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Three days after her nineteenth birthday, Claire says goodbye to Heili Hjarta.
She kisses Jim on the cheek, tells him she still loves him, before walking out of their apartment.
She hugs Blinky, waves to Merlin, and gives Gilta a firm handshake before carrying her suitcase out into the sunlight.
The first thing she does is go into the Janus Order headquarters a few blocks from Heili Hjarta and ask if she can stay with anyone for a while. The changelings there, no longer foe but friend, are glad to help her.
She ends up staying in the guest room of a changeling named Kavyn for a few weeks, working and trying to make enough cash to find an apartment of her own.
Claire sees herself in the mirror one night, coming home from a shift at the record shop she worked at, and wonders how she got here. Her hair is completely white, except for the one streak that had once been the only white one. Instead, it’s black, black as night. Bags collect under her eyes, concealer melting away with her stress. Her clothes are rumbled.
She cries herself to sleep that night, and in the morning she leaves on a bus going somewhere else. Anywhere else.
She ends up an hour away from Bayonne and Heili Hjarta, near an apartment building managed by another changeling. They offer her an apartment, a tiny one that they can’t seem to sell.
Claire moves in and sleeps on a couch the previous tenant left behind. The apartment smells like rotten eggs, but she figures that with some Febreeze, it could be a home.
She misses Jim, but she doesn’t miss Heili Hjarta. She misses Arcadia Oaks, her parents, her brother. She misses Toby, Darci, Mary, hell, maybe even Steve. She misses Blinky and Argh, but definitely not Merlin.
She curls up on the couch, wrapping herself in that same blanket they brought to Heili Hjarta.
The little town of Dover isn’t like Bayonne or Arcadia Oaks. The citizens ask if she’s alright if she looks a little tired working at the bookstore she started working at. She waves them off with a smile that’s forced, but she’s learned to hide the difference. Her boss lets her practice of his old electric guitar when she’s on break, and eventually lets her keep it.
She writes a few songs when she has the time. She writes songs about Jim, about the Eternal Night, songs that seem like nonsense without knowledge of trolls.
Eventually, Claire plays a few shows in Dover. She feels magic seep through her fingertips when she plays, some nights. Her guitar never has to be tuned, always playing loud and clear even when the room is chaotic. She can’t restrain it, like the strings draw it out of her with every chord.
One night, a girl with wicked pink hair comes up to her after a show. “Trolls, huh? Interesting thing to sing about.”
“It’s a metaphor,” Claire says, the excuse ready to go as soon as she hears the question.
“I could feel your magic,” the girl says, grinning. “You a witch?”
Claire nods. She’s not a witch though. The truth is, the magic she knows was a mistake. It oozed out of her after Morgana got her claws on her, a fountain of potential when she was angry or sad or even just happy.
She hates her magic, except when she plays.
“Cool. If you ever want to make it a duo act, call me.” The girl gives Claire a slip of paper with her number on it. “By the way, the name’s Lily.”
Claire watches Lily walk away, before putting the paper in her pocket and continuing to pack up her gear.
She calls Lily the next day, asking her to come over. Lily brings her own character, newer than Claire’s and the same pink as her hair.
“What’s up with the white locks, anyways?” Lily asks after they’ve jammed out.
“Long story,” Claire says. Her hair’s grown longer, since she hasn’t had a haircut since she lived in Arcadia. Occasionally, she’d trim the split ends, but the hair now reached her elbows.
“I’ve got time,” Lily replies, and Claire smiles.
In return, Lily tells Claire about her mother who got possessed and disappeared for ten years before returning out of the blue. Lily was born a year afterwards, with magic she still could never control.
“Music’s the only way that I can control it,” Lily mutters. Claire, fingers running over her guitar, understands her too well.
Claire turns twenty with Lily by her side as they rock out on the stage of a rock festival a few hours from Dover. They eat burgers at a food truck at the event, listening to a Papa Skull tribute band. Lily proposes a toast to rock, burgers and birthdays, and Claire bumps her burger with Lily’s while laughing.
She stills misses her friends and her family, but here is a little more friends and family. She doesn’t feel as far from Arcadia Oaks here, laughing at Lily’s jokes and listening to covers of her favorite Papa Skull songs.
Claire and Lily move out of Dover a few months later. They wander for a while in Lily’s van, playing at any place that’ll take them for the night, and end up in Seattle.
They give themselves a name, Morgana’s Scorn. It’s badass, a fact they both agree on. Claire thinks of Morgana in the shadow realm somewhere, wondering if they are her scorn.
A record label there finds them at a show, playing a song Claire wrote about the Eternal Night, and offers them a deal. They jump at the oppurtunity.
The night Claire turns twenty-one, they release their first album. They name it
Veins and Chords
. Claire buys a bottle of champagne and they drink it in their apartment, writing songs while drunk about throwing wizards out of windows.
When
Merlin Can Eat Cement
becomes a top ten single, Claire laughs her ass off. She wonders if Jim knows about her success, if he played the song during training and if Merlin heard. She wonders if Toby heard it and played it for Mary and Darci, who joked that
there’s our girl Claire
.
They release another album. Lily wrote most of the songs, a sadder album but
Merlin Can Eat Cement
somehow made its way on there.
Choking With Guitar Strings
was an instant hit.
Her favorite song from that album is one she and Lily collabrated on. Lily started it, but near the end, she broke down crying and Claire helped her finish it.
Witch Hunt
was the saddest song on the album, one about Lily’s experience with her magic and a little bit of Claire’s own experience with Morgana’s possession.
The first time they played the song, they both nearly cry, but the dryness in Claire’s throat gave the song the depth it needed.
Their manager is impressed. They made it big, and Claire felt like she should be happier.
She cuts her hair into a pixie cut, while Lily grows her hair out. It’s clear with time that Lily’s hair isn’t dyed, at least not chemically. Her pink hair is a mess, but it’s a look that suits her well.
On her twenty-second birthday, their manager proposes the idea they go on tour after releasing their new album. Lily is estatic, and for once, so is Claire. Their newest album is almost finished, more about their experiences with music and magic. She wonders how many witches and wizards listen to their music and relate to it.
Spells
releases, and two days later they post about them going on tour. Their fans are excited, commenting with glee and excited emojis.
The tour is daunting, but Claire is happy when one of the spots on the map is Arcadia Oaks. Dover is there too, but not Bayonne.
At the Arcadia Oaks show, she sees Toby and Darci. They invite her and Lily over for dinner, and Claire practically drags Lily to their apartment.
Toby and Lily get along surprisingly well, and Darci fears they’ll go out and vandalize something. They do, but neither of them get caught. Claire thanks Merlin, although she knows he’s fucking around in Heili Hjarta, not keeping Toby and Lily in check.
Claire and Lily spend their time in the tour bus trying to work on their magic. Claire manages to shuffle a deck of cards without touching them, while Lily almost sets the shower in the back on fire.
The midpoint of the tour is Claire’s twenty third birthday. They’re on the road that day, but they go to a diner in the middle of nowhere and have birthday pancakes. Lily tries to order wine, but as expected, there was none to be had.
Claire enjoys her pancake while
Merlin Can Eat Cement
comes on the radio and Lily lipsyncs along into her fork.
They reach Dover a few weeks later. Claire is energized as she and Lily jam out on stage, their magic about to blast a speaker or two. The show seems to fly by, and as soon as she’s off stage, Claire lays down in their dressing room.
There’s a knock on the door. Lily gets up from where she was reading some crappy romance novel and answers it.
“It’s a dude named Jim?” Lily asks.
Claire sits up. “Can you give us some privacy?”
Lily grabs her romance novel. “I’ll be in the bus.” She leaves and Jim steps in. He’s
human
, or he looks human.
“Jim,” Claire mutters. He looks as tall as his troll form, dark stubble covering his jaw. He wears a tank top with the
Morgana’s Scorn
logo on it and a pair of black jeans as he sits next to her on the floor. “Is it a mask or…”
“Merlin made me into a changeling. Kind of. It’s complicated.” He smiles, bottom canines just a little too sharp.
“I missed you,” she whispers. “Did you like the show?”
“Yeah. I missed you too.” He paused. “Are you okay?”
“I jammed a little too hard.” She grins. “How’s Heili Hjarta?”
“It’s good,” Jim says. “I think Blinky’s waiting for Merlin to be thrown a window, but it hasn’t happened yet.”
“Poor Blink.”
“So, rock star, huh?”
“Yeah.” Claire wants to fall asleep against Jim’s chest, she’s so tired. She wonders if Lily would be mad if she invited him back to the tour bus for the night.
“Do you think you’ll ever come back to Heili Hjarta?” Jim asks.
“I might. I may have sealed my fate as a punk rocker.”
Jim smiles again. It’s a different smile though, a saffer smile. “You look good with the new haircut.”
“Thanks.” Claire runs a hand through her short hair. “Do you wanna come back to the tour bus for a while?”
Jim gets up. “I wish I could.” He offers a hand to Claire, and she accepts. “But a Trollhunter never rests. Gilta expects me back before midnight.”
Claire pulls him into a hug. He smells like earth and sweat, with a little bit of magic. The magic of the amulet, bitter like coffee with the scent of fir mixed in. “I’ll miss you.”
“I’ll miss you too,” Jim whispers. He lets go, and so does she.
It’s a long time until she thinks about returning to Heili Hjarta. She’s stopped aging and so has Lily. They’ve stopped releasing albums, still popping up to play a show or two.
Claire is tired of her life in Seattle. Lily wants to go somewhere else, but Claire has one place in mind.
At thirty-three, Heili Hjarta still opens for her. Jim welcomes her back, with her guitar and suitcases. Her white hair is long again, that black streak refusing to leave. She lets Jim run his fingers through it, leaning into his chest.
She knows she’ll leave again, someday. But for now, Jim’s fingers tangled in her hair and warmth in her heart, she’ll be staying for a while.