Everyone was overwhelmed with joy about Luz and Amity's engagement, and congratulated them profusely when they came back upstairs after their date. Camila and Eda alone drowned the owl house in tears, while Edric and Emira couldn't stop screaming with excitement when Amity called them. They were some of the only people Luz didn't tell about her plan, because as much as she loved them, they weren't exactly good at keeping secrets. She did tell Alador though, because she felt it would be polite to ask him for permission to marry his daughter. Her now future father in law just laughed however and hugged her, saying that it wasn't necessary and that he would trust no one to take care of Amity more than her.

The human witch was very happy to get his blessing, but that was just a shadow compared to how she felt when Amity said yes. She was going to marry her other half, the love of her life, and she was on cloud nine because of it. It also motivated her to train even harder to better control her curse, as the events of the night of the full moon still weighed heavily on her mind. Even though she knew there was a chance she would lose control, and had mentally prepared herself for it, she still felt incredibly guilty that it actually happened, and that she ended up hurting some of her loved ones as they tried to help her. Yes, none of the injuries were serious, but that didn't mean much to Luz. All that she could focus on was that she hurt people, and that's one of the reasons she was training harder now, to take her mind off of it.

It was currently Tuesday at eight in the morning, a few days after Luz proposed to Amity, and the human witch was charging through the forest at breakneck speed. She was getting more used to her werewolf powers, so she decided to start running on all fours during her morning exercise as she felt that would help her be more in sync with them. It wasn't easy at first though. Since humans are obviously not built to run on all fours, Luz had to learn to transform her legs first so she could do it efficiently and comfortably. She also learned that having her claws out gave her a better grip on the ground, and that her tail gave some much needed stability. Without it, she would just fall flat on her face.

On top of that, she also had to figure out how to move and pace herself properly so she could run efficiently. It was a lot to learn, but Hunter was a big help in all of it. And with his guidance, it didn't take long for the human witch to start running just as naturally as a real wolf, with incredible speed to boot. She even surprised herself with how fast she could go. At one point, she even thought she could keep up with a car if she got out in the open.

Obviously though, she wasn't going to do that. She only planned on telling the people of the demon realm about her curse. The people from the human realm were out of the question. And even then, she was afraid of how she'd be treated when she did tell the people of the boiling isles. Even though she had a feeling many people would support her, there really was no way to tell what the overall reaction was going to be.

But that could all wait for now. It's not like there was a deadline to break the news anyway, so she had all the time in the world. Instead, she just focused on her exercise and enjoying the wind on her face. With the speed she was going at, it didn't take long for her to exit the forest and arrive back at the owl house. It was only then that she changed her legs back to normal and started jogging to the front door, where Eda and Stringbean were waiting for her, the former holding a stopwatch while the latter held a towel.

"Thirty minutes." The owl lady said as she approached. "That's five minutes off your previous record!"

"Yes!" Luz shouted as she fist pumped the air. "At this rate, I'll reach my goal of twenty minutes in no time!"

She then took the towel from Stringbean and thanked her before drying the sweat from her forehead. Eda spoke again while she did.

"You want to run ten miles in twenty minutes? Don't get me wrong, I'm all for ambition, but don't you think that's a bit of a stretch?"

The human witch shook her head. "Nah, nothing's impossible if you work hard enough. You just gotta keep pushing and focus on your goal."

Eda narrowed her eyes. "Normally I'd agree with that, but you seem to be setting extreme bars for yourself. You need to tone it back a bit and do this one step at a time, learn your strengths and limitations."

"No, I need to keep going. You said it yourself that this curse is very hard to master. If I want to do that, I need to give it a hundred and ten percent."

Luz was frowning when she said this. And as she continued to wipe the sweat off of herself, Eda noticed a look in her eyes she was all too familiar with, a look of guilt and shame.

"What's wrong?" The owl lady asked.

"What?" Luz said as she looked up.

"Don't 'what' me. I know that look. There's something on your mind that's bothering you. What is it? Spill."

The human witch pursed her lips. There was no point in denying it. Her mentor knew her too well, and it was clear she was going to hound her until she gave an answer. So she decided to just be honest.

"I can't stop thinking about what happened during the full moon. I may not remember doing it, but that doesn't change the fact I still hurt people I care about. I keep trying to tell myself that I wasn't in control, and that it wasn't my fault, but I still feel guilty about it."

She took a deep breath before continuing. "How did you do it, Eda? How did you learn to move on from all the things you did as the owl beast?"

The owl lady sighed and pinched her nose. "I knew we were gonna have this talk at some point, but I don't blame you for the record. It ain't easy to cope with something you're not proud of. When I hurt my dad and ended his palisman carving career, it ate away at me for years. Even after he forgave me, it still weighs heavily on me to this day."

Luz nodded, trying to keep her composure. "Exactly. I just can't stop thinking about it no matter how hard I try, and it's messing with my head. I don't want to have this constantly weighing me down, but how am I supposed to just let it go? How am I supposed to just forget about it?"

Her mentor shook her head. "You can't forget it, Kiddo. No matter how hard you try, those feelings and memories will never go away. Trust me, I know. It is possible to move forward from it however."

"How?"

"You need to understand that you or anyone else cannot change what happened. It is what it is, so there's no point in dwelling on it and letting it weigh you down. The best way to do that is to make peace with the past, and forgive yourself."

The human witch frowned. "How am I supposed to do that?"

"Well, you partly answered that question already. You couldn't control your own actions. How is something like that your fault?"

"Because it was still me…" Luz trailed off.

Stringbean nudged her cheek and motioned down to her pant pocket. Luz knew her palisman was requesting her phone to speak to her, so she pulled it out and handed it over.

'It's not your fault when you're forced to do it against your will.' Stringbean typed. 'I know you would never have hurt anyone if you could've helped it, but your curse took that choice away from you. You're not to blame for that.'

"She's right, Luz."

The human witch looked over to see Amity standing by the door. She had come out to give her some water and had heard everything. The purple haired witch carefully placed the glass on the ground before walking up to her fiancé and putting her hands on her shoulders.

"Listen to me. I understand why you feel guilty about hurting me, but I'm telling you there's no need to feel that way. You didn't do anything wrong. I don't blame you for what happened, and neither does anyone else. If anyone's to blame, it's that mangy mutt who bit you in the first place."

"Damn right." Eda said. "If I had the chance, I'd track down that bastard and rip his head off."

'Yeah? Well get in line.' Stringbean typed.

Luz smiled. "You guys really mean that?"

Amity gave her a kiss on her cheek. "Of course we do, Wolfie. You didn't do anything you did that night willingly. We would never hate you for that. You're not a perpetrator, you're a victim, a victim of a horrible curse you didn't ask or deserve to be infected by. So stop beating yourself up over it. I'll kick your butt if you don't."

The human witch smiled wider and embraced her fiancé in a hug, a hug that was happily returned before being joined by Eda and Stringbean. What did she do to deserve such a loving family?

"Thank you, Mi Amor." She said. "I really picked the perfect woman to marry.

Amity smiled and hugged her harder. Eda then perked up. "That reminds me, we need to start planning and preparing for the wedding. There's a lot to do, and I want it to be perfect."

"Are you sure you want to start now?" Luz asked. "We still have a lot of training to do."

"So? I can easily train you while doing preparations with your Mom at the same time. And if I have days where I'm too busy, Hunter can take over. It's no big deal, as long as you and Amity are cool with it. I know you guys are still young so if you want to wait. I get it."

The couple looked at each other and nodded before turning back.

"We talked about it last night." Amity said. "And we decided we wanted to get married sooner rather than later. Yeah we're only twenty, but that doesn't matter to us. What matters is that we love each other more than anything, and know we want to spend the rest of our lives together. So what's the point of waiting?"

Eda smiled. "Well spoken, Boots. I'll call Camila and let her know."

Luz then perked up. "There's someone else that should join you guys. Hey, Hooty!"

"Yes?" The house demon said as he snaked out from the front door.

"You were so awesome with helping me and Amity get together and with us getting engaged. I would love it if you helped Eda and my Mom do preparations for our wedding."

"Really?"

"Yeah." Amity said. "It would only be appropriate that you did. You've always been there to help me and Luz out. We would be honored if you did the same for this."

Suddenly feeling incredibly important, Hooty stood straight and puffed out, causing everyone to chuckle.

"I am more than happy to accept your offer!" He said. "Just you wait! I will make this the most beautiful and jaw dropping wedding the demon realm has ever seen! In fact, I'll get started right now! Hoot!"

He then dashed into the house.

"Woah, where's the fire?" Raine's voice could be heard saying.

"No time to talk! I'm on an important mission!"

Everyone now burst out laughing. Hooty really was quite the character.

"Okay, we should calm him down before he breaks something." Eda snickered.

"Yeah." Luz said with a giggle. "Good idea."