Page 54

Alonso

THEY’RE SITTING AT THE WATER, FINGERS INTERTWINED. ALONSO CAN still taste Penny on his mouth.

After years of wanting her and believing it would never happen, Alonso isn’t even close to sated. He wants more.

But the gravity of the night has become suffocating. Penny is staring at the water as it glances silver, reflecting the moon. Alonso squeezes her hand, and she finally looks at him.

Something about Penny makes sense at a molecular level. It’s logical but not. Familiar but not.

I love you , Alonso thinks, and he wants to say it even if it’s too much.

But he doesn’t get the chance, because there’s a steady rhythm moving through the trees, growing louder. A few seconds later, Corey emerges into the clearing. His eyes find them in the bright night.

“Corey!” Penny says, pushing to her feet.

“What took you so long?” Alonso says, glancing at his phone. “It’s midnight. We need to get everything set up.”

But Corey doesn’t answer. He just strides up to Alonso and shoves him. Alonso flails, barely finding his balance in time.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Corey says.

So Corey heard Alonso was at the gala. Alonso straightens up, trying to project an ease he doesn’t feel. “I had nothing better going on.”

“I’m being serious. Did you want them to catch us?”

“I was there for like three minutes. Calm down.”

“Wait,” Penny says, squinting at Corey. “Is your cheek swollen?”

“It’s nothing.”

Penny crosses her arms. “How did you know Alonso was at the gala?”

Alonso’s stomach drops. Penny is right.

“Was it Julian?” Penny asks.

Corey frowns. “So you met him.”

“I should’ve known he was watching,” Penny mutters. “Do you think he’ll tell more people?”

“He won’t,” Corey says, “until someone finds him.”

It’s the scariest thing Corey has ever said. Alonso is almost impressed.

They fall into a tense silence. Everything that’s happened these last few weeks has led to this moment, but now they’re frozen. Alonso’s stomach roils with nausea. It all feels too big. Like he’s about to do surgery on someone without going to medical school. Why did he think he could make this work?

Penny reaches out, squeezing Alonso’s shoulder. “Ready?”

Alonso swallows. He looks up at Corey, who nods.

“Let’s do this,” Alonso says.

Then they’re all in motion.

Penny takes off her shoes. Corey tosses his suit jacket aside and rolls up his sleeves. Under the willow trees, Alonso moves a large stone and digs in the dirt with his hands, soil pressing under his nails. He pulls out the plastic bag he buried there several days ago and dumps out its contents: a glass jar, a compass, a pill bottle full of grave dirt, and a box of matches. From her purse, Penny pulls out three short pieces of rope tied into knots.

Alonso grabs the compass and holds it up in the moonlight. When he finds north, he marks the direction in the dirt with his shoe.

“Do you have your verses?” Alonso asks.

Penny waves a folded-up note, and Corey holds up his phone.

“No phones,” Alonso says. “Magic doesn’t get along with technology.”

Corey sighs, pocketing his phone. “It’s fine. I have it memorized.”

“We’ll be reading the verses in reverse to represent the reversal of the curse,” Alonso says. “Future first, present second, past third—so that’s Corey first, then Penny, then me. And we need all four elements represented. I’ll be fire and air, it’s easy to pair them.”

Penny watches the lake. “I’ll be water.”

“And I’ll be earth,” Corey says.

Alonso places himself at the north of their circle, while Corey stands at the southwestern point. Penny is at the southeast, the water kissing the hem of her dress as she wades into Elkie Lake. She carries a bit of rope and a lock of her mom’s blond hair. Corey stands in the grass, shifting the rope in his hands. Alonso is under the willow tree, a match in one hand and the empty jar in the other.

“Ready?” Penny says, her voice low but steady.

Corey nods. “Ready.”

“Everyone make sure your feet are flat on the ground,” Alonso says. “And don’t lock your knees, because we might be here for a while, and we’ll lose our chance if you pass out.”

Everybody stands in position, eyes wide, backs tall. Alonso is struck by the thought that they can really do this. He was already confident, but now it feels inevitable.

He nods at Corey. “You first.”

Corey holds up his token. It’s the pill bottle, half full of grave dirt that he got from the local cemetery where several Barrions—including his mom—are buried. He begins to speak:

“Forty-six years the bonds have festered.

A hungry curse, a bloody warpath.

This grave dirt is their home

and will be home to many more.

Now we sever the ties and start again.

Let the future be unknown.”

He opens the bottle, shaking the grave dirt onto the ground in front of his feet. The wind immediately picks up, rustling the dirt, and Alonso feels a tug in his core. He flinches, and as his eyes lose focus, he sees a current running from Corey to himself. It’s barely visible, but it’s there. It’s Corey’s energy. The same energy you’ll find across the Veil. This is what gives witches their power.

Alonso’s magic thrums in his veins with a sudden intensity. The power of it travels from the top of his head to the soles of his feet.

Corey nods at Penny, his eyes already tired. She holds up the lock of her mother’s hair and says:

“After forty-six years of still water

my mother is in the curse’s ties.

Open the Veil, open her eyes,

show us the curse’s tangled web.

Give us the power to pull it apart

and change the world we know.”

Penny drops the hair into the lake—and the water rushes away from it, revealing Penny’s calves and feet. Then the water flows back all at once, almost knocking her over.

And it happens again—Penny clutches her stomach, and the current appears between her and Alonso.

This time, Alonso’s magic doesn’t merely thrum. It fills him, making him too big for his skin. He wants to howl into the sky. Then he sees Penny’s face. She’s gasping for air, her knees buckling.

He’s hurting her.

Alonso steps toward her. Already he’s holding out a hand, pushing the energy back in her direction—but Penny stops him.

“Keep going,” she says.

Alonso screws his eyes shut. When he opens them, he doesn’t let himself look at Penny. Instead, he sets the jar at his feet to represent air, and he strikes a match. The wind is strong, but it doesn’t touch the flame, which burns steadily, barely flickering. He holds up his own token: an old ring with a sapphire set between two diamonds. He found it in the pile of his grandfather’s old stuff shoved into a closet on the second floor of the house. It was still in its original box, unworn and only a little dull with dust.

Alonso knew right away that it was meant for Ellie Barrion.

“Forty-six years since rancor turned to murder.

We De Lucas now cut off the oxygen, the death, destruction, and terror.

This fated promise no longer holds true.

We imbue this agreement with the wills of the families De Luca and Barrion,

united in power.”

Alonso places the ring on the ground and holds up the match, letting his magic surround it like two giant hands. Then he blows it out.

The moon disappears, and the world goes completely dark.

Alonso doesn’t close his eyes, even when they start to water. He can’t see Penny and Corey, but he can feel them. They’re there, and they’re okay. Alonso has to focus. This is their only chance, and the rest of this spell is on him.

After a few moments, a hazy wall descends before him, moving like smoke and water. It brings Alonso back to that night at Second World Emporium, and to the day he found Nimble in the woods.

This is the Veil, and it’s clearer than it’s ever been.

Alonso can’t see anything beyond it, which is good. It means he’s protected, and by proxy, so are Penny and Corey. In his mind, he calls on the tokens. Grave dirt, Anita’s hair, engagement ring. Three pieces of a puzzle that should show them the full picture.

There’s a glow across the Veil. The curse should appear as a thread, and soon enough, it takes form. Except it’s not one thread. It’s a dozen connections, one in Corey’s direction, and the others spread out along a three-dimensional axis. Alonso can picture each thread connecting to every single Barrion alive. They all meet at the center, which resembles—

A pulsating heart.

Alonso’s stomach heaves at the sight. Is it supposed to look like this? It’s gruesome, bloody. He pushes past the sick feelings in his stomach and reaches out, wrapping a hand around the thread connected to Corey. Alonso loses focus for a moment. Because the thread is warm, like flesh.

Because it is flesh, and blood, and sinew.

Alonso is overcome with dread, and every instinct is telling him to pull his hand away. Or maybe it’s the dark magic itself telling him something about this is wrong.

“I knew your magic was powerful.”

The voice comes from across the Veil. Alonso knows who it is before he sees his face, so much like his own.

Giovanni is back.

Alonso only glimpsed him in Second World Emporium, but now his grandfather is a few feet away on the other side of the Veil. His arms are crossed, and he’s considering Alonso with a terrifying detachment. When Giovanni grins, his teeth are black. “Come across. I won’t bite.”

“You’re a poltergeist,” Alonso says. “On principle, I don’t believe you.”

But Giovanni’s face doesn’t change. His smile is frozen, his gaze unwavering, and Alonso begins to sweat.

This isn’t his grandfather. This is a rotting ghost who wants to inhabit his body and use his powers for evil. But Giovanni was a powerful witch in life, and even with the Veil between them, his magical pull is strong.

Giovanni lifts one hand, curling his fingers inward. “I said come across .”

One of Alonso’s feet shuffles forward, and all the air is suddenly pulled from his lungs. He has to concentrate to keep his other foot in place.

“I’m undoing this curse,” Alonso says.

“A curse, huh?” Giovanni says. “You sure that’s what you’re dealing with?”

Alonso lets go of the thread. It’s like Giovanni is voicing his thoughts out loud. “Of course it’s a curse. Your curse. Or did you forget that you ruined the Barrions and the lives of your daughters?”

“There are other spells that destroy lives.”

“Oh yeah? Like what?”

Giovanni shrugs. “That’s for you to figure out.”

“You could help me.”

“What will you give me in return?”

“Nothing,” Alonso spits.

Giovanni nods at the fleshy rope. “Then go ahead. Try to change your fate.”

Alonso’s heart beats hard against his ribs. He focuses until his left eye can once again see the Primary World.

Penny and Corey are there, eyes closed, looking like they’re at the end of their strength. The wind is howling around them.

This is it. Alonso has to finish the spell before either of them gets hurt—or before Giovanni pulls Alonso across the Veil.

In the Primary World, Alonso takes a deep breath and yells, “ Now! ”

He holds up the tiny piece of knotted rope, and Penny and Corey do the same, struggling against the wind.

“Curse,” they say together, “you are unborn.”

They undo the knots. In Alonso’s hands, the rope shrivels and turns to ash. It gathers on the wind, and it’s suddenly visible to Alonso’s right eye as it travels between realms, to the place in between the Primary World and the Veil. It wraps around every single one of the threads connecting the Barrions to the bloody heart of the curse. The ash re-forms, becoming sharp silver bands that squeeze tighter, and tighter…

This is supposed to be it. With their incantations, and the tokens, and the unbinding—this should be the moment when the threads all snap.

Alonso feels a surge of confidence, because he knows they’ve done it right. The spell is strong because Alonso is strong. He’s going to accomplish what no witch since Park HaeJung has been able to do.

Except none of the bloody, fleshy threads snap. Instead, the tiny bands disappear one by one, and the threads are left intact.

“No,” Alonso says, and he grabs the thread again, the one connected to Corey. This time it burns, but not like fire. Like anger. Like greed and selfishness. It squeezes Alonso’s lungs until he can’t breathe. Desperate, he tries to pull it apart, again and again.

It doesn’t work.

“Careful,” Giovanni says. “You’re hurting the boy.”

From beyond Alonso’s vision, Corey cries out. Alonso gasps, dropping the thread and stepping back.

“Help me,” he says to the poltergeist. “Grandpa, please.”

“Why would I stop you before this gets good?” Giovanni says. “You don’t understand how bored I am.”

And then he disappears.

As the threads fade away, Alonso already knows they’ve failed.