Page 106 of The Glittering Edge

Alonso’s unblinking gaze is locked on Penny. He’s wearing one of his silk robes over a Misfits T-shirt, and the blue of his hair is so faded it’s almost blond again. There’s a bottle of Fizzy Barrel Root Beer in his robe pocket.

“Have you seen Dylan?” Penny asks.

“No, why?” And then it clicks. “Did you give her the truth serum? How did it go?”

“Not good.”

Alonso’s smile falters. “It didn’t work?”

“It did. But she started answering questions I never asked her.”

“Like…?”

“Dylan told me things she never would’ve wanted me to know. Things thatIdidn’t want to know. And then she threw up, and now I’m not sure if she’s okay.”

“Huh.” Alonso presses his fist to his lips as he thinks. The gesture is distracting, and Penny averts her eyes to his earring instead. “Must’ve been the caraway seeds I added. But that would’vekepther from throwing up, so maybe it was something else.”

Alonso is like a little kid doing a science experiment with dangerous chemicals. Penny grapples for the right words. “Alonso, she was saying things against her will! She couldn’t stop!”

Alonso lets out a low laugh. “Are you seriously mad at me right now?”

“I—” Penny chokes on her words. How does she respond to that? “Dylan had no idea what was going on. Wehurther. The whole reason I’m at this party is because I was afraid to leave her alone.”

Alonso’s face contorts with anger—and Penny realizes she was yelling.

“So what?” Alonso says. “Did we get what we needed?”

The words are icy. This wasn’t how he was supposed to react.Penny expected him to be at least a little ashamed, but all he can think about is the end result.

“That’s not the point!” Penny says. “Your magic isstrong. You can’t pretend that using it won’t have consequences.”

“There will always be a risk. If you can’t handle that, we shouldn’t be trying to break this curse in the first place!” Alonso smirks, as if Penny is overreacting. “Dylan deserved it anyway. She would’ve done the same thing to you or anyone else.”

“We don’t get to decide what she deserves!”

Alonso steps closer, and the room is suddenly too warm.

“Well, that’s not why we did it, right?” he says. “We wanted to find out if her family cursed the Barrions.”

“Right,” Penny says, sharp and bitter. “And it wasn’t them.”

Alonso falls silent. For a moment they stare at each other, until he finally says, “Are you sure?”

“Nobody in Dylan’s family has used magic in a hundred years. They didn’t want to be ostracized.”

This sinks in like a boulder. Alonso takes a step back, starts saying something, then stops. He runs his hands through his hair. “Well, you should be thanking me, because at least we know.”

Penny can still feel the heat of the fire. She can see Ellie Barrion’s dead eyes. “There’s something else—”

“No,” Alonso snaps. “You don’t get to act like I did something wrong when I was trying to helpyourmom, okay?”

“That doesn’t mean you can play with people’s lives the way your grandfather did!”

It’s the wrong thing to say, but Penny realizes it too late. Alonso looks like he’s been slapped. Then his eyes become vacant.

“Alonso,” Penny starts, but he’s already walking away from her. “Wait!” she calls, but before she can follow him, one of the storage room doors bursts open, and Dylan stumbles out.

“Dylan?” a voice booms from behind her, and Royce walks out, his hair disheveled and his shirt half off. “What’s wrong?”

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