Page 156 of The Glittering Edge

Penny’s eyes well up again. “No, you haven’t.”

“I mean, I haven’t beenasbad.” Naomi holds out her arms. “Hug?”

Penny starts sobbing again, and she basically throws herself at Naomi, crying into her shoulder and mumbling, “I’m sorry, I’m sorry.” Naomi holds her tightly and wards off anyone who comes through the door with tactful side-eye.

Eventually Penny steps back, and she grabs Naomi’s arms. “I should’ve told you everything from the start.”

“True, but we both went through a lot this summer. I was thinking about it, and—god, Penny, I don’t know what I would’ve done in your situation. But!” She points a finger in Penny’s face. “If there’s any more magic going on, you are obligated to keep me informed.”

“Right.”

Naomi examines her. “You’re making a face that says there’s more magic going on.”

This time, Penny tells Naomi the truth. After she explains the basics, Naomi looks mildly terrified. “Are you sure you want to do that? What we saw last time, in the woods… it wasscary, Penny.”

“I’m sure.”

Naomi nods. “Then I’m helping.”

“Naomi—”

“Remember that argument we had about letting me make these decisions for myself?” Naomi slings an arm over Penny’s shoulder. “This is one of those moments.”

That evening, Penny writes Corey a long text detailing her plans to cross the Veil. She tells him about the blood oath. About the plan she’s created with Milton. That they’re going to do the spell during the football game in two days—and that they need him.

Penny presses send and waits to hear back. And waits.

But Corey ignores her in math class. He moves past her in the hallway without making eye contact. At lunch, he doesn’t even glance up when Penny walks by his table.

Whether Corey joins them or not, they’re doing this spell, so Penny distracts herself from his silence with preparations. She buys a pure silver necklace on Etsy with her emergency credit card. She soaks her mom’s ward in honey. And she repeats the words to five different unraveling spells until she has them memorized, in the hopes that one of them will sever the link between her mom and the curse.

And then, on the day of the football game, she’s walking to homeroom when she gets a text. It’s from Corey.

I’m in.

Penny presses the phone to her chest, breathing out a sigh of relief. Now they need one more person to make their circle.

Penny knows exactly who to ask.

It might be foolish, but the spell will be easier if they have another witch. And, unfortunately, there’s only one other coven in Idlewood.

At lunchtime, Penny waits at Dylan Mayberry’s locker.

“This is a surprise.”

Dylan is in her maroon-and-white cheerleading outfit, sticky gems on the outer corner of each eye. She stares at Penny with enthusiastic disinterest.

“So much school spirit,” Penny says.

Dylan narrows her eyes. “Did you need something?”

“Yes, actually.” Penny fills Dylan in on their plan. Dylan’s expression stays grumpy the entire time.

“I could sabotage you,” Dylan says when Penny is done with her speech.

“True.”

“So why ask me? Seems like a bad idea.”

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