Page 35 of The Glittering Edge

The De Lucas tried to keep the pharmacy going after their magic was sealed. Alonso’s grandma Allison was mortal, but she could make some basic tonics by hand. She was convinced they could find a way to make it work. She spent every day at the pharmacy with three kids under age four, stocking the shelves and placing orders for the kind of mass-produced medicines they never used to carry.

A year later, the Barrions brought a chain pharmacy into town. That was the first blow. Then somebody started rumors that the De Lucas were putting human bodily fluids into their tonics. The customers stopped coming by after that.

Shame and frustration settle on Alonso’s chest. Even though he wants to blame the Barrions for what happened to the pharmacy, it’s more complicated than that. Because if Giovanni cursed the Barrions, Alonso’s family deserves to suffer.

Unless they could fix it, like Penny said. Unless Alonso could—

“Fuck that,” Alonso says out loud.

“Meow,” says a creature in the dark, and Alonso almost pisses himself.

A figure moves on the roof of his Shelby, settling herself in a patch of moonlight.

The panic leaves Alonso in a wave. “Nimble,” he growls, “I told you to stay at the house.”

She licks her paw, unbothered. Showing up at Alonso’s side is all part of her job description as his familiar. That’s the way it’s always been, ever since that day in the woods—the day Alonso used magic for the first time.

The day Penny found out what Alonso really was.

The Nimble resurrection was mostly an accident.

It happened during the fall of Alonso’s second-grade year. That season was especially rainy, and it had turned the De Lucas’ backyard garden into a labyrinth. Alonso spent most of his time outside, because his parents were fighting a lot, and being around them was like being swept up in an angry tsunami. Instead, he would wander through the garden, alternately pretending to be lost in the jungles of Neverland or that he was a contestant in the Hunger Games. He wasn’t allowed to go into the woods by himself yet, but occasionally he would wander too far and claim it was an accident, because how was he supposed to know where their garden ended and the woods began?

This was also when Alonso discovered he liked running. There was something about hurtling himself through the trees and over the roots that made him feel like a superhero rather than a villain. Most of the kids at school stayed away from him, and if they did talk to him, they all asked the same questions:Can you use a spell to make my sister’s tongue turn green? Is it true that your family watches everyone in Idlewood through puddles of rain? What do you see when you look regular people in the eyes?

“Regular people.” As though Alonso wasn’t one.

Alonso started spending so much time outside that he eventually discovered an overgrown path to Elkie Lake. If he ran fast enough, hecould get there in ten minutes. If he ran faster, he was convinced his feet could take him anywhere he wanted to go.

One day, when the ground was vibrating with thunder, Alonso set off for Elkie Lake at what he thought of as “top speed.” This meant when he got there he would have to collapse on the ground like someone who had just completed an important mission. It felt dramatic.

Except that day, Alonso was mid-stride when he tripped on a rock. A very small, soft rock.

While Alonso went flying face-first into the dirt, the not-rock slid across the ground, barely audible on the fallen leaves. Alonso scrambled to his feet, not even registering the cut on his cheek.

He had tripped on a kitten. Its eyes were open, unblinking, and its neck was twisted at a funny angle.

Alonso began to cry. He didn’t want the cat to be dead. He reached out and touched its neck.

There was thunder again, but this time, it came from inside Alonso’s veins. It was like a dam inside him had broken, and all the water was rushing through him. He almost blacked out.

Even at a young age, Alonso had heard a million stories about magic from his mother and aunts, how it can be painful when you’re learning to use it.All magic has a cost, his mom taught him, and that was how Alonso knew without a shadow of a doubt he was accessing some part of himself that was supposed to be locked away. He wanted it to stop, but it didn’t. All he could do was squeeze his eyes shut, and when he opened them, he was somewhere else.

It was the woods, but it wasn’t. The colors of the leaves were faded, and the branches were white and thin and twisted. It looked like they were reaching for him.

And there were peopleeverywhere.

They wandered around him, arms hanging limply at their sides. At first, their eyes appeared unfocused. Then Alonso realized they didn’t have eyes at all. Their sockets were hollow.

Alonso screamed, but nobody reacted. Because these people were dead. They wereghosts.

“Meow,” something said.

Alonso looked down, and there was the kitten, staring up at him. Like these ghosts, the kitten was washed out, colors faded, and it didn’t have eyes.

Alonso realized where he was. This was the Second World.

His aunts had told him stories about this place. The Second World is the realm across the Veil. It’s where the spirits of the dead—mortal, witch, animal—all congregate right after death, and the Second World is abuzz with their energy. Witches are connected to the Second World in a way mortals aren’t, and they’re able to draw on this energy to influence their own realm. It’s the source of all magical energy.

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