The rising sun is what woke me that morning, its soft rays soaking into my face. I opened my sleep-filled brown eyes to see the world staring back at me. Despite not needing to go to work that day, it still mocked me with my many chores.

I let out a deep breath. For one sweet moment, I had forgotten that I was alone, but then it hit me like a chilling wind. The house was quiet, way too quiet. My daughter had gone to a summer camp a few miles away from town, and my husband was just gone. At my age, I could handle being alone, but it was always a painful reminder that I was missing someone.

I arose from the bed, then tidied it up a bit. Then I headed downstairs to the kitchen. Before I could get breakfast, there were a few things I had to do. One of them was to take the trash to the edge of the driveway. The trash truck would be there soon, and though there was only one person's worth in the house, all of the cans were getting quite full.

After carrying out the trash, I had to do the dishes from last night. I had let them soak to get…get… My mind trailed as I looked outside the window. There was something small and brown standing on the top of the trash bin, a bird of some kind…maybe an owl. But it was smaller than any type of owl you would find in the woods of Connecticut. It seemed to be around the size of a very young burrowing owl, which were mainly found in the west.

It spun its head around a few times, before starting to rummage through our trash. That's when memories of that weird dream I had started to resurface.

Though I told the weird witch girl I believed her, I pushed it off as just a dream as soon as I woke up. I mean it couldn't have been real, could it. Yet, it would easily explain the bird sitting outside.

"What did she call it…a "palisman"?".

She said the woman with the portal, the one who sold the human junk, sent her palisman to our world to collect things from the garbage. That would explain why he didn't look like any normal owl species and why he now had a small sack in his beak.

I slowly crept out the door, my curiosity peaked, and down the porch stairs. I had gotten pretty close to the smaller bird, but then he felt my presence and ran back to the woods. Don't ask me why, but I gave chase.

He was fast, or maybe I was just slow, but I was able to keep up with him until we both reached a cabin in the woods. It was very old and had been abandoned for many years now. It was a surprise it was still standing.

At first, I hesitated. This definitely wasn't my property, but seeing the bird flutter inside made me go through the door as well. There was a small flash that blinded me for a few moments. When I opened my eyes again, I was met with an entire antique store worth of things. It was all worthless junk, not worth even a dime back home. But it being there signified that I was no longer in my home realm.

"Was that girl in my dream right? Is there really a demon realm?".

How else would a door to a rugged old pile of wood lead me to a tent that was clearly outside by the way it's walls waved in the wind? Perhaps I was dreaming again, but it didn't feel like it. I felt fully awake.

"Since you're in a sorting mood, kid. How 'bout you look through today's human junk?" an older voice rasped from outside. She must have been talking about all of the trash her palisman brought to her.

"Gladly". What?! I…I knew that voice! But she couldn't have been here! She was at camp with that ghost girl!

I pushed my way outside of the tent. And what I saw frightened me more than any witch or demon could.

"Mami?!".

"Luz?!".

"What are you doing here?".

"What are you doing here?! You're supposed to be at summer camp!" I turned and pointed to the ghost girl, who was hovering over the stand next to her. "And you're supposed to be with her".

"She is with her" the cat thing across from us growled. Despite how angry he looked, he was probably one of the cutest things I've ever seen.

"How do you know that?" Luz suspiciously questioned. "Amity, how does she know who you are?".

"I may have walked in her dreams" she laughed nervously while scratching the back of her neck.

"You told her I was here?!".

"No! Only that I was with you!".

"You made me believe you were both at camp!" I snapped in surprise. "You said you came through the portal!".

"I did! That's how I walked in your dreams!".

"Alright, everybody just stop a moment and take a deep breath" the trash vender hollered. "Minty, you've got some explaining to do".

"They both do," I added.

"I was only trying to help," Amity admitted after she sighed out her fear. "Luz told me that her mom would have a bad reaction to the demon realm, so I went into the human realm and walked in her dreams. I thought that if I told her all the good Luz has done for me, she'd be less angry when Luz told her the truth".

"How'd you get the portal? I keep it with me at all times". The merchant's golden eyes moved towards the cat demon. It seemed she already knew how Amity was able to use the portal without her knowing.

"It was King's idea" Amity answered before King could deny his involvement. "He carried the amulet to Luz's house so I could find Camila".

"I told you, Amity," my daughter jumped in. "It wasn't the demon realm she wouldn't like. It's what I've done here".

"What you've done here"?" I echoed. Luz grew sickly pale. It was as if my eyes left burn marks on her very soul.

"That wasn't her fault, Camila," Amity yowled. The begging look on her face was painful. "If anyone's to blame it's me".

"You were following the rules!".

"I was being selfish!".

"But I helped Willow cheat! I got your badge taken away!".

"Your life is worth much more than a badge, Luz!".

"Enough, kids!".

The merchant's howl silenced both Luz and Amity, but it didn't silence my thoughts. Did Luz have something to do with Amity's accident? Was she the one who caused it?!

No. No, no, no, no! She was supposed to learn to stay out of trouble this summer but instead she came to some magical world and…¡Que Dios me ayude! (God help me).

"Camila" the merchant called earnestly. "Amity was killed in a freak accident caused by some dumb idea the principal had. Your daughter is not to blame for this".

"And what I said last night is still true". Amity's voice cracked in desperation. "If it weren't for Luz, I would still be trapped in Blight manor, being tortured by my mother".

My anger softened. I'd be lying if I said I didn't feel some spark of pride. Amity's fondness for Luz showed how grateful the young ghost truly was. Luz had clearly become a very good friend of hers. But she still lied to me and ran away to the very thing that kept getting her in trouble. She still clung to her obsession with magic.

"Mija. I'm glad you were able to help Amity, and I'm glad to see you've made a few new friends here, but you can't live in this fantasy world forever!".

"Fantasy world?". The witch lady flicked her pointed ear with a sneer. "Believe it or not but we're as real as you are, lady. And she wasn't going to stay here forever. She just wanted to spend the summer here".

"That's not what I mean. Luz, I know being a witch has always been your dream, but you can't be one back home".

"But I can be one here," my daughter argued. "And then I can go home and do school in the fall".

"You can't if you keep getting in trouble".

"I think I see the problem here" the merchant hmmed while rubbing her chin. "And I think I've got a solution".

"Really?" Both Luz and I asked in unison.

"Yep. I, Eda the owl lady, challenge you, whatever she said your name was, to a witch's duel".

"What?!". A "witch's duel" as in two powerful witches fighting?!

"Eda" Luz laughed humorously. "You can't be serious".

"Oh. I'm serious alright. You know more than anybody that nothing brings people together like a good ol' fashion witch's duel".

"But Camila doesn't know a single spell!" Amity jumped in.

"I know. But luckily, she has a kid who both knows magic and has won a witch's duel before".

"You have?! Against who?!".

"Just some kid," Luz answered in a rush. "He's an ass".

"Luz! Language!". "C'mon, kid". Eda nudged her apprentice's shoulder with her elbow. "You trust me, right?".

My daughter needed a moment, though I could tell by the look in her eyes that her answer came to her right away. She approached me, the fear radiating from her as painful as touching an open flame.

"Mami?" she begged. "¿Por favor?".

Those large round puppy dog eyes of hers, they were my greatest weakness. I wasn't able to say "no", was I? I was going to have to fight her witch mentor, wasn't I?

"This isn't to death, right?".

"Of course not. Just until the loser taps out".

"...Okay" I sighed while my nerves shuddered. "I'll fight you".

"That's the spirit…uh, no offense, Minty". The tiny owl I followed into the portal hopped on top of the owl lady's staff. The witch twisted him around until he had completely morphed into a wooden carving. "Luz, you take Owlbert and fly your mom back to the owl house. I'll be there in a few hours".

"Really? You trust me to fly him on my own".

"I know you've been practicing after your run in with the Bat Queen".

"Yeah," Amity muttered. "That wasn't fun".

Eda tossed Luz her staff, which the teen struggled to catch. She held it up and laid it on its side. When she let go of it, it hovered like it was still in her grasp. Luz hopped on top of it, balancing like a witch on a broom. She then welcomingly patted the spot behind her.

I climbed onto the staff as carefully as I could. It was hard to balance on it, the stick being much smaller than something like a bicycle seat, but I was at least able to stay on the thing. Once I had wrapped my arms around Luz's torso, we shot way into the air.

My grip tightened as I let out a giant scream! It suddenly felt like gravity grew heavier, making me sway back and forth. The wind in my wide-open eyes made them water. I shut them as tightly as I could. If I were to look down, even for a moment, I may have passed out.

I fell onto my shaky knees as soon as we were back on the ground. I needed a moment to catch my breath.

"Those things need seatbelts" I shivered.

"I know" Luz giggled as she helped me up. "Your first couple times on a staff can be pretty scary".

I scanned my surroundings, a forest clearing that led to a cliffside hanging over a purple sea. Resting there was a white house with blue roofing and a foreboding stained-glass window on the top story. A wooden owl head was carved onto the door below. I suppose that's why they called it the owl hou—AH!

"Hiyah, Luz! Who's this?! Is she a new friend?!" the owl hooted as its freakishly long neck slinked out towards us. It wrapped around us like a snake preparing to kill.

"Quit it, Hooty! You're scaring my mom" Luz grumbled as she shoved him away. "Mom, this is Hooty. He's our house demon".

"House demon?".

"He protects us from intruders like the emperor's coven".

"Emperor's coven?!". That sounded like–

"Yep. Or as Eda calls them: the fuzz".

"Hooty, don't you have a leaf you should be eating or something".

"Nope but I did find a fly, and I don't mean a house fly but a giant snake-horse fly…". As Hooty rambled on, Luz silently shushed me and pulled me away.

"Okay…" she awkwardly drawled "So I guess I have to teach you magic… and how to win a witch's duel… against one of the most powerful witches on the isles…".

"Eda mentioned you'd won one before. What happened?".

"Oh, well" Luz began. "Some kid Amity used to train with said some pretty bad stuff about her, so I sorta…".

"You challenged him to a witch's duel". Of course, she did. It was what her literary icon would do after all.

"And I only knew a light spell" the teen mumbled. "But Amity had an idea to use his construction magic against him, and I did that. It was a vicious battle, but after I fooled him into thinking I was down, I pinned him to the ground. Er…here. I'll show you".

From her hoodie pocket, Luz pulled out a small notepad and a pen. She drew a circle with a symbol inside and showed it to me.

"I can't do construction magic, so this'll have to do".

She placed the piece of paper on the ground and tapped the symbol with her foot. From it, a large spike of ice rose high into the air. Luz looked it over a second before saying under her breath, "that seems about right".

All I could do was stare in amazement. Luz, my daughter, had just made a huge pillar of ice using nothing but paper and a pen. My own shock and pride worked together to make me speechless. A feeling of happiness washed over me like a giant wave. She…she did it! With a simple drawing she had accomplished her dream! She really was a witch!

Hearing that she had learned to do magic, or that she had beaten a witch at a duel in honor of the ghost she was protecting, part of me didn't believe it was true. With all the times my daughter was chided or laughed at for believing in magic and fairytales were real, all the times I desperately tried to explain to her that she couldn't be like the characters in her book, part of me clung to my skepticism. But seeing the chunk of ice grow like a flower rising out of the ground, it suddenly became real to me. I truly believed Luz. I believed in Luz.

"How did you do that?" I asked while I continued to gape at her spell some more. Luz stopped laying more pieces of paper on the ground for a second, so she could address my question.

"There are symbols, glyphs, hidden all over the island you can use to cast spells. I learned the ice glyph while ice skating, and I found the light glyph in Amity's glowing eyes".

"So all I need to do is draw the right symbol on a piece of paper, and I'll be able to cast that spell?".

"You can draw them anywhere, but I like to pre draw them on paper. You never know when you're going to need them" Luz answered before going back to creating more pillars. She then drew a different symbol on a bunch of paper and ripped them out. "I would hide behind the pillars he made and would cause a large flash with my light glyphs to pull his attention there. He would be focused on where I was instead of following me to where I was going".

"Wow, that is really clever," I encouraged as she demonstrated.

"Like I said, it was Amity's idea. Her and this kid used to spar a lot so she was confident it would work".

"And it did".

"Sort of. I still got hit". Luz's excitement faltered. Past her now feigned smile, you could tell shame was rising.

"But then you tricked him, right?". That was enough to rejuvenate her.

"Yeah. He started to talk to his mentor Lilith, and I pounced on him. He never saw it coming". Reality then struck her like lightning. She pushed the exciting memory out of her mind, before trying to grow much more serious. "But Eda will see that sort of stuff coming. We need a new plan".

"Well, what if we use the ice to trip her".

"I don't know". Luz had to take a moment to think. Her brown eyes then lit like the sun. "I think I've got it!".

"You ready," Eda rasped. The pale witch met me in the middle of the clearing, her golden eye burning like fire.

I glanced over at my daughter, her ghost friend, and the horned demon I met earlier. The latter two stared onward like they were witnessing a train wreck, but the former gave me an anxious thumbs up. We had spent nearly two hours working on Luz's plan, and I think I finally had it down.

"I'm ready" I answered, stifling the jittering nervousness welling in my stomach.

"Alright, ladies! I want a clean fight here!" Hooty began to say before the owl lady shoved him away.

"It'll be as clean as we want it to be" the older woman huffed before her gaze found me. A sly smile revealed her golden fang. "Right, human?".

"Whatever you say" I fakely chuckled.

"Alright, then let's go–". My panic coming to a head, I slammed my fist into the witch's face as soon as I heard the word "go". She stumbled backwards in a daze, while my instinct cleared away from my mind and gave me mere seconds to think.

I threw Luz's plan into action. From my pocket I pulled out two ice glyphs and planted them onto the bottom of my shoes. They turned into thick, slick, sheets of ice that allowed me to glide across the ground at a much faster speed than I could run.

As I circled Eda, the smile on her face grew much wider. She decided to join me, though instead of using ice, she used volts of power magic. She was much quicker, and much more agile, but I was ready for it. All I needed now was for the witch to get close.

I edged closer, ready to crash and tangle into Eda. Said witch noticed me grow closer so she closed the space between us. She moved to kick at my legs and make me trip but I acted first. I twisted around like a cat in midair and slapped the large light glyph I'd been pocketing right into Eda's face. When it connected, a giant blinding flash stunned her and made her slide to a stop. And just like Luz said she did in her witch's duel, I pounced onto my foe and pinned her down by the chest with my knees.

I did it. I actually did it! While my senses left battle mode, a surprised laugh escaped from me! I didn't think it would work, but Luz was right!

"Do you get it now?" Eda questioned from the ground. "Or do we need to keep going?".

"Get what?" I asked back, while my cheering stopped.

"Luz was the one who came up with that right. That attack had her written all over it."

"She was," I answered, my victory smile sinking into a softer one. "She thought of it all on her own".

"See how much the kid has grown here. She is doing more than just being a witch. She's learning to tackle the world".

Eda had a point. I always knew Luz was smart, she just struggled with focusing and her imagination got way too out of hand. But she really had learned a lot about magic, and she was able to hone her skill into something truly impressive. If she could do that with all her schoolwork, then she would be the top of her class for sure.

"I get you want what's best for Luz, but so do we. And I don't know what a summer camp is, but it seems like the boiling isle is really helping her shine. Just let her stay for the summer then see how school goes for her".

I must admit, the thought scared me slightly. This was a whole other world, a world full of DEMONs no less. But the group of demons and witches were clearly helping her more than I ever could. Could I really tell Luz she had to go home when this may have been what she really needed?

No. It would hurt Luz in more ways than one. I didn't have the heart to.

"Alright" I finally said after letting out a deep breath. "You can stay here over the summer, mija, but you have to keep texting me and no more lying, okay".

With an excited squee, Luz broke from the sidelines and crashed into me. I staggered off of Eda, before returning the embrace. I gave her a small squeeze before we both let go.

"Thank you, mami! Thank you, thank you!".

"Welp, my work here is done". Eda rose to her feet and began to pop all her joints. "Now who wants some lunch".

"I do" Luz sing-songed.

"Me!" King shouted. "I want food!".

"I can't eat regular food," Amity grimaced. "So…".

"What about you, mama bear? You want something?". Though Eda asked the question my eyes were on Luz. There were the puppy eyes again.

"Okay. I'll stay for lunch. What are we having?".

"How 'bout griffin egg sandwiches?".

"Griffin, huh" I prodded while trying to sound enthusiastic. On the inside, my mind was whirling around the word "griffin". Those were real? Did they look like that one taxidermy project Luz did with the pigeon and squirrel? "Sounds exotic".

None of my questions would be answered. In fact, I had the strongest feeling that I'd have a million unanswered questions by the end of lunch.

"C'mon then!" my daughter called as she grabbed my hand and drug me forwards. Her excitement gave her the strength of an elephant. "Welcome to the owl house, mom!".