Luz was a very perky, cheerful person by nature. It took a lot to get her down. Life, in her opinion, was meant to be savored. Boring adults wasted time dealing with silly things like paying bills and going to work when the wide, wide world beckoned. Exploration, discovery, learning about gory snakebites, these were the things that made life fun! And with a whole new world available to her, Luz had been on cloud nine ever since her arrival in the Boiling Isles. No more was she learning about dull human subjects, but fascinating lessons about the culture and history and poisonous plants of the Demon Realm. She was well liked, she had friends, and she got to see real magic on a daily basis.

But it hadn't turned out to be all fun and games for her, because now she had two new siblings, and they were so lame! Vee seemed to be scared of everything, which was silly because she was a shapeshifter and if anyone tried to hurt her, she could just, like, turn into a dragon and roast them to death. Hunter was even worse, because he still tattled on Luz all the time, except this time it was to Mami and Papi. He was obsessed with boring things like following rules and keeping to a schedule. Lame! It's like Eda always said: chaos is what makes life living.

Luz understood why they were looking after Vee – after her childhood as a lab experiment, she deserved parents who loved her. But she didn't understand at all why she suddenly had Hunter as a brother. They barely even knew each other. They were just starting to become friends and all of a sudden, he's her brother? Luz had tried to ask questions and figure out what was up with everything, but every time she tried to pry into her new brother's past, he got upset and suddenly she was the bad guy. No one had asked Luz if she wanted new siblings! In fact, she'd rather been enjoying being an only child and getting more of Papi's attention than ever before, what with how busy he was with work. But suddenly, Mami and Papi had adopted two kids and Luz couldn't understand why. Was she just not good enough for them? Was she being replaced?

Papi had been quite horrified to hear her ask that when she'd confronted him. "Sweetie, I don't know why you would ever think that. You're my daughter and I love you."

Luz pouted. "Really? Cause it kinda seems like you like Vee and Hunter more."

"Luz, that's enough," Papi said sternly. "It's your responsibility to make them comfortable as new members of the family."

"And what about me?!" Luz shouted. "Maybe I'm not comfortable having them in the family! Why is their comfort more important than mine?"

Papi muttered something under his breath. Luz suspected it was a swear word, but she didn't recognize it. "Luz, honey, I know this is tough on you, but Hunter and Vee don't have anywhere else to go."

"Don't they have any other family who can take them in?" Luz begged. "We barely know them! There are orphanages!"

She had clearly crossed a line, because Papi looked at her with deep disappointment in his eyes. "That's enough," he said, not raising his voice a decibel but still infusing it with anger and steel. "The situation is not ideal, but you will have to make the most of it. Haven't you always told me you wanted a sibling?"

Luz shrugged. Sure she wanted a sibling. A little sibling, one who she could nurture and look after and teach about explosives. Not a big brother who was a huge dork and a twin sister whose nightmares kept her up all night. "This isn't how I pictured it."

Papi finally cracked a smile. "Indeed not, lucecita. Nothing that has happened this summer is anywhere close to being how I pictured my life ended up." He ruffled her hair. "Luz, honey, I know change is difficult. It's hard on us all. But Hunter and Vee's situations are unique. I'm not going to be adopting another kid, okay?"

"You promise you still love me?" Luz said, making her eyes wide and pleading.

"I promise it down to the very depths of my soul," Papi vowed. He gave her a grin. "Now I know I've had to spend a lot of time with the other kids, so why don't I walk you over to Blight Manor for your playdate to make up for it?"

Luz wasn't about to pass up on such a generous offer, so she eagerly agreed. Having friends was absolutely the best part of being in the Boiling Isles. She could spend hours and hours with Amity and Willow, and they weren't the only friends she'd made. Willow had recently befriended a kid named Augustus – whom Luz had promptly nicknamed Gus – who was two grades below them, after saving him from bullies. Gus may have been young, but he had a talent for illusion magic, which was pretty darn cool in Luz's opinion.

Luz's visits to Blight Manor had become more frequent as she got used to spending more time with Amity's parents. Well, mostly Mrs. Blight. Mr. Blight spent most of the time in his workshop, though he seemed to get along pretty well with Papi. The two of them had a shared passion for machines. It had taken Luz a while to get used to Mrs. Blight, but the more time she spent in her presence, the easier it was to get along with her. Mrs. Blight had made some mistakes, like keeping Amity away from Willow, but Luz truly believed she wanted the best for her children.

"So tell me more about this new brother of yours," Mrs. Blight said as she poured tea for Luz while they were waiting for Amity to finish with her homework and the other kids to arrive. "It must be a very difficult adjustment for you." One thing Luz liked about Mrs. Blight is that she had no problem treating to Luz like an equal. Not like most adults she knew who always talked down to Luz, just cause she was a kid. Like adults were so smart and good at their jobs. If they knew what they were doing, there wouldn't be so much war. Life would be so much better if kids ran the world in Luz's opinion.

Luz was hesitant to open up to Mrs. Blight at first, but she always felt better and more open to talking after having some of her special blend of tea, imported straight from the Clavicle. "Well, his name's Hunter Soleb." Was that a spark of recognition in Mrs. Blight's eyes? Nah, couldn't be. "He's two years older than me, but he's so boring. Rules and order and discipline all day long. It's like the guy's allergic to fun. I don't even know why he's living with us. All I know is he used to live with his uncle and he was mean to him."

An emotion Luz couldn't identify flickered across Mrs. Blight's face for a second, but was gone so quickly Luz assumed she must have imagined it. "And this…Vee? Your new sister? What is her deal, child?"

"I'm not supposed to talk about Vee," Luz said, looking at the floor, even though she had a sudden overwhelming desire to do just that.

Mrs. Blight peered at the box of tea for a second, before shrugging. "Well, I certainly wouldn't want you to disobey your parents, Luz. It seems…such a shame, though, that you're being shoved to the side. I always make it a point to love and appreciate my children equally."

Luz hadn't thought of it that way, but Mrs. Blight had a good point. Weren't parents not supposed to pick favorites? Yet somehow it seemed like Luz was their least favorite now. "I'm sure they mean well…"

Mrs. Blight nodded. "Of course. No one's disputing that. I'm sure your parents love you. After all, they're planning on staying here for good, are they not?"

Luz shifted uncomfortably in her seat. "I…I don't think so. They're talking like they're going to return to Earth when the summer is over."

Mrs. Blight's eyes widened. "But that's simply terrible! After you've made friends here, after you've being doing so much better in school, they're just going to take it away from you? And what of Hunter and Vee? Would they function better in the Human Realm?"

Now that Luz thought about it, Mrs. Blight was right on the money! Luz wasn't completely heartless. She may not have liked her new siblings, but she did love them, and she knew they'd had really, really tough lives before joining the Noceda family. Luz may have taken to the Demon Realm like a wereduck took to water, but could the same be said for Hunter and Vee? Maybe Papi's job was important enough to go back, but maybe it wasn't. Luz didn't know anything about it. All she knew was that Mami and Papi kept keeping secrets from her, and it wasn't fair at all.

"Amity would be simply devastated if she lost you," Mrs. Blight went on. "You're one of her closest friends. She's always talking about you." Luz was touched. She never imagined she could be that important to someone before. "And…well, Luz, if I may be frank, I just don't know how comfortable I would be sending Amity to an unfamiliar and dangerous world just to spend time with you."

"It's not that dangerous…" Luz protested weakly.

Mrs. Blight raised an eyebrow. "Indeed? What would be the reaction of people if they found out Amity was a witch?"

Luz's heart sank. It would be an unmitigated disaster. She'd seen movies. She knew Amity would be locked up by the government just like Vee had been and dissected. Of course Mrs. Blight couldn't put her daughter in so much danger. No good mother would. "Maybe you could persuade them to stay?"

Mrs. Blight frowned, like Luz had said something wrong, though for the life of her Luz couldn't imagine what it was. "Well, certainly I'll try my best, but if they won't even listen to their own daughter, I can't imagine what help I could be." She tilted her head as if an idea had suddenly occurred to her. "There is a way I can make sure you stay but it's a little…unorthodox. A betrothal."

"What's that?" Luz asked.

Mrs. Blight's grip tightened ever so slightly on her glass. "It means you and Amity would become engaged."

Luz blinked. "Like…engaged, engaged? Like I'm gonna marry Amity?"

Mrs. Blight relaxed. "That's right, Luz. If you and Amity would get married before summer's end, then I could become your guardian and let you stay in the Demon Realm."

"But I don't want to leave Mami and Papi!" Luz protested.

"No one says you have to leave them," Mrs. Blight promised. "It's perfectly fine if they stay here and you live with them. If they're good parents, they won't abandon their daughter, would they?" She frowned. "Though, of course, with what you've said, one has to wonder if they'd decide Vee and Hunter are more important."

The idea of getting married to Amity seemed pretty cool when Luz thought about it. Amity was a great friend and as far as Luz knew, marriage was just a commitment to promise to another person that they'd be their best friend forever and ever. She was pretty sure that kissing was involved too, since Mami and Papi did it all the time, but Luz would cross that bridge when she came to it. Luz did feel she was a little too young to get married, though. Weren't people supposed to get married when they were adults?

"Aren't I…maybe a bit too young?" Luz said weakly.

"Nonsense, dear," Mrs. Blight assured her. "Such things are quite common among the upper class. Consummation is not required until much, much later on – not until you're at least sixteen, probably eighteen for the sake of propriety."

"What's consummation?" Luz asked.

Mrs. Blight opened and closed her mouth repeatedly. "You should ask your own mother what that means." She reached into her purse and came out with a big stack of paper. "As it happens, I took the liberty of procuring a standard, boilerplate betrothal contract. What do you think?"

Luz looked at the papers. She didn't understand a single word of it. "I don't know," she said. "It seems like a big step. And is Amity okay with it? I won't marry her if she doesn't want to marry me."

Mrs. Blight's smile got wider and Luz felt uncomfortable just looking at it. "Oh, don't worry about Amity. She'll cooperate. I'll make sure of it."

"Okay…" Luz was a little worried, but waved it off. Adults were weird, and they weren't going to get any less weird anytime soon.

Actually, it was so nice to have yet another adult looking after her best interests. Luz knew her parents loved her a lot, but they just didn't understand how bad things were back home. Mostly because Luz didn't tell them, but still. After becoming popular, after making friends, the idea of returning to the Human Realm held zero appeal for Luz. If getting married to Amity was what it took to make sure she stayed happy, then surely there were worse costs to pay? What was the worst thing that could happen with her and Amity becoming super awesome best friends who dress up and travel together? Obviously nothing!

In any event, the whole matter had completely slipped Luz's mind by the time she got back to the Owl House. She had more important things to focus on. Like getting Gus to use his power of illusion to augment their playtime to make it so it was like they were real life pirates! The kid may have been small, but darn it, he had power. Of course, that wasn't why Luz had made friends with him. It was because he was an all around awesome dude. But the power didn't hurt.

"Did you have a nice playdate, sweetie?" Mami asked when she and Papi returned home.

"We sure did, mami!" Luz said, and started jumping up and down. "Oh, I almost forgot to mention! I'm gonna marry Amity!"

Mami and Papi shared an amused look. "Ay, qué linda," Mami said. "Reminds me of when we had that 'wedding' when we were kids, eh?"

Papi nodded. "I had my stuffed whale officiate."

"Can you walk me down the aisle, please, papi?" Luz said with her biggest, most pleading eyes.

Papi laughed heartily. "Of course, Luz. It would be my pleasure."

Luz breathed a sigh of relief. She was so worried her parents would make a fuss and say she was too young. Little did she know the two of them had gotten married at her age too! This was such good news at a time that seemed to be not overflowing with it. "I'm gonna start planning the wedding," Luz decided. She started walking upstairs and then turned back as something occurred to her. "Mami, Papi, what does consummate mean?"

A look of horror and fury came on Mami's face. "Go to your room, Luz! RIGHT NOW!" Luz sighed and rolled her eyes. It wasn't as if she wasn't planning on going there in the first place.

"EDALYN CLAWTHORNE!" she heard Mami say as she walked into her room. "YOU ARE IN SO MUCH TROUBLE!"

Eda couldn't remember the last time her life had been so complex. Probably back in the last days of her relationship with Raine, where she had to choose between love and freedom when Raine decided to join the Bard Coven and it became clear the relationship would – and did in the end – fall apart if she didn't follow. Not to mention keeping the Owl Beast secret from them. But all that paled in comparison to what she was experiencing right now.

When she'd invited the Nocedas to stay with her, she'd expected them to be just some extra help around the house and stall, maybe with Luz being a companion to King for a while. If she was extraordinarily lucky, maybe she would have gotten a one time threesome with the sensationally hot Noceda parents when all was said and done. Eda had not expected in the slightest to become attached, not to a trio of humans who were total strangers to her. But somehow the Nocedas had all wormed their way into her heart. Luz was just such an adorable, brilliant child whose impressive commitment to chaos reminded Eda so much of herself at that age. Vee and Hunter, Eda could take or leave, but Luz was special.

And as for Camila and Manny, well, Eda knew very well how attractive they were. They were also resourceful and badass, rescuing her from the clutches of Warden Wrath, tricking the emperor into giving up his own nephew, and just generally adjusting to the trials and tribulations of the Demon Realm as if they'd lived there all their lives. Eda was not surprised in the slightest to develop a crush on them. She'd planned for it, actually. But what she was feeling right now went beyond mere crushing. The Nocedas were the first thing she thought of when she woke up and the last thing she thought of when she went to sleep. They were constantly on her mind and it was so aggravating.

Eda had been around the block in the Human Realm. She knew humans as a general rule were obsessed with monogamy. Sure, there were exceptions as there were to any rule, but they were few and far between and nothing so far had indicated the Nocedas were one of them. And these days, Eda felt her flirting attempts were making Camila and Manny uncomfortable. They kept blushing around her, and Eda was pretty sure humans did that when they were embarrassed. So Eda had done her best to stop, but darn it, it was hard when she had to spend the day around such pretty people!

As it stood, there seemed to be only two options. Either she could wallow in unrequited love for the rest of the summer or she could just bite the bullet, ask the Nocedas out, and endure the heartbreak of rejection. Fortunately, Eda had time to work with and a lot of things to distract herself with. Like the fact Emperor Belos, previously thought to be a homicidal tyrant, turned out to actually be a genocidal tyrant from the Human Realm bent on destroying the Demon Realm for the sake of his insane religious beliefs. Or whatever was motivating him. Eda had a hunch sanity and Belos were not good friends.

A threat to her species was definitely more important than her love life, Eda decided, and that was why she had invited Lilith over for a nice chat. And by that she meant she had Hooty kidnap her, tie her to a chair (how exactly he had accomplished that Eda neither knew nor wanted to) and force her to watch a copy of Eda's memory of the conversation Manny and Belos had had. Eda may have been the most wanted criminal in the Boiling Isles, but that was because Belos was weirdly obsessed with her. She wasn't actually a threat to the Belos regime. But Lilith could be a huge threat – if Eda could get through her insanely thick skull.

But for once, luck seemed to be on Eda's side.

"THE NERVE OF THE MAN!" Lilith screamed, somehow managing to rip through her ropes with only her upper body strength, grab the table, and fling it across the room where it broke into a shower of shards. "How dare he call me a harlot?!"

"Uh, I'm not sure that's the most important takeaway from all this…"

"You know very well, sister, that the pleasures of the flesh never held any interest to me!" Lilith went on, once more completely ignoring Eda. "And insulting our parents too?!"

"And me," Eda reminded her.

Lilith coughed delicately, no doubt remembering Eda's many, many romantic escapades. "Yes, yes, quite," she said, sounding very awkward. "He will pay dearly for this insolence. Also the child abuse and the genocide stuff, but especially for this."

Eda decided not to look a gift unicorn in the mouth. Lilith was notoriously confusing. All that mattered right now was that she was willing to turn against Belos. Lilith may have had a lot of flaws, but she was great at getting things accomplished. Under her leadership, the Emperor's Coven had become ten times more efficient than it had been before. Granted, this was not a good thing, but it was a thing. "What's our game plan?"

"You are going to do nothing," Lilith said. "I will take care of things with subtlety and cunning." Eda pouted, but had to admit Lilith had a point. Lilith could accomplish a lot from the shadows. Right now, their biggest advantage was that Belos didn't know they were onto him. "Turning the populace against Belos will not be an easy feat, especially since we can't use the memories or he'll know it was you. Do you have any ideas about how Belos intends to enact his genocide?"

"I was thinking maybe the sigils have something to do with it?" Eda suggested. It seemed a little strange how obsessed Belos was with making people wear those sigils. Even magicless witches were forced to wear it, which had made no sense if the point of the sigils was to restrict their magic, but not if the point was to kill everyone.

Lilith considered the idea carefully, but then shook her head. "It's an interesting idea, but it violates a number of magical principles. You'd have to be some sort of god to make that work. Not to mention, Belos wants a worldwide genocide. Right now, his empire only controls maybe about 80% of the world's population. No, I think it's more likely his method will be some sort of biological weapon. A disease or some poison. I'll reach out to the Healing, Plant, and Potions Covens, see what's going on there."

Eda suddenly reached out and hugged her sister for the first time she could remember since the two of them became enemies. By the looks on Lilith's face, it had surprised her as much to receive the hug as it had surprised Eda to give it. "Thanks, Lily. This means so much to me. I don't think I've had this much hope since before I was cursed."

Lilith looked incredibly guilty all of a sudden. Eda could definitely understand why. It must have been sinking in for her that she'd hounded Eda for so long for nothing. Eda hated losing all that time herself. Don't get her wrong, the cat and echo mouse game between her and Lilith had been fun in its own way, but she really, really missed having her sister in her life. "Hey, Lilith, it's okay. I know exactly what you're gonna say, and I forgive you."

Lilith blinked. "That is…uncharacteristically and suspiciously generous of you," she said. "But you don't understand why I did it."

Eda put a hand on Lilith's shoulder. "Course I do. You hunted me down cause you thought you'd make old bonehead like you that way. That's what you do with authority figures. You've always been like that. Faust, Bump, Belos, Mom and Dad, you name it."

Lilith sighed. "Right, yes, of course, that's what you were talking about. Obviously. I…" She seemed about to say something, but then shook her head. "Later. The very survival of our species is at jeopardy. I promise you, I'll do everything I can to stop Belos and I'll keep you posted, but in turn, you have to promise me to not do anything rash!"

Eda snickered. "Yep, that's me. No-Rash Eda!"

"Edalyn, I'm serious!" Lilith shouted at the top of her lungs. Eda was taken aback. Even amidst all their animosity, Lilith had rarely taken that tone with her. "I can't lose you!"

Eda was honestly touched in a way she hadn't been in some time. While she knew Lilith's obsession with getting her into a coven was done out of love, it was hard to see it when Lilith was constantly pestering her and trying to get her arrested. But Lilith had always loved her sister, even if she was extremely misguided in her ways of showing it. Eda couldn't possibly imagine a single circumstance where Lilith would ever deliberately hurt her.

"You won't lose me," Eda promised. "Anyway, I've got Hooty on my side! I'd like to see Belos get through him."

"DID SOMEONE MENTION ME?!" Hooty warbled.

Eda offhandedly shoved him away when he approached her face. "No one mentioned you, you whacko. Go away."

Lilith was suddenly hugging her sister, the first time she'd done it since the two of them were teenagers. Since Eda had been cursed. "I love you so much, Edalyn. I promise you, between the two of us, Belos is history."

Eda smiled. "I promise I'll be careful."

"Especially since you have two new loves in your life," Lilith said with a wink. For someone with precisely no interest in romance herself, Lilith had always been eerily cognizant of everything going on in Eda's own love life.

Eda sighed. "Yeah, I don't know about that. They've adjusted to a lot, but you really think they're gonna be interested in some over the hill witch who lives in the woods?"

"Excuse me, but you happen to be the most powerful witch in the Boiling Isles," Lilith said primly. "You are not the most wanted witch in the empire for no reason." Actually, Eda was pretty sure now it was because Belos got rejected by one of Eda's ancestors, but whatever. "I am sure they'd be honored to go out with you, and if they don't, well, that's their problem."

Lilith walked over to the door. "Well, if that's all, I must be going. I have to kidnap, interrogate, and kill Terra Snapdragon, and that's going to take all afternoon."

"Can't you just stay for a little while longer?" Eda begged. "I got pictures of King." Lilith tilted her head quizzically. "He's sort of your nephew…?"

Lilith blinked repeatedly. "What?! You have a son?! Who's his other parent?"

"I found him as an egg," Eda explained. "Never seen anyone like him, no idea who his parents were."

"Well, that's certainly better to hear than some idiot knocking you up, because let me tell you, I only have the stomach to dispose of one corpse today."

In the end, Lilith didn't end up disposing of any corpses that day, as the two of them spent all afternoon sorting through photo albums, though Eda knew Terra's reprieve would only be temporary. And indeed, a few days later, Lilith reported that Terra knew squat and would never be seen again. If even half of the rumors were true, the evil plant witch deserved it and then some.

In the coming days, Lilith interrogated a wide variety of people (though she wiped their memories instead of killing them) and came no closer to finding out Belos's plans. That was, until she interrogated Kikimora, who revealed Belos was in communion with a strange and powerful childlike being called the Collector. Unfortunately, Kikimora managed to free herself and Lilith had no choice but to kill her to prevent her from escaping. A part of Eda wondered if she should be worry about Lilith becoming so murder happy, but heck, Lilith had been in that cult for so long Eda thought she could have a little murder as a treat. Just as long as she didn't kill anyone Eda cared about.

The plan to deal with Belos was now indefinitely stalled until they could locate the Collector and neutralize him in some way. In the meantime, Eda was using good old fashioned rumors to stir up trouble for Belos. Lilith had claimed she'd killed Kikimora because she was planning on defecting, and Eda had ran with that idea. She'd spread word about Belos's true identity and purpose, claiming Kikimora had told her. Support for Belos had always been a bit shakier than it looked, especially in the early years of the empire when he'd tried to come down hard on people in same sex relationships for some reason. Not a lot of people believed everything Eda had been saying, but the seeds of doubt had been planted.

"Hi there," a voice said from in front of her and Eda let out a loud yelp as she assumed a combat stance. She soon remembered where she was, namely operating her stand in the middle of the market. And that guy…what was his name? Lucas? Mike? Oh, right! Steve was standing in front of her. "Um, I can come back later if it's a bad time."

Eda peered at him. "Aren't you supposed to be babysitting the kids?" Steve had basically been roped into being the official Noceda babysitter. He was very eager to make up for the sins he'd committed as a guard.

"Yeah, they're over there," he said, pointing at a nearby stall. "I just wanted to warn you. Luz says she has a brilliant scheme involving you. Sorry, a Brilliant Scheme."

"You just said the same thing twice."

Steve shook his head firmly. "When you spend time with Luz, you learn very quickly the difference between a brilliant scheme and a Brilliant Scheme." He sighed. "Is it true, the things you've been saying about Belos? I've heard all sorts of terrible things. People are saying he's human, he's planning genocide, and even that he eats his sandwiches without any bread!"

"Yeah, whatever you've heard, it's probably true and worse," Eda said. "You made the right choice getting out. Thanks for the warning, Steve."

Eda completely put that encounter out of her mind as the afternoon went on. She had other things on her mind. Belos's retaliation towards the rumors. What would happen if Lilith was caught. Manny's amazing abs. Speak of the handsome devil, wasn't that him very awkwardly approaching the stall?

Manny said something that sounded almost vaguely like buenas días if you squinted and were drunk at the time and Eda was instantly on guard. Ordinarily, Manny was perfectly composed (and damn if that confidence wasn't sexy), but now he seemed to be nervous. He kept on looking backwards towards the bushes…and since when had there been bushes near her stall anyway? Sweat was pouring down his face.

"What's shaking, Manny?" Eda asked casually as her hand moved towards the knife she kept strapped underneath the table. Magic was a great thing, but no matter how subtle a witch, a knife between the shoulder blades usually cramped their style.

"I was speaking to Mr. Blight and he has gotten sick," Manny said, his voice stiffer than cardboard and sounding like he was reading something he'd meticulously memorized. "He has three tickets to Romeo and Ghouliet that are going unused." He mispronounced that last word. "Would you like to go with me and Missus…er Camila?"

Eda's hand touched the knife and she was just about to get it out when she heard muffled laughter from the bushes. She'd recognize that laughter anyway. It was none other than Luz's laughter. Which meant this was probably part of her brilliant scheme! Er, that was to say, Brilliant Scheme. This was no doubt Vee who stood before her.

Eda smiled fondly. Her little girl was growing up and executing complex cons. The fact Eda had referred to Luz, even in her head, as her little girl, would escape her for some days, but she wouldn't be able to bring herself to regret it when she remembered.

"Sure thing!" Eda said with a wide grin. Who was she to interrupt Luz in her first real act of con artistry? She was just proud Luz was following in her footsteps. Besides, tickets to the Theatre of the World didn't grow in trees. If Luz had somehow managed to get her hands on them, Eda was more than happy to go along with it, even if Romeo and Ghouliet had been supposedly written by Belos. And being roped onto a "date" with the Noceda parents was a good way to test the waters about a potential relationship while still providing her with enough deniability to back out without hurting anyone's feelings. "Meet you there at 8?"

Vee nodded and kept doing it for far longer than a normal person would have. "8 it is." She stood there very awkwardly for a few seconds. "I have to go now," she announced in a tone even stiffer than before and practically dove into the bushes. Which quickly proceeded to move away. Eda saw the telltale green swirls of plant magic, which meant Willow was there somewhere.

Eda wiped a tear away from her eye. They grew up so fast.

Eda decided to dress up for the evening as if she was going on a date. Well, after she stole clothes suitable for such a date from one of the most expensive clothing stores in town. They were notorious for discriminating against demons, so Eda didn't feel an iota of guilt. She hadn't felt as excited for a date in a long time. Her palms were sweating and she could feel her heart beating hard. When was the last time someone had gotten her going like this? It must have been Raine.

Much to her relief, Camila and Manny were waiting for her at the theater. And the two of them were dressed to the nines too, in the same outfits they wore to parent teacher night. Eda gave them a big grin. "You decided to 'fall for it' too, then?" she asked them.

"It wasn't exactly all that hard to figure out," Camila said.

"Don't listen to her," Manny said with an impish grin. "Vee had her completely fooled. I saw through it in two seconds, of course."

Camila sighed. "I'm still getting used to the whole shapeshifting thing, you know. We're just lucky Vee is using her powers for good. Look, if this is going to be too awkward for you, we can cancel, but I do really want to see what demonic theater is like."

"NO!" Eda shouted loud enough to make people stare at her quizzically. Manny and Camila shared a knowing look. That was a good sign, wasn't it? "No, we shouldn't let good tickets go to waste, right?"

"Oh, I don't think tonight's going to be a waste at all, búho," Manny said with a wink. Eda felt her treasonous cheeks blushing. Curse her lack of control.

As it turned out, the play was a profound disappointment, because it turned out to have been heavily plagiarized from a human play called Romeo and Juliet. It was so bad it kind of circled around again to be funny. The play was adapted enough to demonic sensibilities so it wasn't a 1 on 1 comparison, but all of Belos's changes to the play were terrible and overwrought and overly melodramatic.

The play ended up with both lovers committing suicide (which, much to Eda's surprise, had not been one of Belos's changes), but afterwards, the two of them ended up in hell where a devil chastised them for all the sins they'd committed, such as premarital sex, disobeying their parents, and wearing clothes with two different types of fabrics. They then had the flesh continuously stripped, restored, and then stripped again from their flesh for all eternity. Camila and Manny were looking quite shellshocked by the end of it.

Of course, most of this went completely passed Eda because she spent basically the entire play in a happy haze, since Camila and Manny, sitting on either side of her, each insisted on holding her hand the whole time.

"Well, that was certainly a…unique experience," Manny said as they approached the Owl House. "We should thank Luz for a lovely evening."

"I bet she'll be surprised we saw through her little charade," Camila said.

As the two of them walked up to the door, Eda decided it was now or never. She opened her mouth to ask them to be her partners, but the words just wouldn't escape her lips. So she decided to let the lips themselves do the talking.

Eda grabbed Manny and then pulled him into a long kiss. Camila stared at the two of them, her face indecipherable. Well, maybe it would have been decipherable if Eda had more than two brain cells to put together, but right now, all of her focus was on savoring the magnificent lips of her houseguest. After what felt like an eternity, Eda proceeded to give Camila the same treatment.

"Eda…" Manny said, seeming lost for words. "That was…"

Eda panicked. It was not her finest moment, she'd readily admit later on, but in the moment, she had somehow managed to convince herself Manny was about to tell her off and say how disgusted he was by her. "Uh, good to see you!" she rambled. "Farewell forever!" She ran into the house and slammed the door behind her, ignoring Camila and Manny's shouts in her direction as she went.