A/N: My god. This chapter got so damn long. I am so sorry. I tried to find a good place to cut it, as I did consider splitting it across two chapters. But unfortunately, it didn't work. There wasn't enough to work with for a standalone chapter, so... I'm afraid you guys have gotten quite a bit to read here. XD Compared to the first two chapters for this episode, Chapter 12 is probably the most creative I've gotten where canon has been strayed away from a lot. Personally, I thought the whole thing with the Snaggleback was boring in the actual episode, and I didn't think it was going to fit appropriately in this fanfic. So, I decided to come up with a more creative way for Lizzie to uncover the truth alongside King. After all, the whole Snaggleback situation was more for King's benefit, but Lizzie is an adult witch, and thus has more common sense, which is why it made sense for me to go about it in this way. Also, this was a good opportunity for King's and Lizzie's relationship to be expanded upon. You'll also get to see the links to Chapter 9 in here, as well as why I made some of the decisions I did in this chapter. What I put Lizzie through was necessary and not just for dramatic effect, because a) Luz needed to still uncover the light glyph. That's important to the story and her development and thus can't be taken out, and b) if Lizzie did have access to her magic, then it'd make resolving the situation way too easy. Plus, this way, it seemed in character for Eda not to take action with their learning until one of her charges wound up suffering the consequences of her actions (outside of King), so... yeah. ^^'

Thank you to everyone who has been favouriting, following, reviewing, and reading this fanfic. Your continued support is greatly appreciated. Chapter 13 will be the beginning of the fifth episode 'Covention', which I have big plans for because it gives you guys a closer glimpse into Lizzie's past when a certain someone reappears... But depending on how I feel and how things in my life play out, expect a long delay. I'm planning on trying to update another fanfic of mine again, so I might not return to this one as quickly. I hope this chapter holds you over in the meantime, though.


Chapter 12: The Truth in Plain Sight

If Lizzie was asked what her greatest fear was, she was sure she wouldn't be able to give a straight answer. While she perceived herself to be a bit of a coward, her fears were specific and rare in number. And yet here… it seemed like one of them had come true.

The young witch stood frozen in the doorway to Eda's room, staring at the nest that was now empty. Her mind swirled with thoughts of denial, trying to convince herself that this was all a crazy dream. And maybe it was. Perhaps she'd fallen asleep while reading through those books. There was no creature in the Owl House. Hooty was fine and was his usual annoying self. King had never taken Eda's elixir. Yup, she thought, that had to be it.

Those thoughts quickly vanished when the lightning streaked across the sky like electrified veins, giving a brief flash and boom of thunder that would have woken her up had she been asleep. Her confirmation was right there: this wasn't a dream.

"Eda…"

Eda's name left Lizzie's mouth as a breathless whisper as she rushed over to the nest, keeping the orb of light at her side the whole time. At reaching the nest, she placed both hands on the side and dug her fingers into the bundled twigs, searching for any evidence of Eda's presence underneath her collection of shiny treasures. She saw nothing but a small purple pillow lying amongst the clutter, with white stuffing oozing out of the slash mark left on the casing, one that was very similar to the scratch mark left on the front door. That, coupled with the smashed window, had Lizzie piecing together the only scenario she believed could have happened.

Eda had been taken by the creature.

"No…" Lizzie mumbled weakly and stumbled away from the nest, dropping to her knees on the wooden floor with a loud thud. Her body slouched forward. Her hands reached for her face. "I was too late…"

The blonde closed her eyes tight at feeling them sting, the threat of tears falling lingering amidst the pitter-patter of the boiling rain pouring outside.

'I hate this feeling of helplessness. It's been there since I was arrested that night. Being stuck alone in the dark and the cold… It's scary how kneeling in here feels like I'm stuck in the back of that carriage again.' The blonde sucked in a deep breath in attempt to steady herself. She couldn't cry, not now. 'I don't understand how this happened. How did that creature even survive the boiling rain? How did it manage to take out Hooty? What has it done with Eda? None of this is adding up…'

The blonde witch wanted to curl up into a ball on the floor and cry her eyes out. But that feeling quickly dissipated when a familiar cry for help sounded from the hallway outside.

"LUZ! HELP ME!" Lizzie's head whipped round to the doorway, where she saw King run past with something clutched against his front before tripping forward, landing flat on the pillow stuck to his middle. "Weh!"

Loud scurrying echoed from the right side of the hallway, causing Lizzie to leap to her feet and dart straight for the little demon cowering with his paws over his head, closing her right hand into a fist to disperse the orb of light in a small flash.

'No way! That thing is not taking King too!'

The young witch could feel her heart beating erratically in time with the creature's noises as it drew closer, and for a moment she was wondering if she was going to be able to get to King in time. However, by the time Lizzie reached King and scooped him up into her arms, she saw no sign of the creature on the right side of the hallway, with the noises having also halted suddenly. 'What the…?'

Her confusion was brief, as she soon turned her focus to King when the little demon looked up at her with wide eyes from where he was pressed against her front along with his demon book (the one he'd formerly tried to show Luz when speaking about the Snaggleback a while back). "Lizzie! Am I glad to see you!"

Lizzie scowled and held King under his arms, keeping her voice low to avoid attracting the attention of the creature (wherever it was). "What are you doing up here?! I told you to wait downstairs with Luz!"

"I wanted to help!" King raised his demon book for Lizzie to see, covering the bottom half of his face. "Since that creature is the Snaggleback, you're gonna need this."

Lizzie's shoulders slumped. "I told you to wait until I got back. I can't believe you left Luz downstairs all on her own!"

King scowled and lowered his book. "I did not. She followed me, but we got separated when the Snaggleback showed up. Plus, you're one to talk! You left Eda alone in her room to come and get me!" Lizzie turned her gaze to the ground at this, prompting King to tilt his head at seeing her eyes glisten. "What's the matter?"

Lizzie opened her mouth to respond… until she froze at hearing a low growl sound from above. '… Oh no.'

With a simultaneous gulp, she and King slowly looked up, their gazes immediately locking with the glowing yellow eyes of the shadowed creature clinging to the ceiling upside-down.

'That thing can hang off the ceiling?! Is that why I didn't see it coming?!'

King screamed as the creature launched itself towards the ground, prompting Lizzie to dive out of the way while it twisted its body round to land. She briefly crashed onto her front and missed the creature once it landed yet didn't waste any time scrambling to her feet and tucking King under her left arm. Lizzie sprinted for the stairs without looking back, causing King to wave one of his arms around.

"Wait! What about Eda?!"

"She's not in there, King," Lizzie replied, her voice breaking as she sucked in a shaky breath to hold back the tears stinging at her eyes and blurring her vision. "The creature got to her first."

King's eyes widened, his next words coming out quiet. "What? She was…"

The loud thudding of the creature's feet against the floorboards behind them prevented further conversation, forcing Lizzie to pick up the pace while she dashed down to the second floor. Her mind was in overdrive, trying to think of the best place she and King could hide from the creature until they could figure out what was going on. But then, the moment Lizzie rounded the corner and got halfway down the corridor, she saw it: the white shape of one of Luz's shoes lying on its side in the middle of her path.

She and King let out loud gasps while the former stumbled to a dead stop, with the latter squirming his way out of Lizzie's grasp to run over to the item with a pained shout. "Luz!"

Lizzie watched King take the shoe into both paws (with his book still pushed against his front) and hug it as close as he could against himself. He turned to Lizzie with his jaw quivering. "No… It got Luz too!"

And Lizzie thought tonight couldn't get any worse.

Lizzie said nothing, choosing instead to hang her head at hearing King sniffle.

"First Hooty… then Eda… and now Luz…" King's little paws violently shook as his voice cracked, going an octave higher than usual. "When will the snaggle-backing end?!"

Lizzie still didn't answer. That didn't stop her from speaking in her thoughts.

'That means we're on our own: just me and King…'

The creature's high-pitched roar alerted Lizzie and King of its presence on the second floor, causing the latter to whimper and lean round Lizzie to glance down the hallway. King screeched when he saw the creature bounding its way towards them, but Lizzie didn't react at first. She was supposed to be scared of the thing that was closing in on her, and yet… her body and hands shook for a completely different reason. Her teeth gritted, her jaw clenched, and before she knew it, Lizzie was swirling round to face the creature and twirling her index finger, drawing a spell circle in front of her feet.

The floor underneath the blonde witch briefly shook before a circular pillar of earth rose in front of her, getting in the path of the creature as it closed in on her. Unfortunately for the creature, it didn't have time to react to what was in front of it, prompting it to crash headfirst into the pillar. Lizzie observed the creature's body spasming from the impact with a glare, even as it hissed in pain, stumbled backwards, and swiped at its head with its claws.

"You wretched beast!" Lizzie yelled with venom, swiping her arm to the side to cause the earth pillar to crack and crumble into tiny chunks. Her nostrils flared as she drew another spell circle, firing a medium-sized spurt of water from its centre at the creature, who was shaking its head to snap itself out of its temporary stun. "What did you do with them?!"

The creature screeched as the water collided with its front, the force propelling it backwards to the other end of the hallway. Lizzie watched the creature crash back-first into the wall before taking a step forward to fire another spell… until a sudden wave of fatigue washed over her. The blonde witch hunched forward and placed her hands to her knees, feeling like a Greater Basilisk had just sucked her energy out of her (which she knew wasn't true; Greater Basilisks were extinct, after all).

'Darn… I think those spell demonstrations took up a good chunk of my magic. If I'm not careful, I'll wind up like Eda.'

"Lizzie!" The blonde perked up and glanced towards the right at hearing King's voice, spying the little demon standing in the doorway to her bedroom while beckoning her inside with a paw. "Quick! In here!"

Lizzie decided not to argue. Without even giving the creature she'd just attacked the time of day, the young witch straightened out and darted for the darkened bedroom, following King inside before slamming the door shut.

Resting her back and head against the door, Lizzie let out a small sigh and closed her eyes, sliding against it until she was sitting on the floor. Meanwhile, King took a quick survey of the bedroom, his gaze eventually locking with the stack of books Lizzie had left by her mattress.

"Wow. What were you doing in here?"

"That's not important," Lizzie replied quietly, tilting her head to the side to press an ear against the door. She frowned when she heard a faint shriek from the creature come from the other side; it was still down the hallway. "It's you and me now, King. We have to stop this creature."

King faced Lizzie with a frown, clutching his book and Luz's shoe close to his chest. "That craven beast ate Luz and Eda and knocked out Hooty! How do we compete with that?!"

The blonde witch squinted at the demon book King was still clutching. "You said that beast might be the 'Snaggleback'." She beckoned the little demon towards her with a hand. "Let me see what you have in that book about it."

King perked up, his eyes glistening wide as he dashed and placed the book in Lizzie's lap. "Yes! I knew my book would come in handy!"

"In the meantime," Lizzie pointed towards her boxes by her mattress. "would you mind unlocking the chest for me? The key for the padlock is in one of those boxes."

"Why? What's in there?"

"My potions."

King tilted his head and followed the direction of Lizzie's finger, forcing a blink before responding. "Since when did you put your potions in there?"

"Since I decided that leaving them lying around for snoopers like you and Hooty wasn't the best idea," Lizzie answered with a slight smirk, prompting King to scowl and stomp his foot.

"This isn't the time for jokes!"

"Then get them out for me." The blonde witch rubbed a hand against her chest. "I've used up too much of my magic already. I'll need those to preserve what little I have left."

King's shoulders slumped, but he nodded in agreement. "Fine."

Lizzie allowed King to open out the book to the correct pages before he darted off to where her boxes were, after putting Luz's shoe down beside her. As much as she didn't like the situation they were currently in, she knew she and King were going to have to make the best of what they had, starting with figuring out what that creature outside the door was.

With King leaning forward into one of the boxes and rummaging through her belongings for her key, Lizzie switched her focus to the opened book in front of her, which showed the depicted drawings of the creature she recalled seeing on the torn poster King had tried to show Luz earlier that evening. On the left page was the basic entry for the Snaggleback detailing specific written information and its name in black, scribbled font at the top. In the top right corner of the text was a tiny drawing of the demon from behind while standing on two legs, exposing some of its spikes sticking off its shell. In the bottom left corner of the page was a larger image that depicted a detailed closeup of the Snaggleback's jaw, exposing its uneven and jagged set of teeth. On the right page was a medium-sized image of the full body of the Snaggleback from a sideview, which was surrounded by small labels that gave biological facts about the creature's various body parts.

It was these drawings that caused Lizzie to furrow her brow and lift the book from her lap, bringing it closer to her face.

'Wait a minute…'

"Aha!" Lizzie briefly glanced up at hearing King's cry of triumph, watching him hold up the tiny silver key with an open circle. "Is this it?"

"Yeah…" Lizzie replied slowly, lowering the book back to her lap with a frown. King started to dash over to the chest to unlock the padlock but stopped when Lizzie called out to him. "Hey, King?"

"Yeah?"

"Are you sure that creature outside is a Snaggleback?"

"As sure as anything! Why?"

"Because I don't think it is."

King blinked widely before putting his paws to his hips, tilting his chin up with a squint. "Excuse me. Are you questioning the knowledge of a demon expert?"

Lizzie's eyes drooped at this, prompting her to jab a finger into the middle of the pages. "Just look at this." King approached the young witch's side and leaned over to listen, with Lizzie pointing between the diagram and the silhouette image. "According to this, the Snaggleback has spikes on its shell, and they can be seen even when it's covered in shadow. But that beast didn't have anything of the sort. Its back was arched and small. And it climbed and clung to the ceiling. Don't you think that'd be hard to accomplish with a large shell, especially one that is apparently so heavy, the Snaggleback has to support it by itself, according to the image on the torn poster you have downstairs?"

King's brow furrowed as he wringed his paws together with the key in between, his answer coming out quiet. "W-Well… I guess you can't cling to the ceiling with a heavy shell on your back…"

"And it's not just that." She pointed to the drawing depicting the creature's open jaw and the diagram on the opposite page. "Look at its teeth. The Snaggleback has bent and oddly shaped teeth. But the fangs on the creature were straight and neat with almost perfect points. They don't look like anything seen in these drawings."

King forced a laugh and waved a paw in dismissal, turning away from her. "Ha. C'mon, Lizzie! Quit with the jokes!"

Lizzie raised a brow as she looked to King. "I'm not joking. I seriously don't think the creature we've been dealing with is a Snaggleback."

King's jaw quivered, his tiny paws clenching into loose fists. "Oh yeah?" His voice rose when he swirled back around, crossing his arms. "Well, I don't think Eda's elixir is medicine!"

"… What?"

King motioned his head towards the stack of books behind him. "That's right! I saw the titles of those books! You didn't know what Eda's elixir was for either! You've been trying to look it up! Admit it!"

There was a moment of silence as King and Lizzie stared each other down. But soon Lizzie's mouth twisted slightly, her shoulders raising as she responded with the same volume as King. "What has gotten into you?"

The question took King off guard. His eyes widened, his body slumped, and before Lizzie had a chance to say anything else… he sniffled. Lizzie watched with a wide blink as tears sprung to the little demon's eyes, forcing him to hide his face behind his paws. His tiny body violently shook, his sniffles turned to quiet sobs, and his head and tail lowered. The key he'd been holding dropped to the floor with a quiet thump, having slipped from his grasp.

Eventually, the young witch huffed quietly and set the demon book aside, reaching for King and picking him up under his arms. The second she placed the little demon in her lap, he buried his face into her vest and began his sobbing rant.

"I j-just w-wanted L-Luz t-to b-be as excited about d-demons as s-she is about m-magic! She said she'd finish our lesson if I helped her learn that light spell!"

Lizzie gaped. She felt like she'd just been hit in the face with a brick. Her next words were almost shouted. "Is that why you stole Eda's elixir?!" King briefly nodded, causing the blonde to close her eyes and shake her head slowly. "Oh, King…"

King dug his face further into Lizzie's vest, muffling his voice and his sniffles. Yet Lizzie could still make out what he was saying. "No one pays that much attention to me. And after what happened with Prince Jr… I thought I could finally get through to Luz using knowledge of my kind. I thought I could get someone to care about creatures like me. But she's been ignoring me all night for Eda and… I just couldn't take it."

'That explains a lot. King did seem to be acting strangely with how dismissive Luz was being. But to think it made him so desperate that he stole Eda's elixir…'

After allowing a moment for King's sniffles and sobs to lessen, Lizzie leaned her back against the door and placed a hand to his head, which she gave a gentle pat. She spoke softly at noting she could no longer hear anything from the hallway outside, not wanting to attract the creature if it was still there and listening. As much as she didn't want to be doing this when their lives were at stake, she knew she couldn't leave King to be miserable. It was clouding his judgement, and he needed a clear head if the two of them were going to deal with this situation.

"King, I'm not questioning your knowledge, okay? But just because someone's an expert at something, it doesn't mean they know everything about it." Lizzie's gaze flitted to the stack of books by her mattress. "You're right that I don't know the exact reason why Eda takes that elixir. Elixirs and potions tend to look very similar in appearance, so identifying specific concoctions by a single glance is physically impossible, even for someone who has dabbled with them for as long as I have. And yet I was still able to recognise that she was taking elixir using what I already know. Because one, elixir is literally defined as 'medicine', and two, it's very rare that potions are drunk daily, let alone at all. Even despite knowing that, I still had to double check I was right using the label."

King finally pulled away from Lizzie's front, his pink eyes glistening with lingering tears. "What's your point?"

"My point, King, is that you being wrong about the type of demon that we're dealing with isn't the end of the world. You assumed it was the Snaggleback because you based it on the knowledge you already had: that it wanders during the boiling rain." She patted the book beside her lap with her other hand. "But after comparing it to the Snaggleback's features in the book, it's probably not the Snaggleback. After all, every demon has at least one distinct feature that makes them stand out from others, and that creature out there doesn't have anything from the Snaggleback."

King narrowed his eyes at Lizzie's last words, tilting his head to the side. "Hey… who told you that?"

Lizzie smiled and lightly flicked King's nose with a finger, causing the little demon to flinch. "You did, remember?"

King's mouth slacked for a few seconds, his next blink loosening the lingering tears in his eyes. "I… I did?"

"Of course. It was in the very first lesson we had together." She tapped her temple with a finger. "And I've never forgotten it."

King stared at Lizzie for what felt like forever before he gave one last sniffle and wiped his tears away against the fur of his arm. "You know… now that I think about it…" He climbed off Lizzie's lap and collected the book from the floor, holding it up for the witch to see while pointing a claw at the diagram. "The Snaggleback stands and sits on its hind legs a lot because of its shell. But that creature has been on all-fours during the two times we've seen it." King frowned and scratched at his chin. "In fact, I didn't see spikes on its back either. That beast had points that resembled fur…"

Lizzie's smile briefly widened at seeing King returned to his old self, but that quickly vanished when he mentioned the 'fur', prompting her to rub at the back of her head. "Does any specific demon come to mind?"

The little demon shook his head as he placed the book on the floor and sat down in front of it. "No. But I'll follow in your example and take a quick skim through my book. If it isn't in here, we'll have to go downstairs for my second edition."

Lizzie nodded and prepared to push herself to her feet, grabbing the key to the padlock from the floor. However, she paused mid-grab at seeing something brown stuck to the bottom of Luz's shoe, which was peeking out from under its sole.

'Hm?'

The blonde lifted the shoe and peeled the item off, catching King's attention and causing him to stand and approach her. "Whatcha got there?"

"I don't know. It was stuck to Luz's shoe."

At a first glance, the item in her hand looked like small brown paper shaped in a rectangle. However, at the top was a pointed edge that Lizzie found herself narrowing her eyes at. She couldn't place her finger on why, but that pattern looked familiar… She flipped it round when she saw the side she was looking at was blank, finding there was something written in black, capital writing on the side, along with an unusual little drawing at the bottom that she couldn't identify. Despite the lack of lighting in the room, she and King had no trouble reading what was written on it, which caused their eyes to widen simultaneously.

"'Keeps the curse at bay…?'" King read aloud, only to gasp loudly. "Wait!" Lizzie watched the little demon reach into his collar and take out a familiar looking label she recognised was attached to Eda's elixir, which he held close to Lizzie's half. The ripped edges slotted together perfectly, prompting King to begin to read the label in its entirety. "An elixir a day…"

"…keeps the curse at bay…" Lizzie finished, the colour slowly draining from her face.

The demon and witch exchanged horrified glances, the cogs in their heads having since caused something to click in unison. The pieces hadn't connected at first for the blonde, but now that she thought over everything that had happened, things were beginning to stand out. Eda's unexpected disappearance, the torn labels, the sudden appearance of a creature they had no knowledge of, especially right after King had taken Eda's elixir, which she'd kept on the table beside her nest

It had been staring them in the face all along.

Lizzie's next words came out as a quiet squeak. "King?"

And King responded in kind in a quiet voice. "Yeah?"

"We were both wrong."

"What do you mean?"

Lizzie lowered her half of the label and turned it round for King to see, putting her other hand close to her mouth. "That thing isn't a Snaggleback, and Eda was never gone. That creature is actually—"

Loud crashing from behind her interrupted the young witch, causing King and Lizzie to turn to the door. They screamed at sighting a pale, five-clawed foot looming over them, sticking through the man-made hole now in the door, causing the pair to drop everything they were holding (except Luz's shoe) and stagger away towards the far end of the room as they attempted a swipe at them. King climbed up Lizzie's legs and into her arms as the pair watched the claw retract back, only for the door to splinter into pieces when a shadowy blur appeared to headbutt across the threshold. Lizzie quickly drew a spell circle and summoned a medium-sized ball of light to illuminate the bedroom, giving her and King a good view of the creature as it shook its head and straightened out.

As Lizzie and King had now theorised, the beast they were looking at wasn't a Snaggleback. It was a round bodied creature with dark-grey fur on its body and light-grey fur on its feathered tail, possessing two black wings on either side of it. Its back legs were covered in black fur and its back feet resembled bird's talons, yet it was the front of its body that drew Lizzie's and King's interest. From the front, this beast looked more humanoid, with two five-clawed feet that resembled hands and fingers. Light grey fur arched down its back from its forehead and out of its large, pale, pointed ears, the latter dangling close to the floor. The way it was styled reminded Lizzie and King of someone, especially as they stared at the shape of its pale face. Its black, enlarged pupil eyes failed to give her away, and yet the rest of it showed more distinct features that forced the name past King's skull as a breathless gasp, especially the now black gem that was clinging to its chest...

"Eda…"

That beast was Lizzie's employer, the witch who had taken her under her wing all those years ago. Eda's words and actions in the forest outside of Hexside returned to the forefront of Lizzie's mind, causing the blonde witch to gape as her gaze fixed on Eda's gem. She recalled the way the Owl Lady had hesitated and then focused on that same gem before brushing it off.

'Eda… was this why you were so upset before? Were you…?'

King clung tightly to Lizzie's vest as Eda locked gazes with them, the pair remaining completely still and silent, mostly out of shock more than anything. A small glint from Lizzie's orb of light caught Eda's attention from the corner of her vision, prompting the transformed witch to look down to where the key to the chest was still lying on the floor. Eda's eyes widened upon facing the item, eventually leaning down to give it a brief sniff. The Owl Lady appeared to be distracted for the moment, giving Lizzie a chance to scan the room for an escape route.

'I am really confused right now. But we can't stay here while Eda looks like that. We need to get away from her until we can figure this out.'

Unfortunately, since Eda was literally blocking the door, there was nowhere else for her and King to go unless they faced her head on. That is… until Lizzie's eyes fell upon the window to her bedroom, which was partially creaked open. It was off to her left and right next to the chest, making her smile a little.

'The window! Of course! We can climb out onto the roof of the kitchen and slip through the back door. The forcefield is covering that area from the boiling rain, so we should be fine. She won't be able to follow us, we get to safety, and in the process, I can also grab my potions.' She glanced back at Eda to see her still eyeing the key on the ground. 'Although, I'll need to figure out a way to get that key from—'

Lizzie's thought cut off when Eda opened her mouth and sucked the key up in one go, causing hers and King's brows to raise. They watched with wide blinks as the Owl Lady tilted her head back and loudly swallowed the key in one gulp, licking her lips soon after. Lizzie stepped back until she felt her body touch the wall, with only King having the courage to speak quietly after a gulp of his own.

"… Lizzie, please tell me you have a spare key."

The silence that followed was enough indication for King to realise that was the only key Lizzie had been given.

The little demon shuddered when Eda returned her gaze to the pair and grinned menacingly, exposing her tiny fangs as she did so. She slowly crawled her way towards them, prompting Lizzie to slowly step sideways towards the window, keeping King pressed against her front with one hand while using her other one to keep her orb of light close to her. Yet despite her attempts to move without encouraging Eda, the Owl Lady gained on them the moment they were beside the window.

Lizzie halted as Eda let out a loud shriek and stood on hind legs, bringing her right claws back in preparation to swipe at the pair. Yet all it took was King quickly glancing between Eda's face and Lizzie's orb of light before he yelled out to turn the tables.

"Lizzie, throw that orb of light to the floor!"

Lizzie obeyed without any hesitation, knowing now wasn't the time to be arguing with King and having a vague idea of why he'd told her to do it. She grunted and threw the ball of light down, whirling towards the wall to shield herself and King from the ensuing flash that came from the orb colliding with the floor. Eda's pupils shrunk in response to the flash, briefly exposing the golden coloured eyes her charges knew her for. The Owl Lady closed her eyes and recoiled with a loud screech of pain. Lizzie and King quickly glanced back to see Eda covering her face with her large claws and then bending down to rub at her eyes with quiet whimpers.

'Now's our chance.'

The blonde witch wasted no time in getting in front of the window and shoving it wide open, hoisting herself up onto the ledge with King wrapping his arms around her neck for support. She sat down on the ledge outside and looked down, surveying the arched roof with a thick gulp. The drop to the roof wasn't that far, but she knew she was going to end up having to time her magic right for when she slid down to the ground. She couldn't stand on the roof because it wasn't flat, so she had no choice but to hope for the best.

But then Lizzie's shoulders stiffened at feeling something sharp scrape across her lower back, forcing her forwards as she cried out in pain.

She didn't need to look back to know what had happened. She had a pretty good guess.

"Lizzie!" King shouted, yet it was already too late.

The little demon and witch fell from the window and plummeted towards the ground, hearing Eda's high-pitched roar from above and King's cry of shock. Lizzie hissed at the stinging sensation she could now feel radiating from her back, but that didn't stop her from preventing further injury. Instinctively hugging King to her chest as he gripped onto her tightly, the blonde witch held out her index finger and drew a spell circle as the pair closed in on the ground beside the cottage, causing a faint green light to wrap around the two of them in an outline. She managed to twist her body round onto her back seconds before she and King hovered inches away from the ground, allowing them to levitate there long enough to halt their descent. However, the spell only lasted a couple of seconds before the outline around them dispersed, causing Lizzie to hit the ground with a tiny thump against the dirt.

The blonde groaned and jolted at her back colliding with the hard ground, aggravating the stinging still emanating from it. She closed her eyes and breathed heavily to cope with the pain, slowly feeling the lower back of her shirt and vest growing damp and sticky. She was hoping it was sweat, but that was wishful thinking at this point.

'Gosh. When was the last time I was in so much pain?' Lizzie sucked in a sharp breath and opened her eyes, finding herself staring up at the transparent forcefield stretching over them. She could hear the faint sizzling of the boiling rain colliding with it, giving rise to brief bouts of steam that dispersed in the evening air. A bitter sounding chuckle left her lips. 'Oh, yeah. It was when the carriage crashed. It was a cloudy night then too…'

"Lizzie!" King's worried voice pulled Lizzie back to reality. The blonde tilted her head to see the little demon knelt beside her head (having since come to his senses first and climbed off her while she was stuck in her thoughts), staring at her with wide and teary eyes. "Are you okay?"

"Honestly?" She paused to huff. "I've been better. I think Eda's claws caught me before I got the courage to jump."

"I'm so sorry!" The poor demon was shaking as he buried his face into his paws. "Eda turned into a nightmare, Luz went missing and you got hurt because of me! This is all my fault! I should have left Eda's elixir alone!"

Lizzie gritted her teeth and adjusted her position so she was lying on her side, huffing and puffing at the effort it was taking her. Between her injury and her depleting magic, she was struggling. It was a wonder she was still awake.

As the blonde witch went to say something to comfort King, she was distracted by the creaking of the back door of the kitchen opening, followed by hurried footsteps rounding the corner to their location.

"King! Lizzie!"

The familiar voice had Lizzie and King glancing behind them to see a familiar Latina girl speeding towards them, still wearing the rubber gloves and plasters King had last seen her in. The only addition since then were the two pillows duct taped to her front and back, along with the fact her left foot was missing its shoe. Despite that, though, she appeared to be unscathed, which Lizzie quietly sighed and lowered her head at.

'Oh, thank goodness…'

"Luz!" King called out to the young teen and held his arms up as she closed in on him, allowing the human to swoop him up into her arms and hug him against her chest.

"King! Oh, I'm so glad you're okay! I was so worried!"

"So was I!" King pulled away and scowled up at the young girl. "Where did you go?! I thought that thing had eaten you!"

Luz held King away from her body and looked at the forcefield with a faint frown. "I ran back downstairs when that creature showed up. But I ended up tripping and lost my shoe…" She caught sight of said shoe lying close to where Lizzie had landed, causing her to perk up and put King on the ground. "Oh, hey! There it is!"

Luz reached out for it and slipped it back on to her foot with a slight hop, only to take notice of Lizzie's lower back. She straightened out and gasped loudly at sighting the five-clawed scratch that had ripped through Lizzie's clothes and marked her skin, covering her mouth with both hands.

"Oh my gosh, Liz! What happened?! Did that creature attack you?!"

Lizzie's eyes drooped. "Unfortunately. But we've got bigger problems…"

Luz gripped at her hair. "What's bigger than you being hurt?"

"It's about Eda, Luz," King explained.

"What about Eda?" And, as if on cue, the creature's high-pitched roar sounded from the second floor of the cottage, prompting Luz to cringe and turn to Lizzie. "Uh… Maybe we should continue this conversation inside."

Lizzie nodded and glanced over her shoulder, trying to get a good look at her injury even though she couldn't see it from her current angle. "Good idea. My injury is going to need sorting. Luckily, Eda keeps the medical supplies in the kitchen."

"Don't you and Eda know any spells that could sort this out?" Luz asked as she approached Lizzie and bent down, taking the young witch under one of her arms and slowly helping her to her feet.

"That's called healing magic and it's a lot more complex than it sounds…" Lizzie answered, leaning against Luz when her arm was hooked around the latter's neck.

With her arm supporting Lizzie around her waist, Luz gently led the older blonde towards the kitchen with King in tow, ignoring the ensuing lightning flash and faint rumble of thunder that followed.


Once inside the cottage, Lizzie sat on the floor and used the table for support, leaving King to help Luz locate the bandages and disinfectant that Eda kept in the cupboards (Lizzie wasn't able to sit on the stools since they had no back support). The trio didn't need to fear Eda coming after them. The doorway to the kitchen was long and narrow, so it wasn't big enough for Eda in her current form to fit through. However, they still agreed to be quiet to avoid attracting her attention and to also listen out for her. As far as they were aware, Eda was still on the second floor, but the last thing they needed was anyone else outside of Hooty and Lizzie becoming injured.

After helping to clean up Lizzie's wounds, apply the disinfectant and then bandage them up, Luz sat with King and Lizzie on the floor with her legs crossed, listening to the former of the pair as he began to explain the current predicament they were in.

"Lizzie was right about the elixir. It was Eda's medicine, but it was medicine to treat a curse."

"A curse?" Luz repeated, prompting Lizzie to nod.

"That creature we've been dealing with is Eda." She paused at seeing Luz gape but continued when she didn't say or do anything else. "Eda drinks that elixir to stop herself from turning into that thing. But because King took the elixir that was next to her nest…"

"…she transformed before she could find another bottle," King finished, prompting Luz's gaze to flitter between the pair.

"Did either of you know about this?"

Both Lizzie and King shook their heads, with the former being the one to answer. "Eda purposely tore the latter half of the label off so we wouldn't figure it out. King doesn't even know what an elixir is, and while I had a vague idea of why she probably drank it, I couldn't identify the elixir by appearance alone."

Luz's brow furrowed as she glanced up at the ceiling, bringing her knees to her chest and wrapping her arms around them. "So, how do we save her? We can't just leave her like that."

King wagged his tail and gently tapped Lizzie on her closest arm, causing the blonde witch to raise a brow. "You're up, Lizzie. You're the expert for potions and elixirs. We can use Eda's elixir to turn her back to normal, right?"

Lizzie smiled slightly at King's encouragement, knowing exactly why he'd done it. But it was fleeting as she grunted while adjusting her position so she was facing more towards King and Luz than the wall. "I can't know for sure. But going off what we've seen Eda do prior to now, it stands to reason it should reverse her transformation. Eda's most likely drinking a curse-countering elixir, which suppresses the effects inflicted by a curse when in her system. She takes the elixir daily, and up until this point, as far as we know, she's been fine. So, if she was to drink it while transformed, it should, in theory, return her back to normal."

"Finding Eda's elixirs shouldn't be a problem," King added, holding up a claw. "If she drinks that stuff every day, she likely has a stash of 'em somewhere in her room."

"Agreed. She's been trying to keep this whole thing a secret, so the most likely hiding place for them would be somewhere she knows we wouldn't look in."

"Or we're not allowed to look in."

"In your case, King."

Luz clapped her hands together with a loud sigh, her body slouching. "That's good. But getting the elixir to her is going to be hard." The Latina girl turned to King, pointing her fingers towards him. "What do you think, King?"

King forced two blinks at Luz's words, eventually placing both of his paws to his chest. "Wait, me?"

"Well, yeah. Eda's turned into some kind of demon." Luz grinned, reaching over to give King an affectionate pat on the head. "And who else knows about demons other than our own little expert?"

King's eyes widened at this, prompting him to glance at Lizzie with a slightly slacked jaw. In response, Lizzie gave a small smile and nod of encouragement, which was all King needed to confirm everything. The little demon let out a happy squeal and waved his tiny fists around before loudly clearing his throat to compose himself.

"Let's see…" King tapped his paws together with a furrowed brow. "Eda was big, covered in feathers, and had enlarged pupils. Demons with enlarged pupils are usually known to be sensitive to light." He turned to glance at Lizzie. "And this turns out to be the same with Eda. You proved my hunch a moment ago, Lizzie."

"Oh. That's why you told me to throw the orb of light."

"Exactly! We know Eda has a weakness to light, so we can use that against her and then give her the elixir."

Luz placed her hands on her knees and leaned forward. "That's a great idea! Lizzie would be perfect for that. She knows a light spell."

Lizzie huffed and raised her index finger, bending it to activate the little green glow on her fingertip. "Yeah. About that…" She twirled her finger and drew a tiny spell circle, which came out thin and wobbled and then popped out of the air before she even had a chance to complete it, causing King and Luz to gape. "Between Eda injuring me and me using a lot of my magic this evening, I don't think I'm in the right state to cast anything for a while."

Luz scratched at her head. "Well, what about your light potions?"

Lizzie turned her gaze to the ground and clicked her tongue. "That is also not an option. I moved my potions into the locked chest in our bedroom and… Eda swallowed the key."

Luz raised a brow. "Since when did you keep your potions in there?"

Lizzie shook her head. "It's not important. Point is, I've got nothing to bring to the table."

"I'm really regretting putting you and Eda through that magic lesson earlier…" Luz pressed her lips together and rested her chin on her knees. "There's got to be something we can use…"

Lizzie and King rested their cheeks against their hands, with the area falling into silence as the group collectively went into thought. But it didn't last long, because after glancing at Luz, King spied her phone sticking out of her jean's pocket, making him straighten out and point towards it while wagging his tail.

"Hey, Luz, what about your human rectangle? Doesn't that make light?"

"Yeah, but…" Luz frowned and pulled the phone free from her pocket, showing Lizzie and King her cracked screen. "I dropped my phone when I tripped. My camera's blasted, so I can't use it." The young girl huffed and turned the phone to face her. "All I've got on there is that video of Eda, but I can't draw spell circles like she and Lizzie can."

Lizzie watched Luz's eyes droop as she tapped the screen, hearing the audio of Eda's groggy voice play over the device. However, she saw Luz frown when the video cut the sound off and made static noises, only for the human to gape at seemingly having discovered something.

"Luz, is everything okay?"

"There's a pattern in the spell circle!"

Lizzie's and King's brows raised with wide blinks, with the former being the one to speak up. "What?"

Luz shuffled closer to Lizzie's side and showed her screen, pointing towards the spell circle Eda had attempted to cast. Sure enough, there was something glowing yellow in the middle of the circle, which looked like a strange pattern. It started with a tiny, thin triangle at the top, then with a small circle underneath it, followed by a big and wider triangle in the middle, which was split in half by a single, straight line that reached the circle's bottom, with two tiny horizontal lines going across the bigger line inside the triangle. The sight had Lizzie's eyes widening.

"Do you know what that is, Lizzie?"

"No… I've never seen anything like that before in a spell circle."

King got up and slipped his way onto Lizzie's lap, standing on his toes to try to get a look at the screen. "What pattern?"

"This one," Luz said, turning her screen so King could see. However, the little demon ended up squinting.

"I don't see anything."

Lizzie's gaze flitted to the doorway at that, remembering King's supplies in the living room. "Quick, Luz. Draw it on something. You should be fine to get paper and a pen from the other room."

Luz nodded and stood up with her phone still in hand, jogging out of the kitchen and down the hallway (after briefly peeking round the doorframe to look for and listen out for Eda). She returned seconds later with a piece of paper and King's diamond pen in her other hand. The young Latina kneeled before the pair and placed her phone on the floor, putting the paper over it and tracing the pattern.

"There." Luz tapped the middle of the drawing with the pen tip. "It looks like this."

The drawing suddenly took on a yellow glow, causing the trio's eyes to widen in sync. They silently watched the paper scrunch itself up into a ball as it was slowly consumed by the light, shifting into a tiny orb of light that hovered over Luz's phone. Luz's and Lizzie's jaws dropped as the former scooped the orb of light between her palms and brought it close to her face, the pair struggling to comprehend what had just transpired. Lizzie dared to reach out a finger to poke the orb of light, feeling the warmth radiating from it against her skin.

She wasn't dreaming. That was an actual orb of light formed by magic.

'What in Titan's name…?'

It was a while before Luz and Lizzie gained the courage to lock gazes, with the latter speaking up quietly with her eyes still wide.

"Luz… did you just figure out how to do magic?"

Luz's gaze flitted between the orb of light and Lizzie at least three times, eventually prompting her to nod in an almost robotic-like way. "I… I think I did…"

There was a brief pause before Lizzie started to chuckle, placing her hands close to her mouth in attempt to muffle it. She knew this wasn't the time, but she honestly couldn't believe what she had just seen. Then again… she'd felt like that a lot tonight.

"Luz, you just did magic."

"I just did magic…" Luz repeated, her words allowing her to properly process the gravity of the situation. The young girl broke out into a wide smile, repeating her own words with a bolder tone. "I just did magic!"

Luz laughed loudly and dived towards Lizzie, bringing the injured witch in for a tight hug, which Lizzie managed to return despite wincing at her wound being aggravated by the movement. Luz's smile was infectious, making Lizzie imitate it.

'Well, gosh darn! To think that last week I was expressing my doubts to Eda, and yet now this human actually proved me wrong. I couldn't be prouder of her for it.'

King clearing his throat ended Luz's and Lizzie's moment of rejoice, forcing them to part and stare at the droopy eyed demon with his arms folded. "Ahem. Not that I'm not happy for Luz or anything, but…" He pointed at the orb of light. "…we aren't going to stop Eda with something that small."

"You're right," Lizzie replied with a smirk, turning to Luz while tapping her temple with a finger. "But if we apply the rules of magic to Luz's technique, she should be able to draw a big enough symbol to create a large orb of light. After all, the bigger the spell circle…"

"…the more powerful the spell," Luz finished, smiling triumphantly as she looked between the witch and demon. "Are you thinking what I'm thinking?"

Lizzie's smirk widened. "Probably."

Luz held her hand out flat in the middle of them. "Then let's save Eda!" Lizzie placed her hand on top of Luz's with a stiff nod. The two girls turned to King. "Are you in, boo-boo buddy?"

"Hm…" King closed his eyes and turned his head away, holding his head up and his paw out. "I'm kinda over that nickname." But then he faced the pair again and morphed his jaw into a wide smile, putting his paw on top of their hands. "But count me in."

"Great!" The trio retracted and leaned in close together. "Then here's what we're gonna do…"


The Owl House was known to have a lot of nooks and crannies outside of its main rooms, so much so that even after living in it for three years, Lizzie was certain she hadn't properly explored the cottage in its entirety. Thankfully for the blonde witch, she did know of one such nook and cranny that would be useful to Luz's plan. Past the right of the living room and the hallway leading to the kitchen on the ground floor, there was a wide area with three of its walls covered in varying shaped and sized paintings. But its fourth wall by the entrance was basically a blank canvas covered by two, large red curtains. It was the perfect place for Luz to draw a large symbol, as well as for luring and trapping Eda.

It had taken the trio a while to iron it out, but in the end, they'd come up with a solid plan they were sure would work. After confirming Eda's current location (which was apparently outside the Owl House within the limits of the forcefield), the trio got to work. Despite her injuries, Lizzie helped Luz grab a tall, wooden ladder from the shed, and a red crayon and large blanket from the living room that Eda was formerly using when she was napping in there. Meanwhile, King had aided Luz in grabbing supplies from upstairs, including Lizzie's elixir books (with her permission) and another one of Eda's elixirs (which, as it turned out, were located in a silver chest in Eda's room).

After bringing the supplies to the area, they focused on setting specific things up before enacting their plan. This included King stacking the books in the hallway, just before an adjacent hallway where he could duck and hide in. Due to her injuries, there was very little Lizzie could do to help, yet it didn't stop her from acting as lookout while Luz attempted to draw a large-scale version of the symbol from the video. Because of how big it was going to be, it was going to take a while for Luz to draw. Yet they knew they'd be fine to wait as long as no one touched the symbol, since that was how the spell was activated (as they'd already discovered). It was only once Luz had drawn 90% of it and was standing on the ladder next to the wall finishing the circle that King chose to head off armed with his diamond pen. He had been given the task of luring Eda to this area, and he planned to do it under the assumption that even as a beast, the Owl Lady wouldn't be able to resist shiny things. Luz and Lizzie had agreed with this. After all, Eda did look part bird, and birds liked shiny things too…

With King gone, Lizzie also got into position, standing behind the right side of the wall of the area close to the entrance of the hallway, the large blanket held between her hands like she was about to enter a bullfight. She'd been assigned as the secondary distraction, just in case King's distraction failed and they needed to further disorientate Eda. Luz remained on the ladder with her hand up, ready to touch the symbol whenever the time was right. Everything was in place. Now all Lizzie and Luz had to do was wait.

Amidst the tense silence between the pair, Lizzie's ears twitched at hearing the faint thumps, growls and grunts she assumed were coming from the living room. She suspected it was Eda, meaning the Owl Lady had found her way back inside the house and was currently scouring around. Lizzie dared to glance back at Luz's handywork with a heavy breath, attempting to keep herself calm at feeling her hands beginning to tremble. She still couldn't believe that Luz had actually figured out a method to use magic without a bile sac, and while Lizzie was proud of her for the progress she'd made, she also couldn't help being curious as her gaze locked on the symbol.

'I still can't believe that symbol appeared in Eda's spell circle. It must be connected to the old methods from the Savage Ages. And yet… I can't help wondering if that symbol has always existed inside the light spell circle. And if so… how come I've never seen it when I've cast it? Are there other symbols that exist in the other spell circles too?'

The blonde witch straightened out at the faint flickering of King's pen, causing the palpitations to give rise against her ribcage. They intensified when she heard King speak sarcastically.

"Oh, what do I have here? It's so shiny. So dang shiny…"

There was a moment of silence which made Lizzie's breath catch in her throat, and she wondered if something bad had happened to King or if maybe she was just getting nervous. She soon got her answer when Eda released a high-pitched roar and loud thudding ensued, nearly drowning out the hurried pitter-pattering of King's tiny paws scurrying away, along with his loud breathing.

"Get ready, Luz. They're coming."

Lizzie poked her head round the corner as the thudding got closer, eventually spying King dashing towards her as fast as his little legs would go, with Eda charging after him. She looked very close to gaining on him, the sight causing Lizzie to bite her lip; however, at the last second, the little demon mustered up enough speed to reach the adjacent hallway and dive into it, dodging the book stacks. Eda didn't have enough time to react, so by the time she'd realised King was gone and she was about to crash into the books, her feet were already stepping on them and making them lose their grip.

Eda shrieked at the loss of her grip slip from under her feet, sliding the rest of the way through the hallway while spinning around. As Eda began to pass her, Lizzie threw the blanket forward and stepped backwards, covering the Owl Lady entirely. This only made Eda screech more as she skidded into the area and then crashed against the far wall with a loud thump (which Lizzie flinched at and mentally apologised to Eda for), forcing her to be still. But it only lasted for a moment before she began to squirm underneath the blanket, attempting to flick it off of her with repeated screeches and the flailing of her front legs.

Lizzie and Luz exchanged glances during this time, and when the latter gave the former a stiff nod, she knew that was her cue to look away. As Eda managed to throw the blanket off with the shake of her body, Lizzie covered her arms in front of her face and ducked her head down, hearing Luz shout at the Owl Lady seconds before she slammed her palm against the wall.

"We're sorry, Eda! But it's for your own good!"

Lizzie didn't need to look to know the spell had been activated. She felt a strong and sudden gust ruffle her clothes and hair, along with hearing Eda's pained shrieking from somewhere behind her. She could only imagine the Owl Lady being consumed in a large burst of light flooding the area, which would hopefully be strong enough to knock her out.

The blonde witch held out until Eda's shrieks died out, everything fell still, and a loud thud sounded, as if something heavy had just hit the floor. Lizzie turned to face where Eda was while lowering her arms from her face, loudly sighing and placing a hand to her chest at what she saw. Eda was lying flat on her back with her eyes closed, having partially returned to normal. She looked more or less like the same witch dressed in her sleepwear that the trio had seen earlier, with the exception of lingering grey feathers along her arms, peeking out from under her jumper sleeves. Despite her current condition, however, she appeared to be sleeping, her chest slowly rising and falling.

With Luz climbing off the ladder and King cautiously entering the area to get a look, the trio slowly approached and gathered around the slumbering Owl Lady, each sharing a brief glance and tired smile. Lizzie reached out to ruffle Luz's hair, causing the young human to blink out of surprise at the show of affection.

"Well done, Luz. Not bad for your second attempt."

Luz's smile widened as she turned to Eda snoring away, rubbing at her elbow with a hand. "Thanks. It's a shame Eda probably isn't going to remember me doing that, though…"

"You can tell her all about it when she wakes up. For now," Lizzie pulled away and moved to collect the blanket from the floor. "let's get Eda to her room and give her that elixir. Will you be okay to carry her by yourself?"

Luz gave a quick salute and crouched behind Eda's head, slipping her arms under Eda's. "I can manage."

Hoisting Eda's upper body from the floor as she stood up again, Luz dragged the Owl Lady down the hallway with grunts of effort, with King following close behind. Lizzie caught up while folding the blanket over her arms, taking a moment to stare at the sleeping Eda as Luz dragged her along.

'This isn't the way I wanted to find out, Eda. I just hope you're prepared to give us answers when you wake up. Because there's no way you can lie to us about it now after what we've been through tonight…'


When Eda opened her eyes, she found herself staring at the ceiling of her bedroom, which she could see thanks to the light illuminating the area. She blinked a couple of times to regain her bearings before she realised there was something thin and small sticking in her mouth…

The Owl Lady sat up with a start and looked down at the long straw in her mouth, remaining unaware of the tiny feathers accumulated in her untamed locks. Eda yanked the straw out and turned her head to stare at the rest of her room, only to realise that she had half of her vision. What had happened to the other half? That question was soon answered when she caught sight of a familiar bottle settled beside her nest with only a single layer of golden liquid at the bottom (which the straw was sticking into), along with her gem, which had turned completely black…

Although she couldn't see it, all it took was Eda rubbing a hand across the left side of her face to feel her ear was stretched out further than it should have been. That was all the confirmation she needed to know what had happened.

"AH!" Eda cried out and put the straw back in her mouth, slurping up the last of the elixir in the bottle.

In doing so, her feathers slowly shrunk until they vanished into nothing, her ear shrunk back to normal size, her vision in her left eye restored itself, and her gem washed away the black until its golden colour returned in its entirety. Gulping slowly and sighing after swallowing the last bits of elixir, Eda dropped the straw and leaned over the side of her nest with drooped eyes, making a second attempt to look around her room.

Eventually, she caught sight of Luz sitting with her legs crossed in the top right corner next to her broken window. Surrounded by paper on the floor and small light orbs above her floating towards the ceiling, Luz was smiling as she drew the symbol on one of these pieces of paper using King's pen. Eda's eyes widened when Luz tapped the paper and made the symbol glow yellow, only for the paper to crumple into a ball and become engulfed in the glow, forming yet another light orb. Eda gaped as Luz grinned at watching the orb float up to join the rest, forcibly blinking a few times to make sure she wasn't dreaming this.

"Wow…" Eda mumbled, allowing her gaze to trail to the other light orbs when they began their descent towards the ground. "How is she doing that?"

"She saw a strange symbol inside your spell circle from the video on her phone and replicated it through drawings," Lizzie answered, prompting Eda to turn to her left with a wide blink. She spied Lizzie standing close by with her arms folded and King in front of her. "Apparently, she doesn't need a bile sac, after all. She can use magic just by touching that symbol."

"Lizzie…? King…?" Eda held a hand to her forehead and began to rub at it, briefly smacking her lips before continuing. "What's going on? I have a terrible headache. And my mouth tastes… metallic?"

Lizzie had opened her mouth to answer, but she soon fell quiet when Eda started to gag and was forced to bend over the side of her nest, using her hands to steady herself. The blonde witch and little demon cringed and looked away when the Owl Lady vomited and spat a tiny, round, black ball of fur covered in spit out of her mouth. It landed on the floor beside the nest and broke in half, revealing the key to Lizzie's chest lying inside. After taking a moment to pull herself together with a groan, Eda grabbed the key and held it close to her face, squinting a bit.

"Wait… Isn't this…?"

"The key to my chest, yes."

Eda gently put the key back on the ground and picked up her empty bottle into her palm, a faint frown appearing. "Huh… I was wondering where this had gotten to."

King stepped towards Eda and pointed a claw towards the cupboard. "Yeah. I found an extra one in the chest back there."

Eda raised a brow at this and put the bottle inside her nest, despite it being empty. But after staring at King for a few more seconds, something in the back of her head seemed to click. Sudden anger washed over the Owl Lady, causing her eyes to narrow and her jaw to clench as she raised her voice, pointing accusingly at King.

"King! You stole my elixir, didn't you?!" Bending her fingers as if they were claws, Eda scowled and hunched forward, looking like a lion about to pounce on her prey. King hunched his shoulders and stepped back with his paws close to his front. "Why, I oughta break every bone in your—"

Lizzie cut Eda off by placing her foot in front of King to shield him. She scowled down at the Owl Lady with a hand to her hip. "Oh, no you don't. You're not pinning this on him." The young witch dropped the two sellotaped halves of the elixir label into Eda's nest, which the Owl Lady caught in her palm. "He probably wouldn't have taken that elixir if he'd been able to read the rest of the label."

Eda stared at the label in her hand with wide eyes as Luz joined the pair by Eda's nest, her mouth pressing into a thin line. She dared to raise her gaze to look Lizzie in the eyes, but in doing so something red caught her eyes. She followed the trail to Lizzie's left side, where she saw red stains littering the bottom of her white shirt peeking out from under her vest. The Owl Lady covered a hand over her mouth and attempted to reach her other one out towards the younger witch, yet she stopped short and dropped her arm instead, bowing her head towards the floor.

Lizzie knew she didn't need to say anything. It was obvious based on Eda's reaction that she knew what had transpired.

"Oh, no…"

"Yeah," Lizzie muttered. "We know the truth, Eda."

Eda sucked in a sharp breath through her nose before raising her head again, yet she couldn't look Lizzie in the face. That didn't stop her from quietly speaking to her, though. "… Are you all right?"

Lizzie nodded even though Eda couldn't see her doing it, briefly glancing at her back despite not being able to see her injury. "It was a light scratch. Nothing serious."

Eda's shoulders slumped at the loud sigh of relief she released, rubbing a hand against her gem. King wrung his paws together and stepped around Lizzie's leg, turning his gaze to the floor.

"Hey, uh… I'm sorry for taking your elixir, Eda. I… kind of thought that elixir was for your magic and I took it to help Luz, and although Lizzie tried to stop me, things got messed up when I dropped it." The little demon glanced up with a quivering jaw. "I hope you can forgive me."

Eda finally raised her gaze to King and shook her head, roughly patting the little demon on the end of his head and making him close his eyes. "Well, it's like Lizzie said: it's not entirely your fault." She looked between Luz, Lizzie, and King with drooped eyes. "I haven't been completely honest with you guys. And I think it's about time I come clean…"

The Owl Lady crossed one leg over her lap and patted the side of her nest with a hand, indicating for the trio to make themselves comfortable. Lizzie complied and sat down on the edge close to Eda, with King climbing up her legs to seat himself in Lizzie's lap. Luz was the only one who stayed stood up, although she did side-step closer to the nest to be beside Lizzie.

The trio silently waited for the Owl Lady to speak, with Eda placing a hand against her propped ankle and resting her other arm against the side of her nest. "When I was younger… I was cursed. I don't know how it happened."—she scooped the bottle into her lap and held it between her palms—"All I know is that I need to drink this elixir, or else… well, you probably already saw. That's why I'm called 'The Owl Lady'."

Lizzie and King frowned and exchanged brief glances, suddenly feeling guilty for their earlier teasing of Eda's 'nickname'. But it was the former who eventually spoke up, her frown deepening. "Why did you try so hard to hide it from us?"

"We wouldn't have judged you, Eda!" King added. "In fact, when we realised it was you, we couldn't stop worrying about ya."

"And that's exactly why I didn't want you to know." Eda tapped the glass of the bottle with her fingers and met the gazes of her two charges, her shoulders dropping. "It's easy to manage my curse with the elixirs, so I thought I didn't need to tell you." She quickly stared at Lizzie's blood stains before looking away again. "But clearly I was wrong. King, you misread the situation and Lizzie, you got hurt. Maybe if I'd been honest with you sooner, this could have been avoided…"

Luz held her fists close to her chest and tilted her head. "So, are you going to be okay?"

"There's nothing for any of you to worry about," Eda said, hoisting herself up to sit on the side of her nest opposite King and Lizzie. "As long as no one steals my elixir—King" King looked off to the side when Eda glared at him. "then I'm fine." But then Eda grinned and tilted her head up to the ceiling, where Luz's orbs of light continued to float about. "But look at this: a human doing magic!" She lightly brushed her knuckles against Luz's closest shoulder. "Good job, kid. I told you you'd figure it out."

Luz smiled and clasped her hands behind her back, winking towards King. "I can't take all the credit. I had some encouragement from a pretty great teacher."

King closed his eyes and playfully waved his paw at the compliment, causing Lizzie to smirk and roll her eyes. "Oh, you!"

Their moment was soon interrupted by a familiar, annoyingly high-pitched voice yelling from downstairs, causing Lizzie, King, and Luz to perk up and glance at the doorway to the room while Eda's brows raised.

"Hey! Hey! Is anyone there?! Hoot! I'm on the floor! It's cold!"

King growled and jumped off Lizzie's lap, covering his paws over the sides of his head where his ears technically should be. "Ugh! That annoying voice!"

Lizzie's eyes drooped. "Yeah. I forgot we kinda left Hooty on the floor…"

The blonde witch went to stand up as King stomped his way out of the room but was stopped by Luz gently pushing her back down with a small smile. "Don't worry. We'll take care of him. You and Eda should rest up."

Lizzie returned the smile and relaxed her shoulders. "Thanks, Luz. Although I should really leave Eda be and head to our own room."

"Sure. Just take your time." Luz patted Lizzie's shoulder before jogging out of the room after King, making Lizzie chuckle quietly and shake her head.

She and Eda silently watched until the human closed the doors to the room behind her, which the latter took as her cue to pick up Lizzie's key from the floor.

"So…" The Owl Lady faced Lizzie and held the key out between them, squinting slightly. "…you wanna tell me why I ate this, or am I going to have to probe it out of you?"

Lizzie bit the inside of her lip and scratched behind her ear, feeling tempted to lie to Eda. After a moment of tense silence, though, the blonde witch closed her eyes and moved the hand to the back of her neck.

'Don't do that. Eda's been honest with you. You should show the same courtesy.'

"I, uh…" She paused to take a deep breath. "I may have locked my potions inside the chest, and you ate the key before I had a chance to unlock it…"

Lizzie closed an eye and waited for Eda's ensuing reaction. But nothing came. Instead, when she dared to peek back at the Owl Lady, she saw the older witch with her arms crossed while twirling the key between her fingers, a faint frown across her brow.

"I thought as much. Explains why you got hurt. You're not usually careless."

Lizzie hid her face behind her hands and huffed, stretching the skin on her forehead and keeping her gaze on her lap. "I know, I know! It was a stupid thing to do! But the reminder of my expulsion from Hexside brought it all back and it made me paranoid!"

"Your expulsion from Hexside?" Eda's brows furrowed as a hand scratched at her chin. "But why would—?" Her eyes widened slightly when the answer hit her like a spell to the face, prompting her hand to drop to her lap. "Oh…"

"Uh-huh." Lizzie moved her hands from her face, her body slouching. "I did something with one of my potions that I'm not proud of and it ended with a student getting hurt." She placed her hands together in her lap and tapped her fingers together. "When I was reminded of the incident the other day, I started to worry about keeping my potions out while Luz was staying here. I thought putting them inside the chest would prevent any accidents from occurring. But instead…"

"…you made it impossible to reach them when you really needed them," Eda finished, prompting Lizzie to nod. The Owl Lady scowled and flicked the younger witch in the middle of the forehead, making her flinch and recoil a bit. "You knucklehead. Did what I tell you before go in one ear and out the other again?"

"You mean not being able to account for every danger?"

"Yes." Eda leaned forward and waggled her finger close to Lizzie's face. "I don't know what happened back then, and I don't wanna know. But the fact that you're telling me that what you did was bad means you've learnt from your mistake. You won't repeat it again, which means you don't need to hide your potions away. So," Eda gently grabbed Lizzie's hand and flipped it palm-up, placing the key on it before closing her fingers around it. "when you leave, I want you to go to your room and put those potions back where they're supposed to go." She released Lizzie's hand and straightened out, tapping her temple with a finger. "You got that, Redwood?"

A weak smile appeared on Lizzie's face at this, prompting a slight nod from the blonde as she pulled her hand close to her. "I've got it."

Eda copied Lizzie's smile, reaching up a hand to pat her head. "Atta girl. And while you're at it…" The Owl Lady shuffled backwards to the edge of her nest and stretched towards the table beside her bed, picking up the blue covered book on top of the stack and handing it to Lizzie after returning to her previous position. "Take this with you."

Lizzie accepted the book from Eda with a frown, reading aloud the title that was printed on the front of it in gold, capital lettering. "… 'Basic Healing Spells for Dummies'?"

"I borrowed that from the library years ago and forgot to return it." Eda shrugged her shoulders and slid back into her nest. "I think that'll come in handy for you, though. You should be prepared in case something like this happens again. Saves ya wasting the medical supplies."

The blonde witch snorted at the latter remark, giving Eda an amused smile. "Thanks, Eda." Lizzie slowly stood up and used a hand to straighten out the creases in her skirt, dusting off a couple of twigs that had attached themselves. "I'll let you rest. You're probably exhausted."

"No kidding…"

Eda laid on her back inside her nest as Lizzie made her way to the doors. However, just as the young witch yanked one of them open, she paused and looked back over her shoulder.

"Oh, and Eda?"

"Yeah?"

"Luz and I are going to need a new bedroom door…"

Eda sat up suddenly at this, blinking widely. "Wait, what—"

"'kay! Goodnight!"

Lizzie didn't give Eda the opportunity for an explanation. She speed-walked out of the room and pulled the door closed behind her, leaving poor Eda sitting there with raised brows. As she hurried away from the bedroom and down the hallway, though, Lizzie hugged the key and book in her hands against her chest at a slight warm and fuzzy feeling building up, unable to suppress the wide smile that came onto her face.

She felt like a small weight had been taken off her shoulders, and she was certain she had Eda to thank for that.