Luz was hanging herself upside down from the back of the couch as she tried to see how well she could read the first Azura book like that. It was to make up for the fact that there had been a lull in new material so they were trying to find new, weird ways to keep the club alive. This week’s challenge? Read the book in some form of duress before they both tried memory potions to suppress their previous memory of the book. Then they would compare what dumb answers to each other’s questions they had from what little they could remember of the book.

It was Luz’s idea. Shocking, I know.

Amity’s plan was to see about trying to read it while working on new abomination mixtures so she wasn’t reading right now. Instead, she was taking care of her math homework and humming to herself as she enjoyed the peace. These were still her favorite times with Luz. No words, no problems, just the two of them together.

Or, the two of them and her familiar now. The little abomination was still learning what it should do whenever nothing was happening and Luz wasn’t helping. Today’s new trial for the creature was to get from the floor all the way to the human’s feet where it was supposed to try and take her shoes off. So far it was doing pretty well actually, even if it had taken it an hour to get up to the top of the couch. Amity hadn’t expected it until Luz pointed out that her uniform was quite tight. She’d even waggled an eyebrow at her crush with the last word before covering her face to hide her blush.

It raised its hands over its head in triumph as it finally got over the final wall of trying not to leave any goo on Luz’s leg, an extra hiccup to the challenge its mother had added. It only had Luz’s shoes left to deal with. To… It stared at the sneakers as it tried to figure out how it would even manage it. Maybe if it pushed on the lip under her heel? It needed to be careful or else-

Fwoosh.

Amity blinked for a moment before her eyes widened. The human kicked her legs so she could get off the couch as fast as possible. Ideally, she would have landed on her hands and feet and looked all cool but instead her body slid off of the cough while she was still perpendicular to the ground.

Amity jumped at Luz suddenly face planting into the ground as she said, “Luz?”

The idiot finally got her bearings before covering her head and yelling, “Get down!”

The serious girl looked around her in confusion as she tried to figure out why she was acting like this before she heard more sounds of something be ruffled behind the couch. Did Luz expect something to pop out of there or something? “Calm down. It was probably just my familiar falling down.”

“That’s exactly the problem!”

“What’s the problem?” Eda sipped on some warm apple blood as she came down the stairs. Lilith and her had started trying to leave the two alone if they were just relaxing with each other after how well their last few direct attempts to do something about their relationship went.

Luz paled as she looked at Eda. “Oh, uh, nothing. I’m just worried about what may have fallen back there. There’s nothing though, right Amity? Please, Amity.”

The serious girl had been a little too busy finding her familiar to focus on them until she pulled what she hoped was her abomination from behind the couch. She mostly assumed as much before whatever she now held resembled a paper craft Christmas tree. Just tons of papers flayed out in all directions from some sort of base that Amity finally saw the purple of.

Luz looked up before letting out a sigh of relief. “Good. Didn’t set any of them off.”

Amity frowned for a second while Eda came over to the couch and made her student go right back to looking like a ghost. After all, the slips of paper all had one thing in common.

Eda lifted one of the slips up before turning to Luz. “Kid, would you care to tell me why you have hundreds of your sigils behind my couch?”

Luz slowly got back to her feet before scratching the back of her head. “Well, uh, I wanted to make sure I had a stockpile in case anyone came to attack the house. Just imagine it now.” The girl crouched low while crossing her arms and pretending to hold a dozen cards in each of her hands. “They come for us. I start throwing spells like a machine gun and when I run out, I leap behind the couch, pushing against the door, and continue the barrage.”

Amity and Eda glanced at each other as they wondered what a machine gun was before Amity began trying to peel the cards from her familiar. “And you were worried about my abomination setting them off? You know they can’t use magic, right?”

Eda put her hips on her hips. “Now wait here, I want to know why you thought it was okay to keep that much in the way of explosives behind my couch. Only I’m allowed to threaten destroying my stuff.”

Luz turned red as she scratched her head and decided it would be better to not answer Eda. Not that she had much in the way of an answer for Amity. “I mean, I don’t know if anyone else can use my spells so better safe than sorry, right?”

The serious girl pulled off one of the light cards from her familiar’s gunk before turning it over in her fingers. “So I’m guessing Eda and Lilith couldn’t?”

Eda stared into the air for a second before holding her chin with one of her hands. “Say, now that you mention it, we haven’t tried that yet. Mind handing me one of those?”

Amity nodded as she grabbed an ice rune and extended it to the younger Clawthorn. She was curious why they hadn’t done this before, but her want to find out if she could do it beat out her desire for questions to be answered. Besides, what happened when Eda tapped on the card would give them their answer. She just had to place it on the ground, hold her hand over it, and then-

Tap.

Luz threw herself back just to be safe in case something horrible happened but nothing like that did. In fact, nothing happened. The card simply stayed right there. Amity sighed at the sight before looking at the light card she held in her hand. It was disappointing but she wasn’t all too surprised. Maybe it was because Eda was without magic? She bit one of her cheeks as she ran her thumb over the ink before tapping the paper with it.

Nothing. She shouldn’t have been surprised since having magic or not didn’t exactly hold Luz back. Luz was there in a flash though as she wrapped an arm around the serious girl’s neck. “Ah, don’t feel bad! Your magic is still way cooler than mine. After all, when I flail my arms,” which her demonstration of almost smacked Eda to the ground, “nothing happens, but you can make fireworks when you do it?”

“Fireworks? What are those?”

The three turned to Lilith as she came down. Despite having been so rigid as a coven leader, she often took mid day naps now. She claimed it was because of how weak she often felt but Eda usually just said that it was just Lily trying not admit that she loves being able to relax for once. The older Clawthorn couldn’t deny it was a little nice not to constantly have paperwork to do.

Luz gasped at the question before looking towards the sky with her arms clenched together in front of her. “Only some of the most amazing, beautiful things I’ve ever seen. They’re rockets that launch high into the sky before exploding into a shower of sparks and flames! They would put on shows back home with different colors, patterns, and my mom and I…”

Amity frowned as she looked over at Luz. Maybe… Maybe she could try to figure out a spell to make those. Just for Luz.

Eda grinned as she sat back on the couch and said, “They sound dangerous. I like it.”

And don’t ask Eda for help apparently.

Lilith didn’t focus on the momentary pain on Luz’s face or her sister’s callousness. No, as often was the case when she was over, her attention was on Amity. She saw the pain that crossed her face. The sympathy she had for her crush and then watched as the serious girl shut her eyes against her own thoughts. After all, she hated anytime Luz brought up her home. Sure, it was where she was from, but a Blight couldn’t simply leave the Isles so if she left…

Lilith’s eyes widened for a moment before coming to her pupil’s side. “It’s okay. We’ll find a way for her to get home. Then she can get back to watching these, um, fireworks with her mother. I do wonder what other activities you two will have to catch up on.”

Luz looked away as she rubbed one of her arms before she whispered, “I… I don’t want to talk about it.” She especially didn’t want to talk about it with Amity there. It was always so much harder to think about home with her around. At least if there was one thing she’d never forget, no matter how quiet her brain tried to be, it was that they’d eventually have to leave each other.

Amity shut her eyes and grit her teeth in a mix of pain and anger. Why did her family have to be the way it was? Why couldn’t her siblings be the next heads of the household? Why couldn’t they be serious for even a second so she could dream properly of going back with Luz if she had to. And now this stupid piece of paper was just another thing they couldn’t share. She clenched her fingers around the slip before bringing her hands together to crush it.

And then something shot through her. Some sort of electricity that for a second made her arms feel numb. Then her hands. And finally, her finger tips. She hadn’t noticed that this energy had been buzzing in this circuit since Luz had brought up her mother, but Lilith had. The older witch hadn’t liked having to push the young girl farther, but it was worth it.

After all, when Amity opened her hands, a small mote of light drifted out of it. Luz gasped as she saw it before running over and grabbing her crush’s hands and bringing her face way closer than Amity would have preferred. Or, normally. Right now, she was almost to tears seeing. It reminded her of the first time she ever cast a spell. Why did it hit her so hard though? Why did she feel so raw?

She smiled back at Luz as her idiot gushed about how amazing Amity was and how she wanted to know how it felt for someone else to do it. It felt like maybe a little bit like her rising whenever she did it, but did it work differently for her? Could they cast these together? Questions Amity normally would want answers to.

But right now, her breath was caught by just how beautiful Luz. How happy she was. All it had taken was one spell. Maybe… Maybe she could make her even happier? Amity pulled one of the fire slips from her abomination and tapped it with her fingers and felt that same shock run through her bodies as her arms spasmed for a second. But a fireball did come out. One that was even larger than the ones she summoned when she had to quick cast them. And she didn’t need her magic for it. It was all the slip. Just like Amity.

Just like the most amazing person she’d ever known. The one she never wanted to see cry. The tunnel in her mind was gone as her brain buzzed with the same energy that was running through the rest of her body. A spark crossed Amity’s eyes as she got an idea, grabbed another fire slip, and ran out the front door.

Everyone followed her and watched as she held both of her hands above her head. She had no interest in simply summoning another small blast. No, she would give Luz fireworks. Light up the sky just like she had back home. Make the Isles feel like home. Make Amity feel like home.

Her free hand slowly spun in a circle as for a second her breathing evened out. She… She needed to calm down. Casting when you were too worked up could be dangerous, especially depending on how much power from your heart you needed to pull. And she was going to need a lot of power.

Her eyes then looked towards the slip. That same energy, electricity, whatever it was, began running through Amity as she took in the sigil. How could she stay calm? It was hard to even keep her hand within the circle to make sure it didn’t break before she stopped feeling her fingers. She didn’t need to feel them though. She could simply watch as spark came down from her digits and her breathing picked up. The first step was just another circle within the first. Then another that connected at the bottom of the second. Her hand was starting to shake though as her arms began to feel stiff. She had to do this. For Luz.

Luz even came in front of her and beamed at Amity. “Come on, I know you can do it! You’re almost there!”

Amity smiled as that energy began coursing through every inch of her body. She couldn’t even feel her face as she assumed she must be giving her idiot the dumbest smile. Oh, but who could care? She just had a few more touches to make to add the fire sigil to the spell. Then, after it exploded in the air, and she hoped so much it would explode in the shape of the glyph to make it extra special, she would look to Luz and admit her feelings. It felt so dumb not to have done it before. Not when she was so happy thinking about her. When she was just so happy period. The thoughts were so exciting that it sounded like her heart was about to explode in her ears.

Then, finally, she added the small dot that was in the center of the sigil. The final touch to send it off. Her whole body shook as the energy seemed to solidify and run through her but she didn’t really feel it. She didn’t feel anything all of a sudden.

Luz covered her eyes as she watched the fireball, which was maybe ten times as large as anything Amity had created before, before it exploded with enough force to set Luz’s teeth on edge. “Amity, that was incredi-”

Thud .

Luz turned around and felt her heart stopped. Just like Amity’s had.

======+++++======

Amity slowly opened her eyes before then immediately regretting having woken up as every inch of her body screamed at her to stay right where she was. To go back to sleep if possible but the fact that her veins felt like they were on fire made it impossible to gently close her eyes again to drift away. She would need to wait for her body to relax. What had happened? How had she fallen asleep in the first place? She remembered casting spells with Luz’s sigils and her brain getting all… weird. She could barely remember what she was thinking before she blacked out. Something about fireworks? Home? Her brain then immediately pushed the words away as Amity’s breath got caught by her heart feeling like it was seizing.

That caught the attention of the two other people in the room. One of them rushed to her and slipped a hand against the weak girl’s cheek before the man’s voice softly asked, “Amity?”

Amity took in a breath to try and saw something but even breathing right now hurt. She did force her eyes open so she could at least see him. See her dad’s yellow eyes above her. Her lips twitched up as a small part of her said that he should be proud of her. She could cast magic like a human could. Not that she could tell him that right now. She wanted to though. He looked sad after all. She didn’t like it when her parents were sad. It usually meant she’d done something wrong.

Alador merely ran a hand through his daughter’s hair as the small comfort of him being here helped Amity relax. She still couldn’t sleep but it felt a little easier to breathe at least. “What… What happened?”

Her father gave her a tense smile before shushing her. “We can talk about that another time. Right now you need your rest.”

Amity groaned a little but she was in no state to argue. She just wished she could. She was so tired. Then she felt a drop of something fall on each of her eyes. Within ten seconds, the young girl’s body relaxed and her breathing became even as it suddenly became very easy to go back to sleep.

Eda sighed as she put the sleep potion back into her pocket. She then touched her potion which had five vials of the same potion. The potion that had restarted Amity’s heart. They were meant to revive someone after a party gag or something, or if she needed to play dead so a boyfriend left her alone. To think she’d actually have to see if it held up against someone actually being hurt…

She was alive and that’s what mattered. Alador shared her sentiment as he placed a hand on the Owl Lady’s shoulder. “Breathe. If she wakes up again, she doesn’t need to do it to the sound of tears.”

Eda looked up with tired eyes that weren’t there on the man’s face. She would put money down on him being just exhausted but he hid it well now that he wasn’t talking to his daughter. He had changed so much since they were kids. Her friend now couldn’t simply start shaking from his daughter having been hurt. He’d had to stay calm and figure things out after Eda had called him to beg for help taking care of her as even her potion didn’t keep her body from spasming and continuously attempting to shut her down again.

Fortunately, the doctors they brought in said she should be fine. There was no sign of damage in her heart and her magic was as powerful as it ever had been. They even assured the Blights that the spasms that had lasted for a few hours after the initial collapse weren’t going to lead to permanent damage. It was just something that was running through her system. When asked what it was though, they couldn’t say. It was unlike any magic they’d ever seen.

A statement that had finally broken Luz when she’d run up the stairs. The twins were currently looking after her, as they hadn’t been able to handle looking at their sister while she was hurt like this, but also because Eda was genuinely scared what her emotional wreck of a student might do. After all, it had taken almost half of an hour of Amity’s heart beating again to convince her that she hadn’t murdered her best friend. She’d even confessed maybe a dozen times tonight but no one was about to call her out on it anytime soon. Not when this was the last reason they wanted the two to get together.

Which only left Odalia and Lilith unaccounted for. Lilith was in one of the other bedrooms recovering after the furious mother had attacked her. It hadn’t simply been because Lilith had directly led to her daughter trying to use the magic that would have her mostly unconscious for the better part of a week. No, it was because Lilith had tried to speak to her in the way she knew. To alleviate their pains by letting them know that they should be proud of their daughter. She had proven that witches could cast the same magic that a human could and even proved there may be a new form of magic accessible to them given time. She had even done so when the four adults had originally finally stopped all just staring at Amity and had breaked for someone to make coffee. Amity had been stable at that point after all and they were assured she should stay that way. Not that they let all the doctors leave. Just in case.

Alador had tried to be comforted by the words. To understand that it was Lilith honestly being who she had for a long time. Not really getting people but knowing how important accomplishments and power were. Much like people claimed he was oftentimes. Odalia hadn’t been able to handle it though, especially when Lilith had brought out a fire sigil card and said that the Blights could probably find some people to experiment with what a witch could take.

The angry mother had then snatched the card from the elder Clawthorn and made a quarter sized circle. She designed dresses and fashion in her spare time though so it was more than enough room for her and her fingernails to draw the sigil within. She’d even snarled at Lilith about how if she wanted this all to be looked into, she should be a part of the trials, shouldn’t she?

The blast had been nothing like Amity’s, but the side effects weren’t either. Odalia even stayed standing even as she had to hold her casting arm from the pain in it afterwards. They would eventually hear from her how she did feel a thump in her chest when she did the spell but she’d run off to her studio and locked the door behind her when Lilith didn’t immediately get up.

Fortunately, it had been mostly due to shock. Alador was pretty sure if he fell down right now that getting up would be near impossible. He hadn’t sat for almost eight hours now because of that. He couldn’t break down. Not yet.

Finally, the older man whispered, “Eda, do you have any idea what happened back there?”

Eda glanced away before going over to where mountains of paperwork from the doctors sat. She tore off a piece from one of them before grabbing a nearby pen. She then drew Luz’s light sigil on it before tapping it.

And, as the light rose, she looked up as a fresh set of tears ran down her face. “Luz… Luz always looks so happy when she casts. She says it gives her a rush she never experiences from anything else. A small spark when she does something minor, but when she’s passionate...” She closed her hands on the mote to put it out. “She describes it as feeling magic surrounding her. That I’m right that magic is everywhere. But what she means by it is so different from any sort of magic I’ve heard of. I can only assume that us drawing our magics from within conflicted with how Luz casts and…”

Alador nodded. He didn’t bother asking about what happened to his daughter. That one was fairly easy to figure out, at least in the broad strokes. It was the reason why Luz kept talking about loving Amity. This made her feel like she had more proof why it would never work between them. Not when however her emotional magic and a witch’s spellcasting didn’t end pretty.

It was just one of the things the parents of the two would be fixing over the next two weeks. Convincing Luz that her magic was beautiful and that Amity wouldn’t have been able to cast it if she was never meant to. Making sure Amity could be put through all of her paces and summon her familiar again, as apparently dying did manage to get the thing to go away for a while. They’d made sure to keep the original goo though because they didn’t need Amity thinking she’d lost her friend on top of her confusion.

And confusion was the right word for it. No one would tell her anything about what happened. They’d even hesitated on telling her how long she’d been out for until Edric pointed out that the moment she went back to school she’d know. The most they did tell her was to make sure to give Luz a hug next time she saw her, which had turned into anytime the two saw each other during her recovery, and that she was forbidden from using Luz’s sigils. Period. Her parents had left no room for debate on that.

At least Luz seemed to like it when she’d told her that she expected the human to show off more spells for her to make up for the fact that she couldn’t play with her cards then. And then she cried. There had been so much crying during her recovery.

But Amity listened to her parents. If she was just to forget what had happened, she would do so, especially since they said it would help Luz. And when Luz had come back to school a few days after her, she seemed like she was acting normal too. She’d even left the serious girl a mess like she did too often when she’d said she was just happy to have Amity around when the serious girl had asked that day how the human was doing. And she’d run off, just as always. She’d have it no other way right now though.

For life to simply continue as it had before.