Chapter 13
Amity POV:
The Owl House isn’t far, and I’m surprised I even remember the way. The cold autumn breeze ripples through my hair, sending shivers down my spine. I hug myself with my arms, trying to warm myself up, as my jacket isn't enough to battle with the cold and win.
I see her before I realize what I’m looking at, her tall figure standing out among the summer leaves. This game of hide and seek seems too easy, almost as if she didn’t play her part correctly. As soon as my eyes focus on the dark-haired girl sitting on the lowest branch of the Grom Tree, I can’t feel the cold anymore. I can’t feel anything anymore, and I step out from the trees towards her.
“Hey, Luz.” I call out tauntingly as the wind swallows my voice and carries it away. She hears me though and turns her head to look at me. “You really thought you’d get away that easily?”
She looks lost. I swallow back my empathy as her empty eyes watch me. After a moment, she jumps down from the branch, taking a step towards me.
“Do it.” she says, her voice barely a whisper in the breeze. For a moment, I think I’ve misheard her, but as she stretches her arms out to either side, I know I’m right. “Do it,” she says again. “Use your magic. Take me back to the Emperor, I don’t care.”
She closes her eyes tightly, bracing for impact as I take three paces towards her, beginning to draw a circle with my finger. I’m close enough now to see her face properly. My hand drops to my side, my circle vanishing into thin air.
“That’s a death sentence.” I tell her, though I’m not sure why. My voice is not threatening but carries a sense of warning with it.
She opens her eyes, bringing them up to meet mine. “I don’t care.”
I stand for a moment, my fists clenching and unclenching at my sides. I think of doing it several times. I think of not thinking and just striking her down, but what am I meant to do when I take her lifeless body home? Where even is home anymore?
I’ve dropped my gaze now, but I feel her eyes on me. “I know you’re still in there.” I hear her whisper. I want to snap back, tell her that she doesn’t know me, but she does. She knows me better than I know myself. “I can explain everything if you just let me try.”
My anger is a short fuse, and at last it blows. “Explain what?” my voice is louder than I intended, but I keep going, stepping forward every time I feel my own heart shatter. “Why you left me for two years?” She steps back as I move in on her, her eyes growing wide. “Why you didn’t even bother to say goodbye?”
I don’t even notice my hand pinning her shoulders back against the tree. I don’t even notice my chest rising and falling with every heavy breath, or the golden light that’s trying to flicker through the red of my eyes. I don’t even notice the flame that burns in my other, just as much as the fire in my eyes and the anger burning inside of my chest. I hold it above my head like a weapon, like a threat.
“Amity, wait!”
The flame scorches the bark of the tree behind where Luz’ head once was. I turn quickly, my eyes scanning the clearing to find where she’s ducked away to. She stands, scared, her hands held out in front of her as though to calm me down. It doesn’t work.
“You really think I left because I didn’t care?” She sounds hurt, lost, like there are a million things she wants to say but she just can’t find the words. I respond to her question with another ball of fire barreling in her direction. She jumps out of the way, trying to talk to me through every painted breath. “I left because I don’t belong here.” she tells me as she ducks another fireball. “I have a family at home, a mother who needed me.”
I stop for a moment, my mind racing. As I close my eyes, I think of my own parents, the twins, Edric who so needs somebody right now. I think of the ways I let them down. All the ways I failed to be perfect.
“I didn’t want to choose, but I did.” Her voice is closer now, and I open my eyes to see her standing just inches in front of me. “I chose to come back here.” she says, her voice soft. I reach my hand out to summon an abomination, but she catches my wrist before I can draw the circle. My breath hitches in my throat as she closes the distance between us. “I’m back, and I’m staying. I promise, Amity.” She holds my wrists with a gentle grip, her eyes never looking away from mine. There’s something almost hypnotic about the way she says my name. “I’m right here.”
“Staying here is a death sentence.”
“We all die, Am’. The question is what we stood for when we lived.” She drops my wrists and brings her hands up to touch my face. “You don’t have to do this.” I close my eyes tightly as I feel her hand tuck a strand of hair behind my ear. She is standing so close to me; I can feel her breath against my face. I can feel her heart beating against my own chest. “You don’t have to go with them.”
A moment of silence passes between us. A calm silence, a necessary one. It feels almost as it was before she left all that time ago. But it’s not the same now, everything has changed.
I open my eyes quickly, pushing away from her. She looks back at me with surprised eyes. I push down the guilt, push down the words that are trying to claw their way out of my mouth. “You made your choice.” I hiss. “And I made mine. Now we must both see it through.”
My finger draws a perfect loop in the air and a light begins to shine beside us. She turns her head towards it to see the makeshift doorway I have created in the bark of the Grom Tree.
“Go home.” I tell her as she turns her head back to me. “Leave the Boiling Isles.” My eyes take her in one last time, and I ignore the tears that sting my eyes. As my eyes are engulfed in red once more, I turn away from her. “You’re right, you don’t belong here.”
My feet start up the path, the cold wind whipping through my hair once more. I do not shiver this time, as the cold has no effect on me anymore.
“No.” says the determined voice behind me. I stop walking, but don’t turn back. “I won’t leave you again.”
“You don't have a choice.” I say, turning back to face her. “You’ll only get hurt. I can let you leave with your life, but that’s all.” I bring my arm up to face, wiping away the only shred of emotion I have left. “Now go,” I say, my voice more threatening than before. “Before I change my mind.”
She doesn’t. Instead, she takes a careful step towards me, hesitating before coming any closer. “You mean before Belos changes your mind. He’s got you wrapped around his finger.” her voice fills with worry, wavering slightly. “Can’t you see he’s using you?”
I hesitate for a moment, unsure of how to react, before shrill laughter erupts from my mouth. “Of course, he’s using me!” I sound drunk with hysteria and I stagger back towards her, my red eyes wide and lifeless. “He’s using all of us.”
“And you’re okay with that?” she asks me, the surprise and judgement clear in her voice.
I shrug and my body stiffens, replying with words that aren’t mine. “The Emperor’s Coven may not always play fair, but we fight for what is right.” Her frowning eyes blink back at me. I take a step backwards as she reaches a hand out to me, careful not to let her get too close.
“Do you really think they’re going to keep you around once you’re no longer useful to them? You’re a threat to Belos, that’s all he sees you as.”
I let out a gentle sigh before the breath catches in my throat. “You don’t have to worry about me, Luz. I know how to keep my life.”
I stand still and tense as she makes her way towards me, wrapping her hands around my neck. I feel her breath on my neck as she sobs gently into my shoulder. Her hair brushes against my neck, her familiar smell washing over me. “I don’t want to leave you.” she tells me as she composes herself. She pulls away, one hand cupping my cheek while the other reaches for my hand. “Please, Amity. Stay.”
She leans into me as she zips her fingers into mine. Her lips linger so close to mine, I can feel her breath against them. As she stands a few inches taller than me, I take all of her in. She smells of Summer breeze. Her dark hair frames her face like a painting and her soft skin is all I can think about. For a moment, I can feel Belos’ grip on me loosen and it’s just me and her under the setting sun. The Grom Tree we grew together stands tall and proud as the door I created begins to close up slowly. For a moment, everything is as it should be.
“Amity?” I hear a voice call out from the other side of the clearing and Luz pulls away quickly. I feel her hand slip away from mine, and an empty space stands between us where she should be. Nothing is right anymore.
I don’t have time to see who was calling my name before the pain hits me once again. I feel his grip on me tighten, as do my muscles and I fall to my knees, letting out a cry. The last thing I see is Serena running across the clearing to fall down beside me. She screams my name, worry filling her voice as everything goes black.