Page 78 of The Glittering Edge

“Okay. Thank you,” Corey says, the words bitter on his tongue.

His grandpa’s smile returns. His cane taps the ground again as he moves past him. “I’ll email you Julian’s report. You’ll need to critique it and get me your notes by tomorrow.”

“Yes, sir.”

When his grandpa is gone, Corey’s hands won’t stop shaking. Even though none of this was his fault, he feels like he betrayed Julian.He wants to pound the basement door until it breaks. He wants to turn back time. He wants things to be the way they were.

Except he can’t. He’s no witch. And for the first time, he wishes he was.

Corey’s phone starts to vibrate. It’s an unknown number, and he almost sends the call to voice mail until he sees the area code.

Bloomington.

“Hello?”

“Hey, Corey, it’s Milton Pierre. We met yesterday?”

Corey’s mouth goes dry. “Yeah, of course.”

“I’m calling because I looked through our records, and there’s a real old coven in Idlewood that hasn’t been active for a long time. Still might be worth looking into.”

“Really? Who is it?”

“The surname was Barnhardt.”

Barnhardt. That’s the coven that gave the De Lucas all their old books. “Didn’t they leave town a hundred years ago?”

“That’s what I thought at first. But I did more research, and it looks like they married into a different family and changed their name. They’re still in Idlewood.”

“They changed their name? To what?”

“Mayberry.”

Corey’s vision tunnels.

“Corey?” Milton says. “You there?”

“Thanks, Milton, I… thanks for doing that.” Corey hangs up before Milton has a chance to say goodbye.

Mayberry. Of course he knows that last name. Here he thought being with Dylan was a way to protect himself.

He never considered that, for the past three years, he might’ve been dating a witch.

Penny

“HEY!”

Penny jumps, suddenly wide awake. She hadn’t even realized she was dozing off. On the hospital bed, her mom’s chest rises and falls, the machines beeping in their now-familiar rhythm.

“Take a deep breath,” Naomi says. She’s standing at the entrance to Anita’s room, handbag hanging from her forearm. She’s wearing elaborate blue eye makeup, which must mean she recorded a makeup tutorial today.

“Hello eyeliner,” Penny says.

“It’s good, right?” Naomi drops her handbag onto the counter. “You were lost in thought.”

“Yeah. Dissociating helps.”

Naomi raises her water bottle. “Hear! Hear!”

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