belos himself.
But first…she would turn them against Hexside, and watch Amity be left nothing more than a powerless human. Which would make her so easy to crush.