Page 48 of The Glittering Edge

“And you think there’s a chance you can do what only a legendary witch has managed to accomplish?” Corey says.

Alonso shrugs. “I’m willing to try. Plus, my mom is always saying I’m so much like my grandfather. Maybe that could work in our favor.”

“That’s not a compliment,” Corey says.

Alonso’s smirk fades. “Trust me, my mom doesn’t mean it as a compliment.”

Is that self-awareness or self-deprecation? Penny isn’t sure, so she says nothing. Corey goes back to mopping.

Penny changes the subject. “So where’s this spell? The curse-breaker?”

“It’s somewhere in my basement. That’s where we keep all our old books.” Alonso stands up, twirling his keys around his finger. “Let’s go. My mom and aunts are shopping in Indy today.”

Corey looks like he’s on the verge of saying no, but Penny cuts in. “I’ll drive separately. Corey?”

Corey frowns as he thinks about it, but he finally says, “Fine. But I’m using the back door. I don’t need my family seeing me at your house.”

Penny

IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL, THE KIDS USED TO PLAY A GAME.

In whispered voices, each person would have to choose whether they wanted to live in Meredith House or the De Luca home. They were polar opposites, and your choice was supposed to say a lot about you: whether you wanted to live in a haunted house or a mansion, whether you wanted to be friends with sweet Corey or wreak havoc with mysterious Alonso.

Once you made your choice, you had a task: to try to steal a flower or leaf or rock from the yard of the home you picked. You had one week.

Penny only managed it once. She lied, telling her mom she wanted to play at Elkie Lake. While her mom was getting her folding chair from the trunk, Penny dashed to the front yard of the home she’d picked, tearing a wildflower from the overgrown lawn. She still has the wood sorrel, which she pressed between the pages of her journal. Anita framed it for her, though she never knew that it came from a small patch of flowers outside the De Luca home.

The Barrions’ home is beautiful. But it didn’t set her imagination on fire the way Alonso’s house always did.

Now Penny is walking up to the front door for the first time. It looms before her, dark even in the bright evening sun.

Before Penny can knock, Alonso swings the door open and waits.

And waits.

“Are you coming in?” he says.

Penny forces herself to smile, hoping it hides how nervous she is. “Are you going to say hello?”

Alonso glares at her. But instead of snapping at her, he gives her a drawn-out “Hello,” bowing like a butler.

Penny stifles a laugh. She glances up at a rotting birds’ nest sitting in one of the windows before she finally steps inside.

It’s like walking into a gothic novel. Heavy curtains hang around stained-glass windows, and evening light filters through the glass in reds and greens and purples. The walls are crowded with paintings, photographs, and shelves holding vases of dead or dried flowers and rusting metal animal figurines. The furniture fits the era of the house, and most of it looks like it hasn’t been reupholstered in decades. The bones of a love seat peek out from tears in dusty purple velvet, and a throne-like armchair has one leg that’s an entirely different length and color than the rest of them.

“It’s exactly how I pictured it,” Penny says.

Alonso raises an eyebrow. “You pictured my house?”

Penny blushes. “I—no.”

A slow grin spreads across his face. “Come on. Corey is already in the basement.”

As Alonso leads her through the house, Penny glimpses a messy dining room and a kitchen with dried flowers and herbs hanging from the ceiling. Alonso opens a creaky door. “This way,” he says, disappearing down a dark staircase.

The basement is unfinished. The corners are crowded with undulating spiderwebs, and the floor is hidden by tall stacks of boxes, some of them overflowing with old clothing and Christmas decorations. A shred of sunlight peeks through tiny windows near the ceiling.

Corey is standing in the middle of the room, his arms crossed as he glances around nervously. “Is that the only light?” he says, pointing at the small light bulb overhead.

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