Chapter Text
Three coven scouts stood in Eda’s way, blocking her escape route. If she turned back the other way, she’d be drawing them closer to Luz. And if she tried flying above them, they’d surely cast a magic rope on her to restrain her. She needed to sweep them off their feet and use the window of opportunity to escape. How to do that, though, was something she did not have the time to think through.
As the scouts closed in on her, she remembered one of her old mottos that had kept her alive this long: The best defense is a good offense . Without thinking, she sprang forward with her staff charged up. All three guards cast spells in her direction, but unfortunately for them, they didn’t account for Eda’s drunkenness. Eda tripped and stumbled, falling out of the trajectory of the guards’ perfectly straight attacks. As she nearly hit the ground, she swept them by the legs and tripped each of them.
She got to her feet, attempting to flee, but stopped as a dazed coven guard grabbed her by the foot. Before they could activate another spell, Eda traced a faster spell circle with her staff, summoning a few vines to restrain both of their arms. Their hand opened up, freeing Eda and allowing her to bolt.
Once Eda made it to the end of the street, trying not to trip and fall along the way, two more coven scouts came in and blocked her. They shot fire and ice spells, forcing Eda to block quickly with a spell of her own. With the flick of her staff and summoning of a bronze spell circle, she reformed the bricks in the pavement to create a barrier between the guards’ spells and herself. She put her staff between her legs, quickly flying over them before stumbling back to the ground several feet ahead.
At this rate, she knew flying wouldn’t be a safe or reliable option for her. Instead, she opted to run, occasionally using her staff to leap over crowds and bypass the traffic of citizens and guards. Each time she landed, she stumbled and had to use her staff to stay afloat.
As she made it through one inner-city gate, two more guards surrounded her with spell circles, ready to shoot. Quickly, she summoned a barrage of vines and bricks from the pavement to push them out of the way before continuing her sprint to the outer city gate. She passed the fountain of lamb blood, shoving a nearby coven scout into it in her state of drunken stumbling before continuing her sprint for the city entrance.
Several more guards waited for her at the gate. Great, just what I should’ve expected, Eda thought. She didn’t hesitate to summon a wall of fireballs and icicles, launching them towards her enemies and creating a chaotic firefight between her spells and their counter spells. She miraculously dodged each spell coming her way, largely due to her very poor coordination clashing with their overly perfect aim. It didn’t take long before each guard was knocked to the ground, their uniforms either burnt or impaled with icicles.
Just as Eda made it to the entrance, she turned around and froze. A coven scout was carrying a familiar human over his shoulder, tied up in a magic rope restraint. Luz had been captured, all because Eda let her run on her own. Scowling, she readied her staff, charging it up with a spell. Then, something made her stop.
She felt her neck itch. When she scratched it, she noticed black feathers springing from her wrists. Her eyes widened with panic. She quickly grabbed at her robes, pulling the top outward and glancing at a golden gem hanging around her chest like a necklace. The glow was fading, being overtaken by an inky black. “Dammit. Why now of all times?” she whispered to herself. She couldn’t rescue Luz like this. She was still drunk, and the color in her gem fading was not a good sign. She could hurt Luz if she tried to fight back now.
Reluctantly, Eda turned around, mounting her staff and taking off towards the woods outside of Bonesborough.
—
Luz squinted her eyes open before drearily letting them shut again. She was conscious, but she still felt the sweet sensation of sleep trying to overtake her. Despite her exhaustion, she felt very uncomfortable as cold, hard concrete rested against the back of her head. Her hands were also pulled behind her back, cuffed together. After fighting with her drowsiness for a few more moments, she managed to let her eyes crawl open.
The first thing she saw was a harsh fluorescent light, making her squint and want to shut her eyes again. The buzzing of it was so loud and obnoxious, making it hard to focus on her surroundings. Once she remembered that she was in the Demon Realm, she lamented the fact that the sensory issues with some of the lighting systems here weren’t any better than those of the Human Realm. She already missed the twinkling fairy lights and candles of Bonesborough.
Once she managed to let her eyes fully open and bear through the awful, stinging light pouring into her retinas, she noticed the enclosed jail cell keeping her trapped. She began to hyperventilate, and she quickly tried to think of a mantra or breathing technique to keep her from spiraling. She whispered as she rocked back and forth, trying to calm herself from the overstimulation and overwhelming situation she had been thrown into.
Suddenly, a door slammed open, emitting a piercing echo through the room. Luz’s heart jumped out of her chest. She managed to ground herself just as a coven scout approached her cell, an old scroll in hand.
“Name for the record,” said the coven guard.
Luz stared blankly. She still wasn’t entirely in the right headspace to process the question. She couldn’t comprehend the idea that she was in some sort of prison. Even if it was in another realm, she still never pictured herself winding up in a place like this.
“Name, please!” the guard repeated, raising her voice this time.
Luz scowled. “Luz Noceda,” she spat.
“Spell that for me, please.”
“L-U-Z N-O-C-E-D-A.”
The guard scribbled onto the scroll. “Date of birth?”
“March 20th, 2008.”
The guard hesitated. “What?”
“March 20th, 2008,” Luz repeated.
“That’s not any date system I’m familiar with,” said the guard.
“Well, that’s how we write it in the Human Realm. I don’t know what to tell you.”
The guard thought for a moment before writing something down. “I’ll just use the date you gave me and run it by a higher-up later. Just for reference, can you tell me your age?”
“I’m 16,” said Luz.
The guard wrote the last bit of information before reading over something else that had been written prior. “Luz Noceda, are you aware of the charges against you?”
“No, not really. Just that I am associated with a Wild Witch, whatever that means.”
“Correct. You have one charge of associating with the company of Wild Witch Edalyn Clawthorne.”
“But what exactly does that mean?” Luz whined. “What is a Wild Witch, and why are they considered bad?”
The guard, reading over the scroll one more time, promptly ignored her question. Finally, she rolled up the scroll, pocketing it and heading for the door.
“What, you’re not even going to answer me?” Luz shouted. “Why am I in here?” The question fell on deaf ears as the guard shut the door behind her with a loud slam. Scowling, Luz stuck her tongue out and loudly blew a raspberry.
The wait that followed was agonizingly long, which left Luz alone with her thoughts. She kept thinking back to the argument she had with her mother, which made her want to panic and cry even more. Trying to shove those thoughts to the back of her head, she tried to think about if Eda would come to rescue her. Would she? Even if she did, would it be safe to associate with her if she’s supposedly bad enough to be on a watchlist? With each negative thought that passed through her head, Luz whimpered. As she tried to switch topics in her mind, she was distracted by that painfully loud buzzing of fluorescent lights, further increasing her anxiety.
Finally, after what felt like hours, the door clicked open. She stared blankly as a new, unfamiliar figure walked in. It was a man with a long, thick mane of curly blue hair that fluttered around his shoulders. It looked insanely well kept for its texture and length, as if he had spent hours in the mirror fine-tuning the curls. Two mismatched earrings shone from his lobes, one being a diamond-shaped stud and the other being a drop earring that looked like a small mirror. A long, blue lion tail stretched from behind a pair of dark blue bell-bottoms, complimenting his gold and turquoise tunic. The sleeves were decorated with thick patches of fur.
The man smiled, two fangs jutting into his tongue. “Luz Noceda. It is an absolute honor to meet a human here in one of the coven’s prisons, and the one I have been stationed at of all locations.” He walked closer to the prison cell, his eyes emitting an uncanny gleam. “Allow me to introduce myself. I am Adrian Graye, head witch of the Illusion Coven.”
—
“Francois, I have heard rumors about you starting your own rebellion. How pleadeth you?” King stared deeply into the button eyes of the pink stuffed bunny resting on the couch. It sat like a log, unresponsive to King’s interrogation. “Playing dumb, are we? Well, since I can’t force any information out of you, I’ll leave you off the hook for now. But I got my eye on you. I would hate to learn that my trusted second-in-command would stab me in the back like this.”
The front door slammed against the wall as it shot open, making Hooty yell, “Ow!”
King jumped, his fur standing on end as he looked to see who had come in. “Eda, could you not? I’m in the middle of- woah!” His voice squeaked as he saw an Eda covered in black feathers all over the arms and neck. Her hair was practically a pile of garbage, tangled in a mess of twigs and dirt. “What happened to you?”
“Never mind that; get me an elixir, quick!” Eda’s voice was deep and distorted. Without waiting to be yelled at any further, King scrambled to the nearest bathroom. He opened the cabinet and grabbed a yellow-orange substance in a glass bottle with both paws. He hopped back over to the living room, meeting Eda at the couch. She snatched it from his paws, shoving the liquid down her throat. She gagged violently as she reached the last sip, and she let out a bloodcurdling shriek as the feathers receded into her skin. “Ugh, the curse picked a terrible time to spring up right now.” Her voice started returning to normal as she spoke. “Also, I may have crashed three times on the way here because I was drunk-flying.”
“Girl, you gotta stop doing that. And this the second time this week your curse started acting up,” said King.
“Right, and I can’t afford to let it act up at a time like this,” Eda said as she made her way back to the bathroom where King got the elixir. She grabbed a few more bottles, stuffing them in her hair. She then grabbed a few orange potions with plants floating inside each bottle.”
“What are you in a hurry for?” King asked. “And where’s Luz?”
“Oh, no big deal, she just mayyyy have been captured by the Emperor’s Coven,” said Eda, stuffing a few more potions in her hair.
“You didn’t even have her for a day, and you already let her get captured?”
“I don’t wanna hear it, King. The good news is that I’ve been sent to Bonesborough Conformatorium enough times to know how to break in and out. I’d like you to come along, though. Your tiny body could really come in handy.
“My body is not tiny!” King whined.
Eda then scooped King into her arm while grabbing her staff with the other. “For my purposes tonight, you are tiny. Now come on, we don’t have long before they start interrogating her.”
—
Luz couldn’t pin down what to expect from Adrian. His attire and hair were well-kempt, looking as if he wanted to represent royalty. His sharp, fanged grin intimidated her, even though those fangs looked incredibly cool. And she kept thinking about how he claimed to be honored in the presence of a human. Was there something important about her presence on The Boiling Isles? Was there a reason that she found her way here?
“So you are aware of your charges, I presume?” said Adrian.
“Yeah. Your goon read them for me,” said Luz.
“My, what a tongue you got, calling my employees goons . Though, with how incompetent they can be sometimes, I don’t blame you for wanting to hurl insults at them.” Adrian rolled his eyes. “In any case, I can tell you’re scared, human. But I want to assure you that your charges are rather minor. Associating with a Wild Witch? This very easily could’ve been an instance of wrong place, wrong time. Especially for someone as confused as you. Tell me, how long have you been here in the Demon Realm?”
Luz thought for a moment. These charges could be dropped? Carefully considering her options, she figured she could play Adrian’s game for now in hopes of getting out of trouble. “Earlier tonight, actually.”
“Ah, so you really haven’t had much of a chance to understand how our world works. It’s no wonder you ended up in such bad company so quickly. Do you understand what it means that you were associated with a Wild Witch?”
“No, sir. No one will explain it to me. Even Eda never mentioned the concept until I confronted her, and she seemed to stay silent.”
“Ah, typical of that disgusting savage,” Adrian scoffed. “Do not worry. I have prepared a video about the topic that should hopefully answer your questions.”
Adrian turned to face the blank wall of the room. He traced a light blue spell circle and tapped it, emitting a puff of smoke from the center. The smoke filled the center of the room, slowly revealing a holographic screen with a video queuing on it.
The music that followed was reminiscent of the kinds of PSA videos Luz would have to sit through in Middle and High School. The audio quality was also surprisingly cheap and old-fashioned for a video conjured by magic. What followed was an overview image of what looked like a castle on top of a plateau, towering over a valley. It was held up by gray bricks and silver columns, decorated with white and gold banners. The image then flashed through video footage of the castle as an enthusiastic voice spoke over it.
“Greetings, and allow me to welcome you on behalf of The Boiling Isles Empire. Our beloved nation is led by our very own Emperor’s Coven, the leaders of the coven system. This system was established by our very own Emperor Belos, who took the throne in c. 2734, effectively establishing the Era of Unity. Today, we will be learning about the history of the coven system and how Wild Witches dishonor what the Titan has intended for our society.
“Today, witch and demonkind live on The Boiling Isles. This very island was formed from the carcass of the Titan, a being who died thousands of years ago at the end of the age of Titans. It is through this Titan’s body that new life has sprung. It is thanks to the Titan that we draw breath, have the resources we need to survive, and can perform magic. And so, we honor the Titan’s will and give thanks and worship to him.
“The Titan’s body may have passed, but his spirit has lived on, waiting for one chosen to help carry out his will for those he has created. Before this chosen one arrived, witchkind lived through what we call The Savage Ages. Witches practiced magic freely without restraint, alternating between and even mixing different kinds of magic. This displeased the Titan, as magic is meant to be pure and should not be mixed.
“This era of blasphemy ended when our chosen savior, Emperor Belos, came into power. He has been chosen by the Titan to communicate his will for how magic should be properly performed. Through this will, Emperor Belos has established what we now know as the coven system. The coven system is led by the Emperor’s Coven- an elite guard of a chosen few to wield all types of magic. Those who have not been chosen to be a part of the Emperor’s Coven must instead be assigned to one of the nine main covens: Plant, Abomination, Illusion, Bard, Construction, Clairvoyance, Necromancy, Beastkeeping, and Healing. Through this system, all witches can designate their magic on one area of focus and perform only that type of magic as the Titan intended.
“However, wild magic still infests our beloved nation like an insidious pox. Wild Witches still exist today, threatening our very way of life. Their refusal to join a coven and instead mix magic without first being chosen by The Emperor’s Coven to do so is blasphemy against the Titan. Rest assured, citizens, as all Wild Witches will be assigned to a coven, and those who still resist will be put to justice as the Titan intended. When the remnants of wild magic come to an end, we can finally look forward to an era of true peace, practicing magic only in a way that pleases the Titan. Through this, we can look forward to a true utopia free of wild magic.”
As the video ended, the audio started clunking like an old tape reaching the end of its film. The visual disappeared in a puff of smoke, leaving Luz, once again, alone with Adrian.
Adrian smiled. “I understand if you have any confusion, seeing as you are not a witch yourself. But to put it simply, all witches can use the three basic types of elemental magic as well as all magic related to their specific coven of choice. All other magic is off-limits, and this is enforced on our bodies thanks to our handy coven sigils.” Adrian then rolled up his sleeve, pointing to a tattoo on his wrist of an icon resembling a sky-blue mirror. “The coven sigils protect us from any temptation to use magic outside of what we are allowed to perform. However, the old witch you have been with, Edalyn Clawthorne, has refused to receive a coven sigil for decades and continues to exercise various forms of magic without an Emperor’s Coven sigil- the only sigil that approves you to use all types of magic. And that, my friend, is why she is considered a Wild Witch and must be brought to justice.”
Luz took a moment to ponder the information she heard. Something about the idea of this coven system rubbed her the wrong way, particularly the constant point being repeated that this system “pleases the Titan.” She didn’t know enough about this world to understand its religions or what she personally would believe regarding any kind of deity worship, but the way the island’s government was enforcing it left many red flags raised in her mind.
She looked through the bars at Adrian, not quite meeting his gaze. Considering her position, she couldn’t express her hesitancy if she wanted to get out of this place. Her best bet was to continue playing along. “So if I’m getting this straight, if I were to simply renounce my ties with Eda and live under the coven system for as long as I’m on this island, you’ll let me go?”
Adrian dramatically tilted his hand side to side. “More or less. Seeing as you’re only 16, according to our records, you’re not quite the age where a coven sigil is required. Though, I’m not entirely sure how a sigil would work on someone with no innate magic ability. Regardless, if you swear loyalty to the emperor and cut your ties with Eda moving forward, you will have a full pardon. In fact…”
Luz raised an eyebrow. Adrian, not looking at her, continued, “We haven’t had a human documented on the isles in ages. I’m sure our dear Emperor would actually like to meet you. If you cut your previous ties and swear loyalty to him, I could arrange an audience for you to meet him in person. Very few even within the Emperor’s Coven have the privilege, so it truly is a rare honor you should consider.”
Luz stared at the ground, left in a decision paralysis. While she could pretend to swear loyalty for the time being before deciding her true thoughts on the emperor, it was risky getting that deep into the situation without knowing how things could play out. She’d normally not hesitate to jump on a gamble such as this, but her mind kept drifting to Eda and what might happen to her. A small part of her still wanted to side with Eda after taking her in, and even if Eda was the untrustworthy monster she was painted to be by Adrian and the scouts, she was, to her knowledge, her only ticket back to the Human Realm.
Adrian noticed Luz’s hesitance. “You do not have to decide right now. Since you still have charges against you, I will leave you in this cell for the remainder of your sentence. However, if you, at any time, would like to take me up upon my offer, I will pardon what remains of your sentence. Until we meet again, human.” The inflection in Adrian’s voice softened at the word human . He then turned his back to Luz, marching elegantly out of the room and gently shutting the door behind him.
—
Eda, with King on her shoulder, landed at the top of one of the cliff sides overhanging Bonesborough. In the center of the area stood an enormous tower made from decaying green bricks, decorated with bones and monster tissue. Rather than standing straight from top to bottom, the tower’s structure bent and twisted every few floors, creating a very disorienting structure that miraculously didn’t crumble from its foundation.
Eda set foot inside the gates surrounding the courtyard, carefully avoiding detection from the spotlights ignited from bulbs of purple flames. As she inched closer, she froze when she heard a familiar bloodcurdling scream that chilled her bones. She stared up in horror to see the upper floors of the building guarded by hellharpies, flocking to the windows to avoid any escape artists or trespassers with magic staffs.
“Well, those are new,” Eda whispered to King. “Damn, that’s gonna make this a lot harder. We’ll have to infiltrate the inside and work from there.”
“You could probably deal with those things if you really wanted to,” King suggested.
“But that’ll draw too much attention. I’d rather not have the entire conformatorium on my ass if I can help it. It’s fine, I know the interior like the wrinkles on my own hands. Just need to get through the-”
“Eda, watch out!” King interrupted.
Eda’s gaze drew to the spotlight about to reveal her in the dark and quickly mounted her staff to zip across the courtyard, avoiding its gaze. She stopped to rest, breaking a sweat. “Argh, I’m getting distracted. This is not a good time to be losing my touch.”
“Maybe it’s because you’re too busy feeling guilty for letting your poor human get cap-”
“Save it, King, or I’ll brew you into a potion,” Eda hushed him. Her eyes darted back to the searchlights, carefully studying their patterns and mounting her staff to evade them. She found it relatively easy to make it close to the entrance but then halted as she spotted the coven scouts guarding the front entrance, hovering light spells around them to increase their visibility in the dark.
“Huh,” Eda whispered. “They got some surprisingly clever scouts at the entrance. Not like the cannon fodder you see with 90% of the coven. Guess I’m already going to have to bust out one of these.” Eda pulled one of the plant-filled liquids from her hair. She uncorked the bottle and pulled her mask over her mouth and nose. “King, hold your breath.”
King gasped heavily and puffed his furry cheeks while Eda lit a small flame on her finger with a silver spell circle. She touched it to the plant floating in the potion, letting a smokey mist sprawl from the tiny bottle. Before she could be exposed to too much smoke, she launched the bottle with the swing of her elbow, lobbing it directly in front of the coven scouts.
“Sleeping nettles!” one of them called. “We have an intruder! Don’t breathe in the smoke!”
“Did you say breathe in the smoke? Why would I do that?” the other responded.
“No, I said don’t breathe it in. Stupid uniform mask muffling my words.”
“Well don’t speak too loud! You’ll make yourself winded and start breathing it… in…” the loudly yelling guard suddenly collapsed.
“Oh my Titan! Maybe take your own advice before you start… yelling… at…” the second guard collapsed, leaving the entrance unguarded.
“Huh. Guess they weren’t so smart after all,” said King.
Eda approached one of the fallen guards, grabbed his mask, and tried it on. King looked at her suspiciously. “You’re gonna disguise yourself as a coven scout?” he questioned
“The first room inside is gonna be crawling with coven scouts working the front desks. It’ll be next to impossible to sneak past them. Thankfully, this guy seems to have a similar build to me, so I shouldn’t have a problem fitting into this thing.”
“What about me? I won’t fit into either of their uniforms.”
Eda gave King a nasty smirk, making his stubby legs quiver with fear over what she possibly could’ve had planned.
Moments later, Eda entered through the front doors in full uniform, holding King by his armpits while his dangling legs kicked and flailed. She looked into the room of coven scouts filing papers and, in some instances, sleeping on the job. “Attention, fellow scouts! I have captured a small demon who has been guilty of association with a Wild Witch, and he is to be locked up here by the Emperor’s orders!”
“Don’t carry me like that!” King complained, digging his claws into her arms. “I feel vulnerable, and it’s making me very upset!”
“Ah, shut up, you little furball!” said Eda, faking the voice of an angry cop. “You’ll be plenty comfortable where you’ll end up.” Eda approached the first coven scout she spotted. “Hey, you there! I’m gonna need a key to whatever cell you got open for my prisoner.”
Sighing, the guard looked through a book of inmates and open cells before turning to the filing cabinet behind him. He absentmindedly sorted through it before picking out a key and tossing it on the desk. He then returned to his paperwork, not so much as giving Eda a second look.
Eda, almost shocked at how easy that was, grabbed the key and made her way to the central room. Stories upon stories of jail cells towered above her, lined up in square formations that were layered unevenly due to the structure of the tower. Each floor was connected by a staircase and an elevator placed on opposite sides of the central room.
“Alright, I got a glimpse of that book recording prisoners the scout had,” said Eda. “Our key is for the cell right next to Luz’s, just as I was hoping. She’s on floor 26, so we’re definitely not taking the stairs… as tempting as it is to see you complain about climbing 26 flights of stairs.”
“I shall forgive your previous treacheries for this one act of mercy,” said King.
Eda took the elevator to the 26th floor, then carried King to an air vent near Luz’s cell. “Alright, I gotta find the guard with her cell key so I can pickpocket them. You get inside Luz’s jail cell to make sure there aren’t any unwanted guests and come give me the all-clear signal once I’m back. Also, talk to Luz and make sure she knows I’m coming for her. I can’t imagine how scared she must be.”
“You seem to care a lot for her, don’t you?” said King.
Eda chuckled softly. “Surprised? I don’t know; I just kinda felt sorry for the kid when I met her today. And… I almost see a bit of myself in her. As corny as that sounds.”
“Corny… that’s a human food, right?”
Eda groaned. “I’ll teach you about human expressions later. For now, we have an actual human to rescue. I’ll be back as soon as I can!” Eda picked King up, placing him into the air vent and saluting to him before heading the other way. King scrambled into the vent, tripping a few times and letting out squeals in response. After banging into walls with his tiny body one time too many, he managed to find the other end and pop his head out into Luz’s jail cell. Luckily, it was empty, save for Luz.
King grabbed the ledge of the vent, his legs kicking frantically in the air as he tried to brace himself for the fall. Unfortunately, his paws slipped. “Weh!” he shrieked as he plummeted to the ground, landing flat on his tailbone. He howled in pain, nearly in tears.
Luz, suddenly breaking from her silent stare at the wall, turned around to find King. She was initially filled with shock, but she couldn’t help but let out a heartfelt giggle at the small demon rubbing his behind. “King! Oh my god, what are you doing here?”
“Rescuing you,” he grunted. “Though maybe it wasn’t worth it, I think I actually might have broken my butt.”
Luz let out another laugh so hard that her sides hurt and her eyes watered. “Stop, I can’t breathe,” she huffed, blinking tears out of her eyes. She walked up to him and sat on her knees. Since her hands were cuffed, she settled for nuzzling his nose. “It’s so good to see you. Is Eda with you?”
“Yeah! She went to pickpocket the coven scout with your cell key. We’re gonna bust you out- hey why are you crying? You’re not still laughing at me for hurting myself, are you?”
“No, no,” she sniffed. She thought back to all the things Adrian had said just before this. “It’s just… you guys really came for me, huh?”
King’s expression softened. “Yeah. Listen, um, Eda feels really bad for letting you get captured. She seemed so worried about you, and I don’t see her act that way for very many people.”
Luz felt her heart melting. “Thanks for telling me that. I, uh, really needed to hear that.”
“Don’t mention it. Now, before I regroup with Eda to help break you out, I’m first going to need a formal apology from you.”
Luz stared blankly. “For what?”
“For mocking me earlier today! You disrespected the King of Demons by calling me adorable!”
“What? You’re still on that?”
“Yes! Now bow before me and start begging for my forgiveness, and maybe I’ll consider letting this go.”
Luz sighed. “I’m sorry. I was just really enamored by you when we met. I didn’t mean to insult you; I just really adored you.”
“You… adored me?”
“Yeah!”
King pondered for a moment. “Well, if your infantilizing was out of adoration, then I guess I can allow it. But only you and you alone are allowed to do so. Anyone else will be publicly executed for their blasphemy.”
Luz let out another giggle. “I’m honored.”
After their exchange, Luz let King climb up on her shoulders, allowing him to reach the air vent and make his way back out. Once he made it to the other side, he found himself surprised that Eda had already returned, twirling the keychain around her finger. “Back already?”
“Yeah, stupid guard was just patrolling this floor. Didn’t even notice when I snatched the key from her. Though I still put her to sleep just so we won’t have to deal with her later. How’d things go with Luz?”
“Well, no one’s inside the room aside from her. And I found out she adores me! So I’ve given her special permission to call me adorable.”
Eda, feeling a seed of anxiety grow in her chest, raised an eyebrow. “That’s all she had to say?”
“Yep! Well, she also seemed really happy that we came for her.”
“You little monster, why didn’t you lead with that?” Eda gave King a noogie, making him yelp in pain. Satisfied, she then approached the door, clicking the lock open with the key and slowly drawing it open to avoid any unwanted attention. She took off the guard mask, and her gaze met with Luz, who stared at her with warm eyes from the other side of the jail cell.
“Luz!” Eda quietly called. She ran to the cell door, quickly unlocking it and rushing up to unlock Luz’s handcuffs as King lagged behind her. She placed her hands on Luz’s shoulders. “I’m so sorry I left you behind. I didn’t know you were gonna get captured, and then I had to run back to the Owl House to prepare for the jailbreak and just- oh, I’m so glad to see you unharmed.”
Luz placed her hands on Eda’s. “Thanks… for coming for me. I’m not gonna lie, I’m still shaken up, and I do have some questions for you later, but…” she turned her head, suddenly not meeting Eda’s gaze.
Eda frowned. “What did they tell you?”
“Well, I got to talk with Adrian Graye.”
“You were approached by a covenhead?” Eda tried to keep her voice down despite her surprise.
“Yeah. He seemed really fascinated by the fact that I was human, and he even offered to set up an audience with the Emperor, so long as I renounced my ties with you and swore loyalty to him.”
Eda grumbled. “That bastard. I don’t know what game he’s playing, but I don’t like the sound of it.”
“Adrian also explained the coven system to me,” Luz continued. “To be honest, I still don’t know what to make of this world, but… the lecture video I saw did set off some red flags for me. I’d like to hear your side of things before I make up my mind.”
Eda showed a hesitant smile. “I promise I’ll explain everything. But first, we need to get out of here.”
“How tragic. I’m afraid you two won’t make it much further than this very room,” a voice spoke in the air, startling Luz and Eda. They both grew twisted expressions as they recognized who it belonged to. Their fears were realized as Adrian appeared in thin air, leaving behind a trail of smoke as he finished tracing a spell circle.