Page 136 of The Glittering Edge

Alonso’s heart beats hard against his ribs. He focuses until his left eye can once again see the Primary World.

Penny and Corey are there, eyes closed, looking like they’re at the end of their strength. The wind is howling around them.

This is it. Alonso has to finish the spell before either of them gets hurt—or before Giovanni pulls Alonso across the Veil.

In the Primary World, Alonso takes a deep breath and yells, “Now!”

He holds up the tiny piece of knotted rope, and Penny and Corey do the same, struggling against the wind.

“Curse,” they say together, “you are unborn.”

They undo the knots. In Alonso’s hands, the rope shrivels and turns to ash. It gathers on the wind, and it’s suddenly visible to Alonso’s right eye as it travels between realms, to the place in between the Primary World and the Veil. It wraps around every single one of the threads connecting the Barrions to the bloody heart of the curse. The ash re-forms, becoming sharp silver bands that squeeze tighter, and tighter…

This is supposed to be it. With their incantations, and the tokens, and the unbinding—this should be the moment when the threads all snap.

Alonso feels a surge of confidence, because he knows they’ve done it right. The spell is strong because Alonso is strong. He’s going to accomplish what no witch since Park HaeJung has been able to do.

Except none of the bloody, fleshy threads snap. Instead, the tiny bands disappear one by one, and the threads are left intact.

“No,” Alonso says, and he grabs the thread again, the one connected to Corey. This time it burns, but not like fire. Like anger. Like greed and selfishness. It squeezes Alonso’s lungs until he can’t breathe. Desperate, he tries to pull it apart, again and again.

It doesn’t work.

“Careful,” Giovanni says. “You’re hurting the boy.”

From beyond Alonso’s vision, Corey cries out. Alonso gasps, dropping the thread and stepping back.

“Help me,” he says to the poltergeist. “Grandpa, please.”

“Why would I stop you before this gets good?” Giovanni says. “You don’t understand howboredI am.”

And then he disappears.

As the threads fade away, Alonso already knows they’ve failed.

Penny

THE WIND STOPS ALL AT ONCE. THE NIGHT IS EERILY QUIET AT FIRST,and then insects start buzzing again. The fireflies return, hovering over their heads, not daring to come too close to the ground.

There’s a current of magic running over Penny’s skin and down into the water at her feet. The world is vivid, and her heartbeat is steady, even though she feels drained.

She looks to Alonso. His eyes are closed, and his shoulders rise and fall with ragged breaths.

“Did it work?” Penny says.

“I don’t know,” Corey says. He’s bent over, his hands resting on his knees. His eyelids look heavy.

“It happened like it was supposed to,” Alonso says. He opens his eyes, and the left one is bright red.

“Oh my god,” Penny says.

“It’s only a broken blood vessel,” Corey says, but he looks worried.

Alonso doesn’t even react. It’s like he can’t hear them. He blinks slowly. “There were so many threads. That thing… it was like an organ.”

An organ.Penny moves out of the water. “What does that mean? Were you able to…”

Corey is standing straighter now, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off Alonso. “It didn’t work, did it?”

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