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Grom had been a very interesting and strange experience. Just like most things she had experienced at Bonesborough, Luz thought in a complicated frame of mind.
Nothing could beat the fact that a monster that turned out to be your worst nightmare lived under Hexside. It was as if the regular myths of the graveyard under the school, the ghost in the third-floor girls' bathroom, or the fatal accident on the stairs were completely real.
Although, well, all of that was pretty predictable considering that she was currently living on the corpse of a Titan in the Demon Realm.
Luz had already gotten used to that kind of thing.
In fact, all of that had taken a back seat after Grom, when she realized that some important things could no longer be ignored. Starting from the fact that her mom was unaware that she hadn't gone to that strange “Reality Check” summer camp.
Or maybe she already knew and was worried about her?
It was unlikely, considering the messages she sent her regularly, but Luz didn't know. The managers of the summer camp where she was supposed to have told her something, right?
Letting her mom know, sooner or later, was still unavoidable. And the reaction she would possibly have after learning that her daughter had been in a dangerous and bizarre place like the Demon Realm was scaring her.
And a lot, considering that Grom had recreated that situation.
But what could she do about it? Stop being with her friends to return to a world where most people outside the Internet considered her weird?
No way.
She still had a lot to do at The Boiling Isles. From learning magic to knowing more about all the interesting and complex things that existed there. Things like the existence of soulmates among the population of The Boiling Isles and perhaps, the entire Demon Realm.
Real soulmates
Not just some common plot used in fanfictions written by girls her age, or part of the fantasies that many have regarding finding true love.
Well, maybe Luz should have been a little more insightful to notice how from the start, when she found out that a girl had been locked up in the Conformatorium because she wrote about two vegetables being soulmates.
But come on! Luz had also written many fanfics with that trope!
She just didn't know. Or at least not until Grom's party happened and somehow, she found out everything she was supposed to know.
And —as cliché as it sounds— from that moment everything started to make sense.
Putting aside the fact that all of her friends had a soulmate and despite all the expectations she had as a human, she seemed to have one too.
Anyone could add one plus one, after all. And after learning that soulmates —the supposed gift given by the Titan— were capable of writing or drawing on each other's skin, the feeling that their own marks were related to that grew stronger.
It all worked out, in some way.
The marks on her skin that she had throughout her life and that could be erased on their own. The marks that seemed to have been made on purpose instead of being some disease that humanity was not aware of.
The same marks that once formed words related to what Luz now knew about the Demon Realm.
And now she knew it was no spell or curse.
They were her soulmate marks.
Even if she couldn't do magic conventionally, if she was human or if she didn't belong there, that must be the reason. Luz was almost certain of it.
But… there should be some reason why she might have that. She wasn't a witch and didn't even belong to the Demon Realm in the first place. Was it even possible for magic to work that way?
Many questions invaded her mind, like ants circling food that had fallen to the ground.
Could she really love someone she didn't even know? Who would be her soulmate? Would that kind of magic that bound them work well as a human being? What would happen from now on?
Could she even meet them during her stay at the Demon Realm?
Luz didn't know it, but she felt that she was quite predisposed to accept that special bond that she somehow always had with someone else.
She would never be alone again, whatever happens.
Amity was scared.
She wanted to keep pretending that nothing had changed in her life, but it had become more and more impossible. And Grom had been the last straw, she knew perfectly well.
Everything seemed to have been a plot of fate to expose a truth that she didn't dare to face. From the moment she had been named the Grom queen, until Luz decided to become her date for the party, Amity knew there was something weird about her.
A tingle in her heart that shouldn't have appeared every moment she interacted with Luz. A feeling that was far from just gratitude and friendship.
It could pass as a simple attraction. One that would be justified to some degree if she took into account that the human had been one of the few people who did not try to approach her out of obligation. She could also take into account that it was cute and interesting that Luz was so different from her.
But… it didn't feel like that.
Every time Amity saw her, she felt a tug, almost like a connection, that shouldn't be there. Not when she didn't seem to have a soulmate herself. Not when it was painfully obvious that Luz was a human.
Amity wanted to avoid getting excited about it, really. But it was impossible to cover the sun with just one finger.
Even if for some strange reason the brunette was her soulmate or at least they were linked in another way, Amity could only resign herself. It was a very dangerous thing to think of even showing her friendship in front of everyone.
Her parents would fervently object to it. There was nothing she could do was not befitting a witch of her level. And that included hanging out with people like Luz and Willow.
Amity felt helpless in this situation, but it was the truth.
They would never allow that, even if there was such a magical and special bond as soulmates involved. It's not like not being with her could kill her. At least not in the most literal sense of the word.
That unrequited feeling had been doomed to come to a bad end from the moment it appeared.
From her side, with her severe parents who would never allow her to stain the surname she bore, to Luz's side, where a sentence was getting closer and closer. She was human and had someone waiting for her outside of The Boiling Isles. This was not her place and she would have to return to her own reality sooner or later, Amity thought bitterly.
Luz would go away, and perhaps she would never come back.
It wasn't even about being soulmates anymore. Amity was content with simply being the friend of the only person who tried to understand her past actions; the first person to accept her for who she was. Amity wanted to continue by the side of someone as special as Luz, who although in her own way, always tried to help others in a brave way.
It panicked her to know that she would probably go back to her normal life after Luz left.
Amity should be more confident that she herself could go through with the decision she had made, but she had just managed to stop being so mean to others, especially Willow, and she still had a long way to go. A path that would be easier to continue on if Luz remained in Bonesborough.
She... she wasn't naive enough to think that she was completely a friend to Willow and Gus —their friendship relationship was 'complicated' at best—. That would change, in time, but she felt that it would be more for Luz than for other kinds of things.
Therefore, Amity couldn't simply accept that she would forget everything that would happen as if it were a small incident out of the ordinary within the things that her parents had carefully planned for her entire life. She couldn't accept that her freedom to show herself as she was might be temporary if the brunette left.
It was a selfish thought, Amity knew. Even if their paths parted ways in the future, she should be happy to have been a small part of Luz's life.
She should.
She should...