Page 34

Penny

SKYCAT HAS A TON OF INFORMATION, SOME OF WHICH MIGHT BE HELPFUL in the long run. Unfortunately, the website hasn’t been updated since approximately 2003.

“Come on,” Penny mutters from her table at the empty Horizon Café, which is now cleared of customers after an unusually busy Tuesday afternoon. SkyCat’s cursor is a tiny wand with sparkles shooting out the end—a weird attempt at witchy humor, since they don’t even use wands—but it’s turned into the I-refuse-to-load spinning wheel instead.

When SkyCat finally loads, Penny sits up, resuming her search for information on the Shadow. She’s tried a bunch of different terms— apparitions , specters of death , and even the word shadow , though that felt like a long shot. She’s read a hundred pages of historical records on curses that made people gravely ill (less common) or hexes that made them lose all their shoes (surprisingly common). But all of these curses occurred over two hundred years ago; since the Council started punishing covens by sealing their magic, witches have mostly left curses in the past. Which also means there is hardly any recent information about them to indicate what the Shadow really is, or why Milton wouldn’t have wanted Corey to know about it.

Penny presses her palms to her eyes as she tries to think. Her mom saw the Shadow that day at the cemetery, and Penny saw it later at the hospital. Then it appeared in her dream.

But no, there was one more time Penny might’ve seen it. It was the night of Corey’s Fourth of July party, while she and Naomi were sitting on Penny’s roof. She saw movement in the trees, but at the time, she thought it was—

A ghost.

Penny clicks on the search engine again and types ghosts and curses . There’s only one result, about a curse from the eighteenth century. This one was cast by an English witch named Eldrice Bayer, who was so in love with a woman named Annette that she cursed anyone else who looked at her “with lust.” And the curse itself? It shrank people’s hearts.

“Toxic,” Penny mutters. She keeps reading, and she finally finds mention of ghosts:

Bayer herself grew to regret the curse, for it killed the man Annette had decided to marry. While Annette was not in love with him, he would’ve provided her with safety and wealth, and so Annette scorned Bayer ever after, until Bayer became a ghost of her former self.

Of course ghost is being used as a metaphor. Penny almost shuts the laptop, but something keeps her scrolling. Another paragraph catches her attention:

Bayer was inspired by spells of yore that bound afflicted spirits together and used their combined energy to make the magic stronger over time. This methodology is particularly effective in curses, but it has also been used in earthly covenants between witches and mortals.

Penny suddenly can’t breathe. This can’t mean what she thinks it means, but she has to know for sure. Her fingers fly over the keys as she searches for any articles mentioning curses and the binding of spirits.

Penny clicks on the first result. It’s not about curses specifically, but the moment she starts reading it, a sick feeling roils in her stomach.

Often, witches will employ the help of spirits in carrying out dark magic. A witch may bind the ghost to the terms of the spell itself, forcing the spirit to do their bidding. Eventually, the spirit monolith may be strong enough to cross into the Primary World—the world of the living.

A spirit monolith . What does that mean? Penny rereads it, and she keeps coming back to one sentence: A witch may bind the ghost to the terms of the spell itself…

Does that mean the curse is using the spirits of people it killed to do its bidding? And if that’s the case—

Penny slams the laptop shut.

Corey said that the Shadow was a harbinger. That it meant the curse was about to kill someone. But that’s not the full story. Milton didn’t want to tell Corey about the Shadow, and now Penny understands why. Because Corey’s mom, his uncle, his grandmother—all of them might be serving the curse against their will. They might be the Shadow.

Maybe the Shadow isn’t as harmless as Corey thinks. It might be the Shadow’s energy that allows the curse to work. Even the fact that they can see the Shadow in the Primary World means the curse has a huge amount of power—all thanks to the people who have died and can never escape it.

Penny feels suddenly sick. She slides into the corner of the booth, pulling her knees to her chest. She needs to clear her head, but she can’t. The curse is worse than a death sentence; the victims are tied to it for eternity. And if Penny’s mom dies, she’ll also be part of the Shadow. Forever.

“Are you crying?” says a voice over her shoulder.

It’s Alonso. She didn’t even hear him come in.

“No,” Penny says, quickly wiping a tear from her face.

The booth squeaks as Alonso leans over the back of it to look at her. He’s close. She can see the flush in his pale cheeks, probably from the hot day outside. Penny doesn’t want to like anything about this, because liking it makes her feel like she’s in a boxing ring without gloves. Like she’s asking to be hurt.

“Find anything good?” he asks, nodding at her laptop.

“Not yet,” Penny says, because she can’t talk about this with anyone. Between this revelation about the Shadow and the photo she found of Giovanni at the Barrions’ gala, she’s overwhelmed. And really, do Corey and Alonso need to know any of this? They’d just get upset, maybe even angry, even though nothing has changed. They need to stay focused and break the curse, and Penny can’t give them another reason to fight.

Penny will keep following these threads on her own. If they lead her anywhere, she’ll share everything she knows with Corey and Alonso. In the meantime, she changes the subject.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you about the blood oath.” How does she say this without insulting him? But this is Alonso, so Penny chooses the blunt route. “It really drained you. Do you think you’ll have enough magic to do the curse-breaker spell?”

Alonso interlaces his fingers. “If I was like other witches, and I grew up practicing magic every day of my life, I’d have plenty of reserves. But magic is like a muscle.”

“So you need to practice more before we break the curse?”

“Yep. I’ve been doing some magic on my own, but I need help for this next spell.”

Penny nods. “Sure. What do you need?”

Alonso grins. “What are you doing tomorrow after work?”

“I’m going to the hospital. Why, what’s happening tomorrow?”

“It’s a surprise.” Alonso waggles his eyebrows.

Penny can’t help laughing. “I’m not sure I trust your surprises.”

“You’ll love this one, I promise. Take an hour off from Mom duty and come to Neon Lanes at five.”

Penny freezes. “Neon Lanes?”

“Yep. And don’t bring Corey. He’s been especially broody lately, so we can give him the night off.”

Penny feels like a human water fountain, her blood rushing and swirling in her veins. Is this… a date?

No. There’s no way. Just because Alonso might’ve tried to kiss her one time doesn’t mean anything. Except, if that’s what happened, it means something . But what?

Alonso goes to the back to get the cleaning supplies. For her part, Penny sinks farther into the booth. It’s not a date. They’re going to practice magic, and that’s all.

You shouldn’t want him , she reminds herself.

If only it was that easy.