Page 140 of The Glittering Edge

Alonso opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. Because there’s nothing left to say.

It’s over.

Corey turns away and walks into the trees, and his dad keeps step with him. Alonso tries to follow, but Warren holds him back, his grip gentle on Alonso’s shoulder.

“You asshole!” Alonso yells at Corey. “You’re giving up. You’re fuckingpathetic!”

“Enough,” Warren says, but the word is soft and sad. That’s when Alonso starts crying.

Before the trees swallow him up, Julian turns around one last time. There’s dried blood beneath his nose.

“By the way,” he says, “you can thank them for leading us to you.”

He nods at some bushes close to the lake. At first Penny doesn’t see them. But then she glimpses a head of dark hair and a pink suit.

“Naomi?” she says.

Naomi stands up slowly, her terror and confusion palpable. Penny is so shocked she almost doesn’t notice there’s somebody with her.

It’s Dylan, somehow looking angry and regretful at the same time. And it’s clear from their faces they saw it all.

Penny

THEY STUMBLE OUT OF THE WOODS RIGHT WHEN THE AMBULANCEarrives. The lights wash the De Luca home and the Barrion mansion in pulses of red. Penny and Naomi are holding Alonso up, while Dylan flags down the EMTs. Alonso leans into Penny, and she can smell earth and blood on him.

When the EMTs walk up, words flow from Penny’s mouth like water. “He hit the back of his head, and it’s bleeding a lot, and—”

“I’m fine,” Alonso mutters for the hundredth time, but he lets the EMT shine a light in his eyes.

“Any ringing in your ears?” the woman asks.

“Yeah, but I already have tinnitus.”

“He could barely talk a second ago,” Penny says.

At Alonso’s old Victorian home, Vera De Luca appears on the porch. “Alonso?” she cries.

He salutes her.

Alonso’s mom runs down to meet them. His aunts appear moments later, both in mismatched pajamas and long lace robes.

“What happened?” Alonso’s mom grabs his shoulders and looks him over. “Are you hurt?”

“I fell and hit my head. I’m fine, I can barely feel it.” But even in the dark, his eyes look glassy, and the ends of his hair are matted with dried blood. Penny has seen enough medical dramas to know head wounds bleed a lot even when they’re not deep, but that doesn’t make the sick feeling in her stomach go away.

Alonso’s mom looks at Penny. “He fell. That’s the story?”

All the secrets Penny has kept this summer feel like ghosts, and they’ll continue to haunt her if she keeps them to herself. She’s about to admit everything to Alonso’s mom, but Donna De Luca speaks before Penny has the chance.

“James called us, Alonso,” she says. “You can stop pretending.”

Emilia is crying, and her voice catches as she says, “Why didn’t you tell us?”

“I asked him for help,” Penny says. “This is my fault.”

Alonso’s mom takes a shaky breath. “My family will be paying for this for a long time.” She says it without looking at Penny, but Penny knows the comment is meant for her.Look what you did. You’re going to cost us the only magic our coven had left.

“Who’s coming with him?” an EMT calls, and then Alonso and his mom are being ushered into the ambulance. Emilia and Donna De Luca are huddled off to the side, the former crying in silence and the latter puffing on a cigarette.

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