Page 168 of The Glittering Edge

“Run, Mom!” Penny manages to say as she scrambles backward.

“I can’t.” Anita’s voice is soft. Distant.

The Shadow has forgotten Anita for now. Instead, it’s fixated on Penny. It pursues her, climbing the steps as Penny runs up and up and up. The bleachers stretch farther and farther, and Penny can always see the top, but she never reaches it.

They could keep going like this forever.

Something glints in the corner of Penny’s eye. There’s the bloody ribbon, connecting the Shadow to Penny’s mom far below.

Penny stops, and the Shadow stops, too, flexing its claws.

She feints to the right. The Shadow follows Penny’s movement, lashing out—and its nails catch the ribbon, cutting it down the middle as Penny dodges.

The Shadow lets out a deep reverberation that sounds almost like a scream. Anita sucks in a breath, the sound echoing throughout the football stadium.

She’s free, Penny thinks, but the celebration is short-lived. They won’t be safe until they’re out of the Second World. She leaps down the bleachers and grabs her mom’s arm, and then they’re running toward the horizon.

They seem to run forever. They’re passing through a twisted Idlewood, all the buildings mere shells, full of shadows. Ghosts.

“Penny,” her mom says, looking behind them.

A few of the ghosts have broken off. They’re pursuing Penny and Anita, limbs elongating as they reach for them. Penny glimpses their eyes—pure white like Ellie’s.

Poltergeists.

Penny holds out the vial of honey, and the poltergeists fall behind. Even from a distance, their strange eyes are bright. Hungry.

They keep running, Penny’s leg throbbing the entire time, her blood floating into the sky. Just when Penny is convinced that they’ll never reach the horizon, they do. It glitters with dust and diamonds and fog, and there’s no seeing beyond it, but it’s where Penny’s lifeline leads.

They have to jump.

No, whispers a voice that sounds like a hundred voices.Not that easy.

The Shadow is suddenly right behind them. It reaches for her, ensnaring Penny’s ankles. She begins to fall and in that second, she has one choice. Her mom is already turning around, her mouth open in a half scream, ready to fight the Shadow to save her daughter.

But Penny has come too far to lose her mom. All of this can’t be for nothing.

Penny reaches out and pushes Anita with both hands, sending her over the glittering edge of the Second World.

The Shadow lets out an inaudible cry, sucking up all the noise around them. The edges of Penny’s mind go fuzzy, but she’s conscious enough to recognize that the Shadow is distracted. She kicks out, and the Shadow’s grip loosens enough that Penny can throw herself over the edge.

The blue light disappears. The Shadow reaches for Penny and her mom, spindly arms growing faster than they’re falling. They’re so close to the Veil, so close to making it out alive—

And then the Shadow grabs Anita, and before Penny can do anything, the scene disappears before her eyes.

Alonso

THE RAIN STARTS AS PENNY BEGINS TO FALL.

Alonso throws himself forward, catching her before her head hits the bleachers. Immediately there’s an electricsnapin the air. The crowd stumbles together, some people clutching their chests, others holding their friends and family members in protective hugs. The rain stops as quickly as it started, like someone turned off a faucet.

Someone gasps. “The sky!”

The menacing clouds fold back as the sky fades to a soft pink. The wind becomes a breeze and then disappears. Crickets start chirping again.

The whole thing took three minutes. Maybe less. Most of the crowd hasn’t even made it off the bleachers yet, and they look up in wonder, completely silent.

Penny isn’t awake. Her face is gaunt and the circles under her eyes are dark purple.

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