Page 153 of The Glittering Edge

“Man,” Milton mutters. “Yeah, it’s possible. But crossing the Veil is different for mortals. It’s easy for you to lose your way back to your physical body. You would need to cross the Veil with a ton of living people around you. Like at some sort of event. Their energy will act like a beacon to lead you back to the Primary World. That alone will make the spell—or spellsplural—more complicated. It could work, but the odds are against you.”

“Maybe I can use a protection spell across the Veil? Something like the ward?”

“I don’t have time to make another one.” Milton presses his fist to his mouth. “There’s a workaround. You’d need to find a pure silver necklace. I don’t care if it’s hundreds of dollars, just buy it and return it later. Then soak your mom’s ward in honey so that it absorbs some of its magic. Put the honey in a vial and hang it from the necklace. It’ll protect you, but not for long.”

“And you’ll help me cross over?”

“If you’re determined to do this, I can’t stop you.”

“That’s not what I asked.”

“Fine.” Milton groans. “Consider this my penance for binding Alonso’s magic. That li’l bitch is never gonna let me hear the end of this.”

In the distance, a figure appears outside the office. It’s a young woman with short dark hair, not unlike Ellie Barrion’s. She looksaround, and when her eyes land on the Prius, they narrow in suspicion. She starts walking over.

“I’ll call you back,” Penny says, hanging up before Milton can ask any questions.

Penny should stay. She should tell the woman where her key is. But she has Ellie’s purse sitting in the passenger seat.

So Penny turns on the car and speeds out of the parking lot. The girl runs after her for a moment, but soon she’s out of sight.

There’s this idea that summer changes people. A few months out of school and you can come back shiny and new. People will watch you walk down the hallway, wondering who you’ve become. Because they can tell you’ve grown.

This summer has changed Penny. But she’s not sure if it’s changed her in a good way, because she no longer feels like herself. Instead, she’s made of desperation.

Alonso

THE NIGHT BEFORE THE DE LUCAS LEAVE IDLEWOOD FOREVER, ALONSOhas a weird dream. To be fair, his dreams have always been weird. Some are about adventures on alien planets. There’s another recurring dream where he keeps looking in the mirror and seeing faces that aren’t his. But lately, his sleep is haunted by reality.

Specifically, he’s haunted by Penny.

The dreams are usually supercuts of moments from this summer, and somehow this is worse than any nightmares his brain could make up. Alonso always wakes up sweating, because they all end with the way Penny looked at him the last time he saw her. Like he was breaking her into pieces.

But tonight’s dream is much worse. In it, Alonso sits in the bleachers at Idlewood Central’s football field. It’s completely empty except for him. The sky is a bright, hazy purple.

Alonso leans forward on his knees and sighs, but there’s no sound. He tries again, clearing his throat, then speaking, then shouting. Every time, his voice is lost in this vacuum. Then his eye catches on something above him, and he looks up.

It’s Anita Emberly. She’s floating upside down, like she’s walking on the clouds, but she’s close, and she’s looking right at him. Her mouth moves in quick, silent words.

“Alonso!Alonso!”

Sound hits him all at once, and he hears himself screaming. He sits up in bed, his throat raw, tears running down his face.

His mom sits on the edge of his bed, her face lined with worry. She grabs his chin and forces him to look at her. “You were having a bad dream.”

Alonso’s body shakes with sobs. His mom puts her arms around him, and he cries into her shoulder.

“I messed up, Mom,” he keeps saying. “I messed everything up so bad. And now Penny, and Mrs. Emberly… oh god, it’s all fucked up.”

She shushes him. “Breathe with me.”

Alonso tries, closing his eyes and syncing his own breathing with hers. He doesn’t even notice that he isn’t crying anymore until his mom pulls back and gives him a soft smile. It’s the first time she’s smiled at him in weeks, maybe months, and something unwinds in his chest.

“Do you want some tea?” Vera asks.

Alonso isn’t going back to sleep anytime soon, so he follows his mom downstairs and sits at the kitchen island as she boils water. The house is full of boxes, and most of the cabinets are empty, but Vera left out the essentials they would need for breakfast before they leave for Bloomington.

Alonso glances at the clock. “It’s eleven thirty? I thought it was later.”

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