Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Lilith rested her chin on the table, eyes darting between her sister and the palisman across from her. 

“Owlbert contemplates his next move carefully, his track record is against him big time and his opponent is seemingly confident in her chances of another Victory.” 

Eda hummed low in her throat, face impassive as she ran her flesh hand along the edge of her cards. 

Owlbert trilled and laid down his next card with his beak. 

The three of soldiers stood up and multiplied, attempting to take down Eda’s flaming tower of fives. 

The tower fell and he hooted proudly. 

Lilith cheered. 

“Owlbert gains the upper hand! It looks like his victory over the twenty-five-time winner, Eda Clawthorne, may actually be nigh!” 

Eda scoffed. 

“It ain’t over till it’s over, sis. I think you’re both forgetting something.” 

She pulled something out of her deck with two fingers and Owlbert’s eyes widened, despair written across his fluffy, feathery face. 

“My Wild Card!” 

She laid it down and the card shifted into a stormcloud that electrocuted the last of Owlbert’s deck. 

Lilith screached, hands in the air. 

“I can- not believe it! Eda the card master has successfully protected her winning streak for a twenty- sixth time!” 

Eda preened and smirked down at Owlbert who hooted sadly. 

“Hah! Take that , ya adorable lil feather-ball!” 

Lilith flopped forward, phasing through the coffee table, her massive poof of curly red hair poking out of the surface. 

“That was fun,” she said contentedly, voice muffled by the rug on the living room floor. 

Eda reached under the coffee table with her skeleton hand and patted her head fondly. 

“Glad I sufficed as your entertainment for the afternoon, Lilybean.” 

She stood and stretched, feeling her spine pop and her skin pull where it connected to her cursed half. 

She looked out the window. 

“Sun’s almost down. You wanna hang out with me at the market tonight or do you wanna stay here with King?” 

Lilith rolled over and sat up, pushing her glasses back up her nose. 

“Depends on whatever King wants. I think he’ll want to go, though. He’s been acting kinda restless lately.” 

Eda hummed. She had her reservations about taking King with her to the Night Market, but the little guy was scrappy and knew enough of the unspoken rules the market operated by to not get into too much mischief. 

“Well, go ask him then. I think he’s sleeping up in my room. 

Lilith nodded and stood before floating up the stairs, as she had reservations about moving through walls, ceilings, and closed doors. Something about rudeness, or the like. 

It all started like this: the day after her graduation, two coven scouts had showed up at their door to escort Lilith to the carriage that would take her to basic training. Eda had watched her sister be gripped firmly by the shoulders like a prisoner being dragged away to her sentence with a sinking feeling in the pit of her stomach. 

It started like this: three weeks later Eda woke up in the dead of the night to the sight of Lilith hovering over her bed in a bloody gray uniform and screaming just as loud as Eda was. 

Only when mom rushed into her room to see what was wrong, she walked right through Lilith. 

Because she was dead. 

Her big sister was gone, but not gone.  

Eda doesn’t know how it happened. She has her suspicions, but Lilith looked so pained, so terrified when she tried to remember that she let it be. 

In the beginning, it was hard. 

The dead had no use for lies, and the admission from Lilith that she was the reason half her body had turned to rot in broad daylight all those weeks ago, it had been agonizing. 

Eda had been worried about pretending to be surprised when the news inevitably came from the EC that Lilith was…gone. She wasn’t worried about pretending to be devastated . Even with Lilith not technically being completely gone she’d spent an embarrassing amount of time blubbering like a damn baby. 

But then, the letter came, nearly two weeks after Lilith had appeared in the night. 

It was just a short letter, condolences, and the death in question, merely stated as a tragic accident. 

Gwendolyn, (because after that day, she definitely wasn’t mom, anymore) had read the letter, sat down for a few moments, then wordlessly passed the letter to Eda, before going into the kitchen to make dinner. 

She didn’t cry. 

She did her best not to speak of it at all. 

Dad had been the one to cobble together a funeral, that he didn’t even show up for. Apparently merchant work on the next titan over is more important than your daughter’s funeral. 

That night, after she and Lilith watched an empty box be lowered into the ground in her honor, she packed up as much as she could fit in a single bag and left. 

So, for the last thirty-odd years, she was left with this: her little-big sister immortalized at eighteen and vibrant, clad in her favorite grudgby uniform after some experimenting in changing her form to something less…grisly…and using all of the free time being dead allowed her to act as childish as she pleased. 

Free from the expectations Gwendolyn, their mother, had piled on her that had left her quiet and lacking in self-worth in life. 

Now, in a weird sense, Eda was the oldest, and she did her best to look after Lilith, as much as a dead child needed looking after, anyways. Bringing home new books, talking her down from panic attacks that nearly left the house in ruins, and making up for lost time. 

“You going out again tonight, girl?” 

Eda nodded. 

“I always do, Nana.” 

“Hmmph. Give my regards to the bastards at the square, then.” 

Eda chuckled. 

“I always do, Nana.” 

An interesting effect of the curse to note: Lilith was not, by far, the only dead witch she was acquainted with. 

Nana, or Yaga Clawthorne, the original owner of the Owl House, was a gruff old woman with a wild gray mane and a hooked nose. She was an expert at glaring down at everyone in a manner that made one feel like they had just been caught with their hand in a cookie jar, regardless of whether or not any crime had actually been committed. 

King came scrambling down the stairs with Lilith at his heels. 

“The mighty King of demons demands to accompany you to the market!” 

Eda tugged on her long black gloves while King scuttled over to her, tugging at the edge of her skirt. 

“Mmm, Lils figured you would, buddy. You wanna grab some of the mushrooms we harvested over the weekend? You can use them as a starting bet for a few rounds of poker with Maaya while I work.” 

King pumped his arms in the air excitedly and dashed to the kitchen. 

Lilith giggled and followed after him. 

“I should probably give him a hand.” 

“Make sure he only grabs enough to fit in the market basket. I need enough left over to actually cook with this week.” 

She gave her a thumbs up. 

“Got it!” 

Eda finished getting ready to go out for the night. She pulled on her boots, the left one padded on the inside to keep her skeletal foot level with her flesh one, and adjusted her gloves so that they were pulled over the long sleeves of her dark blouse. 

Hanging on a hook by the door was a dark, extremely wide brimmed hat with a dark veil sewn into the brim. She picked it up and donned it with practiced movements, hiding her skeletal face till all that could be seen through the veil was the burning glow of her irises. 

Even covered up, her cursed half hidden from prying eyes, she made for an eccentric sight in broad daylight. 

How do you solve this problem? 

You don’t step out into the sun. 

In the night market, Eda wasn’t any stranger than the next shady vendor, making it the perfect place to set up shop every evening after sundown. 

Outside of the safety of her home, Edalyn Clawthorne was practically dead. She hadn’t seen anyone from her old life who wasn’t deceased since she left her parent’s house. 

Now, she was Matka, the shrouded poteneer and lesser known seller of human oddities. 

King came back into the living room with a wicker basket filled, but not overflowing, with sizable black mushrooms. Behind him, Lilith gave her a thumbs up, assuring her that the pantry would not be practically barren when she opened it come dawn. 

“Everyone ready?” she asked. 

Two chirps of confirmation met her ear. 

“Then let’s head out.” 

“Yes! Market, Market!” King and Lilith chanted in unison. 

“Have fun! Bring me back a souvenir!” Hooty called as the door shut on a quiet, but certainly not empty house. 

Chapter Text

Twelve year old Luz Noceda was a weird kid.

She never remembered to lower her voice when she talked, couldn’t sit still, loved reptiles a little too much, and, weirdest of all, were her dreams. 

Well, not her dreams themselves, so much as, when she had them. 

Case in point: 

“Ugh, not again!” 

Luz glared down at her body where it lay slumped on the ground in the middle of the hallway.

The rest of the students barely paid her any mind, already used to Luzer’s weird little habit. 

 She winced as a couple kids stepped on her instead of walking around, and hissed when a blonde haired upperclassman tripped over her body. 

“Agh! Seriously? I can’t believe that little freak passed out right in the middle of the hall! Why doesn’t she ever move out of the way first?” 

“Because it doesn’t work like that,” Luz muttered bitterly, clenching her fists. She never knows when she’s going to fall asleep. It just happens. 

“Who cares? Just move her over into the corner. A teacher will probably find her at some point, or she’ll get up on her own.” 

One of the taller boys accompanying the blonde girl nudged Luz’s body with his foot until she’d been pushed into the space between the water fountain and the lockers. 

“What? No!” Luz cried, waving her hands frantically. “Now everyone’s gonna use the fountain and I’m gonna wake up soaked!” 

She looked down at herself and grimaced. 

“And your shoes are disgusting. That was my favorite shirt!” 

The late bell rang and the other kids all moved on without another thought. 

Luz groaned again and kicked at her body angrily, her annoyance growing when her foot only passed through it without hitting anything. 

She waited for a few minutes to see if a teacher was going to pass by and see her, or if her math teacher would poke her head out of the doorway a few yards down to look for her, but no one came. 

Typical. 

“Why me?” Luz huffed. 

The dreams had started when she was six. 

One minute she was having the time of her life, running around, playing pretend.

The next, her mami was screaming her name, looking terrified. 

Because while Luz was playing happily near the TV, her body was still next to the coffee table, laying on her back where she’d suddenly fallen as though her strings had been cut. 

Luz’s mom had rushed her to the hospital, but the doctors hadn’t been able to find anything wrong with her. 

By all accounts, she was only sleeping. 

The confusion only increased when about an hour later, she felt a tug in her head and she suddenly woke up back in her body, as though nothing had happened. 

In the end, she was diagnosed with narcolepsy, the strange dreams left unexplained entirely. 

Over the years, doctors and therapists alike had tried everything to figure out how to stop her from passing out completely at random. From medications, to reverse psychology, even to hypnosis, but nothing worked. 

Instead, it quickly became the new normal for Luz to find herself staring down at her body several times a week in an amazingly vivid dream. The closest thing she could think to compare it to was sleep paralysis, without the being-stuck-in-her-body part. 

Luz hated it when she fell asleep at school, but she guessed there was one small benefit: she hadn't really wanted to go to math today anyways. 

Rumor was, Mrs Meyer was in a vicious mood, assigning pop quizzes left and right. 

Considering she hadn’t exactly spent her last couple of all-nighters productively, she definitely wasn’t ready to solve for circumferences and triangular areas any time soon. 

She gave her body one last glare before turning away. If she was going to be unconscious for who knows how long, she definitely wasn't going to waste a perfectly good dream in the boring part of her subconscious. 

No, she was going to look for the owl instead. 

Luz drifted through the wall and away from the property of Gravesfield Junior high and High School, weaving between the cars in the parking lot, and giving the sophomore ditchers smoking in the bushes a jaunty wave despite knowing they wouldn’t so much as glance her way. 

In this side of her dreamscape, no one could see her. Her last therapist probably would have said something along the lines of ‘Luz Noceda has no desire to be seen or acknowledged by her pears. Recommended treatment: antidepressants and mandatory enrollment in (insert generic sport). 

Luz rolled her eyes as she remembered the stern, boney old woman. Of all the therapists mami had forced her to see, she had definitely been the worst. 

As she walked down the sidewalk, Luz tilted her head up to soak in the sun, enjoying the nice late spring weather and relative quiet save for the crows crowding along electrical wires and the occasional car. 

Everything was always so vivid when she had her ‘episodes’, as her mami called them. 

It was nothing like when she fell asleep on purpose, which, ironically, she almost never could. 

All of Gravesfield was mapped out perfectly, from the half-faded graffiti on all the traffic signs, to the middle aged man five doors down from her house leading girl-of-the-week-who-definitely-wasn’t-his-wife into his home.

This was what Luz liked to call ‘the normal world’. The forefront of her dream world where everything was exactly as it was when she was awake. 

Boring, dumb,Gravesfield where everyone hated her. Where jerks stepped on her when she was down stole all her pens and the teachers never even noticed she was gone unless her homework was due. 

But if she found the owl, Luz could go somewhere a thousand times better. 

Luz stood in the middle of her street and listened closely. 

A breeze rustled the grass. 

The late April sun beat down, warming the asphalt road. 

A trash can at the end of the street rattled. 

‘Aha!’ 

Luz smirked. 

She snuck up to the trash can as quietly as possible and took a deep breath. 

“BOO!”

A panicked shriek sounded and the trash lid sprang off as a tiny brown owl fell out. 

Luz laughed. 

“Gotcha!”

The owl scowled and hooted at her in reprimand. 

“I know, I know, you don't like being startled, but you make it so easy!” 

The owl clicked his beak in a manner very akin to pouting before he dove back into the trash can and pulled out a busted rubix cube with three bricks missing. 

Luz whistled. 

“Nice find, buddy! You gonna take it back to Matka?” 

He chirped and nodded, fluffing up his feathers proudly at her compliment. 

“Mind if I tag along?”

A little shake, accompanied by a rustle of feathers.

Luz pumped her fists in the air. 

“Yes! Let’s go!” 

The owl flapped his wings and took off in a direction Luz knew even better than the route to school, or even the library. She ran across the road, passed her house with barely a glance, following the little owl into the woods where, were she awake, her mother would have yelled at her for so much as stepping a single foot past the treeline. 

Luz ran, feet barely touching the ground (or maybe they weren’t touching the ground at all, she couldn’t tell) grinning from ear to ear as she darted quite literally through the trees until she finally reached it. 

An old shack with splintery, rotting wood, surrounded by a tiny clearing of moss and mushrooms that clung to the sagging porch, feasting on decay. 

Her heart raced as she approached the shack, hopping up the stairs eagerly. 

The shack was always there, in her dreams, but most of the time it was just an ordinary shack. 

When the owl passed through it first, however…

A bright light filled the doorway, and the smell of sulfur hit her nose. 

Luz grinned and happily left the ordinary world behind for somewhere far more magical . 

----------------

Time in the demon realm moved differently than in the ordinary world.

Sometimes when she entered through the door it was the middle of the day, sometimes it was night, even when it wasn’t in the normal world. 

In the normal world, time passed exactly as it did when she was awake, but here, she could stay for days sometimes before she felt the telltale tug that meant she would wake with a jolt and find she’d only been out for an hour or two. 

When Luz stepped through the door this time, she was in a dark tent with flickering yellow light peaking through the cracks. 

That only ever meant one thing. 

She was in the Night Market. 

Luz grinned and followed the owl outside. 

Beyond the flaps of the tent was a small wooden stand. Glass vials of all shapes and sizes containing colorful substances glittered and reflected the light of dozens of tiny floating lights drifting through the air. Shelves lined with broken toys, water warped books, and scratched nicknacks from the normal world sat inconspicuously in the back. Herbs hung from lengths of twine, giving the small space an earthy smell. 

Outside the stall were dozens more of all shapes and sizes, vendors advertising their wares, which consisted of anything from bolts of fabric to pickled eyeballs and shrunken heads. 

People milled about, but none of them were human. Eight foot, three eyed demons, fanged fairies, sullen lycans, witches. 

This was the Boiling Isles, home of the incredibly dangerous and fantastical. 

Standing behind the counter of the stand was a tall woman in dark clothes, her face hidden by a black shroud hanging from a large black wide brimmed hat. 

The owl clicked his beak and fluttered his wings, landing securely on her shoulder, and Luz’s face lit up. 

“Matka!” she shouted cheerfully. 

A gloved hand reached up to give the owl a scratch on the hand. 

“Brought back your little friend, did ya, Owlbert?” A husky voice asked from behind the shroud. 

Owlbert hooted happily and held up the rubix cube with one of his talons. 

Matka took the cube and turned it over in her hands. 

“Looks neat, buddy!” 

She turned and walked over to the shelves in the back and carefully placed the cube in between a rubber duck and an old stick of deodorant. 

As she turned back to the counter, Matka reached out with her left hand and carefully brushed through her hair. 

“It’s good to see you, kiddo,” Matka said quietly. “You haven’t visited in a while.” 

Luz shrugged. 

“Time’s weird here, I never know how long it’s been. And sometimes Owlbert is hard to find.” 

“You’ll get the hang of it,” Makta reassured her. “Everyone adjusts differently.” 

Luz hummed and shrugged again. 

Matka was…mysterious, in every sense of the word. She kept her face hidden behind her veil all the time and rarely liked to talk about herself. But despite her gruff demeanor, she was funny and smart and genuinely seemed to like Luz, even when she talked for forever about The Good Witch Azura or anime or when she shuffled and paced and fidgeted relentlessly or when she suddenly got lost in thought and zoned out in the middle of a conversation. 

She gave practical advice and great head pats and she smelled like charcoal and fresh rain on dirt. 

She was the coolest adult Luz had ever met, and she wasn’t even real. 

She shook her head to dispel the sudden bitter thought. 

“Where’s Lily and King?” 

Matka jabbed a thumb at the brightly patterned tent across the path with a sign out front that had a hand of cards painted on it. 

A small crowd was gathered in a semicircle and she could hear them yelling and the clatter of coin exchanging hands. 

“They’re over at Maaya’s joint.”

Luz grinned. 

“Let me guess, King’s trying to hustle the masses again?” 

“Hey, he’s not half bad, the brat. He’s smart and pretty freakin good at strategy for his age. It’s just that ego of his that’ll be the end of him.” 

Luz grinned. 

“Aw, but he’s so cute! Who can blame him?” 

Matka snorted. 

“You and Lils, I swear. One of these days his head is gonna burst from how big you two let it get.” 

“Psh, like you don’t think his bloody thirsty little self is adorable too!” 

“...I have no idea what you’re talking about.” 

Despite her shroud making it impossible to know where she was looking, Luz just knew she could see the smug grin she shot at her before leaving the stall and floating through the crowd. 

The moon shone brightly in the sky and out of the corner of her eye she could see a fairy swallow a slightly larger demon whole and spit out their bones. 

The smell of cooked food and spices wafted through the air and a vendor passed skewers of charred eyeballs and griffin meat to pedestrians. 

Luz smiled, wide and bright all the way up to her eyes. 

Dreaming of the isles always felt a little bit like coming home. 

Chapter Text

“Luz! Over here!” 

“Lily!” 

Perched on a wooden beam above the crowd was Matka’s oldest ward, Lily. despite the chill of the autumn night, she was dressed in athletic shorts and a navy letterman jacket, the cold never seeming to get under her skin. 

Gifted with the same abilities to drift through the dreamworld with little regard for the laws of physics, the older girl was a helpful guide whenever she was having trouble navigating the reality she had created. 

Case in point: 

“Just float up,” Lily said, amused at Luz’s attempts to crawl on top of a stack of barrels and shimmy up the beam. 

“You know I suck at floating up ,” Luz whined.

“Because you think about it too hard! You're choking yourself up, don't focus, just do it.” 

Luz growled and squeezed her eyes shut.

‘Up, up, UP,’ she thought as hard as she could as she slowly, shakily, rose up off the ground. 

She held her breath and scrunched her nose. Trying to float always felt like the moment after you jumped on a trampoline and gravity had just started to pull you down. 

She was almost at the top when a series of shouts from the crowd threw off her focus and with a yelp she began to fall. 

A pale hand snatched her wrist and pulled her the rest of the way up as though she weighed nothing. Considering she was asleep, Luz guessed she probably did weigh nothing. 

“Thanks,” she wheazed as she scrambled onto the beam and sat up. 

“That was way better than last time you tried!”

“Didn't feel like it.”

“It was. Now shush, I think King's got this round in the bag.” 

Luz leaned forward and looked down into the crowd. Amongst the ring of burly, scarred witches and demons, King’s tiny form was ridiculously easy to spot at the head of the poker table. 

King was clearly having the time of his life. Luz could hear his maniacal cackling as he egged on his opponents. 

Luz winced. 

“Aren’t you supposed to be like, super closed off and hard to read when you play this game?” 

Lily shrugged. 

“He’s got…unique tactics. They work pretty well though.” 

“Matka says his attitude is gonna make him crash and burn one of these days.” 

Lily laughed. 

“Matka’s a grump. She’s just being pessimistic.”

“She's got a point though. King does tend to get a little... overconfident.”

“ You’re a grump too!”

“I'm not a grump, I'm realistic!”

“You're a bit of a grump.”

Luz rolled her eyes and shoved her over. Lily laughed at the pout on her face when she only drifted a few inches away. 

Another round of yelling broke out down below and a muscular witch let out a string of colorful language as she threw another bag of snails into the pile in the middle of the table. 

King tittered and clutched his cards tighter, little legs swinging back and forth. His eyes darted quickly from player to player, a gesture seemingly unnoticed by his opponents.

He was tracking their reactions, Luz realized. 

She watched the rest of the game with interest.

Despite visiting the isles practically all the time since she’d discovered the way in nearly a year ago, she still didn't understand half of what went on during a poker game, but watching it was kinda like a scene out of a movie, so it was fun anyways. 

She swung her legs back and forth and yawned widely. Even in her dreams she couldn't escape exhaustion, which sucked. For how much she slept against her will, she was always tired. 

Go figure. 

Suddenly a hand slammed down on the poker table, making the crowd go silent. 

A burley, three horned demon got out of his seat with a screech of metal across the floor, both hands on the table. He wasn't wearing a shirt, Luz realized with a twinge of disgust, only brown leather trousers held up by a belt with an obnoxiously large silver buckle. 

“That's it! I'm callin it now, this little runt doesn't have shit!” he declared. “There's no way, he's just a brat! Why are we letting this kid play anyways?” 

A one eyed witch with neon hair narrowed her eyes. 

“Kid's a regular, Jocev, he's not half bad, and there's nothin in the house rules about how young ya can be ta join in.”

The demon scoffed. 

Lily leaned forward, eyes wide, fingers tapping against her chest.

“A brat’s a brat. Think about the statistics here, he’s had a decent run, but I’m not buyin his confidence.” 

“For fucks sake, ya moron! Who gives a shit what ya buy? Even the toddler sitting on a stack ‘o’ books can keep to himself better than you!” 

King clicked his cards against the table and giggled. 

“Because I’m trying to play a serious game here, and you're all letting a runt in and acting like he’s one of us!” 

“And what the fuck is ‘one of us’, Jocev? A gambling addict?” 

A round of laughter rose up and Jocev growled. 

“Fine! I will have my vindication!” 

He threw his cards onto the table.

“C’mon, runt,” He goaded with a smug grin. “Let’s see what you’re worth, once and for all.” 

“Aw, but the game's not over!” King whined.

There was a moment’s hesitation around the table. 

Then, the one eyed witch stretched and popped her spine, throwing her cards down as well. 

“Ah, what the hell. I could use a little excitement tonight.” 

Glances were exchanged and one by one, cards were thrown down around the table. 

Lastly, King looked around, then up at Jocev. 

He dropped his cards. 

“Eheh.”

Silence reigned. 

Luz leaned forward to get a better look at what his hand turned out to be. 

Lily whistled. 

“What? Is it good? You know I don’t get this game,” Luz whined. 

“Three towers and the mage of storms,” Lily said. “He’s got the best hand out of all of them.” 

Luz whistled. 

“Damn.”

Lily smacked her on the arm. 

“Ow!” 

“Language.” 

Below, everyone’s heads turned to Jocev. 

His face went red. 

His fist clenched so hard Luz could hear his knuckles pop. 

“You…” 

Jocev inhaled sharply and tore away from the table, marching straight for King, eyes burning with rage. 

“You little CHEAT!” 

Luz gasped. 

“He’s gonna hurt him!” 

Lily shook her head, body tense. 

“He’ll be okay.”

“No one’s doing anything!” She cried. 

It was true. Down at the table, no one had so much as risen from their seats, though a few were glaring or rolling their eyes as Jocev.

Luz wanted to scramble down from the beam and do something, but for once, the fact that she could only be seen by a select few, that she couldn't actually touch anything in her dreams, was a curse instead of a blessing. 

The demon reached King’s seat and swiped his cards off the table. 

He lunged forward to pick King up by the collar. 

Luz flinched. 

Lily smirked. 

A hand shot out and grabbed Jocev by the wrist, stopping him mere centimeters from King’s neck. 

“Now, correct me if I’m wrong.” 

The hand tightened around Jocev’s wrist and twisted , eliciting a grunt of pain. 

“But I seem to recall a big, bold sign, in multiple languages set up riiight in front of the entrance, and the ante registry, and painted onto the fucking table.” 

A muscular witch with sleek black hair and almond eyes flexed her arm and forced the burly demon down onto the ground.

Luz sighed in relief. 

She should have known better by now. 

Maaya never let anyone break the House Rules.  

“Anyone care to tell me what that sign is ?” 

King raised a paw. 

“The House Rules!” He chirped. 

Maaya smirked. 

“Well, would ya look at that? The toddler can read, and play cards better than you.” 

Laughter erupted across the table. 

She pushed Jocev all the way down and pinned his arm behind his back with her boot so she could straighten up and address the entire table. 

“And what do the House Rules state that our friend here did wrong, buddy?” 

“No brawling in your damn tent!” King chirped eagerly, wiggling excitedly. 

Lily facepalmed. 

“I hate that it actually says that,” she groaned. Luz giggled. 

Maaya was a colorful woman, alright. Luz had learned sooo many new words in the last year just from hanging out around her tent.

“That runt cheated!” Jocev shouted, writhing in a futile attempt to escape from under the sturdy combat boot pinning him down. 

Maaya pressed her boot down harder and propped her crossed arms on her knee. 

“Oh yeah? How’d he do it? Did he hide a card up his sleeve?” 

“Yep, definitely that one. You caught me!” King snarked, shaking his furry arms for emphasis. 

Maaya smirked along with the table’s laughter. 

“Did he slip extra cards into my specially designed deck? Mark the cards? Sneak a spell or a potion past the tent’s wards?” 

“He did something!” Jocev insisted. “There’s no way he won! No fuckin way!” 

Maaya rolled her eyes. 

“Or, consider this. You’re a shit player. Now get the hell out of my tent.” 

She lifted her boot and quickly took Jocev by the arm, dragging him to the entrance and physically throwing him outside. 

“So long, asshole!” The one eyed witch crowed, and the rest of the group howled and jeered. 

Maaya dusted her hands off and flicked her messy fringe out of her eyes. 

“Alright, fuckers, shows over! Next game starts in half an hour, so-” 

“Get the hell out of your tent!” They all cried in unison.

“Ah, would ya look at that, folks who know how to follow directions. Music to my titan-damned ears.” 

Maaya grinned, fangs bared as she stood aside for everyone to clear out. 

King scrambled from his seat feet-first, grunting a little when he slipped and fell on his butt. 

“Weh!”

Maaya popped her knuckles and set about clearing the room and gathering the contents of the pot.

“You alright, brat?”

King scowled. 

“Weh, the mighty King of demons is not a brat!”

“You were a brat the first time you snuck in here and you're still a brat today. Now,” she held a deceptively small bag out in front of him. “Do you want your winnings or not?”

King snickered. 

“Definitely! That's not the best prize I earned tonight, though.” 

She raised a brow.

“Alright, I'll bite. What the hell did you do, pipsqueak?”

King looked up at her with a butter-wouldn’t-melt expression on his face and wordlessly held up a large silver belt buckle. 

Luz gasped. 

“He didn't!”

Lily laughed and drifted down. 

“He did.”

Maaya looked away, shoulder's shaking with barely contained chuckles. 

“Hellfire, brat! No wonder Matka only lets you loose in the market every couple ‘a weeks!” 

King titled his head, a devious glint in his eyes. 

“I have no idea what you're talking about,” he said, voice cracking towards the end as he failed to keep a straight face. 

Maaya snorted. 

“Titan, brat, one of these days you’re gonna have to learn how to keep a blank face. You got a good strategy, but you can only use the same trick so many times before it stops working.” 

Lily reached the floor, and the moment her spiked shoes hit the floor of the tent, Maaya’s eyes flashed a bright amethyst and she tilted her head in Lily and Luz’s direction. 

“Ah. Shoulda known your little friends were hanging around here somewhere. Hey, brats.” 

“Hi, Maaya!” Luz shouted eagerly, despite knowing the oracle couldn’t hear much more than static from herself and Lily. 

Maaya’s eyes flickered, then faded back to their normal dark irises. 

Maaya flicked King’s prize bag into his hands. 

“Yeah, yeah. Listen, I’m not your babysitter. All kids, dead and/or alive, get outta my damn tent.” 

Despite her gruff words, the older witch reached out and made a gesture akin to ruffling Lily’s fluffy red curls as she passed the two of them. 

“Luz! You’re back!” King cried happily. “You’ve been gone forever! We were starting to think you pa-ow!” 

Lily flicked King’s nose and plucked him up to carry in her arms like a squirmy cat. 

“It doesn’t matter,” She said firmly, leading their little trio out of Maaya’s tent and into the crowd. “We’re just happy to see you again.” 

Luz shrugged and fiddled with a stray thread on the cuff of her left sleeve. 

“Matka said something kinda the same. Was I really gone that long? It was only a few days for me.” 

Lily and King exchanged a glance. 

“Oh, not super long,” Lily said in a hesitant tone of voice. “A few weeks. But, you know. We missed you. Your company is incredibly enjoyable.” 

Luz ducked her head, fighting down the bittersweet lump of emotion at the back of her throat. 

“Uh, thanks. You…” 

She took a deep breath. 

“You guys are my best friends, ya know.” 

Lily and King beamed at her, but Luz could tell the older girl noticed when her own smile wavered. She looked away and moved from picking at the cuff of her sleeve to digging a thumbnail into her cuticles, wishing she were awake so she could feel the heat and sting as she pulled the skin at the corners of her nails back. 

“Weh, I wanna use my prize cash to recruit more minions for my army of darkness!” King cried. 

Lily rolled her eyes. 

“I’m not letting you buy anything from the cursed toys stall, King. Ed-Matka would kill me… again!”  

“Pleaaase? Just one of the little ones? The tiny minions made with yarn and needles would be perfect!” 

“Absolutely not.” 

Luz grinned and jogged a little so she was keeping pace with Lily’s longer strides. 

“Aw, come on, Lily! Just a little one for the best little fella!” 

She wasn’t actually sure that letting King have a cursed anything was a good idea, but it was just too much fun to raise her pitch to a pleading whine and see…yep! That was an eye twitch, alright. 

“You two are impossible,” Lily groaned. “Look, I will take you to the other side of the market-” 

Luz and King cheered. 

“-to look at the cursed toys. Looking, not buying. For five minutes. Then we’re going back to Matka’s stall and you can just buy weird plushies-”

“Minions!”

“Right, minions, you can just get them online on her scroll like you always do.” 

“It's not the same!”

“No, it's better , because you could be doing it at home instead of a big, filthy smelling public space, surrounded by people!”

“Speak for yourself! I like the smell of metal, blood and fried food.”

“Why? How? It's gross!”

“It's not that gross.”

“Yes, it is!”

Luz let the familiar sound of King and Lily bickering wash over her as they waded through the crowd. King gained a few strange looks from other pedestrians, as he was seemingly floating around and arguing with himself, but one of the beautiful things about the Night Market was that he was not, in fact, the strangest thing anyone was gonna see that night, even in the next five minutes. 

Suddenly an ache panged at the base of her skull and Luz grimaced. 

She glanced at Lily and King. They were both still arguing with each other, not paying her any mind. 

Luz took a deep breath and firmly knocked a fist against the side of her head. Sharp pain bloomed and dug into her senses but the tugging sensation went slack. 

She rubbed the spot where she'd hit herself with a hiss. She hated doing that, but it was the easiest method to keep herself from going back to her body before she was ready.

Considering what was waiting for her in the normal world, Luz didn't want to wake up yet. 

------------------------------

“Your brats invaded my damn tent again tonight.”

Eda paused, her gloved hands stilling for a fraction of a second before she resumed counting out a customer’s snails. 

“I know. Nice to see you too, by the way.” 

“Fuck off.”

Behind her veil, Eda smirked.

“What'd they do this time? Did King try ta eat a card again?” 

“The problem is your live brat takes a little too much fun outta getting the rest of my customers worked up into a damn fit. Had a new guy throwing shit around like a five year old tonight.”

“So in other words, he won, again, and some macho schmuck got his ego bruised.”

“Fucking hellfire, Matka, of fucking course that's what happened! Listen just...talk to him for me? One of these days some idiot isn't going to get the hint after I kick them out, and try to ‘settle’ shit outside of my territory.”

“He's just a kid.”

“You know that means jack shit down here.” 

Eda sighed and tossed the snails she'd finished counting into her lockbox. 

“Yeah, I know. I'll talk to him.”

“Good. I know he's not exactly alone when you let him loose to terrorize the place, but a couple dead kids ain't exactly adequate protection in a place like this.”

Eda stiffened. 

“Watch it,” She growled lowly. 

Maaya raised her hands in a gesture of peace. 

“Hey, you know I don't mean it like that, it's just facts. Your dead brats are good ones, don't get me wrong they're just kinda, you know, dead.” 

Eda relaxed. 

“Hmph. They’re not as helpless as they look. Well, Lily isn’t, anyways. The other kid is…still new, I think. She doesn’t talk about herself much.” 

Not helpless was an understatement. If she was driven enough, Eda knew Lilith to be capable of cracking concrete and twisting living flesh. It was a rare occurrence, but in the last few decades, if there was one thing Eda had learned and learned well, it was that all of the dead were volatile. 

Even sweet, dorky little Lilith. 

At times, when the panic, the fear, the anguish that she kept under the surface caught up to her and triggered a panic attack or a sudden violent fit, it was all Eda could do just to cling to her and bring her back to the present before she leveled the house or worse. 

Maaya leaned against the counter and stuck a hand in her hair, mussing her inky fringe. 

“I noticed, funny enough. That the tall brat’s been around a while. I’m the furthest thing from an expert on that shit, but kids don’t usually ‘stick around’ that long, do they?” 

Eda shrugged. 

“Depends on the kid,” She said shortly. 

It was true. Most children only lingered in the physical realm if their passing was sudden or violent. Some stayed because they wanted to speak to their parents one last time, or for justice if they had suffered at the hands of someone else in life. Either way, unburdened by the heavy complexities that adults bore, most children who lingered tended to pass on in at little as weeks or as long as a few years. 

Lilith was certainly an outlier in this way, having stayed by Eda’s side for around three decades now. 

Sharp obsidian eyes tracked her reaction carefully. 

“Depends on what happened to them, right?” 

Titan, someone was pushy tonight. Maaya was usually never one to pry, few in the night market were. It was a place where minding your own business was not so much good manners as it was a survival tactic. 

“Are you gonna buy something, Reznik?” 

“Oooh, last name. Sorry, didn’t mean to touch a nerve.” 

“Yes you fucking did.” 

“Yeesh, sorry for being curious about the brats you send over to terrorize my business on the regular!” 

“They’re not terror- ” Eda cut herself off, weighing the last month alone of transgressions in her head realizing the error in her choice of words. 

“They’re…eh, fuck it. Yeah, they’re terrors, but don’t pretend you don’t like ‘em anyways.” 

If she didn’t, she would’ve stopped letting King hustle her customers ages ago. 

Maaya grinned, her smile all long, narrow fangs and a gleam of something savage in her eyes. 

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. My letting your brats run around in my damn tent is just an elaborate ruse to get in your pants, obviously.” 

Eda snorted loudly. Even if she knew this familiar routine by now, the sudden jump hers and Maaya’s most frequent line of banter never failed to make her crack up. 

Seriously, any witch wanting to come on to her. 

The mere idea got funnier by the day, even after the rot that had plagued her cursed half finally crumbled away to plasma and golden ichor holding her organs in place. 

She was…definitely a sight, but certainly not a good one. 

As if sensing weakness, a familiar voice crept the the surface of her mind unbidden.

‘They might have liked you anyways.’

Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up

‘They never minded you at your worst before.’

Shut the fuck up. 

‘So what if you’re ugly now? They could have just taken off their glasses.’

Shut up! 

‘You never even gave them a choi-’

Shut up.

Eda dug her hand into her thigh, willing the pain to shut out the intrusive thoughts plaguing her so she could focus on the conversation.

“ Snk! Bitch.” 

Maaya’s grin softened into something less manic and more friendly. 

“Hey, at least wait a few seconds before turning me down, you’ll break my heart, ‘o mysterious veiled maiden.” 

Her shoulders shook and she laughed even harder. 

“I-” she wheezed, “am no maiden, Maaya.” 

Not by half. 

Heh. 

“And how the hell am I supposed to know that? Or are you a ‘the hat comes off after the third date, kinda witch?”

“Maaya, pfft-” 

Maaya waggled her eyebrows. 

“Oooh, hat stays on during third date activities!” 

She was laughing so hard now, she could feel her normal eye watering. 

“No- pfft - b-because there are- snrrk - no third dates, or first dates.” 

“Not even for your dearest and ever so compassionate friend of three years?” 

Yes. compassionate. That was one way to describe the witch that broke jaws and dislocated the limbs of others on the regular. 

“Nope, now seriously, you gonna buy anything, or do I gotta beat you off with a stick?” 

“I mean, if you’ve still got those lightning draughts, I’ll take one. No one makes that shit like you do, I swear.” 

Eda hummed and turned to check the many glass vials hanging from twine around the inside of her stall.  She grabbed a narrow neon vial that buzzed faintly in her hand and slid it over the counter in exchange for a handful of snails. 

Maaya popped the cork and downed the entire vial like a shot, hair rising and gooseflesh pricking on the surface of her skin.

“Thanks.” 

“No problem.” 

“Seriously though, you don’t ever wanna go out and do something come sun up? Get away from this death trap and have some fun?” 

“You wouldn’t like me much in the daylight.” 

“...If you say so.” 

“Sorry to break your streak,” Eda deadpanned, holding out a hand to take back the empty vial. 

“My what?”

Eda shrugged. 

“I heard from Y’trias you’ve been wracking up a tally. Trying to work your way through all the women in the market?” 

Maaya groaned. 

“Y’trias needs to mind his own damn business. I’m not working my way through the market, fuckin hell, I just don’t know anyone else! How the hell do a buncha freaks like our sort, hanging around in a place like this supposed to meet people anyways?” 

“Don’t ask me, I don’t do…people…in general.” 

“Aw, and here I thought you were so charming!” 

Eda laughed again. 

“Damn right I am. The most charming bitch on the isles!” 

Maaya smirked, and opened her mouth.

“OUT OF THE WAY!” 

  ‘BANG!” 

Out on the street, pedestrians were screaming and ducking for cover as a food cart with a broken wheel and a flaming trail of meat went careening down the path. 

At the front of the cart, a baby demon could be seen clinging to the side for dear life. 

Also clinging to the cart, unseen by the majority of the crowd, were two teenagers, holding on for their unlives. 

Maaya blinked. 

“What the fuck was that ?” 

“That,” Eda groaned, straightening up and summoning her staff, “was the sight of the rest of my night going to shit.” 

----------------------------------------

“HOW?” 

Luz, King, and Lily all stood in a row in front of the flaming remains of the food cart they’d crashed into a tree just outside of the night market. 

The three of them exchanged glances silently. 

“Uuuuuh…” 

Matka crossed her arms, and even though Luz couldn't see her face, she swore she could feel her glare. 

Lily crossed her arms and took half a step forward so Luz and King were slightly behind her. 

“It was my fault. I-” 

“Nope!” Matka cut her off. 

Lily froze and turned red. 

“But I-” 

“Nuh uh.” 

“But-” 

“Lils. C’mon, seriously?” 

Lily looked away, face blazing, just a few shades shy of matching her hair. 

Matka turned towards Luz. 

“Alright, kid, your turn. Wanna tell me how we got here?” she gestured towards the flaming wreck.

Luz pressed a hand against the side of her head, masking a grimace. Her headache was getting worse. 

She wouldn’t be able to linger for much longer. 

“Um, King wanted to go look at the cursed toys-”

“Traitor!” King squeaked, and Luz did flinch then. 

“S-sorry buddy. Um…” 

“Luz? Kiddo?” Matka knelt on the ground in front of her, left hand outstretched to rest on her shoulder. 

Her touch felt so real. 

“S-sorry. Headache. Um, I forgot…ugh it’s fuzzy, I’m sorry. Toy cart, evil doll, fire, cart, crash. I-I think?” 

Matka’s head turned towards Lily and the older girl reluctantly nodded. 

“I thought I had it under control,” She defended, tugging on her hair anxiously. 

“Well, ya didn’t.” 

King opened his mouth. 

Matka mimed a zipper running across her mouth. 

“Aht! Grounded.” 

“But!-” 

“No crystal ball for a week, and for the foreseeable future, you’re gonna stay home with Lily when I leave to run the stall.” 

“What? No!” 

“Two weeks without the crystal ball.” 

“E-Mat-plea-” 

“I can make it three weeks.” Matka said firmly. 

King whined and pouted but didn’t argue further. 

“I’m sorry,” Lily said in a wobbly voice. 

“No, you did what you could-”

“I should have-”

“Lils, you’re okay. We can talk about it when we get home, okay?” 

Lily nodded reluctantly. 

Matka straightened up, knees popping as she rose. 

“I’m gonna go talk to Bertie and try to smooth things over. His stock can’t be so easily replaced, but wood carts are easy enough to spell up.” 

Matka walked away and the three kids were left with the wreckage to absorb the gravity of what they’d done. 

Luz, despite herself, broke into a fit of giggles. 

Lily whipped around to look at her in bewilderment. 

“What’s so funny?” 

“W-we hijacked a meat cart!” Luz howled, clutching her stomach. “We se-set it o-on fire and, and the entire market saw everything and I flew right past that tree and-pfft!” 

Lily’s mouth twitched. 

“Well, at least,” her cheek spasmed and her voice trembled. “At least the doll i-is certainly dead by now.” 

Luz laughed even harder and after a moment Lily gave in and giggled madly. 

“Stars!” she cried, “That was ridiculous!” 

“ Sure, laugh it up,” King whined. “I’m gonna be grounded forever!” 

“Lily told you not to touch anything!” 

“I didn’t know it was gonna come to life and try to shank the vendor!” 

“It had a warning label!” 

“I only just started learning big words! I didn’t know what it said!” 

Luz stumbled a few steps away and fell onto the grass, clutching her stomach. 

“Haha! Pfft, I love you guys…”

Lily scooped up King and sat down cross legged beside her. 

“We love you too,” she laughed. 

Luz sighed and stared up into the sky, eye twitching at the next wave of pain that radiated through her skull. 

“Do you need to go back?” 

Luz furrowed her brow. 

“Huh?” 

“You’ve been acting off for a while now,” Lily said calmly. “It’s okay if you need to go back to your resting place. We understand. Your tether is tight, and being here takes energy.” 

Luz sniffed. 

“I don’t want to go back yet.” 

A thin, cool hand came to rest on her forehead, and Luz leaned into the touch. 

“It’s alright. We’ll still be here when you come back. Or Matka will.” 

“Promise?” 

“I promise.” 

Luz sighed and rolled over to press her face against Lily’s cold thigh. 

“Okay.” 

She closed her eyes. 

----------------------------------

Luz woke up to cold, dirty tile on her cheek and the hair raising sensation of a large wet patch on her upper torso. 

She sat up and yelped when her head hit the bottom of the water fountain she’d been shoved under…again. 

“Great.” she muttered. 

Luz leaned against the wall and checked the time. The shadows in the hall had shifted and everything was quiet. She could hear voices, papers shuffling, and the hum of Mr Jacob’s ancient projector behind the closest cracked classroom door. 

She’d been asleep for two hours. 

Well, at least she’d gotten to skip math. 

Luz sighed and yawned. She looked down and winced when she saw just how big the wet patch on her shirt was, as well at the imprint of dirty shoes on the pastel purple top. Luckily, she had a hoodie in her bag, and she clumsily tugged the black, oversized thing over her head. 

She stood up slowly, stumbling as the pin and needles set in, and tugged her backpack a little more securely on her shoulders. 

Luz walked slowly down to her next class. 

It was the last period of the day, so she headed to history. When she entered the classroom quietly, Mrs Sweeney, the thin, reedy old teacher who the upperclassmen swore gew up with the dinosaurs, looked up and raised a brow. 

“Ah, miss Noceda, how nice of you to finally join us.” 

“Sorry,” Luz mumbled, keeping her eyes on the ground. “I…had another narc episode.” 

Snickers and hushed leers erupted from the rest of the kids in the room and Luz felt her face heat up. 

“Hmm. so you say. I heard this wasn’t the first class you’ve missed today. The principal would like to see you now that you're…on your feet again.”

She jerked her head up. 

“What? But I-” 

“Now, miss Noceda.” 

“Oooh, Luzer’s in trouble!” Someone hissed gleefully. 

Frustration welled up in Luz’s chest, but she bit her lip to keep from making a scene. 

“Fine.”

She turned back around and slammed the door shut on her way out. 

Chapter Text

Usually when Luz finds herself in the principal's office she’s embarrassed. A little (a lot) tired, too, or maybe just upset. 

She is tired, too much so to be embarrassed this time. She is not ashamed, she’s not upset. 

Today, Luz is angry. 

The burning irritation has not left it’s pit in her chest since she first left the hall where she had woken up. Instead, it grows brighter and hotter with every passing second as she finds new things to be angry about. 

The wet spot on her shirt, her lingering headache, the bright lights in the office, the weird smell coming from the half-eaten tuna sandwich on the principal's desk. 

The disappointed look her Mami was currently trying to shoot at her subtly while Mr. Wilson was occupied with talking to the secretary. 

Luz kept her eyes on her shoes, teeth grit. 

Of course Mami was disappointed. She’d been searching for years for some kind of cure for Luz’s narcolepsy. For a way to make her more normal. 

The unfairness of it stung and fed the raging beast in Luz’s chest. It wasn’t her fault she randomly collapsed a couple times a week! It just happened. What right did her mom have to be upset with her just because the stupid school always complained about something she couldn’t even control? 

The principal finally entered the room, closing the door behind him with a click, and Luz’s eyes snapped up as he passed her to take a seat on the other side of the desk. 

She glared at him, wishing she could will his strings to snap. See how he liked the harsh jerk and thud of his body falling to the ground while she stomped on top of it and dumped a waterbottle over his cheap suit and wrecked this whole stupid-

Chink! 

Luz startled when a glass paperweight near the corner of the desk fell over and cracked against the ground, a large fracture marring the previously flawless surface. 

Mr. Wilson picked it up with a low grumble about cheap trinkets and set it back down on the desk before taking a seat. 

“Thank you for coming in Mrs. Noceda-” 

Her Mami wasn’t a ‘mrs’, hadn’t been since Luz was six, but she didn’t correct him and Luz hadn’t really expected her too. She never did. 

“-Now, I know we’ve had to discuss this several times in the past, but I really have to insist some manner of proper action be taken this time in light of Luz’s most recent… incident.” 

“I didn’t do anything wrong-” Luz tried to protest but her mom shushed her. 

“Not now, Luz.” 

“But I-” 

“Luz!” Camila said in a scolding tone. “I said not now.” 

Luz growled and slouched back in her chair with her arms crossed. 

“I’m so sorry about all of this, sir,” Camila said earnestly. “Luz’s doctor’s note is already on file-”

“I understand that, ma’am, however the fact that your daughter is a regular cause of distraction and disruption to the rest of the student body cannot be ignored.” 

“Literally no one cares about my episodes,” Luz cut in angrily. “Everyone just walks around me or pushes me aside, no one-” 

“Luz, be quiet!” Camila said through grit teeth and Luz snapped her mouth shut, feeling hurt. 

“Our school district does offer a homeschooling curriculum,” Mr. Wilson went on as if he hadn’t heard her speak at all. 

“I work full time, I don’t have the time to homeschool her,” Camila said tiredly. 

“And I assume her father works as well?” 

Camila paused. 

“Yes,” She said in a tense voice. 

Mr. Wilson sighed. 

“I see,” He said in a disappointed tone. “Well, I suppose we can discuss this further at a later date. In the meantime, I’m afraid I have no choice but to suspend Luz for causing yet another disruption today, as well as for skipping nearly all of her classes.” 

Luz stiffened. 

“ What?” She yelled in disbelief. 

“Luz-” 

But this time, Luz refused to be shut up. 

“Are you kidding me? I didn’t skip class! I was unconscious against my will! I have a medical condition I can’t control and all anyone wants to talk about is how I’m the one making things hard for everyone else?” 

She stood up and banged her fist against the desk, causing the principal to startle and attempt to scold her. 

It was too late, the fury in her veins had risen to a white hot monster that had angry tears pricking at her eyes and she was sick of being told to be quiet while her mom and this…this idiot talked about her! 

“What about me? What about how I’m being inconvenienced? I got shoved under a water fountain today! And skipping class? Seriously? There are kids spending their gym period smoking weed out in the parking lot! And I know for a fact they’re still gonna be here tomorrow. Because you don’t actually care, do you! You’re just full of-of-” 

Luz heaved in a breath. 

“You’re just full of BULLSHIT!” 

“Luz Carmen Noceda!” Camilla shouted, and when Luz whirled around to face her, her mom looked aghast and angry. 

The fight drained out of Luz as she realized what she had said. 

Oh. 

Crap. 

-----------------------------

The drive home was tense. 

Camila had taken the long route, the familiar road to the only gas station in town explained well enough why. 

While the tank filled up, Luz sat in tense silence with her mom, both stewing in their emotions. 

Her mom looked tired, and Luz knew she should feel guilty for it, but she was tired too, and no one cared when she wanted a nap. 

She wasn’t just tired from the last couple of days without a dreamless sleep, she was tired from caring. 

She didn’t want to care anymore. Not about the fact that she had upset her mami, or the long week of suspension in front of her, or the massive stack of make-up work in her book bag. She just wanted to get home so she could hide in her room and ignore her homework while she tried to get a nap in before dinner. 

Camila sighed and rested her head against the steering wheel and the guilt Luz had thought she was still too mad and tired to feel started to bubble up against her will. 

“Mija…I know things are hard for you-” 

“No you don’t,” Luz grumbled, turning her head to stare out the passenger window. 

“Luz-” 

“How long am I grounded for?” Luz interrupted shortly.

“Two weeks, but, Mija-” 

“Great.” 

Luz reached into her bookbag and pulled out her emergency flip phone and tossed it into the cupholder. 

“Here. I’ll find the rest of my stuff later. I think I lost my DS though. It might take a while to find.” She shut her bag roughly, grunting in frustration when the zipper wouldn’t close all the way. 

“I…that’s fine.” Camila said after a few moments in a defeated tone. She looked like she still wanted to say something, but thankfully she didn’t keep trying to bring whatever it was up, and the rest of the ride home was silent. 

-------------------------

The moment the car came to a stop in the driveway Luz dashed out with her bag slung over her shoulder. She ran inside and raced up the stairs slamming her door shut since her mom wasn’t inside yet to hear it. 

She flung her bag down and flopped onto her bed, barely caring enough to kick off her shoes before pulling the covers around her. 

A few minutes later Luz heard her mom come inside and head to the kitchen, and she heard her talking on the phone in a low voice, probably to tell her dad that she was grounded so she couldn’t use the tv at all when she was over during his weekend. 

She felt so drained. The next two weeks were going to suck. Her suspension was a week long, which meant the other kids at school were definitely going to notice. 

Fantastic. 

Or, maybe everyone would just ignore her like usual?

She snorted harshly into her pillow. 

Right. 

Sure. 

The only times she wasn’t invisible was when there was blood in the water, a weakness for her classmates to mock. 

And getting suspended for having another one of her freaky episodes was guaranteed to have everyone whispering about Luzer for a good while. 

She groaned and squeezed her blankets a little tighter around her. 

It wasn’t fair. 

Her mom was right to always be so disappointed that Luz wasn’t normal. 

She wished she was too. 

It wasn’t fair. 

Nothing was. 

Adults said that a lot. 

‘Life isn’t fair.’

Yeah, she got that, funny enough. 

Luz thought she’d started to get all the way back when she was five, staring at her own body and crying for her mami to see her while she fussed over her limp body. 

A messy sketch of an owl taped to her wall above her desk caught Luz’s eye. Tears stung at Luz’s itchy eyes. She wanted to still be asleep. She wanted to go back to the boiling isles and nap in Lily’s lap in the night market, safe in the back of Matka’s stall. She wanted to be able to hold King close to her chest like a loved cat and actually be able to feel his warmth and the softness of his fur. She wanted a million things and none of them involved being here. 

Sleep eventually came for her, and for once, Luz didn’t dream, no matter how desperately she wanted to. 

------------------------

When Luz woke up she felt foggy and disoriented. 

She could hear her mom calling her name from downstairs and the sound of her voice caused a lead pit in her stomach as she shuffled out of bed and kicked her book bag out of the walkway with more force than necessary. 

Luz yawned and walked slowly down the stairs, rubbing her eyes with the palm of her hand while the other clung to the stair rail. 

Her mom was sitting at the kitchen table when she came down. There was a plate of Luz’s favorite pizza rolls in front of her usual seat, while her mom was picking at a pre-mixed grocery store salad. 

Luz approached the table cautiously and sat down slowly, eyeing her mom with distrust at her continued silence. 

She picked at her pizza rolls, not finding nearly as much comfort in the stomach-ache inducing cheese filled junk food as she normally did. 

The house was quiet save for the clink of Camila’s fork against her bowl and the sound of chewing. 

Camila finished eating before Luz but instead of taking her bowl to the sink she pushed it aside and crossed her arms, leaning forward to slump against the table. 

Luz tensed and lowered the roll she had been about to eat. 

Camila closed her eyes. 

“I talked to your father about what happened today.” 

Luz shrugged. 

“I figured you would.” 

“Not just about you being grounded. I talked to him about your school situation too,” 

Luz furrowed her brow. 

“What do you mean?” 

Camila drummed her fingers against the table, and the look on her face had a fresh well of dread welling up inside Luz’s chest. 

“I mean…we talked it over, and your father and I agreed it’s time to reconsider our custody arrangement and have you live with him for a while.” 

The dread turned to ice and Luz suddenly felt like she couldn’t breathe. 

“What? No!” 

“There’s a facility in boston that specializes in helping kids with unusual medical issues. They have an education program so you’ll be able to keep up with all your schoolwork-” 

“A facility?” Luz blurted out in a panicked tone. “Like, as in a psych ward?” 

Camila sighed. 

“Don’t call it that, mija-” 

“Oh my god, it is!” Luz cried, her panic mounting. 

“Language, Luz, please!” 

“You’re sending me away? To a psych ward?” 

“A specialized medical facility and learning center, Luz. Stop being dramatic.” 

Luz’s vision wavered and her throat ached as it threatened to close up. 

Camila stood abruptly and Luz flinched but it was only to grab her bowl and turn around to put it in the sink and turn it on to get started on the dishes. 

“They have a dormitory system, but your papi lives close enough that he can drive you there before work instead, and you can take the city bus back to his apartment in the afternoons-” 

The rest of her mom’s words were drowned out by the buzzing in Luz’s head. 

She was being sent away. Mami was sending her away to a psych ward. To be under her father’s custody. She didn’t even know her father that well. She visited him one weekend a month where she hid in the guest room with her DS while he had all his stupid, loud friends over to watch whatever stupid sport was on for the season, chugging beer and making it impossible to sleep because of the thin walls. 

Luz felt dizzy. She was shaking, she realized dimly. 

“No.” 

Luz didn’t recognize her own voice, hadn’t realized she was the one speaking until her mami paused her work scrubbing the oven pan and looked at her. 

“What?” 

“No!” 

She shouted with much more purpose this time, rising out of her chair with her hands clenched into fists. 

Camila’s voice cracked when she spoke. 

“It’s already decided, mija. I’m sorry, but normal school clearly isn’t working out-” 

“No, you mean I’m not working out!” Luz cried. “You mean I’m not normal and you don’t wanna deal with it anymore-” 

“That is not true!” 

“Yes it is! I heard you talking to Abuela on the phone last week! I know!” 

Camila was silent then and Luz knew she had her answer. 

“I don’t want to go to boston.” 

“You don’t have a choice!” Camila snapped and this time when she started walking forward Luz backed up, her chair scraping loudly across the floor as it got pushed away. 

“Luz-” 

“NO!” 

She backed up faster, her breathing picking up as she felt her heart rate spike. 

“No I’m not going!” 

She turned around and ran then, racing for the front door, gasping when her clammy hands slipped on the handle instead of twisting it open. 

“LUZ! Don’t you dare-” 

She finally got the door open as she heard her mom’s footsteps behind her and she stumbled forward out the door and away from the house. 

“LUZ!” 

Porch lights flipped on and neighbors and neighborhood dogs alike came alive with complaints and wild barking at the sound of Camila’s cries. 

Luz didn’t care. 

She kept running. 

She turned into the treeline, rocks and sticks hurting her socked feet as she raced through the tall trees under the deep red light of the sunset sky. 

Her vision was blurry as she sobbed and more than once she clipped her shoulder against a tree but she didn’t dare slow down. 

Her lungs burned. 

Her feet hurt. 

Snap! 

“Ah!” 

Luz tripped over a branch and crashed hard onto the ground. 

In the distance she could hear her mother still calling out for her and Luz heaved another sob at the sound of her voice. 

She had to get up. She had to keep running. Somewhere. Anywhere. Except boston. Or home. Even if she went back, no matter which parent she turned to she wasn’t wanted and it hurt. Worse than her feet or her stinging palms or her aching throat as she cried-

“Hoot” 

Luz’s head snapped up, startled. 

Perched on a low hanging branch in a tree less than a foot away was a tiny owl with a trash bag clutched in his beak. 

“Owlbert?” Luz cried. 

Owlbert chirped around the bag in his beak again and dropped it to the ground with a heavy crash, causing Luz to flinch. 

He flew down and landed in front of her, clicking his beak softly in concern. 

“Luz!” 

Her mother’s voice was closer this time and Luz gasped. 

“Owlbert, I wanna go back to the Isles,” she said frantically. 

The little owl fluttered unncertainly. 

Once more she heard her mother call out for her and she was filled with a sense of urgency. 

“Please- hic- Please Owlbert, I wanna go to the Isles!” She begged.  

For a fraction of a second Luz was a afraid he would do nothing, but then he fluttered forwards and nipped at her fingertips affectionately before taking off with a hoot, flying low under the treetops. 

Luz scrambled to her feet and chased after him. 

The path he led her down was familiar. 

She knew this place. 

She had never felt these rocks under her feet, had never smelt the mossy air, but she knew it better than she knew the inside of her own house. 

She knew it. 

She knew this clearing and she knew the names of all these mushrooms and she knew this rickety rotted wood shack. 

She knew this door. 

The wind picked up as Luz approached the steps and carefully climbed up the creaky steps. 

She reached out with a trembling hand for the doorknob. When she touched it, the knob was cold and her breath hitch. 

“Luuuz!” 

A fresh wave of tears flooded her eyes at the sound of her mami’s voice. 

“Luz, I’m sorry! Come back! LUZ!” 

She was getting closer. 

She was going to find her! 

Luz turned the knob. 

Thunder cracked in the distance and the wind ripped through the mossy clearing as the door opened and a bright light spilled across the porch. 

Owlbert landed on Luz’s shoulder and nipped softly at her ear as if in reassurance. 

She went through the door. 

It slammed shut behind her and vanished, leaving behind an empty clearing and an empty, ordinary abandoned shack. 

Camila entered the clearing moments later, panting, eyes red and puffy from her tears. 

She looked around frantically. 

“Luz? Mija?” 

She frantically searched for any signs of the twelve year old. 

“LUZ!” 

She sobbed. 

“I’m sorry!” 

Exhaustion took her and she stumbled over the shack steps and sat down heavily, burying her face in her hands. 

“I’m sorry .” 

Chapter Text

Luz stumbled through the door and slammed it shut behind her. It clicked and collapsed on itself, but Luz barely noticed as she forced her sore, shaky legs to keep moving. 

She was inside Matka’s tent. 

It was dark and the air smelled coppery underneath an earthy musk and the thickness of it had Luz coughing harshly. Her throat hurt from crying and her lungs burned.  

Her foot caught on something that clanged loudly and bumped into a stack of junk that toppled over and she flinched at the sound. 

Owlbert seemed to wince too and he hooted in her ear. 

Light flooded into the tent and Luz stumbled back with a hiccup, covering her eyes with an arm raised in front of her face. 

“Luz?” 

A shadow fell over her and a familiar gloved hand carefully touched her arm. 

“Kiddo? What happened?” 

Luz wailed incoherently and threw herself at the woman, clutching her tightly. 

Matka inhaled sharply, going stiff at the contact. 

Luz didn’t care. She was so tired and everything hurt and she didn’t care, she didn’t care how many times she had to hit herself, she wasn’t going to wake up from this place again. 

Slowly, Makta lowered her arms to wrap loosely around Luz’s much smaller frame.

Hugging Matka felt weird. She was tall and skinny and her left side felt oddly cold in contrast to her right.  

“You’re warm, kid, ” Matka said, sounding shocked. 

“Don’t feel warm,” she mumbled. 

It was true. Underneath the pain in her feet, her toes were freezing and so were her arms. She wished she had her purple sweater instead of this still-damp T-shirt. 

Matka carefully extracted herself from Luz’s grip, causing her to whine in protest. She knelt down and shakily pulled off one of her gloves, revealing a long, pale hand. Luz blinked tiredly in confusion when she reached out slowly and pressed two fingers to her neck before pulling back sharply with a gasp. 

“You’re alive!” 

“Why- hic- wouldn’t I be?” Luz asked, rubbing at her sore eyes with the back of her hand. Her vision blurred and abruptly the itching stopped. 

“Holy shit!” Matka yelped, falling backwards. 

Luz frowned. 

“Huh?” Owlbert hooted and fluttered down to the ground. 

Right next to her limp body. 

What? 

“I wasn’t doing that before?” She mumbled. 

She really hadn’t been sleeping? 

But…

That would have to mean-

“Shit, shit!” 

Matka was leaning over her body now, frantically pressing her ungloved hand back against her pulse. She held it there for several moments before making a strangled noise at the back of her throat. 

“Your heart’s still beating-are you alive? How are you alive ? Kid, what the fu-” 

“Are you real?” Luz blurted out.

“Am I- Yes I’m real why in hellfire’s name wouldn’t I be?” Matka asked incredulously. 

“Why would I be dead?” Luz shot back. 

Matka made an aborted noise at the back of her throat and threw her hands in the air. 

“No reason at all, just the transparency and the hovering and the fact that no one else could-nope. Y’know what, no.” 

Matka stood abruptly and tugged her glove back on. 

“Things I’m not doing today: Arguing with a ten year old-”

“I’m twelve!” Luz protested, crossing her arms.” 

Matka said nothing as she continued to struggle with the long leather glove. 

A new thought came to Luz and she stiffened, wrapping her arms tighter around herself. 

Matka noticed and paused. 

“Kid?” 

“A-are you gonna make me go back because I’m not dead?” Luz asked quietly. 

The tall witch hesitated and Luz sniffled. 

“I-I won’t go! You can’t make me! Please d-don’t-” 

“Woah, woah! Hey, it’s okay!” Matka held her hands up in a placating gesture. “You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to kiddo.” 

“Y-you’re not gonna push me back through the door?” Luz whimpered distrustfully. 

“Nope. No pushing. I promise,” Matka agreed easily. 

“My mami doesn’t want me anymore. I can’t go back!” 

“You don’t have to! Hey, hey, calm down, take a, uh, not a breath. But, uh, just don’t work yourself too bad, yeah?” 

Matka turned slightly and pulled the entrance flaps a fraction, letting in a thin sliver of light as she glanced outside, cursing under her breath. 

“Damn, ten minutes to moondown.” she muttered to herself. 

She closed the flaps again and rubbed the hem of her veil between two fingers thoughtfully. 

“Well, kid, if you’re gonna stick around, you’re gonna need a place to crash. Think you’ve got the guts to put up with King and Lils twenty-four/seven?” 

“Yes!” Luz said immediately, darting forward to grip Matka’s skirt only to remember her body was on the floor. She settled for tucking herself closely to her side in an imitation of clinginess. 

“Then we’d better get moving. Once the moon’s set, the coven guards rise. Go ahead and slip back into your body and we can get a move on,” Matka said briskly, ruffling Luz’s hair with her left hand. 

Luz frowned. 

“Uh, it doesn’t really work like that.” 

The hand in her hair stilled, and even though Luz couldn’t see it, she could sense Matka’s frown. 

“What do you mean, kid?” 

Luz laughed nervously. 

“Uh, that I can’t just slip back in? 

Outside the tent, something crashed and shouting could be heard. The sounds of the frantic footfalls of dozens of people clamoring about in a frenzy rang through the thick tarp. 

Matka and Luz stiffened in unison. 

The entrance flaps were thrown open and on an impulse Matka whirled around and stepped firmly in front of Luz’s body. 

It was Maaya, her gaze was serious as she held the entrance open with one arm and clutched a rucksack under the other. 

“The guard’s here early! You’d better skip town fast unless-what the fuck!” 

Maaya’s eyes flashed purple and flickered in shock between Luz glued to Matka’s side and the body on the ground behind her. 

“I know-” Matka said quickly before cutting herself off. “Okay that’s a lie, I have no fuckin clue whats going on. Don’t ask me about the kid, I seriously have zero explanations for that right now. You said the guard is early?” 

Maaya’s eyes lingered on Luz but she spoke quickly. 

“Someone snitched. Everyone’s got their bets hedged on Wilson.” 

“Fuckin Wilson,” Matka cursed. “Shit. Okay. Exits?” 

“Closing fast. Sky’s gonna be a closed zone too so you better book it now.” Maaya said urgently. 

Matka sprung into action, thinking fast as she picked up Luz’s body and slung it carefully over her shoulder and summoned her staff. 

Owlbert connected himself to his interlock without hesitation. 

“Stick close to me kid, things are gonna move fast,” She warned in a strained voice. 

Luz nodded with wide eyes. 

Maaya held the entrance open and Matka darted outside.

Beyond the boundaries of her potion booth, demons and witches were running about frantically. Vendors were shutting down their stalls left and right, a short demon with cloven hooves was shoving customers out of the way in order to escape the boundaries of the night market in a cart hitched to a giant rodent, and another vendor set his stall on fire. 

Matka twirled her staff, an arc of golden light following her movements that caused her stall to collapse down into a single bindal that she tucked under her arm. 

She threw her staff into the air and hopped on, dark skirt riding up around a pair of tall, sturdy boots. 

Luz scrambled up on to the staff in a clumsy hop-float and yelped when an errant spell barely missed Matka’s head had she not ducked in time, veil fluttering in the wind. 

Several yards away, there was an explosion of glass as a tall, burly witch in a raven mask and a pale uniform dragged a woman from the remains of her stall by the hair. 

Luz whimpered. 

Matka growled and the grass began to shrivel and decay under her. 

Maaya sidestepped the rot as it spread and the coven guard doubled over coughing, dropping the woman who scrambled away and vanished into the crowd. 

Blood leaked out of the coven guard’s mask and they fell over, still hacking with steadily decreasing strength. 

Their uniform loosened and fluttered, skin shriveling down to bone, and then to ash. 

A passing young demon in a ratty tunic and burnt trousers paused their running just long enough to steal the ash-stained cloak from the remains of the guard, dislodging the raven mask. 

It rolled across the uneven ground and Maaya kicked it away in disgust when it stopped at her feet. 

Luz couldn’t help but stare at it in shock. 

In all her months visiting the isles, she had never seen anything like the magic Matka had just done. 

“You need a ride?” 

Maaya glanced up at Matka’s gruff offer with a smirk. 

“Nah, I’ll be alright. See ya next week… bitch.” 

Matka barked a laugh and rose higher into the air. 

“Fuck youuu!” 

Maaya gave her a jaunty salute and pulled out a dagger from her baggy combat trousers. Her eyes glowed vividly as she disappeared into the chaos of the rapidly disassembling night market. 

As Matka rose higher into the safety of cloud cover, Luz watched more coven guards burn stalls and force civilians and vendors alike into a cramped paddy wagon that was obviously meant for prisoners to be taken to the conformatorium. 

Luz shivered. 

She’d seen coven guards before, but never destruction at this level in their wake. 

“Do you think anyone will escape?” She asked quietly. 

Matka shrugged. 

“Course. This happens every once and a while, kiddo. Most of ‘em will be just fine. We know how to rebuild.” 

What went unsaid, was that the witches who had been caught were unlikely to see the light of day for a very long time, if ever. 

Or worse, should they be found with bare wrists. 

For all it’s wonders, Luz knew it was important to remember that the Boiling Isles were not an inherently happy place. 

“Hey Matka?” Luz decided to change the subject. 

“Hm?” 

“Where are we going?” 

The towering witch chuckled. 

“Look down and you’ll see.” 

She looked down obediently. 

They had descended slightly from the cloud cover and were several yards above the treeline of a thick forest on the edge of a cliff that led down to the sea. 

Up ahead the trees thinned out into a clearing where a cottage was tucked into the remains of a crumbling tower. 

Luz gasped. 

“Is that..?” 

“Welcome to the owl house,” Matka confirmed in a warm, low voice. 

“Wow, Matka, It looks so cool!” Luz squealed. 

“Ah, another thing, kiddo.” 

“Huh?” 

“Call me Eda.” 

Chapter Text

“Hoot! Watcha got there, Eda? A new friend?” 

Luz jumped back away from the door. 

“Gah!”

A weird, tube, bird, thing with dark, beady eyes extended out from the door, leaning into her personal space. 

Luz swallowed and leaned back. 

Mat-Eda swiftly brought her staff down on the mildly terrifying creature’s head. 

“Ow!” 

“Knock it off, Hooty,” Eda scolded. “Let us in.” 

“Fine! Geeze, I was just trying to be hospitable! Ow, hoot!” 

Eda kicked the door open with her foot, adjusting Luz’s body thrown over her shoulder with a slight huff, stepping back so that Luz could go in first. 

She hesitated, glancing back at the strange bird demon. 

“Are…you okay?” 

He teared up.

“Knowing someone cares takes away all the pain, hoot hoot!” 

On the contrary, the red mark on his forehead looked pretty painful, but if he was sure…

Luz furrowed her brow and shrugged. 

“O-oh, okay then.” 

As she entered the house, Luz gasped in awe. 

Everything looked so warm, and cozy! 

Even the random weapons scattered around the room couldn’t take away from the charm of the glimmering candlelight and plush, mismatched furniture. 

“King! Lily! I’m home! You’ve got ten seconds before I get through this door to pretend you haven’t been tearing the house apart to find the crystal ball,” Eda called, leaning casually against the doorway with one foot edging across the threshold. 

A loud clamoring sounded above Luz’s head and a few seconds later a breathless King and sheepish looking Lily appeared at the top of the stairwell, peaking their faces through the balusters. 

“We weren’t- ” 

King squeaked and cut himself off, both kids gasping as they registered who was standing in their living room. 

“LUZ!” 

Luz grinned and waved. 

“Hey guys! I’m ba-oof!” 

Luz wheezed as a blur of red slammed into her. 

“Oh, I’m so relieved to see you again!” Lily breathed, pulling back after giving her a tight squeeze, hands on her shoulders. “How are you feeling? It’s only been a few days, are you sure you’ve recovered enough from Tether-Strain to be here?” 

Her head did still hurt, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as before so she shrugged and fiddled with a loose strand of hair. 

“I’m fine. It’s good to see you too, Lily.” 

Lily frowned slightly but said nothing as King finally reached the bottom of the stairs and joined her side. 

“You’re back super early!” he cried. “And you’re here!” 

Gestured to the house pointedly, and Luz’s grin faded a bit. 

“Haha, uh, yeah…” 

Lily cocked her head, frown deepening. 

“Luz?” 

Matk- Eda strode inside the house and set Luz’s body down on the couch with a soft thump. 

For a moment, there was silence, as Lily and King took in the limp body with red-rimmed eyes with shock. 

Lily was the first to react. 

She stumbled backwards a few steps, hand clasped over her mouth to muffled a raw, wounded sound. 

King whimpered.

“L-Luz?” 

“Long story short-” Eda spoke up gruffly. “Luz is alive, always has been. She’s fine, physically, as far as I can tell, but this-” 

She waved a hand at Luz’s transparent form. 

“-currently has zero explanation.” 

“ Fine?” Lily whimpered, confusion written in her face and her hands clutched tightly to her chest. 

“Then, that-you-that isn’t her-”

“No!” Eda cried. “Lily, hellfire, no! She’s alive. I would never-” 

She cut herself off with a choked noise. 

“Lilith, I would never.” 

Luz looked between the two in tense silence, before something caught her attention. 

“Wait, Lilith?” 

Her eyes widened. 

“Lily is a nickname?” 

The sheer level of shock in her tone was enough to startle a laugh out of the taller girl. 

“I- pfft! Yes, Luz,” she giggled, relaxing marginally. “Lily is just one of E-Matka’s silly little nicknames.” 

“I already told her the truth, you don’t need to keep that up,” Eda interjected lightly. 

“The whole truth?” King asked in a weird tone. “Ooor…” 

“Not yet, but I guess now’s as good a time as any,” Eda sighed. 

“What are you guys talking about?” Luz asked uneasily. 

The tension returned to Lilith’s shoulders, and she placed a hand over her mouth, eyes lowered to the ground. 

Several candles sputtered out in the rafters, and the mirror above the fireplace glazed over with a layer of frost. 

“Lils, go upstairs with King,” Eda said quietly. 

Lilith said nothing, and the frost continued to spread past the mirror’s frame. More candles flickered and snuffed in little plumes of smoke, dripping wax stopping in their tracks. 

“Lilith.” 

Eda raised her voice a pitch and Lilith gasped. 

The frost receded and the remaining flames resumed their merry dancing on their wicks. 

“Go upstairs,” she repeated in a strained tone. “Take King, and tell Nana we have a guest if you see her.” 

Lilith nodded minutely and wordlessly allowed a worried-looking King to take her by the hand and start going back up the stairs. 

Eda sighed again and leaned against the wall. 

“W-what was that about? Is Lily okay?” Luz asked, tangling her fingers in the edge of her shirt. 

“She’ll…yeah, kid. Lils will be just fine after she’s had a bit of a break.” 

She hesitated for a few more seconds, before shaking her head and patting the nearest arm of the couch. 

“Take a seat, Luz. There’s something you need to know if you’re gonna be sticking around for a while.” 

“Um, okay.” 

Luz carefully crawled up onto the couch, mindful not to phase through her own body. 

Phasing always felt weird, like her hair was standing on end and she was trapped in an itchy, too-small sweater. 

Eda crossed her arms and pinched the fabric of her sleeves between two fingers. 

“I’m gonna be straight with ya, kid,” she said in a strained voice, some of the tension from earlier returning. “What I tell you within these walls, I’m going to trust you to never speak to anyone. Got it?” 

Luz nodded. 

Eda pointed at her in a strict manner. 

“I’m serious about this, Luz. Betray my trust, and there will be serious consequences. There are very few rules in this house, but this one is the most important. 

Luz swallowed, unease sinking like lead in her stomach. 

“I-I understand,” she stammered. 

“Easy, kiddo,” Eda’s tone softened marginally. “This is important, but I already know you’re a good kid. I ain’t doubting you here.” 

Oh. 

Eda thought she was a good kid. 

Heat rose to Luz’s face. 

She’d never heard an adult say that about her before. 

The embarrassment gave way just as fast as it had risen. 

Oh, no. 

Eda thought Luz was a good kid. 

Crap. 

That probably meant she had expectations for her. 

No one had expected much of anything from Luz since she was a small child. Even her mother barely bothered to check if her grades were scraping the passing zone. Rarely did she bat an eye at what she did in her spare time at all, or talk to her about her future beyond scolding her for getting more than three detentions a month on average. 

The thought of her mother made Luz’s throat ache and she swallowed again and tried to focus on what Eda was trying to tell her. 

“You’ve been in and out of the isles for a while,” she was saying. “You already know the basics of how the demon realm works, how it’s… significantly more ruthless than the human world.” 

Luz nodded.

That much was true. It had scared her at first. She’d thought her dreams were horrible nightmares, until she’d had time to adjust and seen the beauty in the isles that hid behind all the blood and grit. 

“When I was a little older than you are now, I was cursed,” Eda said bluntly.

Luz gasped. 

“What?” 

Eda gripped the edge of her veil. 

“The specifics are messy, and complicated, but what you should know is I’m…not exactly a looker underneath this old thing.” 

“Does it hurt?” Luz blurted out immediately.  “What does the curse do? Are you okay? Who cursed you? Why does tha-” 

“Woah! Hey, easy, kid!”

Eda raised her hands in a placating manner. 

“Look, I know this is a lot, but-” 

“Can I see?” 

She stilled. 

“...It’s not a pretty sight.” 

“I don’t care,” Luz said firmly, before realizing how that probably sounded and backtracking. 

“I-I mean, unless you really don’t want to show me! That’s fine! But…you taking me in means so much, and I would never…I don’t want you to think I care about how you look- and I mean, if I’m gonna stay here for a while shouldn’t I know anyways?” 

Eda took a moment to consider. 

“I don’t typically veil around the house. You’d find out sooner or later. I’m just…warning you, I guess.” 

Luz didn’t know what to expect when thick black fabric was finally pushed aside. 

Nothing could have prepared her for the sheer amount of light. 

Split roughly down the middle, one half of Eda’s face was pale and angular, her hair was a fiery mane forced into the captivity of a length of black cord. 

The over half was completely unlike anything Luz had ever seen before. 

Bare bones, carved with intricate loops and knots that shifted under Luz’s gaze, protected by a film of soft, golden light that held the delicate vertebrate of her neck in place and met the uneven seam of Eda’s skin. 

She was missing an ear on her left side, and her eyes were black from pupil to sclera, broken only by burning aureate irises. 

“Does…does it hurt?” Luz asked nervously. 

Eda’s brow furrowed and oh, it was so strange, to see her expressions twist and shift freely on her face, instead of having to read her tone and body language. 

“I…no. Not so much anymore.” 

She tugged off her gloves-both of them this time- and her left hand was much the same, delicately engraved bones wrapped in golden light. 

She held out her hand and Luz took it carefully, eyes wide at the way it felt just like holding onto Lily or King. Slightly cool to the touch but so solid to her senses, despite her current disconnect to the physical world. 

“Not long after I got cursed, I left my old life behind.” Eda said quietly. “Within the boundaries of the house wards, you can call me Eda just like Lilith and King, but beyond that, especially in town, or the night market, my name is Matka, and what’s under my hat is no one else’s business.” 

Luz nodded seriously. 

“I understand.” 

She tilted her head, still playing idly with Eda’s glowing hand. 

“...I dunno why you said this was scary though.” 

Eda blinked. 

“Huh?” 

“You look so cool!” Luz gushed, holding up Eda’s hand to prove her point. “And you glow? You’re like a giant night light!” 

Eda’s face twisted into something she couldn’t decipher and a strangled sound escaped her throat. 

“A ni-a night light?” 

Luz nodded rapidly. 

“It’s pretty!” 

“Pretty,” Eda mimicked blankly. 

She opened her mouth to say more but a yawn escaped instead. 

Eda coughed and stood abruptly. 

“It’s been a long night. You should probably get some rest.” 

She scooped up Luz’s body and quickened her pace towards the stairs. 

“Mmkay,” Luz muttered, sliding off the couch and padding after her.

“King and Lily’s room is just upstairs. I hope you don’t mind sharing.” 

Luz shrugged. 

She’d never shared a room or even been to a sleepover before, but she guess now was as good a time as any to find out what it was like. 

The stairs creaked as Eda ascended to a wide hall. Luz looked around curiously as she trailed along. 

This place was like, peak super old house. The floors and walls were made from wood so old and weathered she thought she could have run her hands over them without getting a single splinter. Everything was creaking and groaning as it settled, and the walls were scattered with old black and white photos, and even some painted portraits with names and dates scrawled in tight, tiny cursive along the borders. 

All the windows were made of jagged stained glass, obscuring the view of whatever lay out in the dark. 

It reminded her a little of her abuela’s house, but less creepy, and more…lived-in.

Especially with the toys laying on the ground in forgotten corners, and the warm smell in the air, like fried mushrooms and charcoal. 

Eda came to a stop in front of one of two closed doors in the hall. 

“This is the kids’ room. Bathroom’s the next door down, and I’m just upstairs if you need anything.” 

She nodded. 

“Okay.”

Eda raised a fist to knock on the door. 

“Wait!” 

She paused. 

“You okay?” 

Luz ducked her head and knotted her hands together. 

“Um…thank you. For everything.” 

Eda huffed, a shadow of a smile tugging on her lips.

“Don’t worry about it, kiddo.”