Love in the spotlight
Luz POV:
"And with one swipe of Azura's mighty staff, a large fireball shot out towards Hecate's cage. The fireball shattered the cage's chains, freeing Azura's orange haired friend." I read aloud, one hand holding my book while the other rested on top of King's head.
I was back in my old room, though now it was a little cleaner than before. My bed was still a sleeping bag, or a sleep cocoon as King would call it. The bag full of my things that I hadn't bothered to organized yet sat in the corner of the room.
King laid curled up by my side, I didn't know if he was still listening to me reading or if he had dozed off. So I stopped reading for a minute, which allowed me to hear King's soft, steady breathing, telling me that he was asleep.
A soft smile made its way on my face and I continued to read my book, this time to myself. It went silent for a little bit, with only King's breathing mixing with the soft sound of turning pages.
From outside the door, I could hear footsteps that made the wooden boards creak, then a knock at my door. "Come in!" I called out, watching as Eda pushed open my door.
"Hey there kiddo." She looked around my room, then sighed. "Sorry about the place still looking like this, I would've cleaned it up, but I forgot you were coming to stay." She muttered, taking a few steps into my room.
"It's alright Eda." I smiled, setting my book down. "Organizing the room myself gives me a chance to find some cool magical items." Eda chuckled, running a hand through her silver mane.
"I doubt you'll find anything too great in here. Most of this is just human stuff." She said, eyeing King for a moment before rolling her eyes. "Anyways, the whole reason why I came in here is because I found this. I assume it's yours." Eda held a small, thin, square looking object in her hand.
My mentor went to give me the item, but her hand flew off in the process. The action made me jump, even though I had seen it happen multiple times before. "Weh!" King cried out of surprised, jolting up from his slumber and quickly looking around to see if there was any danger, only to find Eda's hand on the floor in front of him.
"Whoops, sorry kid." She reached down and grabbed her hand off my bed, taking the item out of said hand and carefully handing it to me.
"Hey it's alright, it's not like things got too out of hand." I aimed my finger guns at her and shot her a wink. Eda just sighed and hit me lightly upside the head, muttering something under her breath about how she had almost forgotten how bad my puns were.
Eda went back over to my door, King quickly waddling after her. "Oh and you're going to that concert tonight, right?" I nodded in response. "Alright then, don't do anything you aren't supposed to, don't take any drugs, yadda yadda yadda." Eda waved her hands around, clearly not too interested in giving me rules to follow. "And I won't be home when you get back, I've gotta go out on a quest tonight."
"A quest?" I asked excitedly, slightly bouncing up and down.
"Yep, just gotta find a few things for a potion I'm working on." She didn't give me an more details and walked out my door, King quickly following her and closing the door behind them.
I stared at the place where they stood for a minute, then down at the item that Eda had handed me. It was a photo, and flipping it over I realized it was a photo of Amity and I.
The photo from one of our book club meetings, Amity being towards the center of focus while I stood off towards the back. I had one hand up in the air, the other holding open a book. On my head was Azura's hat, which told me I was probably acting out one of Azura's scenes that didn't have Hecate.
Then, there was Amity. Her hair was in its signature half ponytail, but she also had Hecate's crescent moon in her hair. She was winking at the camera, a small grin painted on her face as she poked her cheek with her finger. Her cheeks were dusted a light pink, standing out against her pale skin.
And at the bottom, in Amity's neat handwriting was the caption "Watching Luzura's solo." with a few little hearts at the end of it.
A content sigh came from my mouth, remembering some moments from the book club. "I'm glad I packed you along. I wonder if Amity still has hers..." I said softly, standing up and moving over towards my window. Pushing the window open, I stared out at the dark sky, watching as the clouds swirled through their seemingly endless purple sea.
A light breeze entered my room, slightly ruffling my hair. Staring out, I saw a few shadows fly through the sky, then I saw a sudden set of bright lights turn on in the distance. They pointed towards the sky, then started to do slow circles, cutting through the air. I straightened up a little, trying to get a better view of the lights. "Something magic is in the air, I can sense it!"
Closing my window, I quickly started to make my way out of my room before I paused. Looking down at my hand, I saw I was still holding the photo. "Oh right! I should probably leave you here so I don't lose you."
I moved over towards my bag, kneeling down and opening the top flap. Sifting through it, I quickly found what I was looking for. It was a photo frame that held a picture of my mom, which was surprisingly didn't break when I accidentally dropped my bag back on Earth.
With a faint smile, I carefully put the photo of Amity and I in the bottom left corner of the frame. Then, standing back up, I set the frame on the window sill. "I definitely have to decorate later." I muttered as I spun around, snatching my red beanie off the ground and throwing it on.
Dashing down the steps, I threw open the front door and stepped outside. "Heya Luz!" Hooty greeted me loudly, making me jump. Spinning back around, I closed the door to look at Hooty.
"Hi Hooty!" I greeted back, watching the little door owl spin around.
"I'm so glad you're back! It's been lonely without you here." He said, which made me laugh. When you're living with Eda and King, it's far from lonely. "And I've really missed talking to you!" The door owl added, making me smile.
"I've missed talking to you too Hooty." I knew that Hooty was pretty obnoxious, but at times, it was kinda nice to talk to the owl. While Hooty and I chatted, I forgot the main reason why I darted outside in the first place.
Hooty started to talk about how he was while I was gone, and I slowly started to zone out. Most of his story was describing the same thing, but in a slightly different way. While he continued to talk on and on, I noticed that someone was slowly walking up the trail.
Squinting my eyes, I tried to make out who it was, but because of their dark clothes, I couldn't tell who it was. "Uh, Hooty?" I tried to get the owl's attention, but my voice fell upon deaf ears.
The person continued to walk towards us, slowly getting closer. They waved their arm in the air, rapidly waving it from side to side. I stood still, Hooty still chatting away. Hooty hesitated for a minute, but then quickly picked up talking again. "Hey look! Another friend!" He said, clearly excited.
"Hey Luz!" The person called out, then started jogging towards me. Once they got closer, I realized it was only Gus. He had on a pair of black jeans and a dark blue shirt. Over top his shirt he wore a black zip up hoodie, which he left unzipped.
"I'm here too y'know?" Hooty commented, making Gus' expression drop. He slowly turned towards the owl.
"Hello Hooty." He said, his voice drained of the excitement it held moments ago. However, his greeting seemed to make the door owl happy, because he spun around in circles once again. "Anyways, you ready to go?" Gus asked me, lightly bouncing on his feet.
"Yeah I'm ready to go!" I brought my hands up to my face and pressed my cheeks together, excitement already pumping through my veins. Then, the whole reason why I came outside hit me. "Wait! Gus, I have a question!"
"And I'll probably have an answer." He said, clearly amused by my excitement.
"So, earlier I was looking out my window, and I saw these cool lights coming from over there!" I pointed towards the direction of where I saw the lights, Gus' eyes following where I was pointing. "Was that like, some sort of seance? A creature of some kind?" I asked him, watching him blink a couple of times before laughing.
"Luz," He paused, catching his breath "those are the concert lights."
"Oh." I murmured, my arms falling against my sides. A few more chuckles came from Gus, but they were quickly interrupted when Hooty stretched to sit between us.
"A concert? Oh, I wish I could go to a concert." Hooty said as he twisted into spirals. I couldn't help but feel a little bad for him, he'd probably never able to see a concert, unless there was some magic way to do it.
I lightly patted Hooty's body, making him retract back so that I was patting his head. "I'm sorry you can't go Hooty. But, I'll record it for you and we can watch it later tonight. Sound good?"
Hooty gasped, his eyes lighting up. "That's perfect!" He hooted out, fully retracting back into the door. "You guys get going then! The faster you go, the faster I can watch the concert!" I lightly shook my head, then started to walk towards the trail with Gus not too far behind me.
Halfway down the trail, I started to get curious. "So Gus..." I clasped my hands behind my back as we walked side by side. "Mind telling me a bit about the band?"
"Well, the band first started a year ago, and they pretty much became a hit overnight. In fact, I'm pretty sure their concert tonight is celebrating their one year anniversary, cause their playing all their first songs." Gus thought for a moment, his eyes looking around at the trees.
"The band's made up of the lead who sings and plays guitar, the bassist, and the drummer. There used to be a keyboardist, but she stopped playing and moved on to work on the band's special effects." Gus listened off the members, then just shrugged. "That's honestly really all you're gonna need to know."
"What about the band member's names?" I nudged him slightly, accidentally making him stumble. He caught himself and continued walking.
"It's a surprise, besides, you'll figure them out at the show." He said, sticking his hands in his jacket's pockets.
"Oh c'mon Gus! Tell me!" I begged, giving Gus my puppy eyes. However, he didn't seem to be affected and he pretended to draw a zipper over his mouth to seal his lips. I sighed in irritation, slightly turning away from my friend. "Fine, be like that." I muttered, making Gus start to chuckle.
"Luz, don't be like that. I want to keep the band members a surprise." He said with a cheeky grin and he lightly nudged me in the arm.
"Why do you want to do that?" I asked, turning back towards him. Gus just shrugged, looking straight ahead on the trail again.
"Just because it's fun." He took a left on the trail, I followed after him. Up ahead, I could see the lines of people that came here to see the concert, cutting our conversation short.
Gus grabbed a hold of my arm and started to drag me forward, picking up his pace to a jog. "C'mon! We gotta get in line now so we can get good seats!" We both ran towards the lines, managing to get in a pretty good spot.
The two of us stood behind an elf who was easily a head taller than I was. Looking around, I noticed that a bunch of the people that were in line were dressed a lot like Gus was. Looking down at the way I was dressed, I felt like I stood out, at least, a lot more than usual.
"Uh, Gus? Was I supposed to dress different?" Gus looked at me, then eyed me up and down for a moment before shaking his head.
"Nah, a lot of people just dress like this to match the band." I glanced down at his outfit, then back up at him.
"Does that include you?" I teased, watching as his ears went down.
"What? No." He glanced down at his outfit, then tried to cover it with his jacket. "I just threw something on, I wanted to get out of my uniform." He muttered, quickly taking off his jacket and tying it around his waist to stand out.
Gus and I started some small talk while we waited, the line slowly starting to dwindle down. And before I knew it, we were at the ticket stand. Managing the ticket stand was a tall, large worm looking guy. He had four eyes, each of them a pale shade of green.
"Tickets please." He said in a gruff voice, the two of us digging into our pockets for our tickets. Once we found them, he took them from our hands and looked them over, his eyes squinting for a moment before he set the tickets down. "Enjoy the show." His voice remained monotone as he ushered us to the side.
The two of us followed where he was pointing, walking into a giant room with a stage towards the front. I slowly spun around, my eyes traveling all over the large building
"Wow, this place is huge." I commented, hearing Gus snort. He started to drag me forward, taking the two of us about 9 rows away from the stage. Gus made sure that we were standing center with the stage, just so that we could get a good view.
"Luz, the Witches Convention was larger than this." Gus said, getting shoved slightly by someone that was walking behind him. I nodded my head, now staring at the stage.
"I know it was." I said, not taking my eyes off the stage. "That place was giant." I slightly raised my voice so that he could hear me over the talk of the crowd. He just nodded, pulling open his scroll and tapping a few things on it before it floated high above our heads and turned invisible. "What did you just do?" I asked him, staring at the place his scroll was moments before.
"Set it to record when the show starts, since Willow and Hooty want to see it." I still continued to stare at where his scroll was, wondering if it was an illusion spell that made it invisible. Then again, I didn't see him draw a spell circle for it, so maybe it was something that scrolls could do?
"When does the show start anyways?" I asked him, watching as he looked around at the amount of people that were filing into the room.
"In about, I don't know, maybe ten minutes?" He continued to look around the room until his gaze landed on some stand across the room. "Hey, you want me to get you a drink?" He asked me.
"Sure, just a water please." Gus nodded, then drew a quick spell circle to summon himself a placeholder. He then gave me a quick salute and darted off towards the stand, leaving me alone.
Well, I mean, not technically since his placeholder was still here.
I turned towards the fake Gus, squinting at it. Then, very slowly, I brought my hand over to it and tried to poke its shoulder. My hand simply phased through it, making me quickly pull back.
"Okay, that's freaky." I remarked, turning away from the illusion. Staring at the stage again, I noticed I could see slight movement by the right wing of the stage. From where I was, I couldn't make out what the movement was caused by, but I assumed it had to be someone from the band.
Everyone was chatting all around me, but I couldn't understand most of what they were saying. I was able to pick out a few words, but none of them were very interesting.
There was a sudden crash that came from the stage, almost instantly hushing the crowd to a murmur. I couldn't see anything happening on the stage, so that meant something was happening backstage. Extremely muffled voices could barely be heard backstage, the voices barely louder than a mouse.
People around me instantly started questioning what happened, their voices rising back up to the levels they were before. "What happened?" Gus asked me, his voice only a little louder than the rest. Looking over, I watched his illusion disappear and he stepped in its place, two cups in his hand.
"Something crashed backstage." I said, taking the cup he offered me and thanking him. Looking at the cup, I saw four spider like limbs on the bottom and an eye pattern etched on the side. "This cup isn't alive, right?" I asked, which Gus shook his head in response.
I took a small sip of the water from my cup, the cold liquid sliding down my throat. Looking around the room, I noticed it was practically packed now. Gus lightly nudged me in the side, then pointed to the floor.
Looking at what he was pointing at, I noticed that there was a light fog that clung close to the ground, slowly seeping towards us. We both looked up at the stage, which was now pitch black, and noticed that the fog was coming from it. The fog crept across the entire room, coating the floor.
The crowd slowly started to take notice of this too, their voices once again dying down to murmurs. The lights in the room suddenly shut off, and now the only source of light we had was coming from the fog.
I couldn't help but start to bounce up and down, clutching my cup tightly in my hand. The show's about to start, I'm going to figure out who the band is, and I almost couldn't contain my excitement.
"Good evening everybody!" A loud announcer shouted into a mic, Gus covered his ears for a moment, muttering something I couldn't hear. "For tonight's show I'm proud to present, The Abominations!"
Everyone went wild at the mere name of the band, which only made me more excited. Even though the crowds cheering didn't die down, there was the faint sound of drums that could be heard over it all. It was a few repetitive taps, and that alone was enough to draw everyone's attention.
The tapping continued for a moment, then suddenly the dark stage lit up with a single spotlight. The spotlight swiveled towards the back of the stage, focusing on a dark purple drum set for a moment, then it slowly moved up and revealed the band's drummer.
My bouncing stopped for a moment when I realized that the face behind the drums was Edric. I turned over to Gus, who just had a smirk on his face as he lightly tapped his foot to the beat. "Edric's in the band? Is that why you didn't want to tell me?" I shouted over the explosive crowd, now bouncing to the beat.
Then, bass could be heard, and another spotlight went off. It aimed at the person's feet, slowly traveling up to reveal their face like they did for Edric. It trailed up, showing them picking their bass, then trailed up to their face. A shocked laugh escaped me when I saw Boscha's smirking face.
The crowd got even louder, Boscha shooting the crowd a proud grin as she closed her eyes then continued to strum her bass. Edric changed his tempo, matching up with Boscha's.
I looked towards the last dark part of the stage, wondering who was still shrouded in the darkness. Boscha and Edric continued to make a beat, then a guitar tune was added to the mix.
My excitement blew through the roof when the next spotlight went shone down on the stage, revealing dark grey boots. The spotlight repeated what it did for the other two band members, this time, going even slower.
It slowly revealed their torso, showing them strumming their beetle looking guitar. The spotlight paused there for a moment, the crowd roaring as we all waited for the reveal.
Then, in a flash, the spotlight revealed who the leader of the band was.
Everything seemed to freeze. I stopped bouncing up and down and stood in shock, my eyes wide and my arms limp at my sides. I nearly dropped my drink in surprise. There was no way I was seeing things right, this couldn't be real.
There, standing center stage, strumming her guitar with a smile that said you can bite it, stood Amity Blight.
Heat immediately rushed to my cheeks, my face flushing a dark shade of red. I turned towards Gus, who was looking at me with a giant smile. Grabbing his shoulders, I shook him in a panic. "Amity's in the band?!"
The crowd was going absolutely ballistic, the band continuing to play their tune. Gus only shrugged, the smile still stuck on his face. "Why do you think I wanted to keep it a surprise?"
Everyone in the band suddenly stopped playing, the stage falling silent. My gaze instantly went back to the stage, focusing mainly on Amity. I watched as she carefully let her guitar hang off her shoulder, then grabbed the microphone and mic stand.
"Hello Bonesborough!" Amity yelled into the mic, the crowd cheering once again. "How are you doing tonight?" She leaned the mic towards the crowd, smiling as the crowd exploded in a cacophony of voices.
This couldn't be the same Amity I knew two years ago, there was no way. But the longer I stared, the more real it all started to feel. Amity started a band after I left and became a hit overnight, but wasn't she trying to be a part of the Emperor's coven? I could remember her saying that place was her future.
"Luz, you good?" Gus asked with a chuckle, shaking me slightly to get my attention.
"Yeah, yeah totally." I nodded, not even looking over at him.
"Okay, just making sure. You've just got this dopey grin on your face, and you're pretty red." He told me with a chuckle. I brought a hand up to my face, feeling just how warm my cheeks had become.
"Can you blame me?" I muttered, still staring at Amity, who's golden eyes were glittering in the bright spotlight. "I just found out my crush is the lead singer in a band." I instantly clasped my hand over my mouth, realizing what I said aloud. Glancing over at Gus, I breathed a sigh of relief when I realized he didn't hear me.
"We're so glad to see all of you out here tonight." Boscha's voice rang out, returning my attention to the stage. Amity nodded, bringing the mic closer to her.
"And to thank you guys, we'll be preforming our first songs!" The crowd started cheering once again, pumping their fists into the air. Amity set the mic stand back in place, grabbing back onto her guitar.
She glanced back at her band mates, a huge smile still painted on her face. "Hit it guys!"
The band instantly started playing which made the crowd erupt in a chorus of claps and whistles.
"I'm gonna cast a spell on you, you're gonna do what I want you to."
"Mix it up here in my little bowl, say a few words and you lose control!"
I couldn't look away from the stage even if I tried. It was like her angelic voice put me in some deep trance, one that was too deep for me to pull myself out of, but I didn't care less.
"I'm a Hex girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
"I'm gonna put a spell on you."
Boscha's voice mixed with Amity's as she picked up the background vocals. Edric's drumming got a bit more intense for only a moment, then it went back to it's original tempo.
"I'm a Hex girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
"Put a spell on you!"
Everyone around me was singing the lyrics with them, dancing to the song while I stood there absolutely starstruck. "You've definitely put a spell on me Amity." I muttered to myself, knowing I wouldn't be heard above the crowd.
"You'll feel the fog as I cloud your mind."
"You'll get dizzy when I make the sign."
The fog that surrounded our feet glowed a little bright, making small swirling patterns that rose up before disappearing into thin air.
"You'll wake up in the dead of night."
"Missing me when I'm out of sight."
"I'm a Hex girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
"I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
Once again, Boscha's voice mixed with Amity's, the crowd singing the lines along with them.
"I'm a Hex girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you~"
"Oh yeah!"
I noticed the how Amity's voice changed on her last line, her voice taking on a fruity tone.
Boscha and Edric continued to play, but Amity stopped strumming her guitar. She took the mic off of it's stand and took a few steps forward on the stage, staring down the crowd.
"With this little cobweb potion, you'll into dark devotion."
She pointed her finger out to the crowd, her eyes scanning over all of us. Her voice still held that fruity tone, which only made my chest swell. I watched as her eyes darted from person to person, that smirk on her face as she continued to sing.
And, for a moment, I swore she made eye contact with me. Her eyes stopped scanning the crowd and widened in surprise, a look of shock plastered on her face. However, she didn't falter and continued to sing.
"If you ever lose affection, I can change your whole direction!"
Edric's beat on the drums got faster, picking up the pace of the song. She walked backwards to her spot she was in moments ago, still staring in my direction. Snapping the mic back into place, she quickly grabbed her guitar and continued to play.
"I'm a Hex Girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
"I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
The crowd was practically screaming the lyrics along with the band, me included.
"I'm a Hex girl and I'm gonna put a spell on you!"
"We're gonna put a spell on all of you!"
The stage suddenly blew up into a wall of smoke, blocking everyone's view of the band. The crowd exploded with applauds and whistles, people screaming and cheering. I put two fingers in my mouth and let out a loud whistle that mixed in with the crowd. Looking over at Gus, I could see him shooting me a cheeky smile as he clapped his hands.
The wall of smoke was slowly disappearing, revealing the band once again, but now it was different. Now, only Boscha and Edric was on the stage with Amity no where to be seen. I turned towards Gus, shooting him a confused look. "Where's Amity?" I asked him, which he only shrugged.
Boscha took a hold of the mic, tapping it twice before speaking. "Now, for this next song, we normally have Amity as our lead singer." The crowd sent out another set of whistles and claps. "However, since it's a special occasion, we've decided to perform for you guys the unreleased version of this song."
Everyone around me was starting to get riled up at the thought of the song. "Of course, a lot of you probably already know what this song is called, but let's see if you really know the lyrics." Boscha and Edric started up their song, both of them working wonders with their instruments.
I nudged Gus, quickly getting his attention before the song started. "I'll be back." Was all I said to him. He nodded, quickly drawing a spell circle and making a placeholder for me, which was just another illusion of Gus.
Sliding my way through the crowd, I managed to find a door that wasn't too far away from where Gus and I were. I slipped out the door, setting some rock in front of the door so that it wouldn't lock me out when it closed. Then, moving over to the wall, I leaned my back against it and slid down till I was sitting on the floor.
I took off my beanie and ran a hand through my hair, a laugh of disbelief escaping my lips. "Amity's in a band?" I realized my statement came out more like a question. So many questions were flying through my mind that I couldn't keep up with them all.
Was this why she didn't send me any letters besides the one? Why didn't anybody say anything about it in their letters? Was it because they thought she was filling me in on it all? How did I not find out about this sooner? I mean, Willow's girlfriend is a part of the band, surely she would have brought that up, right?
"At this point, does she even remember who I am?" I asked, but I quickly shook my head. "Of course she does Luz! Remember, Willow said that Boscha heard Amity talk about me all the time."
I blinked a few times, setting my beanie down on the ground before running both of my hands through my hair. "Amity's in a band." I repeated, trying to solidify the fact into my mind. It just didn't feel real. Both of my hands went down to my cheeks, feeling the warmth that was still radiating off my face.
"And to think I couldn't fall head over heels for her a second time." I muttered, a small, lopsided smile painted on my face. I placed my hands over my heart, leaning my head back onto the hard wall behind me. "Her voice really is an angel's." I swooned, listening to the slightly muted music of the band flood out the door to me.
There were a few intense chords from Boscha's bass, then the crowd erupted once again into cheers and whistles. I realized that their song was over, and that meant that Amity was probably going to be back on stage soon.
Putting my beanie back on, I quickly got up off the ground and slipped back into the large room. Eyeing the stage, I could see Amity appear from a cloud of smoke, making the crowd gasp. I tried to quickly make my way back to Gus before the next song started, slipping between the small gaps of people.
Once I finally made it back to Gus, he banished his clone and asked me where I went. I just told him I needed some fresh air and that answer seemed to satisfy him. Staring up at the stage, my eyes followed the green haired witch the entire time, too lovestruck to look away.
I already knew that no matter what happened after this, I was still going to consider tonight as an amazing night. And that's all because of her.