Page 137 of The Glittering Edge

Penny’s knees go weak. She barely manages to keep herself upright. Her last bit of hope flickers dangerously. She looks to Alonso,hoping he’ll refute it, that he’ll break into a grin and tell them it all worked out. That Penny’s mom is safe. But Alonso shakes his head.

“What?” Penny says, the word coming out ragged and broken. After all this work and all this hope, this can’t be how it ends. “Can we try again?”

A shadow moves behind Alonso. At first, Penny thinks it’stheShadow. But it moves too fast, and when it steps into the light, it has human features.

She gasps. “Alonso, look out!”

Before Alonso can turn around, his entire body jerks, and he falls forward onto his knees, then flat onto his stomach. Behind him, a rock clutched tightly in his hand, is Julian Chaudhary.

“Alonso!” Penny screams, racing to him. She turns him over, but his eyes are closed, and his skin is covered in pale sweat.

Julian tosses the rock onto the ground. “Magic. That’s what I just saw, right?”

Corey steps in front of Penny and Alonso, blocking them from Julian’s sight. “What the fuck did you do?” His voice is a low growl.

“Nothing worse than what he’d do to us,” Julian says. “He’ll be fine. Probably.”

Fury rises in Penny’s chest. “Probably?!”

Julian turns his attention to Penny. “We’re safer like this. Or don’t you know the full story of what the De Lucas did to us?”

Someone runs up behind Julian. It’s James Barrion, out of breath and covered in sweat. He looks from Julian to Alonso to Corey, and his face turns horrified. He runs over and grabs Corey by the shoulders, examining him. He looks more unkempt than Penny has ever seen him, with his blond-gray hair disheveled and his white suit smudged with dirt around the ankles. “What did the boy do to you?”

“He didn’t do anything,” Corey says.

James’s panic disappears, and it’s replaced by barely concealed fury. “Was Julian right? A De Luca was trying to use magic on our family, and you helped him along?”

Corey shakes his head, looking dazed. Penny feels it, too: astrange, bone-deep exhaustion. It must be from the spell. Corey’s eyes find Penny’s, and he suddenly looks more alert. He kneels down next to her and lifts Alonso’s head onto his lap.

His hands are immediately covered in blood.

“Oh my god,” Penny gasps.

“We need to call an ambulance,” Corey says.

Of course. Penny scrambles for her phone in her dress pocket.

“You really don’t know what’s good for you, huh?” Julian says, staring directly at Penny.

“Why are you talking like you know so much about me?” Penny snaps.

“I know enough.” Julian nods at Alonso. “I saw you two kissing.”

Corey flinches. Penny suddenly has to look away from him. She was going to tell Corey about her and Alonso, but not today. Not when the stakes are so high. Despite everything, Corey and Alonso have a complicated history, and how would Corey feel about Penny being with Alonso?

Another, softer voice in Penny’s head asks,Why do you care?

Julian crosses his arms like he’s not mad, just disappointed. “Like mother, like daughter. You’ve both struck out in relationships.”

Penny forgets her phone for half a second, because the condescension on Julian’s face pulls her to her feet. Before she realizes what she’s doing, she closes the distance between her and Julian in three quick steps. She doesn’t give him a chance to react.

Instead, she reels back and punches him in the face.

She notices the pain in her own hand before anything else. She clutches it to her chest, but she registers the distant sound of Julian gasping as blood gushes from his nose. He’s sprawled on the ground, backing away from her like a skittish spider.

Two more people are approaching. One of them is Warren, the family’s security guard. And the second, hand gripping his cane, is Charles Barrion.

Corey’s eyes go round with fear.

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