Suddenly they were airborne, and unspoken panic crackled all around them.
Luz looked up at the house's huge brown wings. "What? It's not supposed to do that!" she yelped.
Willow and Gus were pressing themselves against the front door as the increasing strength of the wind threatened to toss them to the ground. "Hooty's still in his trance!" Gus called. "If we can get him out of it-"
Blinded by the wind, Willow screwed her eyes shut. "It's not Hooty, though, remember? When we all held hands we stopped the house from going over the cliff! We have to stop the house, not Hooty!"
"But as soon as the house stopped, this happened," Luz replied. She glanced at Amity. "Amity? You're the magic expert here, what's going on? How do we get down?"
"The house," Amity began to grip Luz's hand even harder, as if Luz would be blown away like a leaf in the wind otherwise. "The house is flying. It's flying. House. Flying."
"Yeah, unfortunately," Luz said weakly. "Gus, Willow, get over here. We need to try again!" She was shouting now, begging to be heard over the strength of the gale.
Amity was beginning to put the puzzle pieces together. There was only one thing that was different about this Conjuring compared to the last, and only one variable that had been changed- her. The house's new transformation was her fault.
Would the shadows of her mistakes ever stop following her around?
Gus scrambled over to Luz and Amity quickly and grabbed ahold of Luz's other hand, and Willow stationed herself between Gus and Amity. As soon as all eight of their hands were joined, they were once again surrounded by the blue glow, and they felt the house freeze in midair.
"That's it," Lus whispered encouragingly, "Now we all need to focus."
Amity knew that there was some kind of "telepathic communication with the animated object" type thing that they were supposed to be doing, but she and her old friends had never managed it, so she wasn't completely sure how it worked. Nevertheless, she channeled all of her focus into connecting with Hooty- this would be so strange if I wasn't doing it for Luz- and strained with all her might to direct the house back to the ground. Was this even how it was supposed to work?
"Are we just putting it down here?" Willow asked. Amity recognized Willow's voice despite keeping her own eyes closed, directing all her senses toward Hooty. "Not, uh... where it's supposed to be?"
"Here is fine, we can figure out the rest later," Luz replied. She seems to be so confident and self-assured, Amity thought. Eda really must be a great teacher. Who would be able to guess that she's just a lost human looking for a place to fit in?
"I don't even know where here is," Gus pointed out.
"We'll figure that out later, too."
Then, somehow, the strength of the wind created by the house's wings began to flow towards the four witches, and Amity found herself fighting even harder to keep her heels dug into the dirt. "It's working!" she yelled. "Keep focused! Pretend you're taking your Abominations final and you don't want to disappoint your parents! Focus that hard!"
"Or whatever helps you!" Willow added.
If she wasn't trying to control a flying house while hanging onto her friends for dear life, Amity would have been embarrassed. "Yeah, that."
At last, the breeze died, the air went silent, and the metaphorical dust settled. Amity cracked her eyes open and, dazed, observed her surroundings. The house was standing on its legs, and Amity and the others were suspended several stories in the air. That can be fixed... She glanced at her friends. They were all gazing around in varied states of bewilderment and confusion. She waved awkwardly. "Hi. Uh... we did it... good job, guys?"
"That was a lot easier than I expected," Gus commented.
Luz blinked. "Where are we?"
"I'm not sure." It was too dark to make out much of anything beyond the line of trees they were facing, and Amity guessed that they were lucky that the full moon illuminated that much. If she squinted, she thought she could make out a tall wrought iron-and-brick fence in front of the trees, but perhaps it was a trick of the light. The more she looked, though, the more familiar the shape of the fence and the three-eyed insignia on the top looked, and after a moment she realized it was not at all her imagination.
A chill rushed through her that was definitely not the fault of the late-night breeze. "You know what? I might have an idea, actually. We should probably leave." She turned and rushed into the house.
Luz was hard on Amity's heels. "So what is this place?"
Amity reached a back room and stopped at the window, throwing open the curtain. Her heart dropped immediately. It was just as she'd feared. She could even see the light on in one of the upper rooms of the mansion she was staring at, and she knew exactly who was in it.
She looked back at Luz. "You remember Boscha from school, don't you?"
The grim line that Luz's mouth settled into told Amity everything she needed to know.
"Well, this is her house," Amity went on. "It's almost as big as mine. Rumor has it that her mom and my mom were so competitive when they went to Hexside that they even competed to see who could buy the bigger house after they graduated... my mom won by just a little bit. Anyway, we need to get out of here before Boscha and her minions see us."
"Right- they're having a Moonlight Conjuring tonight too, aren't they?" Luz laughed. "Well they certainly don't seem to be animating the house, so I guess we've got them beat in that category."
"Shh." Amity gripped Luz by the arm and dragged her back to what was left of the Owl House's front porch, where Willow and Gus were waiting.
"This is Boscha's house, isn't it?" Willow asked flatly when they returned. Amity nodded.
"That mean potions witch from the Grudgby team?" Gus groaned. "C'mon, of all the houses in Bonesborough with gigantic yards we could have landed in..."
Grudgeby. Amity made a mental note that she still needed to resign from the freshman team captain's spot before the semester ended. "That's her," she said. "And I can't let her see us." She swallowed nervously. "...If she hasn't already noticed the giant house with legs right outside her window."
"It's not like she'd mind if you trespassed," Willow added. "You're her friend."
Amity thought she could detect an edge of sarcasm in the other girl's voice, which made sense. Willow and Boscha weren't exactly on the best of terms. Ever since third grade Boscha had had a tendency to make Willow's life a living hell at school. She seemed to have calmed down since they became teenagers (save for the infamous Grudgby incident from three weeks ago slash a month in the future), but Amity knew that Willow had never forgiven her. I can't believe I did...
"Unless Boscha's really scared of legged houses," suggested Luz.
Amity shook her head. "No, it's not either of those things. I'll be honest with you about why we can't be here, but then we really have to go. Like, for real."
"Okay," Luz said.
Taking a deep breath, Amity exhaled slowly and sent a quick prayer to the stars that her new friends wouldn't be mad at her. This was what friendship was all about, right? Honesty? "If Boscha and her gang see me with you guys, they'll make fun of me," she confessed. "And I know that sounds shallow," she went on when Willow opened her mouth to protest. "I shouldn't care, because you're my friends, so it shouldn't matter who sees us together. But it's... a lot messier than that. My parents... they... well, it's kind of complicated. But really it comes back to them. I love being friends with you guys, I really do, but I don't think the rest of the world loves it too."
For a brief moment a flicker of familiarity flitted across Willow's face. Does she remember? Amity wondered. Of course she does, it was in her memories. But Willow said nothing that betrayed her knowledge that Amity was not telling the whole story.
Luz nodded in sympathy. "I know your parents kind of suck, like a lot . You can tell us more later, if you like?" she offered.
"I might." Of course she'd spill the entire story to Luz eventually. It's what you do when you're kind of maybe in love with someone, right? Reveal your darkest secrets to them and hope they still love you back? Not that Luz loved Amity back, of course.
Yet.
"Let's get going. I hate being around this place," Willow muttered.
"Please," Gus said. He shivered dramatically. "And I don't even know this Boscha girl very well."
Amity reached her hands out in hopes that Luz and Willow would grab them, but a voice sounded from below, and Amity found all her muscles had frozen in fear.
"That's too bad. Maybe you should get to know me. People tell me I'm a delight. Isn't that right, Amity?"
Willow cleared her throat. Her voice came out as a hoarse whisper. "We're too late, aren't we?"
Luz scrambled towards the edge of the grass the house sat on. She peered over the edge and shook her fist angrily at the ground. "Leave us alone, Boscha! We never did anything to you!" she snapped.
Seeing Luz stand up for them gave Amity the courage she needed. She let herself relax, and she stood at Luz's side. Sure enough, thirty or so feet below, Boscha was standing with her hands cupped around her mouth as if she was about to keep shouting. Skara and Cat were just behind her, backing her up like two scrawny fourteen-year-old bodyguards.
"Amity's human friend!" Boscha crowed. 'The one who made her go soft and abandon us. Awww. I should've guessed you'd be here!"
Amity longed to leap to the ground and show Boscha who the real boss... cha here was, but she restrained herself for Luz, Willow, and Gus' safety, if not her own. Instead she let her fury boil over from where she could safely stand. "I didn't abandon you! You told me just this morning that I wasn't allowed to come to your Conjuring because Lilith isn't my teacher anymore."
"Didn't you see the Penstagram post? No humans or their associates allowed!" Boscha bared her fangs. "And that means you. "
"I can't believe her fangs grew in before mine," Gus whispered. "That's so not fair."
"And what about your giant chicken house? What the heck is up with that?"
Skara and Cat let out two perfectly timed giggles. Amity couldn't help but roll her eyes. These people were an embarrassment.
"I'll have you know," Luz shouted defiantly, "that we animated the entire house by ourselves. The entire house. That's right! Amity said you've never pulled anything like that off!"
Boscha's face twisted into a look of disgust. "That is not a good look for her," Amity whispered to Luz, and Luz giggled. The sound filled Amity with warmth from her head to her toes.
"Maybe that'd be impressive if it weren't you," Boscha sniffed. "Traitor."
"That's an awfully strong word, Boscha," Amity said. "Sounds like you came right out of a Good Witch Azura book." She ignored Luz's immediate gasp of "WAIT, YOU LIKE AZURA TOO?" (Technically, that reveal wasn't supposed to happen until the weekend, but surely being a little ahead of time wouldn't mess anything up too badly.)
Boscha shrugged, not losing her signature scowl. "Whatever. I just wanted to tell you to keep your stupid chicken house off my lawn."
Amity drew back so that she stood closer to her real friends. "Fine, will do. Okay, glad that's settled. Everyone ready to go?" The other three nodded eagerly. Amity spared Boscha one more wave before joining hands with Luz and Willow and stomping the house away.
"You're lucky that I'm covering for you tonight for your parents!" Boscha yelled after them. "I'm not doing that anymore now! Also you're not allowed to sit with me at lunch! And I'll find a new potions tutor!"
"Perfectly okay by me," Amity laughed, though she was certain she was already out of earshot.
"Okay, that was fun and all, but my takeaway from this is that you like Azura?" Luz exclaimed. "Why didn't you tell me sooner? We've been friends for like two whole weeks already! That's like my favorite series ever and- you guys actually have those here? On the Boiling Freaking Isles? "
"Well, why don't you come with me to the library on Saturday night?" Amity suggested. "There's a... thing going on that I bet you'd love." Provided that I can keep you away from the pencils. "Plus, I've got something I want to show you..."