Chapter 41
Luz POV:
These crowds seem endless, like wave after wave of students just keep coming in this ocean of music and laughter. I’ve never enjoyed the party scene much, with all the noise and dim lighting, but I thought coming here with Amity would make it worth while. I let out a low sigh, pushing through the crowds of people. The dark shadows caused by flashing coloured lights mean I have to squint to catch sight of the sea of faces before me. I don’t recognise any of them. Every now and then, heads turn towards me, mutters ripple through whispered conversations as they pick up on my strange mannerisms, my abnormally shaped ears, the brown of my eyes. It seems, even in a crowd of people, I can’t hide when I’m the only one who’s human. No one says anything, perhaps because they’re scared of what will happen if they do. I don’t blame them; my wanted posters hang high around town for all people to see that I’m dangerous. A fearful monster who’s not to be messed with. I can’t help but grin at the irony; I am surrounded by a room full of witches, and yet somehow I am the strange one. How bizarre everyone back in the human world would find this, not that I would ever tell them. Only one witch is on my mind though, as I search the crowds for the golden eyes that I deem to be my favourites. I’m not sure why she ran off like that. It’s not as though our chances of finding the stranger are higher if we split up. Besides, we don’t even know who we’re looking for. Perhaps she didn’t want to dance with me. My heart sinks at the thought. I know she didn’t want to be here, and neither did I, but I can’t help feeling guilty for dragging her along anyway. How selfish we must be to jeopardise her safety for a chance to change the world. How quickly she would trade her life for this cause. She would trade her life for mine without a thought, in a heartbeat. I have to swallow down the dread and remind myself it won’t come to that. It will never come to that. I won’t let it. A steady inward breath attempts to calm me as I make a beeline for the light brown wavy hair I see in front of me.
“There you are!” I call out, reaching my hand out to touch her shoulder. A set of green eyes turn to look at me, part of a face that isn’t Amity’s. She looks up with distaste and confusion as I quickly tear my hand away from her. “I-I’m sorry, I thought you were…”
I trail off as she turns away from me, moving through the sea of people with an ease I couldn’t find for myself. Letting out a frustrated sigh, I run a hand through my hair, spinning around desperately to search the crowds.
“You look lost.” a voice laughs as I turn towards its direction. My eyes fall on a tall figure with flowing dark hair falling almost down to her waist. She smiles, the kind of smile that makes my blood boil and sends surges of unfiltered electrical anger through my body. I feel my hands clench into fists at my side as I try my best to refrain from using them.
Come on, Luz. You can’t make a scene, not here.
Still the anger bubbles up inside me as I turn my head up to look directly in her eyes. “Here to finish what you started?” I hiss, my vision turning red at the edges.
She laughs, and I feel my anger grow quickly into irritation. “Cool it, round-ears.” she says with a chuckle, holding her hands up in surrender. “I’m not here for you.” She must notice my eyes turn dark with the nickname she gives me, as her ears flatten against her head and her expression grows more serious. Clearing her throat, she tries again. “I’m here for Amity.” she says, more sure this time. “Where is she?” she asks.
“Whatever you have to say to Amity, you can say to me, too.” my voice is a low growl, vibrating through my lips as she raises an eyebrow at me. I can tell she wants to argue more, but decides against it in the end.
“Fine.”
The gentle curve of her dress brushes past me as she makes for the stairs behind us. I watch her, uncertain for a moment, as she mounts the steps. They lead upwards towards a balcony that stretches across the length of the hall. Letting out a sigh, I recall a common phrase from the human world.
Nothing ventured, nothing gained.
The only difference now is that I have something to lose.
I follow her up the steps, silent relief washing over me as we escape from the noise a little. She stops walking across the balcony after a while, resting against the cool bar of the railing. She doesn’t look at me when I catch up with her, moving to stand beside her.
“It’s not what I thought it would be, going back to the Emperor.” she tells me with a sad sigh, still refusing to turn her eyes away from the party scene below. “It was always our dream to rise up in the ranks until we were able to take over the Coven together. When Amity refused the position of Deputy just over a year ago, I never understood why. She was young, too young to really know what she was doing. I can see that now.”
I want to say something, anything, but the words catch in my throat. Instead, I just let her tell me everything she has been wanting to say for God knows how long.
“We aren’t bad people.” she continues, so engulfed in her own head. “We just got caught up in so many terrible things, it was hard to turn our backs on it. So, most of us didn’t try. Including Amity.” she swallows, hesitating a moment as though these next words hurt her to say. “Amity knew what they were doing. She saw how the Coven tore apart her family, tore apart her life, but she didn’t seem to care. I thought she was strong for that, but I was wrong.”
Finding the confidence to speak, I take a deep breath. “Why didn’t you say something?” I ask, my voice softer than I thought it would be.
“What was I supposed to say?” she asks me, sudden anger rising in her voice, and I notice for the first time that she’s crying. The flame that burned in her for a moment seems to soften, until it burns out completely. Only a pile of ash is left behind in her eyes. “It wouldn’t have mattered anyway.” she tells me in a soft, wet voice. “She wasn’t really there.”
I look up at her, confusion written clear as day on my face. “What do you mean, ‘she wasn’t really there’?”
She hesitates, a look of guilt shining through in her eyes, before she speaks, faster than before. “I don’t know what it was they did to her, some kind of mind control magic I guess.” she sighs. “Whatever it was, it was stronger than any of us could even imagine. She was different now. Heartless, vengeful, not opposed to violence like she seemed to be before. It made sense now, why she stuck with the Coven, even after everything they had done to her.” she concludes, her voice sad and small. “She didn’t have a choice.”
I blink up at her, releasing a breath I didn’t even realise I had been holding. That was a lot to take in. No wonder the air around us feels so unbreathable. Serena glances down at me for the first time, meeting my eye. With an unsure smile, she continues her story.
“It went on like that for- well, I don’t really know how long. Then one day, she came back to the Coven for our training together, and she was crying.” she closes her eyes, turning away from me as if reliving the event. “I had never seen her do that before. It was like, for the first time, she was feeling again. I didn’t understand what had changed until the next day at school.” with a sigh, she wakes up from her dream, bringing her eyeline down to gaze at the people dancing like figurines below us. “I saw the way she looked at you, like the hope in her eyes had returned after years of darkness.” She turns towards me with a sad smile. “She never looked at me like that.”
I swallow back the blush that finds its way onto my face. I remember that day at school too, my first day back at Hexide. I remember watching her at her locker with Serena, the way she stood with her arms folded over her stomach. The way her eyes seemed to yearn for some kind of peace that she wouldn’t find there. I had met her in the woods just the day before, relearning her for the first time in two years. Maybe that’s where the light in her eyes came from. Maybe I brought it back.
“Listen, Luz,” Serena’s voice pulls me back to reality as I turn my attention towards the tall figure beside me. “I know we didn’t get off to a great start, and you have no reason to trust me, but I need you to listen.” I nod my head wordlessly, willing her to continue. “Belos is planning something, something big.”
I swallow, my eyes tracing all over her face. I’m not sure if I’m searching for a sign that she’s lying. None of this makes any sense, and I don’t understand why she’s telling me this.
“Amity is the only person who has ever been strong enough to fight the spell Belos had her under. Even before you and Eda...did what you did.” she frowns, thinking hard. With one hand, she tucks a loose strand of hair behind her ear, gripping hard onto the railing with the other. “I did a little reading into it, and that’s never happened before.” she turns to me, her eyes burning with some kind of desperation. “Like, ever.”
I blink again, shaking my head slightly in an attempt to understand. “What do you mean?”
She sighs again, this time with frustration. “I think he’s planning on using Amity like some kind of failsafe.” she hesitates, squinting to try and find the right words to explain. “Like...they’ll use her body to store as much magic as she can possibly hold.”
“Isn’t that dangerous?”
Serena gives me a pointed look. Of course it is, but since when does the Emperor care about that? I let out a long sigh, tugging my fingers through my hair.
“I know this is...a lot.” She tells me slowly, choosing the right words carefully. “Most likely, she’ll host the magic that the Emperor will use for himself. It’s hard to imagine he’ll let anyone hold more power than him, especially someone who can resist his control.”
I take a deep breath to settle my stomach, trying to process all of this. Allowing my weight to fall against the railing, I grip the metal bar with all of my strength, watching as my knuckles turn white. “What are you saying?” I ask eventually, releasing my breath. “What- so we’re supposed to just keep Amity away from him? That sounds simple enough, although she can be very stubborn so we’ll obviously have to-'' I'm cut off by the look she gives me, like she’s trying to hold back from punching me in the face. Confused, I step back, holding my hands up defensively. “What? Why are you looking at me like that?”
She releases her breath, her expression melting away as she does so. “No, Luz. If you’re going to take down the Emperor, you’re going to have to use the failsafe against him.”
The breath catches in my throat, her words sinking in. I just look up at her, a look of surprise and horror frozen on my face. With a shake of my head, I take another step back away from her.
“I love Amity.” she tells me softly. “I don’t want this any more than you do, but the Emperor is too strong. It’s the only way you even stand a chance.” she breathes out, turning away from me. The pained expression on her face tells me she thinks less of herself now than I do. “As long as you make sure the Emperor doesn’t use her magic, she should be okay. That is, as long as they don’t pump too much magic for her to hold.”
“So you’re suggesting we bait her, let them stuff her with magic until she’s nothing but a host, and then use her as our weapon against the Emperor?” I can hear the anger rising in my voice before I know how to stop it, and a few heads turn up to look at us upon hearing my outburst.
Serena turns dark red, whether from embarrassment or shame, I can’t be sure. Her eyes trail across the dancing figures below us until they settle on my beautiful brown haired girl. She looks lost, and a little afraid, as she staggers backwards through the crowds. Even from afar, I can see the tears glistening in her eyes as she tries to blink them away. I don’t stop to think, I just turn back towards the stairs, making my way towards her.
“Wait,” I feel a hand on my arm, turning me back around to look up at Serena’s face. “Please, can I?”
I want to say no. I want to tell her to leave us alone, but I can’t. Her eyes silently beg me, as she pulls her hand away. She has been through so much, she deserves at least a goodbye. I nod my head slowly, side stepping out of her way as she hurries down the steps towards Amity with a smile.
Regaining my position on the balcony, I lean over the railing, watching as Amity bumps into Serena. She turns, startled, and before I know it, they are dancing. I try not to be jealous of her sheer good fortune. My head is screaming at me not to watch, but my heart won’t let me look away as they gently sway together in time to the music. The only thing that drags my eyes away from the scene below are the footsteps I hear coming up behind me.
“You did the right thing.” Willow tells me, stepping up beside me. I let out a sigh. She’s right, I know, but it still hurts.
“Have you been listening this whole time?” She says nothing, but nods her reply. I scoff a little, turning my attention back to the two dancing below. “I should have known.” We’re both quiet for a long time, watching in silence. They look so beautiful, so graceful. Maybe they’re better suited for one another. Maybe I’m just getting in the way. Shaking my head, I try to rid the thought from my mind, instead turning back to Willow. “So, what should we do?”
She says nothing for a while, lost in thought. “I don’t know.” she admits with a sigh. “This is all so much harder than I thought it would be.”
For a moment, I think about pretending I didn’t hear the slight crack in her voice, but my moral compass gets the better of me. I reach an arm out to her, an invitation to join my embrace. With a smile, she accepts, resting her head against my shoulder as I wrap my arm around her. “Thank you for being here.” I tell her, remembering our conversation from earlier this evening. “I promise, Willow, we can fix this together.”
I feel her smile against my shoulder, and she grips around my waist just a little tighter. From above, far away from the noise and chaos, the scene below is actually a beautiful one. Everyone looks so great in their outfits and the dancing, though questionable at times, is still fun to watch. The fun disappears quickly though, as I watch Amity push herself away from Serena’s grip. She’s crying now, I can tell, and she takes deep, heavy breaths.
I surge forward, like a car starting back to life, and turn quickly towards the stairs.
“Luz, wait!” Willow stops me, as I watch Amity burst through the double doors at the edge of the room. They slam shut behind her, and I turn back up to Willow. “Boscha’s already down there.” she explains as I retrace my last steps to stand beside her again. “She’ll be okay.” her promise is reassuring, but I still feel bad for leaving her alone.
I watch, with fire in my eyes, as Serena turns her head up to look at me. She nods silently, clearly understanding that her presence is no longer welcome, before turning towards the other set of doors, further away from me. It seems a lot of people are leaving now. The dance floor looks emptier than before, and the noise is certainly less deafening. As I scan the faces again, I recognise a few people from certain classes we shared or just from around the halls of Hexide. Either way, the whole scene feels less scary now, like this prom could actually be kind of...fun?
I turn back to Willow, bumping my shoulder gently against hers. “Hey, you okay?” I ask her, my voice as soft as I can make it. I take her hand in mine, squeezing gently.
She looks up at me, wide eyed, as though surprised by the question. “Yeah.” she responds with a smile. “I’m okay.” I return the smile, feeling more at peace than I have all evening. “You can probably go find her now, if you want.” Willow says after a moment of quiet. “I’m sure Boscha has calmed her down by now.”
Smiling down at her, I squeeze Willow’s hand one last time before turning towards the stairs. The descent feels longer than the climb, but I don’t mind. I know Amity is in good hands with Boscha. As long as she’s okay, that’s all that matters right now. After that, we can formulate some kind of plan. I only hope, for all our sakes, that there’s another way out of this.