Rectification

Chapter 11

Amity relished the feeling of the cool night air hitting her face as soon as she stepped outside. It was refreshing in a way that the small, warm space of her hideout just wasn't. She made it all the way to the bottom of the stairs at the library's entrance before she realized that Luz wasn't with her.

"Luz?" she called. She turned in a circle, searching for her friend, but it only took her a moment to spot the telltale purple hoodie poised in front of the closed library door. Luz stood with her face to the sky, mouth agape. Amity looked up, but there wasn't anything remarkable in the sky- just the moon and stars, as always.

"Luz?" She climbed the stairs and stood at Luz's shoulder. "What... what are you looking at?"

"The stars," Luz whispered. She extended one arm and pointed at the sky.

Amity blinked. "What about them?" They didn't look any different than normal to her. Was Luz seeing another glyph? No, she already knows the ice spell, and she got that from the sky...

"We don't have them like that back in the human world, and so far I've spent so much time here fighting monsters and saving Eda from her curse and infiltrating magic schools that I haven't really been able to just look at them. They're so beautiful."

"Yeah." Amity found herself staring at Luz rather than at the sky. Beautiful was right. The wonder etched on Luz's face, the way she stood, the way the starlight shone in her dark eyes... Amity could look at Luz forever. She'd always known she liked girls, but never before had one enraptured her quite this much. "You are beautiful."

Luz snapped her gaze towards Amity. "What?"

"What?" Amity repeated.

"You said I'm beautiful."

"What? No, I meant the stars. The stars are beautiful." Luz looked a bit hurt at this, so Amity quickly amended herself. "I mean, you're... beautiful too, I... I just meant. Right now. The stars are beautiful right now. Not that you're not beautiful right now. You always are, that's just not, uh... the appropriate thing to say at this... very moment? We're not talking about you, we're talking about the stars. But now we are talking about you, so I guess... yeah. I just made it weird. I'm so sorry."

Luz looked bewildered for a moment, but eventually just shrugged. "Well, okay then. I think you're always beautiful too. Wanna go into town now? It looks like they've got a lot of lights on tonight. Is something going on?"

"The Wailing Star Festival," Amity replied, beyond relieved that Luz had changed the subject. "Games, food, all that good stuff. You actually picked a pretty good night for coming out here if you're into that kind of thing."

"Am I ever!" Luz flashed Amity a grin. "I love games and food! One time, at a county fair back home, I fit seven mini corn dogs in my mouth at once. I got a blue ribbon and a stomachache for my troubles."

"I have no idea how much of an accomplishment that is, but... good job?"

"Well, I beat everyone else there, so I'd say it is."

"I've never actually been to this festival," Amity said. "My parents don't like it when I'm out after dark, but Em and Ed are covering for me tonight. They think I'm studying at Boscha's."

"They always think you're studying at Boscha's, don't they?"

"Pretty much. It's the best excuse I've got."

"Didn't Boscha say something the other night... something about not covering for you anymore when you went and did something your parents didn't want you to?" asked Luz.

Amity shrugged. "That was an empty threat. She knows she'll get in trouble with her parents and mine if I'm not accounted for with her."

"That's good, I guess."