Page 155 of The Glittering Edge

Love,

Penny

Alonso reads the letter again, and again, and again. His eyes keep finding her signature.

Love. Penny saidlove.

Then he looks at page two, and he wants to punch something.

This is bad. Penny is attempting some sort of spell. She’s going to cross the Veil.

“She can’t,” Alonso says. “She doesn’t even have a witch to do this spell. There’s no way.”

“Meow,” Nimble says, standing on her hind legs and reaching for the envelope.

“This is mine,” Alonso says, tilting the envelope and letting the final piece of paper fall into his hand.

But it’s not paper. It’s a soft roll of parchment.

He unrolls it and reads it. Then he reads it again.

This is real. He can feel it in the words, in the signature written in blood.

This is Giovanni’s blood oath.

Just like that, Alonso finds himself in a brand-newafter.

Penny

IT’S THE FIRST DAY OF SENIOR YEAR, AND PENNY HAS SPENT MOST OFit stalking her ex–best friend.

She walks by Naomi’s locker between classes. She sits at their old table at lunchtime and spends extra time hovering around the art classroom, hoping Naomi is taking another painting class. But she never shows up. Penny wishes she could text her. Could Naomi be sick? Or is her schedule really that different from years past?

After the last bell, Penny finally gives up. As people are packing up and migrating toward the parking lot, Penny pushes into the girls’ bathroom, sits in a stall, and finally lets herself cry.

She wants everything to go back to normal. Except what is normal? Before this summer, “normal” was Penny and Alonso never speaking. It was picnics at the cemetery with Penny’s mom. It was Naomi always texting back.

Penny did everything she could to keep her life the way it was. And now it’s unrecognizable. She isn’t even sure what she’s longing for anymore.

She stays in the bathroom stall until the halls outside grow quiet. But when Penny opens the door, she freezes—because Naomi is there, reapplying liquid lipstick in the mirror.

“About time,” she says. “I’ve been in here for twenty minutes.”

“You have?” Penny whispers.

“Yep.” Naomi glances at her in the mirror. “You’ve got a dried booger on your cheek.”

Penny retreats into the stall and slams the door. As she cleans her face, Penny blurts out, “I miss you.”

Naomi sighs. “I miss you, too.”

Penny opens the stall door. “But you blocked my number.”

“Yep.”

“And I’ve been such a bad friend.”

“And maybe I have, too.”

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