Page 55

Penny

THE WIND STOPS ALL AT ONCE. THE NIGHT IS EERILY QUIET AT FIRST, and then insects start buzzing again. The fireflies return, hovering over their heads, not daring to come too close to the ground.

There’s a current of magic running over Penny’s skin and down into the water at her feet. The world is vivid, and her heartbeat is steady, even though she feels drained.

She looks to Alonso. His eyes are closed, and his shoulders rise and fall with ragged breaths.

“Did it work?” Penny says.

“I don’t know,” Corey says. He’s bent over, his hands resting on his knees. His eyelids look heavy.

“It happened like it was supposed to,” Alonso says. He opens his eyes, and the left one is bright red.

“Oh my god,” Penny says.

“It’s only a broken blood vessel,” Corey says, but he looks worried.

Alonso doesn’t even react. It’s like he can’t hear them. He blinks slowly. “There were so many threads. That thing… it was like an organ.”

An organ. Penny moves out of the water. “What does that mean? Were you able to…”

Corey is standing straighter now, but he hasn’t taken his eyes off Alonso. “It didn’t work, did it?”

Penny’s knees go weak. She barely manages to keep herself upright. Her last bit of hope flickers dangerously. She looks to Alonso, hoping he’ll refute it, that he’ll break into a grin and tell them it all worked out. That Penny’s mom is safe. But Alonso shakes his head.

“What?” Penny says, the word coming out ragged and broken. After all this work and all this hope, this can’t be how it ends. “Can we try again?”

A shadow moves behind Alonso. At first, Penny thinks it’s the Shadow. But it moves too fast, and when it steps into the light, it has human features.

She gasps. “Alonso, look out!”

Before Alonso can turn around, his entire body jerks, and he falls forward onto his knees, then flat onto his stomach. Behind him, a rock clutched tightly in his hand, is Julian Chaudhary.

“Alonso!” Penny screams, racing to him. She turns him over, but his eyes are closed, and his skin is covered in pale sweat.

Julian tosses the rock onto the ground. “Magic. That’s what I just saw, right?”

Corey steps in front of Penny and Alonso, blocking them from Julian’s sight. “What the fuck did you do?” His voice is a low growl.

“Nothing worse than what he’d do to us,” Julian says. “He’ll be fine. Probably.”

Fury rises in Penny’s chest. “Probably?!”

Julian turns his attention to Penny. “We’re safer like this. Or don’t you know the full story of what the De Lucas did to us?”

Someone runs up behind Julian. It’s James Barrion, out of breath and covered in sweat. He looks from Julian to Alonso to Corey, and his face turns horrified. He runs over and grabs Corey by the shoulders, examining him. He looks more unkempt than Penny has ever seen him, with his blond-gray hair disheveled and his white suit smudged with dirt around the ankles. “What did the boy do to you?”

“He didn’t do anything,” Corey says.

James’s panic disappears, and it’s replaced by barely concealed fury. “Was Julian right? A De Luca was trying to use magic on our family, and you helped him along?”

Corey shakes his head, looking dazed. Penny feels it, too: a strange, bone-deep exhaustion. It must be from the spell. Corey’s eyes find Penny’s, and he suddenly looks more alert. He kneels down next to her and lifts Alonso’s head onto his lap.

His hands are immediately covered in blood.

“Oh my god,” Penny gasps.

“We need to call an ambulance,” Corey says.

Of course. Penny scrambles for her phone in her dress pocket.

“You really don’t know what’s good for you, huh?” Julian says, staring directly at Penny.

“Why are you talking like you know so much about me?” Penny snaps.

“I know enough.” Julian nods at Alonso. “I saw you two kissing.”

Corey flinches. Penny suddenly has to look away from him. She was going to tell Corey about her and Alonso, but not today. Not when the stakes are so high. Despite everything, Corey and Alonso have a complicated history, and how would Corey feel about Penny being with Alonso?

Another, softer voice in Penny’s head asks, Why do you care?

Julian crosses his arms like he’s not mad, just disappointed. “Like mother, like daughter. You’ve both struck out in relationships.”

Penny forgets her phone for half a second, because the condescension on Julian’s face pulls her to her feet. Before she realizes what she’s doing, she closes the distance between her and Julian in three quick steps. She doesn’t give him a chance to react.

Instead, she reels back and punches him in the face.

She notices the pain in her own hand before anything else. She clutches it to her chest, but she registers the distant sound of Julian gasping as blood gushes from his nose. He’s sprawled on the ground, backing away from her like a skittish spider.

Two more people are approaching. One of them is Warren, the family’s security guard. And the second, hand gripping his cane, is Charles Barrion.

Corey’s eyes go round with fear.

“It appears we arrived at a bad time,” Charles Barrion says.

“Not a moment too soon,” Corey’s dad says, but he doesn’t move to help Julian to his feet. “The De Luca boy has magic.”

Charles Barrion is caught off guard for a split second. Then he sighs, and a strange smile spreads across his face. “I knew something strange was going on, but I never considered the possibility that the boy had magic. And now we learn”—he points a shaky finger at Corey—“that you knew, and you did nothing. In fact, you aided him.”

“Grandpa—” Corey starts, but Charles Barrion holds up a hand to silence him.

“Do you know how much is at stake now that you’re inheriting the company?” Corey’s grandfather says. “Do you know how much more you have to lose? Our expectations for you are too high for this kind of foul play!”

Penny silently begs Corey to say something, but he’s staring at the ground, eyes unblinking. So he lets his grandfather talk to him like this without even attempting to defend himself. Has Corey ever looked so defeated?

Penny takes a step toward Charles Barrion. “None of you even bothered to ask what he was using his magic for . This is all my fault. I asked him to break the curse, I wanted to save my mom—it was me .”

Mr. Barrion levels her with a stony glare. His tone is mocking. “A brave admission, Miss Emberly. You certainly had no right to interfere. But at the end of the day, this matter has nothing to do with you.”

“My mother is dying!” Penny says.

“And I lost my wife, and my children’s partners, and I nearly lost a grandson tonight. You think I don’t know the pain you’re feeling?” His smile disappears. “I trusted a De Luca once. It cost me everything.”

It sounds like a speech Charles Barrion has rehearsed a thousand times. Something about the inflection rings hollow, and even though Penny should feel pity, sadness, or even a little understanding, she can’t. Does their family know that Corey’s grandfather blackmailed Giovanni De Luca to save the company? That he was willing to work with a De Luca if it meant he didn’t look like a failure?

Penny is about to say as much, but Corey steps in front of her, shielding her from view.

“Alonso agreed to use his magic to break the curse,” Corey says, though his voice is thin. “I owed it to our family to try. And Alonso said—”

“Ow.”

Alonso sits up, one hand on the back of his head. Penny drops to her knees. “Alonso! Can you look at me?”

“I am,” he says, but his eyes drift back and forth. Then he grabs Penny’s shoulders. “Penny, it’s not a curse. That’s why it didn’t work.”

“What?” Penny says.

“He told me…” Alonso shakes his head, clutching at his temples. “He told me it was… I mean, that it wasn’t a curse…”

“Who told you?”

Alonso squints. “I don’t remember.”

“The boy is delirious,” Charles Barrion says, sounding annoyed. “James, you’ll alert that coven in Bloomington right away. His magic needs to be sealed for everyone’s safety, including his own.”

“I’ve called an ambulance,” Warren says, pocketing his phone. “It will take them fifteen minutes. I’ll carry the boy out—”

“You’ll do no such thing,” Corey’s grandfather says.

Warren clamps his mouth shut.

Wind moves through the trees, disturbing the surface of the lake. A strange understanding dawns on Penny: Maybe the Barrions do believe that Alonso was trying to help them, but it doesn’t matter. Any De Luca with magic is terrifying to them.

“You should be celebrating, Mr. De Luca,” Charles says. “The more we suffer, the happier your grandfather must be across the Veil.”

Alonso looks like he wants to argue, but he blinks a few times, and then his eyes start to roll to the back of his head.

Warren kneels beside him. “Don’t close your eyes,” he says, and Alonso struggles to keep them open. Warren turns to Penny. “He’s likely concussed. Keep him awake.”

“Let’s go, Corey,” James says, grabbing his son’s arm.

But Corey pulls his arm out of James Barrion’s grasp. “I’m not leaving them.”

Corey’s grandfather scoffs. “We’re not giving you an option.”

The pain in Penny’s hand is almost unbearable now, but she ignores it, because this is her last chance. She can feel everything they’ve worked for slipping away and she’s panicking. The Barrions have to listen. They know how important this is.

“Why are you doing this?” Penny says, looking from Corey’s dad to his grandfather. “Do you want this curse to keep killing people?”

The old man’s smile falls. He steps closer to Penny, the leaves crunching under his cane, and it takes all of Penny’s self-control to stay in place. Corey’s grandfather has paper-thin skin, dozens of fine wrinkles, but his eyes are bright and clear. It’s even more noticeable in the moonlight than it was when she first met him.

“Don’t forget that your mother is not going to die because of me. She will die because of him .” Corey’s grandfather points his cane at Alonso, who doesn’t seem to hear him. “If he tries to convince you otherwise—well. I wish you all the best, but you are not our responsibility.”

Penny tightens her hands into fists. “Did you ever use magic, Mr. Barrion? To help your family’s company, maybe? It isn’t all bad. I think you know that.”

It’s a risk. A leap. But Penny is willing to try any angle.

Mr. Barrion’s lips part. For a moment, Penny is convinced he’s going to admit it. To say that she’s right, of course she’s right, they need to try again for the sake of her mother and everyone the Barrions have ever loved and will ever love.

But then Mr. Barrion’s face shutters.

“Perhaps the full moon is affecting your judgment,” he says. “Women’s emotions are so tied to nature. My wife used to be the same way.”

“Excuse me?” Penny says.

Penny feels someone position themselves beside her. She looks up. Towering over her, taller than he’s ever been, is Corey. He’s looking his grandfather in the eyes.

“Don’t talk to her like that,” Corey says.

Silence falls over the Barrions. Corey’s dad is looking between Corey and his own father, his serious gaze exactly like Corey’s. Julian is standing far behind Warren, but his anger has disappeared. His eyes are trained on Corey, and he looks terrified, like Corey has committed a crime.

Mr. Barrion takes a step forward, not breaking eye contact with Corey.

“Your authority does not supersede my own,” Corey’s grandfather says. “Nor your father’s. Do you understand?”

When Corey speaks, he’s so quiet that Penny almost doesn’t hear him.

“I know you want me to be a certain way. But the truth is that I’m sick of doing nothing.”

“Which implies,” Mr. Barrion says, “that you blame your own family for all this death.”

Corey doesn’t respond.

Mr. Barrion considers him for a moment. Then, with inhuman speed, he raises a hand to strike Corey across the face.

Corey’s dad gets there first. He grabs his father’s wrist, stopping his hand in midair.

“Don’t touch him,” Corey’s dad sputters.

Mr. Barrion somehow manages to look down his nose at his son, even though Corey’s dad is at least half a foot taller. “Let go.”

Corey’s face is frozen in shock. His dad hesitates before releasing Mr. Barrion’s hand. For a moment, Corey’s dad almost looks afraid. But the fear is gone as quickly as it appeared.

Charles Barrion turns his back on Corey and walks into the trees.

Corey looks at Penny, his eyes wide and childlike in their fear. “I’m sorry.”

“Corey,” Alonso says. He struggles to his feet, and he’s holding the back of his head. “There’s something weird about it. The magic. I still want to do the right thing.”

Alonso’s words are impossible to follow. Corey watches him, and then his eyes move to Penny.

“We had one chance, right?” Corey says.

Alonso opens his mouth to speak, but no words come out. Because there’s nothing left to say.

It’s over.

Corey turns away and walks into the trees, and his dad keeps step with him. Alonso tries to follow, but Warren holds him back, his grip gentle on Alonso’s shoulder.

“You asshole!” Alonso yells at Corey. “You’re giving up. You’re fucking pathetic !”

“Enough,” Warren says, but the word is soft and sad. That’s when Alonso starts crying.

Before the trees swallow him up, Julian turns around one last time. There’s dried blood beneath his nose.

“By the way,” he says, “you can thank them for leading us to you.”

He nods at some bushes close to the lake. At first Penny doesn’t see them. But then she glimpses a head of dark hair and a pink suit.

“Naomi?” she says.

Naomi stands up slowly, her terror and confusion palpable. Penny is so shocked she almost doesn’t notice there’s somebody with her.

It’s Dylan, somehow looking angry and regretful at the same time. And it’s clear from their faces they saw it all.